9th Circ. Strikes Down Trans Patients' Win In ACA Bias Case

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Ninth Circuit upended a win Monday for patients who challenged Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois' administration of their employer-provided health plans containing gender-affirming care exclusions, ordering a lower court to reexamine the case in light of intervening authority from the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Vets May Regain GI Bill Benefits After Vax-Related Discharges

By Elaine Briseño

Soldiers discharged under the Biden administration for refusing a COVID-19 vaccine may once again have access to GI Bill education benefits, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs announced on Monday.

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Brief

Senior Official At DOL Benefits Arm To Retire Next Month

By Patrick Hoff

A senior official in the U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits division will retire at the end of the year after over three decades of government work, the agency said.

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MVP: Goodwin's Jamie Fleckner

By Anne Cullen

This past year, Goodwin Procter LLP partner Jamie Fleckner led the way to several hard-fought wins for big-name clients in class actions brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, earning him a spot as one of the 2025 Law360 Benefits MVPs.

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2 Execs Found Guilty In $233M ACA Fraud Scheme

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal jury returned a guilty verdict on Monday against a marketing company CEO and insurance brokerage executive who were accused of submitting fraudulent enrollments to fully subsidized Affordable Care Act insurance plans to get millions in commission payments from insurers.

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Pot Co. To Pay Gov't $632K Over PPP Loan Case

By Jonathan Capriel

A Washington-based marijuana producer agreed to pay more than $632,000 to the U.S. government over claims it obtained a forgivable loan, worth nearly $315,000, meant to aid businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the person who reported the company set to get 10% of the settlement.

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TerraForm Stockholders Settle Suit Over Brookfield Merger

By Jeff Montgomery

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and TerraForm Power Inc. stockholders reported a tentative, undisclosed deal on Monday to end their nearly four-year Delaware Chancery Court battle over Brookfield's alleged "exploitation" of TerraForm's minority stockholders in a deal dating to 2020.

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Union Benefit Plans Ask 9th Circ. Not To Revive Worker's Suit

By Emily Brill

A California federal judge was right to toss a carpenter's attempt to compel a group of union benefit plans to resume covering him and his coworkers, the plans told the Ninth Circuit, asking the appellate court to keep the suit dead.

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E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Dynamic Databases

Several recent federal court decisions illustrate how parties continue to grapple with the discovery of data in dynamic databases, so counsel involved in these disputes must consider how structured data should be produced consistent with the requirements of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, say attorneys at Sidley.

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Analysis

UK Firms Drive Transatlantic Appetite For M&A Dealmaking

By Aebra Coe and Chris Villani

The merger announced Monday between British legal giant Ashurst LLP and American law firm Perkins Coie LLP is the latest in a spate of deals driven, in part, by an appetite among global firms to gain a strong presence in the U.S.

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'Astounding' Holland & Knight Conduct Drives Liability Ruling

By Ryan Boysen

Holland & Knight LLP has forfeited a malpractice lawsuit in Alaska by refusing to turn over information to a Native American tribal corporation, with a state judge entering a default judgment as a sanction and calling the firm's conduct "a head scratcher" and "astounding."

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Brief

ABA Decries Lawmaker Calls For Impeachments Of Judges

By Courtney Bublé

The American Bar Association said on Monday it's "alarmed" by lawmakers' interest in impeaching judges just because they don't like their rulings.

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Judge Orders Grand Jury Docs Released In Comey Case

By Brandon Lowrey

A Virginia federal magistrate judge Monday ordered the disclosure of all grand jury materials related to the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, saying government misconduct may have tainted the grand jury proceedings.

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DOJ Backs White House's Military Lawyer Transfers

By Courtney Bublé

A newly released legal opinion from the U.S. Department of Justice says the Trump administration is allowed to detail military lawyers to serve as immigration judges and special assistant U.S. attorneys in the District of Columbia.

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Senator Slams Trump For 'Blowing Up' Wis. US Atty Process

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., accused President Donald Trump on Monday of skirting the process to nominate U.S. attorneys in Wisconsin with his pick of a failed Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate for the office that covers Milwaukee.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court and Delaware Supreme Court last week had a dense slate of fiduciary duty battles, merger-process challenges, post-bankruptcy fights and a series of cases probing the limits of fraud pleading, credible-basis inspections and board-level disclosure duties.

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Law School Admission Council Pushes To Toss Antitrust Suit

By Andrea Keckley

The Law School Admission Council is continuing its push to toss a proposed class action accusing it of fixing application fees with its member schools, saying in a Pennsylvania federal court filing last week that the applicant's opposition to its dismissal motion "entirely fails to engage with the incoherence at the core of his case."

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Holyoak Leaves FTC For Interim US Atty In Utah

By Bryan Koenig

Melissa Holyoak left the Federal Trade Commission on Monday to become Utah's interim U.S. attorney, leaving the FTC down to two commissioners, both Republicans, in the Trump administration's latest use of interim U.S. attorney appointments.

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