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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Bonus Spotlight

Cravath Unveils Associate Bonuses, Multiple Firms Follow

By Aebra Coe

Multiple firms swiftly fell in line Tuesday evening just hours after Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP announced associate bonuses in line with those offered last year, continuing a long tradition of BigLaw firms following Cravath's lead on compensation.

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Pillsbury Winthrop Latest Firm Targeted By Data Breach Suit

By Hailey Konnath

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP on Tuesday was hit with a proposed class action stemming from a data breach the firm says happened in April, adding to the growing litigation firms are facing in the aftermath of cyberattacks.

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Analysis

Perkins Coie's Trump Fight Doesn't Scare Off UK Suitor

By Chris Villani

Perkins Coie LLP's ongoing fight with the Trump administration did not deter a proposed combination with British law firm Ashurst, signaling that the legal community is not worried about fallout from the president's suspension of the firm's security clearances.

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Republican Senators Seek Judge Boasberg's Suspension

By Courtney Bublé

Six Republican senators, three of whom sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, are asking that Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of the District of Columbia be administratively suspended while Congress considers his impeachment.

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Sanctioned Atty Convinces Mo. Court Errors Not Caused By AI

By Emily Sawicki

A Missouri federal judge sanctioned former counsel for Liberty Mutual Personal Insurance Co. Monday for including citation errors in a motion this fall, finding that, although the attorney likely inserted the errors herself without the use of AI software, "such carelessness, exacerbated by a lack of internal guardrails, is entirely unacceptable."

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Brief

Conn. Atty Fined $500 For AI-Generated Errors In Wage Suit

By Emily Sawicki

In an order that noted an attorney's remorse, a Connecticut federal judge sanctioned a solo practitioner $500 this week for submitting a brief packed with false, AI-generated case citations, finding the fake authorities wasted court resources, risked misleading a pro se litigant and undermined trust in the judicial system.

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Disbarred NC Atty Must Pay $5.2M For Escrow Fund Misuse

By Abigail Harrison

A disbarred attorney was ordered to pay $5.2 million in restitution and serve four years of probation during a Tuesday sentencing hearing in North Carolina federal court, after he pled guilty to a criminal wire fraud charge related to the misuse of escrow funds.

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Judge Upholds NY Law Blocking ICE Courthouse Arrests

By Andrea Keckley

New York beat back a federal lawsuit challenging the state's policy barring immigration officials from arresting people near its courthouses, after a federal judge rejected the U.S. Department of Justice's preemption claims.

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NY AG James Blasts 'Outrageous Conduct' Behind Indictment

By Adrian Cruz

New York Attorney General Letitia A. James has told a Virginia federal court to dismiss the U.S. government's indictment of her, calling it "patently unconstitutional" and "outrageous conduct."

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McGuireWoods Is Delaying Defamation Case, NC Justices Told

By Hayley Fowler

The former CEO of a managed care organization who alleges McGuireWoods and one of its ex-partners defamed him during a press conference more than seven years ago has told North Carolina's top court not to take up the case, panning their petition as yet another stalling tactic.

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Brief

Missouri Federal Judge To Take Senior Status

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Douglas Harpool of the Western District of Missouri has given notice he will take senior status upon the confirmation of state Judge Megan Benton, whose nomination to the federal bench President Donald Trump announced Friday.

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CFPB's Gradler Takes Deputy Post Amid Agency Uncertainty

By Jon Hill

Geof Gradler, a former industry lobbyist who recently joined the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's front office, said that he is taking over as the agency's deputy director, a job that positions him as a potential successor to acting director Russell Vought.

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