The Justice Department goes to trial next week to try breaking up Google's advertising placement technology business after a Virginia federal court declared the company an illegal monopolist in ad tech.
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2025 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

Analysis

DOJ & Google Going To Trial, Again, On Ad Tech Remedies

By Bryan Koenig

The Justice Department goes to trial next week to try breaking up Google's advertising placement technology business after a Virginia federal court declared the company an illegal monopolist in ad tech.

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Analysis

Sky-High AI Valuations Are Reshaping Dealmaking Playbook

By Al Barbarino

The latest financing for Anthropic underscores how difficult it has become to dismiss sky-high valuations backing AI as froth, and shows how such numbers could reshape acquisition and exit strategies while exposing investors to heightened legal and financial risks.

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FTC Sends White House List Of Regulations For Deletion

By Matthew Perlman

The Federal Trade Commission provided the White House with a report on Wednesday recommending that more than 125 regulations from agencies across the federal government be modified or deleted because they create barriers to competition.

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3rd Circ. Urged To Revive NJ Casino Antitrust Pricing Suit

By Carla Baranauckas

Algorithmic collusion by Atlantic City casino hotels, as alleged by their customers, poses a grave threat to consumers as the hotels use software to get around a century's worth of antitrust precedent, the customers' counsel told the Third Circuit on Wednesday, urging the court to revive an antitrust suit.

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NCAA Volunteer Coaches Secure $49M Wage-Fix Settlement

By Elaine Briseño

A California federal court approved a $49 million settlement between the National Collegiate Athletic Association and 1,000 Division I volunteer baseball coaches that resolves an antitrust dispute stemming from a now repealed bylaw that allegedly prevented the coaches from receiving market value wages.

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LITIGATION

3rd Circ. Panel Puzzled By Economics Of NCAA Eligibility

By Matthew Santoni

The introduction of compensation for college athletes may have changed the economic effects of the NCAA's eligibility rules, but a Third Circuit panel wondered Wednesday whether enough analysis on the specific effects had been done to justify suspending one of those rules for a Rutgers University football player.

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Media Matters Again Denied Transfer Of X's Nazi Posts Suit

By Bryan Koenig

Media Matters for America must remain in Texas for X Corp.'s defamation lawsuit over a story about ads running alongside Neo-Nazi content, after a federal judge again refused Tuesday to transfer the case to California following a Fifth Circuit decision nixing a previous rejection of transfer.

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Hermes Gets Birkin Bag Antitrust Claims Tossed For Good

By Matthew Perlman

A California federal court on Wednesday tossed a proposed class action accusing Hermes of unlawfully tying the sale of its iconic Birkin handbag to other expensive items, finding the latest version of the complaint still fell short of making a plausible antitrust claim.

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Shipbuilders Ask Justices To Weigh 4th Circ. No-Poach Ruling

By Tom Lotshaw

Shipbuilders and designers accused of conspiring to suppress industry wages urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Fourth Circuit decision that revived a proposed class action against them, saying the allegedly untimely antitrust claims threaten ruinous damages.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Series

Adapting To Private Practice: From Va. AUSA To Mid-Law

Returning to the firm where I began my career after seven years as an assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia has been complex, nuanced and rewarding, and I’ve learned that the pursuit of justice remains the constant, even as the mindset and client change, says Kristin Johnson at Woods Rogers.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Litigation Spending To Keep Growing As Biz Risks Run High

By Jack Karp

Companies are likely to increase their spending on litigation next year, some by over 10%, as legal disputes become more complex, more contentious and more high-stakes, according to a new report out Thursday.

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Ex-Calif. Judge Gets 35 Years For Shooting Wife To Death

By Gina Kim

Former California state court judge Jeffrey M. Ferguson lost his bid for a new trial Wednesday and was sentenced to 35 years to life in prison for shooting his wife to death at home in a drunken rage, with the presiding judge expressing sympathy for his "extraordinary" son who tried to save his mother's life.

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Feds Want 3 Years For Girardi Son-In-Law's Chicago Contempt

By Lauraann Wood

Tom Girardi's son-in-law should receive a three-year prison sentence for his admitted role in helping the once-celebrated plaintiffs' lawyer steal millions from Lion Air crash victims, federal prosecutors in Chicago argued Wednesday.

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Winston & Strawn Blamed For 'Anti-Woke' Fintech $1.7B Crash

By Lauren Berg

The trustee of bankrupt "anti-woke" financial technology startup GloriFi on Wednesday launched malpractice litigation against Winston & Strawn LLP in Texas bankruptcy court, accusing the firm and one of its managing partners of putting the interests of the company's founder first and costing the business $1.7 billion in valuation.

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7th Circ. Pick Shrugs Off Conservative Group's Opposition

By Courtney Bublé

During her confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Rebecca Taibleson, a federal prosecutor in Wisconsin tapped for the Seventh Circuit, fended off opposition to her nomination from conservative groups, antipathy that the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee called a "new low" for the committee.

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House Votes To End DC Judicial Nominations Commission

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 218-211 along party lines on Wednesday to eliminate the commission that vets and picks potential judicial nominees for Washington, D.C.'s local courts.

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Retired Judges Speak Out On 'Threats' To Constitution

By Courtney Bublé

More than 40 retired federal judges appointed by presidents of both parties released an open letter Wednesday, the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution, saying they sought to underscore the importance of the rule of law at a time when the nation's ideals "are under historic strain."

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Del. Judge's US Atty Application Plan Draws Blanche's Ire

By Lauren Berg

Delaware's chief district judge, a Trump appointee, is seeking applications for the state's U.S. attorney position to prepare for an upcoming vacancy in the interim position, a move that drew the ire of Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche on Wednesday.

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Giuliani Must Pay Attys $1.4M After Missing Bills Claim Fails

By Adrian Cruz

A New York state judge has awarded nearly $1.4 million to Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP in its lawsuit accusing former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani of racking up unpaid legal bills for the firm's work in various criminal, civil and administrative matters.

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Criminal Restitution Fails Defendants, Victims, Report Says

By Brandon Lowrey

Federal criminal restitution often fails to benefit victims of crime and throws defendants into a "Sisyphean struggle" with debt, with $100 billion in outstanding restitution deemed uncollectable, according to a report released this week by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

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SEC Policy Shift Could Foreclose Some Investor Class Actions

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued a policy statement Wednesday that allows the use of mandatory arbitration by new publicly traded companies as its chief seeks to "make IPOs great again," but Democrats warned the move could shut the door to shareholder class actions.

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Ex-Law Student's Bias Suit In Wrong Forum, 4th Circ. Told

By Patrick Hoff

A Black former student at Washington University School of Law shouldn't be able to revive claims that she was suspended from campus and lost her scholarship after complaining about a professor's race bias because she filed the suit in the wrong state, the law school told the Fourth Circuit.

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Trump Could Swing Fed With This 1 Weird Trick: Ex-Fed Gov.

By Jon Hill

A former top Federal Reserve official told Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday that if President Donald Trump succeeds in quickly ousting Fed Gov. Lisa Cook, it could unlock an obscure mechanism for his allies at the Fed to sway future interest-rate decisions.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

A&O Shearman

Benesch

Berger Montague

Blank Rome

Burns Charest

Chapman & Cutler

Cheronis & Parente

Cohen Milstein

Crowell & Moring

Davidoff Hutcher

Edelson PC

Gibson Dunn

Girardi & Keese

Godfrey & Kahn

Greenberg Traurig

Haffner Law PC

Hagens Berman

Handley Farah

Holland & Knight

Jenner & Block

Kirkland & Ellis

Korein Tillery

Latham & Watkins

Lewis Rice

Lite DePalma

Lockridge Grindal

Marino Tortorella

McGuireWoods

Munger Tolles

Nixon Peabody

O'Melveny & Myers

Paul Hastings

Pillsbury Winthrop

Quinn Emanuel

Saul Ewing

Setareh Law Group

Skadden Arps

Susman Godfrey

Troutman

Vartabedian Hester

Wiley Rein

Wilkinson Stekloff

WilmerHale

Winston & Strawn

Woods Rogers

Zuckerman Spaeder

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AT&T Inc.

American Family Association

Anthropic PBC

Apple Inc.

BTI Consulting Group Inc.

Bollinger Shipyards Inc.

CACI International Inc.

CME Group Inc.

Caesars Entertainment Inc.

DuckDuckGo Inc.

Families Against Mandatory Minimums

General Dynamics Corp.

Georgia State University

Google LLC

Hermes International SCA

Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc.

Motorola Mobility LLC

Mozilla Corp.

National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

National Collegiate Athletic Association

OpenAI OpCo LLC

Qatar Investment Authority

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Serco Group PLC

The District of Columbia Bar

Twitter Inc.

X Corp.

Yahoo Inc.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

European Commission

European Union

Executive Office of the President

Federal Election Commission

Federal Reserve System

Federal Trade Commission

New York Supreme Court, New York County

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

U.S. Department of Agriculture

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Transportation

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

US Office of Management and Budget