PBM Rule Included In DOL Benefits Arm's Regulatory Update

By Kellie Mejdrich

The U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits arm detailed several new regulations in the works Thursday, including a new fee disclosure rule involving pharmacy benefit managers and plans to revisit retirement plan fiduciary investment advice regulations, according to the administration's latest regulatory update.

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Aetna, Optum's $8.3M ERISA Health Fee Deal Gets Final OK

By Kellie Mejdrich

A North Carolina federal judge granted final approval to an $8.3 million class action settlement to end an employee health plan participant's allegations that Aetna conspired with OptumHealth Care Solutions to pass on administrative fees disguised as medical expenses, according to an order docketed Thursday.

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AARP Attys Back Suit Challenging TIAA's 401(k) Management

By Grace Elletson

AARP attorneys have offered their resources to a proposed class action claiming the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America shirked federal benefits law by failing to cut costly and underperforming proprietary investment funds from its workers' retirement plans.

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DOJ Moves To End Challenge To RFK Jr.'s Vaccine Directive

By Katherine Smith

The Justice Department is seeking a quick exit from a suit challenging Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s directive recommending against the COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant women and children, telling a Massachusetts federal court Thursday that the three women and coalition of medical associations behind the suit can't demonstrate a link between the directive and any potential injuries.

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RFK Renews Attacks On CDC At Fiery Capitol Hill Appearance

By Yeji Jesse Lee

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced intense questioning from lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Thursday, with a handful of Republicans joining Democratic senators in voicing alarm over recent turmoil in vaccine policy and in leadership at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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NC Panel Reopens 13 Asbestos Cases Against Tire-Maker

By Hayley Fowler

A split panel in a North Carolina state appeals court has revived more than a dozen workers' compensation cases linked to alleged asbestos exposure at a Continental Tire factory, finding the individual claimants are not bound by the results of bellwether cases.

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GAO Calls On VA To Boost Exam Contractor Oversight

By Tom Lotshaw

The U.S. Government Accountability Office urged the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to strengthen its procedures after a review found that one of its offices paid $2.3 million worth of unearned incentives to contractors hired to provide medical exams for veteran disability claims.

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Goldman Investors Clinch Class Cert. In 1MDB Bribery Suit

By Katryna Perera

A New York federal judge on Thursday overruled objections raised by Goldman Sachs and fully adopted a magistrate judge's recommendation to certify a class of Goldman investors who claim losses from the 1MDB bond bribery scandal.

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Series

Teaching Trial Advocacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

Teaching trial advocacy skills to other lawyers makes us better litigators because it makes us question our default methods, connect to young attorneys with new perspectives and focus on the needs of the real people at the heart of every trial, say Reuben Guttman, Veronica Finkelstein and Joleen Youngers.

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Legal Sector Jobs Creep Back Down After 5 Months Of Gains

By Tracey Read

U.S. legal industry jobs inched down by 200 positions last month, reflecting a loss for the first time in six months, according to preliminary data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Judges Warn ICE Is Turning Courts Into Deportation Traps

By Marco Poggio

As Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers violently arrest unauthorized immigrants in court buildings' hallways, former and current judges warn that the Trump administration is using courts as a dragnet, arresting people indiscriminately and expelling them with little to no due process in a bid to fulfill President Donald Trump’s goal of mass deportations.

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Ex-Bankruptcy Clients Defend Deal Over Jackson Walker Affair

By Adrian Cruz

Former Jackson Walker LLP bankruptcy clients said Friday that a proposed settlement meant to resolve a dispute regarding the concealed romance between a judge and attorney should go through as planned because the U.S. Trustee lacks jurisdiction to challenge the deals.

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Not That Zuckerberg: Atty Sues Meta Over FB Page Takedown

By Rachel Rippetoe

Indianapolis bankruptcy attorney Mark S. Zuckerberg is suing Meta Platforms Inc. after his firm's commercial Facebook account was repeatedly suspended because of his shared name with the tech company's CEO and founder.

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Analysis

How A 'Risky' Move Fueled Kobre & Kim's Win Over Phillips 66

By Cara Salvatore

In the trial over Propel Fuels' claims that Phillips 66 stole trade secrets during due diligence for an acquisition, Kobre & Kim switched up standard witness order and convinced a jury to award $605 million.

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OnlyFans Users May Face Sanctions Over AI 'Misuse'

By Craig Clough

OnlyFans users who have alleged the site employs professional "chatters" to impersonate content creators are facing possible sanctions in their case, as a California federal judge ordered their attorneys to appear in court for filing briefs with nonexistent citations and quotations generated by an AI chatbot.

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How Attys Freed Woman Snatched By ICE In Less Than 48 Hours

By Marco Poggio

The breakneck speed with which a Colombian asylum seeker was detained, transferred and nearly deported underscores the time crunch facing attorneys who fight removals, say the Keker Van Nest & Peters LLP lawyers whose pro bono work freed the woman from custody.

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Motley Rice Fights OptumRx DQ Bid In Utah Opioid Suit

By Jack Karp

Pharmacy benefit manager OptumRx cannot disqualify Motley Rice LLC from representing Utah in a lawsuit over the opioid crisis, since any information the firm obtained during its involvement in earlier government investigations is available to all other parties in the multidistrict litigation and so isn't confidential, the state has told a federal court.

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Judge Awards Over $6M In Atty Fees In Bluetooth Co.'s IP Suit

By Zach Dupont

A Colorado federal judge has awarded the attorneys representing a Bluetooth technology company more than $6 million after the company won on the bulk of its claims at trial last year in its trade secrets and breach of confidentiality case against a Massachusetts display technology company.

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Fla. Bar Moves To Suspend Atty Accused Of Widespread Scam

By Phillip Bantz

The Florida Bar filed a petition Friday seeking the emergency suspension of a lawyer accused of scamming dozens of clients, failing to pay associates and paralegals who worked at his firm and repeatedly violating court orders.

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Analysis

SEC, CFTC Set Sights On Crypto In Regulatory Collab

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Friday they are moving forward with a broad regulatory harmonization effort that they hope will encourage innovation in growing markets, and lawyers tell Law360 they expect the focus to be writing rules governing the crypto sector.

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Judicial Nominee Expands On Testimony About Ky. Pardons

By Courtney Bublé

A judicial nominee for the Eastern District of Kentucky continues to distance himself from the controversial pardons issued by former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, for whom he was counsel.

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SEC Lost Year's Worth Of Gary Gensler Texts, Watchdog Says

By Hailey Konnath

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made "avoidable errors" that caused the agency to lose all text messages sent and received by former chair Gary Gensler for nearly a year of his tenure, some of which haven't been recovered, according to a report from the SEC's Office of Inspector General.

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Analysis

Trump Plan For Nat'l Guard In Chicago Sparks Legal Concerns

By Celeste Bott

President Donald Trump's plan to send the National Guard to Chicago over the objections of Illinois' governor could face similar legal hurdles as his use of the military in Los Angeles to quell protests over immigration raids, with some experts and local officials suggesting he may try to use an impending immigration crackdown in the city to justify a similar deployment.

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FTC Drops Appeal For Rule Banning Noncompetes

By Matthew Perlman

The Federal Trade Commission officially abandoned its appeal Friday in a case that set aside a Biden administration rule banning the use of most employee noncompete clauses, but the agency said it plans to bring enforcement actions on a case-by-case basis instead.

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DC Circ. Won't Halt Order Releasing Billions In Foreign Aid

By Rae Ann Varona

Both a divided D.C. Circuit panel and a district court judge Friday refused to hit pause on the judge's recent order requiring the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in frozen foreign aid.

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Trump Nominates 3 To Be DC Superior Court Judges

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump has nominated three people to serve on the District of Columbia's local courts, bringing the district one step closer to easing its vacancy crisis.

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Democrat Slaughter Asks Justices To Let Her Stay On FTC

By Bryan Koenig

Democratic Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday not to pause her reinstatement while the Trump administration challenges lower court decisions holding that her firing was illegal, saying those decisions were plainly correct and she's in no danger of sowing "chaos."

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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen professional boxing promoter Boxxer take action against the former head of boxing at Matchroom Sport, Aegis Motor Insurance and Chubb European Group clash over a reinsurance claim, and a transgender pool player sue the English Blackball Pool Federation over its decision to ban her competing in women's teams and tournaments. 

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

In arguing that the proposed class action against the business should be denied, online platform OnlyFans' parent company said that the decision to use AI to create mistake-riddled documents is severe misconduct. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits arm unveiled a new fee disclosure rule involving pharmacy benefit managers and plans to revisit retirement plan fiduciary investment advice regulations. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Milbank LLP, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC and the Liberty Justice Center lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Federal Circuit held that President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs were improperly imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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