Commercial Contracts

  • April 16, 2025

    3rd Circ. Punts Mining Co. Document Fight To Ch. 11 Judge

    The Third Circuit vacated a Delaware bankruptcy judge's order to unseal records a successor of Essar Steel's U.S. unit is seeking to bolster its antitrust claims against Cleveland-Cliffs, ruling Wednesday that the Chapter 11 judge used the wrong standard.

  • April 16, 2025

    AT&T Gets $450M 'Twinning' Patent Suit Tossed Again

    A New York federal judge has held that it is only fitting that she rule twice on a motion to dismiss a $450 million patent lawsuit against AT&T over so-called twinning phone technology, deciding yet again that the patent is not inventive enough to be worth anything.

  • April 16, 2025

    Mont. Tribes Want DOI To Come Through With Police Funding

    Two Montana tribes have told a federal judge in the state that the U.S. Department of the Interior has frozen their law enforcement budget at what it was 28 years ago and that now the government owes the tribes millions of dollars.

  • April 16, 2025

    Texas Oil Cos. Seek Pass-Through Pollution Claims Coverage

    Oil and gas companies told a Texas federal court on Wednesday that their insurer must pay to defend them against pass-through claims in connection with underlying pollution lawsuits thanks to a purchase and sale agreement they entered into with another company.

  • April 16, 2025

    Ex-Twitter Worker Can't Add Claims To Age Bias Suit

    A former Twitter employee leading a conditionally certified collective action on behalf of his fellow workers aged 50 and older who were fired after Elon Musk took over the company cannot amend the complaint to add new claims, a California federal judge ruled Tuesday.

  • April 16, 2025

    Auto Supply Chain Tariffs Chart Tricky Compliance Landscape

    The compliance landmines created by the Trump administration's sweeping new tariffs have sparked a scramble among the automotive supply chain to renegotiate contracts and stockpile inventory to blunt the financial impacts in the short term, but long-term strategies are still being ironed out, experts say.

  • April 16, 2025

    Cannabis Co. Drops Back Taxes Case Against 2 Payroll Firms

    A Washington cannabis company has dropped claims against a pair of payroll services providers accused of leaving the cannabis company with a $172,500 tax bill after failing to pay the Internal Revenue Service on its behalf.

  • April 16, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Ex-Beach Boy Guitarist's Royalty Fight

    The Ninth Circuit refused to reinstate a former Beach Boys guitarist's suit that sought to revoke his royalty agreements with Universal Music Group since they were based on physical record sales and didn't contemplate the evolution of digital streaming, ruling Wednesday the contracts only paid for physical record sale royalties.

  • April 16, 2025

    Colo. Lawyer Says Disbarred Atty Won't Give Settlement Info

    A Colorado firm that agreed to take over a case from a disbarred attorney has sued her and the client, accusing them of refusing to state how much he is owed from a confidential settlement that ended the underlying employment case.

  • April 16, 2025

    Justices Urged To Deny Insurers' Tribal Jurisdiction Challenge

    The Suquamish Tribe told the U.S. Supreme Court it shouldn't hear a group of insurers' bid to litigate COVID-19-related property insurance claims outside tribal court, arguing the Ninth Circuit correctly held that the insurers' coverage of tribal property sufficiently established tribal jurisdiction.

  • April 16, 2025

    Mass. High Court Revives BU Contract Suit Against Architect

    Massachusetts' highest court ruled Wednesday that a six-year limit on tort claims due to design defects in a construction project under a Boston University athletic field doesn't apply to a contract dispute between the school and an architectural firm that explicitly agreed to cover such costs.

  • April 16, 2025

    Greek IT Co.'s Suit Over Leaked Patent Info Gets Tossed

    A New York federal judge has tossed a Greece-based technology company's suit alleging Ladas & Parry LLP sent proprietary information to a third party while the company had an attorney-client agreement with the firm.

  • April 16, 2025

    Locke Lord Escapes Refinery's Suit Over $2.5M Loss

    A New Jersey state appeals court said Wednesday Locke Lord LLP's office in the state isn't a strong enough tie to establish jurisdiction in an oil company's legal malpractice suit over the company's $2.5 million loss connected to a North Dakota refinery project.

  • April 16, 2025

    Google's $100M AdWords Deal Gets Initial Approval

    A California federal judge said Wednesday he'll preliminarily approve Google's $100 million settlement that would resolve advertisers' long-running certified class action alleging the tech giant overcharged for advertisements through its AdWords service, saying the 14-year-old litigation was hard fought, but the settlement appears to be fair.

  • April 16, 2025

    Jack Nicklaus Granted $1M In Damages After NIL Win

    Jack Nicklaus was granted $1 million Wednesday by a New York state court judge for damages incurred as a result of a preliminary injunction that prevented the golf legend from signing new commercial deals during now-dismissed litigation over the use of his name, image and likeness.

  • April 16, 2025

    UnitedHealthcare Owes $1M Medicare Shortfall, Hospital Says

    UnitedHealthcare owes Connecticut's Danbury Hospital more than $1 million after bungling local Medicare Advantage cost calculations and refusing to correct its payment errors after the hospital provided notice of the problem, the healthcare facility alleged in a state court lawsuit.

  • April 15, 2025

    Biogen, Genentech Head To June Trial Over MS Drug Royalties

    A California federal judge on Tuesday denied Biogen's bid for summary judgment in a high-stakes contract fight with Roche Holding AG subsidiary Genentech over patent royalties on multiple sclerosis drug sales, saying during a hearing that there's a material dispute over the contract's language and the case will be tried in June.

  • April 15, 2025

    Google Failed To Pay $2M In Commissions, Ex-Sales Rep Says

    A former Google Cloud unit salesperson alleged the company blocked him from receiving $2 million in commissions after he landed a $35 million contract with Otis Elevator and fired him while he underwent cancer treatment to avoid paying out nearly $3 million in life insurance benefits.

  • April 15, 2025

    9th Circ. Nixes JustAnswer Arbitration Bid In Membership Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday denied website JustAnswer's bid to force into arbitration a putative class action accusing it of trapping customers into expensive subscriptions, ruling that no contract requiring arbitration was formed between JustAnswer and individuals who were allegedly roped into recurring subscriptions costing up to $60 per month.

  • April 15, 2025

    Seller Of NC Concrete Co. Cements Midtrial Victory

    A North Carolina federal judge has cut short a jury trial in which the former owner of a concrete business in the state was accused of manipulating financial records to sell her company, siding with the defense in a directed verdict after the plaintiffs rested.

  • April 15, 2025

    Expeditors' IT Shutdown Suit Nudged Toward Mediation

    A Washington federal judge said Tuesday a sporting gear company's cybersecurity claims against a logistics contractor will likely survive, but suggested the parties try mediation instead of going straight to trial because it will be "next to impossible" for jurors to set aside their preconceived notions about the internet.

  • April 15, 2025

    Apple Sued By Wash. IPhone Buyers Over Missing Repair Info

    Apple Inc. "deceptively" omits information on its iPhone packaging that's required under Washington state law, including warranty terms and the costs to repair the phone, according to a proposed consumer class action filed in California federal court.

  • April 15, 2025

    Japan Orders Google To Stop Android Licensing Practice

    Japan's competition enforcer became the latest global authority to take on Google's Android licensing practices Tuesday, ordering the search giant to stop requiring phone manufacturers and mobile carriers to preinstall its apps on their devices.

  • April 15, 2025

    Meta Used Pirated Data To Evaluate Licensing, Authors Say

    A group of bestselling authors accusing Meta Platforms of copyright infringement allege the tech company downloaded databases with millions of pirated books not just to train its large language models, called Llama, but also to see whether it could develop them without licensing content, according to a newly unredacted summary judgment motion.

  • April 15, 2025

    Kinder Morgan Must Face $100M Texas Storm Billing Dispute

    A Texas state appeals court said Tuesday that Kinder Morgan must face a suit over $100 million in invoices stemming from a February 2021 winter storm that caused a power crisis in the state, finding that the company hadn't shown it was forced to reduce gas supplied to a customer at the height of the storm.

Expert Analysis

  • Testing The Waters As New Texas Biz Court Ends 2nd Month

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    Despite an uptick in filings in the Texas Business Court's initial months of operation, the docket remains fairly light amid an apparent wait-and-see approach from some potential litigants, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • How DOJ's Visa Debit Monopolization Suit May Unfold

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recently filed Section 2 monopolization suit against Visa offers several scenarios for a vigorous case and is likely to reveal some of the challenges faced by antitrust plaintiffs following the U.S. Supreme Court's split 2018 American Express decision, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules

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    The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.

  • The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO

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    The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.

  • There's No Crying In Property Valuation Baseball Arbitration

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    The World Series is the perfect time to consider how the form of arbitration used for settling MLB salary disputes — in which each side offers competing valuations to an arbitrator, who must select one — is often ideal for resolving property valuation disputes, say Sean O’Donnell at Herrick Feinstein and Mark Dunec at FTI Consulting.

  • Navigating Fla.'s Shorter Construction Defect Claim Window

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    In light of recent legislation reducing the amount of time Florida homeowners have to bring construction defect claims, homeowners should be sure to understand their rights and responsibilities regarding maintenance, repairs and inspections set forth in developer-drafted documents, say Brian Tannenbaum and Nicholas Vargo at Ball Janik.

  • Why Diversity Jurisdiction Poses Investment Fund Hurdles

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    Federal courts' continued application of the exacting rules of diversity jurisdiction presents particular challenges for investment funds, and in the absence of any near-term reform, those who manage such funds should take action to avoid diversity jurisdiction pitfalls, say attorneys at Sher Tremonte.

  • Webuild Ruling Complicates Arb. Award Enforcement In US

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    A Delaware federal court's recent decision in Sociedad Concesionaria Metropolitana de Salud v. Webuild, if read literally, could undercut the United States' image as a proarbitration jurisdiction by complicating creditors' efforts to enforce awards against property in this country, says Jeff Newton at Omni Bridgeway.

  • Series

    Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The practice of patent law and beekeeping are not typically associated, but taking care of honeybees has enriched my legal practice by highlighting the importance of hands-on experience, continuous learning, mentorship and more, says David Longo at Oblon McClelland.

  • Opinion

    Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits

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    With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.

  • How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program

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    During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.

  • Bristol-Myers Win Offers Lessons For Debt Security Holders

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    A New York federal judge's recent dismissal of a $6.4 billion lawsuit against Bristol-Myers Squibb, due to plaintiff UMB Bank's lack of standing, serves as an important reminder to debt security holders to obtain depositary proxies before pursuing litigation, say attorneys at Milbank.

  • Series

    Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.

  • How To Avoid Risking Arbitration Award Confidentiality In NY

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    Though a Second Circuit decision last year seemed to create a confidentiality safe harbor for arbitration awards that had no ongoing compliance issues, a recent New York federal court ruling offers further guidance on the meaning of "ongoing compliance issues," says Matthew Iverson at Nelson Mullins.

  • Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys

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    Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.

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