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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 policyholder can tap into first-layer excess policies as soon as the primary coverage for that 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.
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June 17, 2024
Supreme Court Won't Revisit Calif. Law Arbitration Issue
The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to revisit a case dealing with the arbitration of claims brought under a California law enabling workers to sue on behalf of the state and other workers for labor violations, an issue the justices decided on in 2022.
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June 17, 2024
Justices Pass On Revisiting PAGA Arbitration Issue
The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to take another look at the fate of nonindividual claims under California's Private Attorneys General Act when individual claims go to arbitration in a case involving Uber that was previously before the high court.
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June 17, 2024
Justices To Hear Nvidia Case On Securities Pleading Standard
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal of a Ninth Circuit ruling that revived investors' claims over chipmaker Nvidia's crypto mining sales, giving the high court a chance to weigh in on the pleading requirements needed to sustain a shareholder class action.
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June 14, 2024
Electronics Cos. Fight 'Drastic' $2B Price-Fixing Default
Irico Group and a subsidiary on Thursday opposed a special masters report recommending the Chinese electronics companies should be on the hook for over $2 billion in default judgment in litigation alleging they participated in a cathode ray tube price-fixing conspiracy, telling a California federal court the remedy is "drastic" and unwarranted.
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June 14, 2024
Russian Businessman's Fight To Enforce $92M Award Ends
A Russian businessman's decade-long fight to enforce a $92 million arbitral award — a dispute that spurred the U.S. Supreme Court to let him forge a new path to enforcing foreign arbitral awards — finally came to an end this week, as the parties inked a settlement on the eve of a racketeering trial.
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June 14, 2024
'Cockamamie' Live Nation Arbitration Rules Perplex 9th Circ.
An attorney for Live Nation Entertainment Inc. argued to skeptical Ninth Circuit judges on Friday that a California district judge was wrong to remove ticket buyers' antitrust class claims from arbitration by finding the arbitration agreements unconscionable, with one judge calling the language in the agreements "drafting malpractice," "cockamamie" and "just nuts."
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June 14, 2024
Due Process At Stake As Justices Back 2-Step Removal Notice
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision that immigration hearing notices need not include the time and place of removal hearings for in absentia removal orders to be upheld could lead to further erosion of due process in removal proceedings, experts said.
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June 14, 2024
Real Estate Recap: Special Servicers, 'Dirty' Money, Alt Energy
Catch up on this week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including recent litigation targeting special servicers, a 700% increase in brownfield funding, and one BigLaw real estate leader's take on alternative energy as interest rates hold steady.
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June 14, 2024
Challenge To Faulty Removal Order Stays Alive
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims kept alive an immigrant's effort to get the federal government to pay for a flawed removal order that tore his family apart and stranded him in Mexico but transferred the matter to California federal court.
Expert Analysis
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NCAA Settlement May End The NIL Model As We Know It
The recent House v. NCAA settlement in California federal court, in which the NCAA agreed to allow schools to directly pay March Madness television revenue to their athletes, may send outside name, image and likeness collectives in-house, says Mike Ingersoll at Womble Bond.
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Opinion
The FTC And DOJ Should Backtrack On RealPage
The antitrust agencies ought to reverse course on their enforcement actions against RealPage, which are based on a faulty legal premise, risk further property shortages and threaten the use of algorithms that are central to the U.S. economy, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.
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How Federal And State Microfiber Pollution Policy Is Evolving
Growing efforts to address synthetic microfiber pollution may create compliance and litigation issues for businesses in the textile and apparel industries, so companies should track developing federal and state legislation and regulation in this space, and should consider associated greenwashing risks, says Arie Feltman-Frank at Jenner & Block.
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Series
Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge at Robinson Bradshaw.
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Opinion
It's Time To Defuse The Ticking Time Bomb Of US Landfills
After recent fires at landfills in Alabama and California sent toxic fumes into surrounding communities, it is clear that existing penalties for landfill mismanagement are insufficient — so policymakers must enact major changes to the way we dispose of solid waste, says Vineet Dubey at Custodio & Dubey.
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5th Circ. Venue-Transfer Cases Highlight Mandamus Limits
Three ongoing cases filed within the Fifth Circuit highlight an odd procedural wrinkle that may let district courts defy an appellate writ: orders granting transfer to out-of-circuit districts, but parties opposing intercircuit transfer can work around this hurdle to effective appellate review, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.
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A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence
The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.
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Calif. Web Tracking Cases Show Courts' Indecision Over CIPA
Several hundred cases filed to date, and two recent conflicting rulings, underscore California courts' uncertainty over whether the use of web analytics tools to track users' website interactions can give rise to a violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act, says Patricia Brum at Snell & Wilmer.
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To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef
To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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What Junk Fee Law Means For Biz In California And Beyond
Come July 1, companies doing business in California must ensure that the price of any good or service as offered, displayed or advertised is inclusive of all mandatory fees and other charges in compliance with S.B. 478, which may have a far-reaching impact across the country due to wide applicability, say Alexandria Ruiz and Amy Lally at Sidley Austin.
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Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?
Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.
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9th Circ. COVID 'Cure' Case Shows Perks Of Puffery Defense
The Ninth Circuit's March decision in a case surrounding a company's statements about a potential COVID-19 cure may encourage defendants to assert puffery defenses in securities fraud cases, particularly in those involving optimistic statements about breakthrough drugs that are still untested, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.
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After Years Of Popularity, PAGA's Fate Is Up In The Air
The last two years held important victories for plaintiff-side employment attorneys in California Private Attorneys General Act litigation at the trial and appellate court levels, but this hotbed of activity will quickly lose steam if voters approve a ballot measure in November to enact the California Fair Pay and Employer Accountability Act, says Paul Sherman at Kabat Chapman.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: May Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses four notable circuit court decisions on topics from automobile insurance to securities — and provides key takeaways for counsel on issues including circuit-specific ascertainability requirements and how to conduct a Daubert analysis prior to class certification.
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Perspectives
Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys
As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.