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Massachusetts
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March 20, 2024
Breaking Down Each State's Climate Priority Policies
Forty-five states have now completed climate action plans outlining how they'll advance federal climate goals through policy and programs in coming years, with most focusing at least in part on real estate development as a way to reduce emissions.
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March 20, 2024
2 Biotechs Unveil Separate Fundings Totaling $325M
Life sciences companies Clasp Therapeutics and Cooley-advised Capstan Therapeutics, which develop treatments for a range of health conditions including cancer and autoimmune diseases, separately announced funding rounds Wednesday that together total $325 million.
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March 20, 2024
Law360 Announces The Members Of Its 2024 Editorial Boards
Law360 is pleased to announce the formation of its 2024 Editorial Advisory Boards.
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March 20, 2024
US Chamber's Litigation Funding Concerns Spur 2 State Laws
Amid concerns from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce about third-party litigation funding, including from potentially hostile foreign entities, state legislatures in Indiana and West Virginia have recently passed bills imposing restrictions on the practice.
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March 19, 2024
Hydro Co. Asks FERC To Redo Tribe Opposition Permit Denial
A Massachusetts company pursuing hydroelectric projects on Navajo Nation land is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to revisit an order that denied preliminary permits because the nation opposed them, maintaining it has secured support from tribal entities to show otherwise — an assertion the nation's attorney general disputes.
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March 19, 2024
Fishers Angle For Justices' Attention With New Monument Suit
Two fishermen are challenging a 5,000-square-mile offshore national monument in a lawsuit that sets up a fight over the extent of presidential power under the Antiquities Act, an issue that has already drawn the attention of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
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March 19, 2024
States Converge On Texas' Challenge To EPA Methane Rule
A California-led coalition of Democratic attorneys general wants to defend new federal limits on oil and gas industry methane emissions challenged by Texas, Oklahoma and other conservative states, with supporters of the new rules claiming a sovereign interest in protecting their citizens from harmful greenhouse gas pollution.
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March 19, 2024
Vicente LLP Sues Recruiter Over Fee Demand In Failed Search
Vicente LLP is alleging that a Florida-based recruiter wants money for nothing after a failed search for a corporate attorney to join the cannabis law firm, during which one of the two proposed candidates turned out to be someone Vicente already worked with and later hired in a different role.
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March 19, 2024
Nixed JetBlue-Spirit Deal Moots Antitrust Case, 1st Circ. Told
The abandonment of JetBlue Airways Corp. and Spirit Airways Inc.'s $3.8 billion merger following a successful U.S. Department of Justice legal challenge moots a separate antitrust suit by air travelers seeking to block the tie-up, the airlines have argued to the First Circuit.
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March 18, 2024
SEC Fines Supervisor $47K Over Revenue Inflation Claims
A former finance director of water treatment company Evoqua Water Technologies Corp. will pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission nearly $47,000 to resolve claims that he was part of a scheme to inflate the company's revenue by $36 million.
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March 18, 2024
Ex-Immigration Judges Say Mistake Warrants Asylum Redo
Dozens of former immigration judges pressed the First Circuit to grant a second shot at asylum for a Salvadoran woman fearing gang violence, saying an immigration judge had erred by not asking her if she belonged to an asylum-eligible community.
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March 18, 2024
Battle Over Mass. Rezoning Law Headed To High Court In Fall
The Massachusetts attorney general's lawsuit to force a Boston suburb to comply with an ambitious housing law was fast-tracked Monday to the state's high court later this year, as more than a hundred towns around Boston watch how the dispute plays out.
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March 18, 2024
Leerink Enticed Goldman Exec With False Promises, Suit Says
An investment banker says she was lured away from a senior position at Goldman Sachs to Boston-based Leerink Partners with what turned out to be a meaningless job title and false promises of guaranteed bonuses, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Massachusetts state court.
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March 18, 2024
Tennis Job No Reason To Slice 'Varsity Blues' Term, Feds Say
A tennis instructor job in New York is no reason to grant an early end to the home confinement portion of a sentence given to a former Georgetown University coach for his role in the "Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal, prosecutors told a Massachusetts federal judge Monday.
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March 18, 2024
Mass. Law Firm Can't Escape Ex-Client's Data Breach Case
A small Massachusetts law firm will have to face an ex-client's proposed class action claiming it was negligent and failed to protect her and others' personal information from hackers who breached the firm's computers and stole data, a Boston federal judge has ruled.
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March 18, 2024
Marriott Must Face Suit For Booting Kidswear Wholesalers
Marriott International must face a suit by two clothing wholesalers who were kicked out of rooms at a Fairfield Inn just outside Boston for violating an undisclosed "non-solicitation" policy, a Massachusetts appellate court said Monday.
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March 18, 2024
Feds Want 12 Years For Ex-Broker In Fraud, Tax Case
A former mortgage broker whose decadelong fraud scheme tricked more than a dozen people out of $8 million and caused more than $3 million in tax losses should spend 12 and a half years in prison, the government told a Rhode Island federal court.
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March 18, 2024
Mass. Condo Owners Didn't Prove Property Was Overvalued
Two Massachusetts property owners failed to prove their condominium was overvalued in the 2022 tax year because they didn't account for differences in the comparable properties they offered, the state tax board said in a decision released Monday.
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March 15, 2024
Awning Maker Can't Shade Itself From CPSC Defect Lawsuit
Awning maker SunSetter can't evade claims it concealed an allegedly deadly defect by arguing that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is unconstitutional, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled, leaning on a Fifth Circuit ruling that may not be long for this world.
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March 15, 2024
Harvard Enabled Anti-Asian Bias Against Professor, Suit Says
Administrators at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design failed to take action after an associate professor from China complained about years of what she believed was discriminatory treatment by a colleague, a lawsuit filed Friday in Massachusetts state court alleges.
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March 15, 2024
Transit Agency Must Face Suit Over Driver's Alleged Assault
A Massachusetts law that shields government agencies from liability in some situations doesn't give immunity to a transit authority for continuing to employ a bus driver who allegedly had a history of violence and went on to seriously assault a pedestrian, an intermediate state appellate court determined Friday.
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March 15, 2024
Feds Want 6 Years For 'Poster Boy' Of Mass. Police Corruption
Boston federal prosecutors have recommended nearly 6 years in prison for a former Massachusetts trooper who they say is the living embodiment of police misconduct in light of his trial convictions for stealing overtime pay, lying on his taxes and cheating to get student financial aid for his son.
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March 15, 2024
Cannabis Sellers Want $6M Fees Refunded From Mass. Town
A group of cannabis retailers are suing Great Barrington, Massachusetts, saying the town has illegally collected nearly $6 million in community impact fees, despite admitting in writing that the companies have caused virtually no costs to the town.
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March 14, 2024
Chancery Sends Drone-Maker's Claim To Sister Court
A Delaware vice chancellor handed off to a regular civil court Thursday remaining claims in drone-maker Teal Drones Inc.'s suit accusing a software supplier and its owner of wrongly pulling the plug on Teal's license for autonomous-flight programming, after tossing claims against the supplier itself.
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March 14, 2024
Mass. Lobstermen Win Case Fighting Feds' Fishing Closure
A Massachusetts federal judge ruled Thursday that the National Marine Fisheries Service illegally closed a 200-square-mile swath of ocean to protect the endangered North Atlantic Right Whales, backing a legal challenge by a lobster fishing industry group.
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
Appellate Funding Disclosure: No Mandate Is Right Choice
The Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules' recent decision, forgoing a mandatory disclosure rule for litigation funding in federal appeals, is prudent, as third-party funding is only involved in a minuscule number of federal cases, and courts have ample authority to obtain funding information if necessary, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.
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NBA Players Must Avoid Legal Fouls In CBD Deals
The NBA’s recently ratified collective bargaining agreement allows athletes to promote CBD brands and products, but athletes and the companies they promote must be cautious of a complex patchwork of applicable state laws and federal regulators’ approach to advertising claims, says Airina Rodrigues at Brownstein Hyatt.
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How Attys Can Avoid Exposing Their Firms To Cyberattacks
Attorneys are the weakest link in their firms' cyberdefenses because hackers often exploit the gap between individuals’ work and personal cybersecurity habits, but there are some steps lawyers can take to reduce the risks they create for their employers, say Mark Hurley and Carmine Cicalese at Digital Privacy & Protection.
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Virginia 'Rocket Docket' Slowdown Is Likely A Blip
After being the fastest or second-fastest federal civil trial court for 14 straight years, the Eastern District of Virginia has slid to 18th place, but the rocket docket’s statistical tumble doesn't mean the district no longer maintains a speedy civil docket, says Robert Tata at Hunton.
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'Varsity Blues' Reversal May Inform Conspiracy Defenses
The First Circuit’s recent decision vacating the convictions of two “Varsity Blues” defendants provides potential support for creative arguments against conspiracy charges, particularly where defense counsel can show competition or indifference among alleged co-conspirators, say Cormac Connor and Emily Mikes at Husch Blackwell.
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5 Management Tips To Keep Law Firm Merger Talks Moving
Many law firm mergers that make solid business sense still fall apart due to the costs and frustrations of inefficient negotiations, but firm managers can increase the chance of success by effectively planning and executing merger discussions, say Lisa Smith and Kristin Stark at Fairfax Associates.
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3 Abortion Enforcement Takeaways 1 Year After Dobbs
A year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, confusion continues to abound amid the quagmire of state-level enforcement risks, federal efforts to protect reproductive health care, and fights over geolocation data, say Elena Quattrone and Sarah Hall at Epstein Becker.
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Rethinking In-Office Attendance For Associate Retention
The hybrid office attendance model doesn't work for all employees, but it does for many — and balancing these two groups is important for associate retention and maintaining a BigLaw firm culture that supports all attorneys, says Summer Eberhard at Major Lindsey.
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What Innovators Can Expect In The Patent World After Amgen
After the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Amgen v. Sanofi decision, which invalidated Amgen's patents because the specifications failed to enable the full scope of the invention, innovators should expect more enablement rejections and invalidity challenges, and higher standards overall for obtaining broad genus claims, says Kisuk Lee from Harness IP.
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Opinion
ALI, Bar Groups Need More Defense Engagement For Balance
The American Law Institute and state bar committees have a special role in the development of the law — but if they do not do a better job of including attorneys from the defense bar, they will come to be viewed as special interest advocacy groups, says Mark Behrens at Shook Hardy.
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High Court Ruling Wouldn't Change Federal Affirmative Action
If the U.S. Supreme Court's eventual decision in two cases concerning affirmative action indicates that using race or ethnicity as a factor in college admissions is illegal, it would align with how the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs already enforces nondiscrimination regulations for government contractor hiring, say Joanna Colosimo and Evan Szarenski at DCI Consulting.
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Murdaugh Trials Offer Law Firms Fraud Prevention Reminders
As the fraud case against Alex Murdaugh continues to play out, the evidence and narrative presented at his murder trial earlier this year may provide lessons for law firms on implementing robust internal controls that can detect and prevent similar kinds of fraud, say Travis Casner and Helga Zauner at Weaver and Tidwell.
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What Courts Say About Workers' Comp And Medical Marijuana
Whether employers and insurance carriers are required or allowed to reimburse employees for out-of-pocket costs for treating work-related injuries with medical marijuana has spawned a debate, and the state courts that have addressed this matter are split on a number of issues, say Alexandra Hassell and Anthony Califano at Seyfarth.
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Title IX Damages Outlook 1 Year After High Court Ruling
Federal courts have been extending the holding of last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision, Cummings v. Premier Rehab Keller, to disallow emotional distress damages under Title IX, but students and educators suing educational institutions for gender discrimination can still recover monetary damages under alternate theories, say attorneys at Sanford Heisler.
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Firm Tips For Helping New Lawyers Succeed Post-Pandemic
Ten steps can help firms significantly enhance the experience of attorneys who started their careers in the coronavirus pandemic era, including facilitating opportunities for cross-firm connection, which can ultimately help build momentum for business development, says Lana Manganiello at Equinox Strategy Partners.