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Corporate
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June 03, 2024
New Mexico AG Beats Meta's Bid To Toss Child Abuse Suit
Social media company Meta can't escape a lawsuit claiming sexual predators were allowed to abuse children on Facebook and Instagram, after a New Mexico state judge rejected Meta's claims for immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
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June 03, 2024
Chicago Restaurant Biz Can Fix Testimony Without Sanctions
A Cook County judge on Monday refused to order the management group behind celebrated Chicago eatery Maple & Ash to produce thousands of documents that it claims are subject to attorney-client privilege as a sanction for misstating when an engagement letter was signed in sworn testimony, saying the issue was concerning but deeming the relief sought inappropriate.
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June 03, 2024
Trump's NY Gag Orders Likely Lifted With Verdict
Despite claims by former President Donald Trump that he is still limited in what he can say about jurors and witnesses following his guilty verdict, the gag orders imposed on him likely evaporated at the end of the Manhattan trial, lifting a threat of further contempt if he goes on the attack ahead of his sentencing this summer.
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June 03, 2024
Jeep Driver Files Proposed Class Suit Over Battery Defect
Stellantis North America has been slapped with a proposed class action in California federal court alleging that although the carmaker's 2021 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited 4XE suffers from a serious battery system defect, the company has refused to issue a recall or fix the vehicles.
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June 03, 2024
Del. Court Tosses SPAC Suit Targeting $2.4B EV Co. Deal
A Delaware vice chancellor has tossed a suit filed by an investor of a blank-check company challenging the $2.4 billion take-public deal it completed with electric-vehicle company Canoo Holdings Ltd., saying the investor's allegations of poor performance are not enough to assert claims for breaches of fiduciary duties.
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June 03, 2024
Eversource 'Shamelessly' Touts Dangerous Fuel, Suit Says
Eversource Energy promotes natural gas as a safe, clean energy source when it knows otherwise and engages in "greenwashing" that minimizes its impact on the environment, according to a proposed class action filed in state court on behalf of Massachusetts residents serviced by the utility.
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June 03, 2024
4 Mass. Rulings You Might Have Missed In May
Massachusetts state court judges rejected a law firm's effort to fight malpractice claims by pointing the finger at a Rhode Island judge, and ruled that an online booking platform can boot the owner of Bali vacation villas from its site, among other under-the-radar decisions handed down in May.
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June 03, 2024
Minn. Biz Groups Fight Ban On Required Anti-Union Meetings
A Minnesota company and two business groups are challenging the state's nearly year-old ban on so-called captive audience meetings, saying Minnesota can't exempt workers from sitting through mandatory meetings about their employers' views on unionization without violating the U.S. Constitution.
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June 03, 2024
Bookstores Can't Step Into FTC's Antitrust Fight With Amazon
A Washington federal judge on Monday declined to allow booksellers to intervene in the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust suit against Amazon to raise concerns about the digital retailer's book sales and agreements with publishers, but invited them to seek permission to file an amicus brief instead.
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June 03, 2024
Sens. Say DOD Risks Security With Reliance On Microsoft
Lawmakers told the U.S. Department of Defense that they want information on a reported plan to require an expensive Microsoft software upgrade for department components, expressing concern the Pentagon will risk security by increasing dependence on the technology company.
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June 03, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Delaware's Court of Chancery pushed out tons of decisions last week, along with a second round of new rules and letters of concern over pending changes to the state's corporate law code. The court's docket was as busy as ever, with new cases involving Tesla CEO Elon Musk, FTX cryptocurrency claims, and more. In case you missed it, here's the latest from Delaware's Chancery Court.
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June 03, 2024
TikTok Snags Ex-Warner Bros. GC To Lead Legal
TikTok and parent company ByteDance picked a former Warner Bros. top lawyer to be its next global general counsel, the company said Monday, after the most recent leader in the position stepped down to fight a new federal law affecting the social media giant.
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June 03, 2024
Ex-SoftBank GC Joins Foley & Lardner As Partner In SF
Foley & Lardner LLP has hired SoftBank Investment Advisers' former general counsel, who has over a decade of experience in private practice and serving as in-house counsel overseeing SoftBank's legal team, which structured and monitored more than 300 portfolio companies worth more than $130 billion.
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June 03, 2024
Standards Are Murky As Legal Employers Vet Protesters
As violence in Gaza rages on, law firms have vowed not to employ lawyers whose activism for Palestinian rights they deem unacceptable. But "unacceptable" is in the eye of the beholder, and that makes it difficult for law students and lawyers who advocate for a ceasefire to navigate the workplace and the job market.
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June 03, 2024
Tubi Accuses Keller Postman Of Filing Frivolous Arbitrations
Streaming service company Tubi Inc. is going after a plaintiffs firm in Washington, D.C., federal court, alleging it has engaged in a mass arbitration scheme in which the firm has filed more than 23,000 allegedly frivolous or fraudulent demands for arbitration in attempts to force the company to settle.
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June 03, 2024
Biotech Firm, Mobile App Prepare To Enter IPO Fray
Biotechnology firm Rapport Therapeutics Inc. and Australian-listed mobile-sharing app Life360 Inc. unveiled plans on Monday for initial public offerings that are estimated to raise about $311 million combined this week, under guidance from three law firms.
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June 03, 2024
Split Fed. Circ. Backs EcoFactor's $20M Trial Win Over Google
The Federal Circuit on Monday affirmed that Google should pay EcoFactor $20 million for infringing its smart thermostat patent, but one judge took issue with allowing the damages to stand, saying her colleagues' ruling "at best muddles our precedent and at worst contradicts it."
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June 03, 2024
Law Firm Faces Sanctions Bid For Happy Meal 'Extortion' Suit
McDonald's has urged a Florida federal court to sanction Fischer Redavid PLLC and its clients for bringing a recently dismissed lawsuit seeking a warning on Happy Meal containers, accusing them of trying to extort the company for a bigger payout after securing an $800,000 jury verdict in a related case for the second-degree burns suffered by a girl from a dangerously hot Chicken McNugget.
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June 03, 2024
Jane Street Blasts Trading Firm's Defense In Trade Secret Row
Trading firm Jane Street Group LLC has urged a Manhattan federal judge to toss the counterclaims and affirmative defenses of two ex-employees and Millennium Management LLC in a trade secret suit, saying each is either "redundant" or has "little to no alleged facts to support" it.
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June 03, 2024
Mich. High Court Keeps $15 Min. Wage Proposal Off Ballot
An initiative to raise the hourly minimum wage in Michigan to $15 by 2027 will stay off the 2024 ballot, the state Supreme Court ruled, turning down a group's bid to force the state canvassers board to certify the proposal.
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June 03, 2024
CFPB Unveils Registry To Track Nonbank 'Repeat Offenders'
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday finalized plans to begin centrally tracking court and regulatory enforcement orders against nonbank financial firms, issuing a rule that will create a public registry intended to help shine a light on companies that have recurring run-ins with authorities.
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June 03, 2024
Supreme Court Ruling Keeps Amazon Race Bias Suit Alive
Amazon Music can't sink a Black former worker's suit alleging her responsibilities were reduced and she was placed on a performance improvement plan for complaining about her manager, a New York federal judge said, ruling her claims are viable based on a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.
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June 03, 2024
Chamber Backs Insurers' Suit To Block DOL Fiduciary Rule
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged a Texas federal judge to block recently finalized regulations by the U.S. Department of Labor that expands who is considered a fiduciary under federal benefits law, arguing that the new rule will unnecessarily increase costs for consumers.
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June 03, 2024
Design Patents May Be Harder To Get Under New Test
The Federal Circuit's decision discarding long-standing tests for proving that a design patent is invalid as obvious means the world has changed for patent examiners and applicants, attorneys said, and the new standard could lead to more design patent applications being turned down.
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June 03, 2024
3 Firms Rep As Waste Management Inks $7.2B Stericycle Buy
Waste Management Inc. has agreed to buy medical waste company Stericycle at an enterprise value of about $7.2 billion, inclusive of approximately $1.4 billion of debt, the companies said in a statement Monday.
Expert Analysis
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What Cos. Are Reporting Under New SEC Cybersecurity Rule
Four months after its effective date, 14 companies have made disclosures under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's mandatory cybersecurity incident reporting rule, and some early trends are emerging, including a possible rush to file, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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10 Tips For ESG Disclosure Compliance In Private Funds
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
As regulators increase scrutiny of misleading claims about environmental, social and governance investments, private fund sponsors should consider several practical tips for communicating accurately with potential investors, drafting comprehensive disclosures and establishing internal policies that can keep pace with evolving compliance requirements, says Jonathan Rash at Ropes & Gray.
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The Practical Effects Of Justices' Arbitration Exemption Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries, that a transportation worker need not work in the transportation industry to be exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act, may negatively affect employers' efforts to mitigate class action risk via arbitration agreement enforcement, say Charles Schoenwetter and Eric Olson at Bowman and Brooke.
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Highlights From The 2024 ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting
U.S. merger enforcement and cartels figured heavily in this year's American Bar Association spring antitrust meeting, where one key takeaway included news that the Federal Trade Commission's anticipated changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino form may be less dramatic than many originally feared, say attorneys at Freshfields.
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What FERC's Disclosure Demands Mean For Cos., Investors
Two recent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission orders reflect the commission's increasingly meticulous approach to reviewing corporate structures in applications for approval of proposed consolidations, acquisitions or changes in control — putting the onus on the regulated community to track and comply with ever-more-burdensome disclosure requirements, say attorneys at Willkie.
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Why Corporate DEI Challenges Increasingly Cite Section 1981
As legal challenges to corporate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives increase in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on race-conscious college admissions last year, Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act is supplanting Title VII as conservative activist groups' weapon of choice, say Mike Delikat and Tierra Piens at Orrick.
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How Duty Of Candor Figures In USPTO AI Ethics Guidance
The duty of candor and good faith is an important part of the artificial intelligence ethics guidance issued last week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and serious consequences can visit patent and trademark applicants who violate that duty, not just their attorneys and agents, says Michael Cicero at Taylor English.
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Corp. Transparency Act Could Survive 11th Circ. Several Ways
If the Eleventh Circuit upholds an Alabama federal court’s injunction against the Corporate Transparency Act, the anti-money laundering law could persist as a narrower version that could moot some constitutional challenges, but these remedies would likely generate additional regulatory or statutory ambiguities that would result in further litigation, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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Del. Match.com Ruling Maintains Precedent In Time Of Change
Despite speculation that the Delaware Supreme Court could drive away corporations if it lowered the bar for business judgment review in its Match.com stockholder ruling, the court broke its recent run of controversial precedent-busting decisions by upholding, and arguably strengthening, minority stockholder protections against controller coercion, say Renee Zaytsev and Marc Ayala at Boies Schiller.
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The Future Of BIPA Insurance Litigation After Visual Pak
A recent Illinois appellate court decision, National Fire Insurance v. Visual Pak, may have altered the future of insurance litigation under the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act by diametrically opposing a prominent Seventh Circuit ruling that found insurance coverage for violations of the act, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
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Macquarie Ruling Raises The Bar For Securities Fraud Claims
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision last week in Macquarie Infrastructure v. Moab Partners — holding that a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule does not forbid omissions in company disclosures unless they render other statements false — is a major setback for plaintiffs pursuing securities fraud claims against corporations, say attorneys at Skadden.
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First 10b5-1 Insider Trading Case Raises Compliance Issues
The ongoing case against former Ontrak CEO Terren Peizer is the U.S. Department of Justice's first insider trading prosecution based primarily on the filing of 10b5-1 plans, and has important takeaways for attorneys reviewing corporate policies on the possession of material nonpublic information, say attorneys at Cadwalader.
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Tenn. Law Protecting Artists From AI Raises Novel Issues
Tennessee recently enacted a law that extends the right of publicity protection to individuals' voices in an attempt to control the proliferation of artificial intelligence in the music industry, presenting fascinating questions about the First Amendment, the fair use doctrine and more, say attorneys at Davis Wright.
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Consumer Privacy Takeaways From FTC Extraterritorial Action
With what appears to be its first privacy-related consent agreement with a non-U.S. business, the Federal Trade Commission establishes that its reach is extraterritorial and that consumer internet browsing data is sensitive data, and there are lessons for any multinational business that handles consumer information, say Olivia Greer and Alexis Bello at Weil.
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Assessing Work Rules After NLRB Handbook Ruling
The National Labor Relations Board's Stericycle decision last year sparked uncertainty surrounding whether historically acceptable work rules remain lawful — but employers can use a two-step analysis to assess whether to implement a given rule and how to do so in a compliant manner, say attorneys at Seyfarth.