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California
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June 18, 2024
San Diego Diocese Re-Enters Ch. 11 Over Sex Abuse Claims
The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego has re-entered Chapter 11 in a California federal bankruptcy court, saying it is facing more than $100 million in liabilities from more than 450 new sexual abuse claims filed in recent years.
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June 18, 2024
Calif. Staffing Firm Settles DOJ's Noncitizen Bias Claims
A California staffing agency must pay penalties and revise its employment policies as part of a settlement to resolve allegations of discrimination against foreigners by demanding certain types of documents to prove work authorization, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.
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June 18, 2024
9th Circ. Won't Revive Vax Mandate Case Amid Judge DQ Bid
In a nonprecedential opinion, the Ninth Circuit has refused to restore a COVID vaccine mandate suit brought by federal workers and contractors who also sought to disqualify a judge they believed was conflicted, finding the workers lacked standing because they named officials who cannot reinstate them rather than their employers.
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June 18, 2024
HP Escapes 'Novel' 401(k) Suit Over Use Of Forfeited Funds
A California federal judge threw out a proposed class action that accused HP of unlawfully using former workers' forfeited 401(k) funds to satisfy its own contributions, saying nothing in federal benefits law required the company to use the funds to cover plan expenses.
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June 18, 2024
Ex-USC Linebacker Cops To Pandemic Unemployment Fraud
A former linebacker for the University of Southern California football team pled guilty to fraudulently seeking over $1 million in pandemic-era unemployment benefits.
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June 18, 2024
Cancer Test Company DermTech Hits Ch. 11, Seeking Sale
California-based dermatologic test maker DermTech Inc. hit Chapter 11 Tuesday in Delaware and said it would be laying off about 20% of its workforce as it seeks to sell its assets.
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June 18, 2024
Electric Vehicle Startup Fisker Hits Ch. 11 With Sale Plans
Electric vehicle company Fisker Group Inc. has petitioned for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware bankruptcy court with more than $100 million of debt, months after the collapse of a potential partnership with a major automaker imperiled the startup's attempts to raise new financing.
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June 17, 2024
NFL Commish Goodell Takes Stand To Deny TV Price Controls
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell testified Monday in front of a California federal jury considering multibillion-dollar antitrust claims against the league that the NFL does not control the price of DirecTV's Sunday Ticket with any secret deals, insisting instead that the broadcast strategy is shouted "from the mountaintops."
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June 17, 2024
'What Am I Supposed To Do?': Epic-Apple Doc Row Irks Judge
A California federal judge presiding over Epic Games' high-stakes antitrust compliance fight against Apple expressed frustration Monday with the parties' disagreement over the scope of Apple's document production, asking counsel repeatedly "What am I supposed to do?" and "Do I need to get somebody on the stand to explain this?"
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June 17, 2024
Calif. Becomes Last State To Ink Deal Over Blackbaud Breach
Blackbaud Inc. has agreed to pay $6.75 million to resolve data security claims brought by California's attorney general, who was the only one to sit out a nearly $50 million settlement that the software provider reached last year with every other state over a 2020 ransomware attack that affected thousands of its customers.
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June 17, 2024
Excess Insurers May Need To Pay In Kaiser Asbestos Dispute
A primary insurer is allowed to access excess insurance policies as soon as all directly underlying coverage from the same policy period is exhausted, the California Supreme Court ruled, potentially implicating several first-level excess insurers to contribute to coverage for underlying asbestos exposure claims against Kaiser Cement and Gypsum Corp.
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June 17, 2024
FTC Says Adobe Uses Fee To Trap Consumers In Subscription
Adobe Inc. has for years deceived customers by keeping them in the dark about an early termination fee for its most lucrative subscription plan, making it difficult to cancel and trapping consumers in subscriptions they no longer want, the Federal Trade Commission alleged Monday.
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June 17, 2024
PennyMac 'Shocked' Investors With Post-Libor Fix, Suit Says
PennyMac's mortgage investment arm has been hit in California federal court with a proposed class action accusing it of using last year's discontinuation of Libor to unfairly and unlawfully lock in a lower dividend for some of its preferred stock, stiffing investors out of millions.
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June 17, 2024
USC Allegedly Used 'Junk Science' On Black Kidney Patients
The University of Southern California secretly has been using a "junk science" scoring formula that hurts Black patients' eligibility to receive kidney transplants, according to a putative class action in California federal court.
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June 17, 2024
'Anderson Method' Copyright Claim Gets Cut Ahead Of Trial
A California federal judge has handed Tracy Anderson's former employee Megan Roup a summary judgment win on the celebrity fitness trainer's copyright claim accusing Roup of ripping off her "Tracy Anderson Method" exercise routines, but concluded a jury should decide Anderson's sole remaining breach-of-contract claim in an upcoming November trial.
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June 17, 2024
Ex-CNBC Pundit Caught After Years Of Dodging Fraud Claims
A former frequent CNBC guest who became a fugitive for nearly three years after being accused of defrauding investors has been arrested and faces a seven-count indictment, California federal prosecutors said Monday.
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June 17, 2024
9th Circ. Says Facebook 'Face Signatures' Not Subject To BIPA
The Ninth Circuit sided with Meta Platforms on Monday by declining to revive an Illinois resident's proposed class action accusing Facebook of breaking the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act, ruling that the "face signature" at issue isn't protected by the law because it cannot be used to identify someone.
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June 17, 2024
SEC Alleges Texas Man Offered Virgin Sham $200M 'Lifeline'
Securities regulators sued a venture capitalist and his investment firm in Texas federal court Monday, accusing the firm of making a bogus offer to invest $200 million into Virgin Orbit last year despite having less than $1 in its bank account and causing stock prices to swell before plummeting when the deal collapsed.
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June 17, 2024
SEC Fines Unlicensed Brokers $2.7M In Microcap Stock Case
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ordered two unlicensed brokers, including one from Florida, to collectively pay a $2.7 million fine for allegedly scamming elderly people into buying microcap shares in companies and lying that the stock was being offered to them at a discount.
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June 17, 2024
Huawei Slams Netgear's 'Tenuous' RICO Case
Huawei has responded to a racketeering and antitrust case from a major U.S. maker of Wi-Fi routers by calling it "rife with tenuous legal and factual claims" and comparing its reworking of patent infringement allegations to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's failed antitrust case against Qualcomm.
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June 17, 2024
LA City Atty Accused Of Retaliating Against Criminal Chief
The former criminal chief of the Los Angeles city attorney's office is seeking more than $1 million over claims she faced a "barrage of retaliation" and was unfairly placed on leave after reporting the city attorney's alleged excessive on-the-job alcohol consumption, her refusal to prosecute certain companies and other purported misconduct.
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June 17, 2024
Tesla Slaps Supplier With $1B EV Battery Trade Secrets Suit
Tesla is accusing one of its suppliers of corporate espionage in a $1 billion California federal lawsuit, saying that Matthews International has even tried to claim it invented the stolen trade secrets for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries by incorporating the confidential information into patent filings.
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June 17, 2024
Clients Say McGrath Kavinoky 'Bullied' Them Into Abuse Deal
California firm McGrath Kavinoky LLP, which inked more than $374 million in settlements for women who say they were sexually abused by a UCLA Health gynecologist, misled its clients and "bullied" them into accepting far smaller amounts than they were promised, according to a lawsuit in state court by two ex-clients.
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June 17, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Proposed amendments to Delaware's General Corporation Law that were prompted by several recent Chancery Court rulings sailed through the state Senate last week despite loud opposition from corporate law professors and other Chancery Court watchers, and Tesla shareholders filed two new suits against CEO Elon Musk.
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June 17, 2024
McDonald's Nears Fee Win For Beating $100M Fraud Suit
A California state judge has tentatively granted McDonald's request for over $231,000 in fees after winning an anti-SLAPP victory against Byron Allen's suit claiming that it fraudulently pledged to increase spending on Black-owned media, but the judge asked the restaurant Monday to submit a proposed judgment to account for its work in filing the fee request.
Expert Analysis
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Firms Must Rethink How They Train New Lawyers In AI Age
As law firms begin to use generative artificial intelligence to complete lower-level legal tasks, they’ll need to consider new ways to train summer associates and early-career attorneys, keeping in mind the five stages of skill acquisition, says Liisa Thomas at Sheppard Mullin.
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High Court's BofA Ruling Leaves State Preemption Questions
A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Cantero v. Bank of America sheds light on whether certain state banking regulations apply to federally chartered banks, but a circuit split could still force the Supreme Court to take a more direct position, says Brett Garver at Moritt Hock.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Always Be Closing
When a lawyer presents their case with the right propulsive structure throughout trial, there is little need for further argument after the close of evidence — and in fact, rehashing it all may test jurors’ patience — so attorneys should consider other strategies for closing arguments, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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How A Bumblebee Got Under Calif. Wildlife Regulator's Bonnet
A California bumblebee's listing as an endangered species could lead to a regulatory quagmire as California Department of Fish and Wildlife permits now routinely include survey requirements for the bee, but the regulator has yet to determine what the species needs for conservation, says David Smith at Manatt.
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Rare Robinson-Patman Ruling Exhibits Key Antitrust Risk
A rare federal court decision under the Robinson-Patman Act, which prohibits certain kinds of price discrimination, highlights the antitrust risks faced by certain suppliers and is likely to be cited by future plaintiffs and enforcement officials calling for renewed scrutiny of pricing and discounting practices, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.
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Deciphering SEC Disgorgement 4 Years After Liu
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Liu v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to preserve SEC disgorgement with limits, courts have continued to rule largely in the agency’s favor, but a recent circuit split over the National Defense Authorization Act's import may create hurdles for the SEC, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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Wiretap Use In Cartel Probes Likely To Remain An Exception
Although the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division has recently signaled interest in wiretaps, the use of this technology to capture evidence of antitrust conspiracies and pursue monopolization as a criminal matter has been rare historically, and is likely to remain so, say Carsten Reichel and Will Conway at DLA Piper.
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Opinion
California Has A Duty To Curtail Frivolous CIPA Suits
As plaintiffs increasingly file class actions against companies for their use of website tracking cookies and pixels, the Legislature should consider four options to amend the California Invasion of Privacy Act and restore the balance between consumer privacy and business operational interests, say Steven Stransky and Jennifer Adler at Thompson Hine and Glenn Lammi at the Washington Legal Foundation.
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Playing The Odds: Criminal Charges Related To Sports Betting
In light of recent sports betting scandals involving MLB player Shohei Ohtani and NBA player Jontay Porter, institutions and individuals involved in athletics should be aware of and prepared to address the legal issues, including potential criminal charges, that sports gambling may bring to their door, say attorneys at Steptoe.
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8th Circ. Insurance Ruling Spotlights Related-Claims Defenses
The Eighth Circuit’s recent Dexon v. Travelers ruling — that the insurer must provide a defense despite the policy’s related-acts provision — provides guidance for how policyholders can overcome related-acts defenses, say Geoffrey Fehling and Jae Lynn Huckaba at Hunton.
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Series
Playing Chess Makes Me A Better Lawyer
There are many ways that chess skills translate directly into lawyer skills, but for me, the bigger career lessons go beyond the direct parallels — playing chess has shown me the value of seeing gradual improvement in and focusing deep concentration on a nonwork endeavor, says attorney Steven Fink.
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9th Circ. Clarifies ERISA Preemption For Healthcare Industry
The Ninth Circuit's recent ruling in Bristol SL Holdings v. Cigna notably clarifies the broad scope of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act's preemption of certain state law causes of action, standing to benefit payors and health plan administrators, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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State Procurement Could Be Key For Calif. Offshore Wind
A recent ruling from the California Public Utilities Commission highlights how the state's centralized electricity procurement mechanism could play a critical role in the development of long lead-time resources — in particular, offshore wind — by providing market assurance to developers and reducing utilities' procurement risks, say attorneys at Wilson Sonsini.
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Calif. Budget Will Likely Have Unexpected Tax Consequences
A temporary suspension of net operating loss deductions and business incentive tax credits, likely to be approved on June 15 as part of California’s next budget, may create unanticipated tax liabilities for businesses that modeled recently completed transactions on current law, says Myra Sutanto Shen at Wilson Sonsini.
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Patent Lessons From 7 Federal Circuit Reversals In May
A look at recent cases where the Federal Circuit reversed or vacated decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board or a federal district court provide guidance on how to succeed on appeal by clarifying the obviousness analysis of design patents, the finality of a judgment, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.