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Corporate
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June 03, 2024
PacifiCorp To Pay $178M To 400 Oregonians Over Fires
PacifiCorp has agreed to pay $178 million to more than 400 Oregon residents affected by a cluster of wildfires that burned more than a million acres of land on Labor Day 2020 amid dangerously dry and windy weather conditions, the utility announced Monday.
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June 03, 2024
Hooters Can't Yet Ditch Ex-Workers' Sex Harassment Claims
A California appellate court has refused to undo a lower court's decision finding that Hooters of America must continue to fight former servers' allegations that they were harassed and abused at work, ruling that Hooters hasn't met its burden of showing that it was entitled to summary adjudication.
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June 03, 2024
Humana Hit With Investor Suit Over Post-COVID Costs
Health insurer Humana and two executives were hit with an investor class action on Monday, claiming they misled shareholders about the cost of pent-up demand for medical treatments once the COVID-19 pandemic subsided.
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June 03, 2024
Ex-Biopharma Co. Prez Accused Of Defecting With Secrets
Biopharmaceutical firm United Therapeutics Corp. has accused a former executive of violating an employment agreement by taking ideas to a rival company to develop a competing lung treatment.
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June 03, 2024
ChampionX Investor Sues Over $7.8B Deal Proxy
A shareholder of energy technology provider ChampionX Corp. has sued the company and its board of directors in an attempt to enjoin a proposed acquisition by another energy-focused technology company, SLB, alleging that ChampionX filed a deficient proxy statement.
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June 03, 2024
Kroger, Albertsons Can't Get More Info On FTC Markets
An Oregon federal judge denied Kroger and Albertsons' requests for more information on the markets at issue in the Federal Trade Commission's ongoing attempt to block their merger, saying the companies' request is premature and excessively broad.
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June 03, 2024
FTC Gets Backing Against Noncompete Rule Challenge
The Federal Trade Commission has received backing against a challenge of its new rule banning noncompete clauses, with a labor group, local lawmakers and others urging a Texas federal court not to prevent the rule from taking effect in September.
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June 03, 2024
Vietnamese EV Co. Hit With Investor Suit Over SPAC Merger
Vietnamese electric car manufacturer VinFast Auto and several executives have been hit with a proposed class action alleging they exaggerated the strength of VinFast's business model and prospects following a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company last year.
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June 03, 2024
DuPont Can't Escape Retirees' Pension Calculation Suits
A federal judge in Delaware on Monday denied most motions to dismiss and overruled all objections in federal proposed class actions accusing E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co. of using outdated actuarial formulas to calculate workers' retirement benefits.
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June 03, 2024
Exxon Fights Activist Investor's 'Toothless' Dismissal Bid
Exxon Mobil Corp. is not backing away from a Texas lawsuit accusing investment adviser Arjuna Capital of improperly meddling in its business affairs by backing a proposal to reduce the company's greenhouse gas emissions, calling promises not to resubmit similar proposals in the future "toothless" in the wake of activist shareholder pressure to change the company's climate policy.
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June 03, 2024
5th Circ. Mulls Acts Vs. Belief In Anti-Abortion Worker's Firing
The Fifth Circuit on Monday seemed torn over whether it should "split hairs" between religious conduct and religious belief as it weighed whether to uphold a Southwest flight attendant's win in a wrongful termination suit over graphic anti-abortion messages she sent her union president.
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June 03, 2024
Software Group Says IP Quality, Not Quantity, Is The Goal
Making sure patent standards are up to snuff, using artificial intelligence when looking into whether patents are viable and having the Patent Trial and Appeal Board maintain high standards when reviewing patents are goals federal patent officials should focus on, according to a trade collective of software businesses.
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June 03, 2024
Ericsson Says It Has Completed DPA Compliance Monitorship
Swedish telecom giant Ericsson announced Monday that it has completed a four-year compliance monitorship imposed by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a deferred prosecution agreement over long-running bribery and slush fund schemes around the world.
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June 03, 2024
Treasury Aims To Salvage Corp. Transparency Act At 11th Circ.
The Corporate Transparency Act is a valid exercise of congressional authority to curb money laundering under the commerce clause and the necessary and proper clause in the Constitution, the U.S. Treasury Department told the Eleventh Circuit on Monday in a bid to restore the law's reporting requirements.
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June 03, 2024
Epoch Times CFO Charged With $67M Laundering Scheme
The chief financial officer of the Epoch Times was charged with orchestrating a scheme to launder about $67 million of illicit proceeds to benefit himself and the newspaper, according to an indictment unsealed in New York federal court Monday.
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June 03, 2024
El Pollo Loco Hit With Wage, Hostile Work Environment Claims
El Pollo Loco did not provide a former assistant manager with meal breaks or overtime or pay him the full wages he was promised, and store managers mocked him for requesting leave to tend to his ailing mother, the ex-worker alleged in a complaint filed in state court.
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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.
Expert Analysis
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Decoding The FTC's Latest Location Data Crackdown
Following the Federal Trade Commission's groundbreaking settlements in its recent enforcement actions against X-Mode Social and InMarket Media for deceptive and unfair practices with regards to consumer location data, companies should implement policies with three crucial elements for regulatory compliance and maintaining consumer trust, says Hannah Ji-Otto at Baker Donelson.
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How American Airlines ESG Case Could Alter ERISA Liability
Spence v. American Airlines, a Texas federal case over the airline's selection of multiple investment funds in its retirement plan, threatens to upend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act's legal framework for fiduciary liability in the name of curtailing environmental, social and governance-related activities, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.
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Series
Illinois Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1
In the first quarter of 2024, Illinois lawmakers proposed a stack of bills aimed at modernizing money transmission, digital assets and banking laws, with a particular focus on improving consumer protections and better defining the state’s authority to regulate digital services, say James Morrissey and Mark Svalina at Vedder Price.
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Patent Ownership Issues In Light Of USPTO AI Guidance
Recently published guidance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office establishes that inventions created using artificial intelligence may be patentable if a human also significantly contributes, but ownership and legal rights in these types of patents are different issues that require further assessment, says Karl Gross at Leydig Voit.
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Series
Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1
The first quarter of the year brought the usual onslaught of new regulatory developments in California — including a crackdown on junk fees imposed by small business lenders, a big step forward for online notarizations and a ban on predatory listing agreements, says Alex Grigorians at Hanson Bridgett.
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Tipsters May Be Key To Financial Regulators' ESG Efforts
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are looking to whistleblowers to assist their climate and ESG task forces, suggesting insider information could be central to the agencies' enforcement efforts against corporate greenwashing, false investment claims and climate disclosure violations, says John Crutchlow at Youman & Caputo.
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5 Takeaways From SAP's Foreign Bribery Resolutions
German software company SAP’s recent settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, resolving allegations of foreign bribery, provide insights into government enforcement priorities, and how corporations should structure their compliance programs to reduce liability, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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Series
Serving As A Sheriff's Deputy Made Me A Better Lawyer
Skills developed during my work as a reserve deputy — where there was a need to always be prepared, decisive and articulate — transferred to my practice as an intellectual property litigator, and my experience taught me that clients often appreciate and relate to the desire to participate in extracurricular activities, says Michael Friedland at Friedland Cianfrani.
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Fears About The End Of Chevron Deference Are Overblown
While some are concerned about repercussions if the U.S. Supreme Court brings an end to Chevron deference in the Loper and Relentless cases this term, agencies and attorneys would survive just fine under the doctrines that have already begun to replace it, say Daniel Wolff and Henry Leung at Crowell & Moring.
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10 Ransomware Issues GCs Should Have On Their Radar
As the ransomware threat landscape rapidly evolves, in-house counsel should expect to face a number of challenging dynamics, including the need to justify any ransom payments both to internal and external stakeholders, and data extortion demands that are bypassing the encryption stage, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.
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Opinion
The SEC Is Engaging In Regulation By Destruction
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent use of regulation by enforcement against digital assets indicates it's more interested in causing harm to crypto companies than providing guidance to the markets or protecting investors, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University.
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Series
NJ Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1
Early 2024 developments in New Jersey financial regulations include new bills that propose regulating some cryptocurrency as securities and protecting banks that serve the cannabis industry, as well as the signing of a data privacy law that could change banks’ responsibility to vet vendors and borrowers, say attorneys at Chiesa Shahinian.
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Former Minn. Chief Justice Instructs On Writing Better Briefs
Former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, now at Greenberg Traurig, offers strategies on writing more effective appellate briefs from her time on the bench.
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What To Know About IRS' New Jet Use Audit Campaign
The Internal Revenue Service recently announced plans to open several dozen audits scrutinizing executive use of company jets, so companies should be prepared to show the business reasons for travel, and how items like imputed income and deduction disallowance were calculated, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Stay Interviews Are Key To Retaining Legal Talent
Even as the economy shifts and layoffs continue, law firms still want to retain their top attorneys, and so-called stay interviews — informal conversations with employees to identify potential issues before they lead to turnover — can be a crucial tool for improving retention and morale, say Tina Cohen Nicol and Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey.