ESPN Wins Arbitration Of Disney+ User's Meta Privacy Claims

By Aaron Keller

A Disney+ user must arbitrate his claim that ESPN Inc. gave his viewing data to Facebook's parent company Meta without his permission, a Pennsylvania federal judge has ruled, saying federal arbitration law preempts a Pennsylvania Superior Court decision that applied higher standards to private dispute resolution contracts.

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M.I.A. Says Kid Cudi Fired Her To Boost Tour Ticket Sales

By Lauren Berg

British-Sri Lankan artist M.I.A. claims in a new lawsuit that American rapper Kid Cudi used controversial statements she made on stage as an excuse to kick her off his tour in an effort to increase ticket sales, costing her a $2.8 million contract with Live Nation.

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'Sauce For The Goose': X Can't Limit Apple, OpenAI Depos

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Texas federal judge on Friday ordered Elon Musk's X Corp. to offer up 20 of its employees for extra depositions in its antitrust suit against Apple and OpenAI, saying that since the court granted X more depositions, "sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander."

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EPA Beats States' $7B Solar Grant Cancellation Suit In Wash.

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge sided with the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday in a multistate challenge of the U.S. government's cancellation of a Biden-era solar energy grant program, concluding she cannot resolve the dispute because it involves contractual questions that the Tucker Act delegates to the Court of Federal Claims.  

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GE Can't Change Judge's Mind On Vineyard Wind Work Order

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Massachusetts state court has refused to lift an order requiring a GE Vernova subsidiary to continue work on the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm, finding none of the information GE presented changed the reality that the company remains vital to the project's commercial success.

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Emory Says Insurer Shirked Coverage For COVID Tuition Row

By Hope Patti

Emory University said its insurer must cover $1.2 million in defense costs and costs incurred to settle a proposed class action over the school's switch to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, telling a Georgia state court the insurer improperly denied coverage based on a False Claims Act exclusion.

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Boeing, Rolls-Royce Say Claims Still Fail In Osprey Suit

By Mike Curley

The Boeing Co., Bell Textron Inc. and Rolls-Royce Corp. are again asking a California federal court to throw out breach of contract and fraudulent concealment claims in a suit over the deaths of five Marines in the June 2022 crash of a V-22 Osprey aircraft, saying the latest amended complaint does not save the claims.

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Abbott Labs Spinal Cord Device Causes Shocks, Suit Claims

By Emily Field

A New Jersey man said in a suit filed in Garden State federal court on Friday that Abbott Laboratories' spinal cord stimulator system was manufactured with defects that were never truly resolved because of Abbott's mischaracterization of the issue, which caused him painful electric shocks.

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AI Mapping Co. Says Rival's Copyright Suit Is Too Vague

By Rachel Konieczny

An artificial intelligence mapping software company sought to throw out a competitor's lawsuit accusing it of copying thousands of the firm's property maps, telling a Colorado federal judge the competitor never identified which maps had allegedly been infringed.

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TriZetto, Infosys Fight Each Side's CEO Deposition Bids

By Ivan Moreno

Cognizant TriZetto Software Group and Infosys Ltd. have filed dueling motions to block depositions of each other's top executives in a trade secret lawsuit over allegations that Infosys misused confidential access to TriZetto's healthcare software to build competing products.

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Ex-Real Estate Sales Directors Barred From Using Secrets

By Abigail Harrison

Former sales directors, accused by a real estate broker serving the South of participating in a corporate raid and trade secret heist that siphoned millions in sales volume, agreed Monday in North Carolina Business Court not to use or disseminate any of its confidential information or trade secrets.

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Cere Founder Says Sale Pact Bars $13M Crypto Fraud Suit

By Joyce Hanson

Cere Network's founder and others targeted in a $13 million suit over a purported cryptocurrency fraud scheme involving the decentralized data cloud platform have asked a California federal judge to send the dispute to arbitration in San Francisco.

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DOJ Says Ohio Health System Can't Duck Antitrust Case

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Department of Justice defended its antitrust case accusing OhioHealth Corp. of blocking competition through its contracts with insurers, telling an Ohio federal court the health system is depriving consumers of lower-cost health plans.

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Real Estate Co. Opposes CoStar Bid To Pause Antitrust Suit

By Grace Dixon

A real estate brokerage asked a Virginia federal court to allow proceedings to continue in its antitrust case against CoStar, noting that, although the parties agree that similar cases should be consolidated with the Virginia case, the suit need not be frozen in the meantime.

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Roundup

NC Biz Court Bulletin: Referee Tapped, CEO To Be Deposed

By Hayley Fowler

The North Carolina Business Court rounded out May by appointing a discovery referee in a healthcare antitrust class action and ordering the deposition of a top executive in a trade secrets battle, in addition to fielding a new complaint alleging unpaid capital contributions for a captive insurance company.

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4 Mass. Rulings You May Have Missed In May

By Julie Manganis

A bankruptcy trustee may continue to pursue claims that a lender violated an oral amendment to a loan agreement, a former executive for a Dunkin' franchisee cannot push his case to Delaware, and a law firm hired to represent an investment fund is not responsible for the revocation of a visa for one of the fund's co-founders after he was terminated, judges in Suffolk County's Business Litigation Session concluded in May.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week handled disputes involving merger litigation, startup financing battles, cryptocurrency contracts, investor oversight claims and corporate governance challenges, while also issuing notable rulings in cases tied to World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., cybersecurity company KnowBe4 Inc. and biotechnology firm Ayala Pharmaceuticals Inc.

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Justices Turn Away Lebanon Cell Network Challenge

By Caroline Simson

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down a petition asking it to take a second look at a Sixth Circuit decision refusing to revive litigation against Libya over its cellular network tender process, a case that was originally dismissed more than two decades ago on sovereign immunity grounds.

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Md. Judge Pauses Shipowner's Baltimore Bridge Civil Trial

By Linda Chiem

A Maryland federal judge has pressed pause on a civil trial that was expected to start Monday to address sweeping liability and damages claims against the owner and the manager of the cargo carrier that slammed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge and triggered its collapse.

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Texas Ruling Leaves Key Oil Royalty Question Unresolved

The Texas Supreme Court's recent decision in Fasken Oil and Ranch v. Puig clarifies that royalty reservations containing “free of cost forever” language do not bar deduction of post-production costs — but it leaves open whether prices producers report to royalty owners should reflect what unaffiliated buyers would pay, says Robert Foss at Hinds Feat Advisors.

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AI Practices To Protect Trade Secrets Amid Unstable Case Law

Amid recent diverging district court approaches to whether inputting proprietary information into artificial intelligence tools could constitute a failure to take reasonable measures to safeguard secrets, trade secret owners must adapt their confidentiality practices to keep trade secrets secure, says Fitz Collings at MoFo.

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Milbank Raises Associate Pay Scale, Topping Out At $455K

By Kevin Penton

Milbank LLP is increasing associate pay by $10,000 to $20,000 annually, with new salary floors of $235,000 and pay reaching as high as $455,000 for more experienced attorneys, according to the firm.

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BigLaw Could Tap PE Money For Advantage In Talent Wars

By Ryan Boysen

BigLaw firms may soon partner with private equity to gain an edge in the talent wars, potentially reshaping the U.S. legal industry despite fears that the shift could corrode firms' cultures.

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Fox Rothschild Atty Censured Over $2.7M In Unapproved Fees

By Adrian Cruz

A New Jersey-based bankruptcy partner at Fox Rothschild LLP has been censured by the Supreme Court of New Jersey after she was found to have wrongfully disbursed over $2.7 million in fees to her former firms without approval.

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Chicago US Atty Report Denies Grand Jury Misconduct Claim

By Lauraann Wood

The Northern District of Illinois' top prosecutor sought to offer clarity Tuesday surrounding accusations of his possible interference with grand jury proceedings that preceded a criminal conspiracy indictment against six protesters, releasing a special report one defendant's attorney says raises more questions than it answers.

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7th Circ. Fines Deported Migrant's Atty For ChatGPT Misuse

By Emily Sawicki

The Seventh Circuit has rejected a Mexican citizen's petition challenging an immigration court's removal order on the merits, while sanctioning his attorney $5,000 for filing two legal briefs "riddled with" fabricated quotes and case citations hallucinated by ChatGPT.

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Exclusive

Cooley Launches Global Hearings Practice As Scrutiny Rises

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

Cooley LLP has established a global hearings and inquiries practice to help companies prepare comprehensive strategies as they face increased regulatory scrutiny across multiple jurisdictions, the firm exclusively told Law360 on Tuesday.

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Ex-McDermott, Venable Attys Sued Over Estate's $40M Tax Bill

By Dorothy Atkins

The estate of a successful dentist who died in 2017 sued McDermott Will & Schulte LLP, Venable LLP and two attorneys in California state court Monday, alleging they gave negligent legal advice in planning the dentist's estate causing it to owe the IRS $40 million in taxes and penalties.

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Dem AGs Slam Climate Science Removal From Judicial Guide

By Jack Karp

The federal judiciary's decision to strike a chapter on climate change from its guide to scientific evidence is misguided, partisan and "will impede the judiciary's ability to pursue truth," according to a Tuesday letter from nearly two dozen Democratic state attorneys general.

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Bipartisan Bill Would Modernize Court Records Systems

By Matt Perez

U.S. Sens. John Kennedy, R-La., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on Tuesday jointly introduced the Open Courts Act, which they said would modernize the court records systems PACER and CM/ECF.

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Feature

AI Software Contracts Need Careful Review, Attys Are Warned

By Aaron Keller

Attorneys considering adopting artificial intelligence tools must ensure software contracts comply with data privacy laws, and firms should not be afraid to quiz software sales representatives, including by asking how long the software retains data, representatives from two law firms told Connecticut lawyers Tuesday.

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Analysis

Attys Worried Where ICE Will Draw Line In Asylum Crackdown

By Britain Eakin

Immigration attorneys are bracing for heightened scrutiny after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it would crack down on attorneys filing fraudulent asylum claims, expressing fears that the agency could blur the line between fraud and legitimate advocacy.

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DOJ Won't Move Forward With $1.8B Fund, Blanche Confirms

By Courtney Bublé

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers Tuesday, "we're not moving forward" with the controversial $1.8 billion settlement fund.

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Senate Confirms Montana, Kansas Judges

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate confirmed judges Tuesday for Montana and Kansas, one of whom was the first judicial nominee of the second Trump administration to receive a "not qualified" rating from the American Bar Association.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Arias Sanguinetti's Mike Arias

By Joyce Hanson

When she was team captain with a track and field scholarship at the University of Southern California in the 1990s, Nicole Haynes was in good health and rarely had to see a doctor. So when she got a bad stomachache and her friends encouraged her to visit the USC health center, Haynes said she didn't have the right words to explain why her experience with Dr. George Tyndall had felt so invasive and wrong.

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