FTC Warns 42 Law Firms Of DEI 'Anticompetitive Collusion'

By Sarah Jarvis

The Federal Trade Commission announced Friday that it has sent warning letters to 42 major law firms for their purported participation in an outside diversity, equity and inclusion program, alleging their participation could constitute anticompetitive collusion.

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$2.7B Material Handling Tech Deal OK'd With DOJ Sales

By Bryan Koenig

Columbus McKinnon Corp. will have to sell its power chain hoist and chains businesses under a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice permitting the company's $2.7 billion purchase of Kito Crosby Ltd. from KKR-managed funds.

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FTC Requires Facility Sales For $835M Healthcare Deal

By Matthew Perlman

The Federal Trade Commission reached an agreement Friday allowing Sevita Health to move ahead with an $835 million deal for BrightSpring Health Services Inc.'s community living business, conditioned on the sale of more than 100 facilities.

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DOJ Requires Divestitures For Reddy Ice-Arctic Glacier Tie-Up

By Jared Foretek

The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division is forcing Reddy Ice to divest assets in five geographic areas in order to win approval for a $126 million acquisition of competitor Arctic Glacier.

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'Inferential Leap' Kills Academic Researchers' Conspiracy Suit

By Bryan Koenig

A New York federal judge took a proposed class of academic researchers to task Friday, permanently dismissing their lawsuit accusing six of academia's largest journal publishers of colluding to stifle their leverage and eliminate pay for peer review work, finding that the publishers' rules being contested do nothing of the sort.

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2026 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2026 editorial advisory boards.

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Kroger, Albertsons Look To Block FTC Testimony Handover

By Cara Salvatore

Grocery giants Albertsons and Kroger asked a California federal judge to protect sensitive expert testimony that helped the Federal Trade Commission torpedo their planned merger in 2024, which a new FTC target said is urgently needed to show that the regulator is creating contradictory market analyses.

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UP, Norfolk Southern Rip Rival BNSF's Merger Docs Demands

By Linda Chiem

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern have accused rival railroad BNSF Railway of trying to delay the regulatory review for their proposed $85 billion mega-merger by demanding that they share thousands more documents, emails and other operational details in what they called a "fishing expedition."

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Live Nation Plaintiff States Fight Plan To Stay Antitrust Claims

By Ben Adlin

Nearly three dozen states accusing Live Nation of stifling competition in the live entertainment industry urged a New York federal judge not to pause their state-law claims in order to focus on federal law, arguing that handling all claims at once "will be the most efficient approach."

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Drugmakers Ask To Appeal Overarching Conspiracy Claim

By Lauren Berg

A group of pharmaceutical companies that failed to secure a pretrial win on an overarching conspiracy claim in a sprawling generic-drug antitrust enforcement action is asking a Connecticut federal judge to let them seek Second Circuit review, saying the ruling raises a novel legal issue.

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OpenAI Challenges X's Deposition Bid In Antitrust Case

By José Luis Martínez

OpenAI said one of its former executives shouldn't be deposed in an antitrust case brought by X Corp. regarding ChatGPT integration on Apple devices, saying he had nothing to do with the deal.

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Fanatics, Leagues Want Out Of Card Buyers' Antitrust Suit

By David Steele

Trading card customers accusing Fanatics of manipulating the market through its exclusive deals with the major sports leagues make premature and implausible conclusions, the collectibles giant told a New York federal judge in its bid to dismiss the suit.

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Drug Cos. Want Rethink Of DQ Bid Targeting Ex-Prosecutor  

By Aaron Keller

More than two dozen pharmaceutical companies accused of fixing generic-drug prices have again asked a Pennsylvania federal judge to disqualify a former Connecticut assistant attorney general now in private practice from representing insurers Humana Inc. and Molina Healthcare Inc. in a sprawling multidistrict litigation proceeding.

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Snoop Dogg's Ice Cream Co. Wants To Mediate 'Swizzle' Claim

By Brian Steele

The rapper Snoop Dogg's ice cream company and multiple Edible Arrangements entities have asked a Connecticut federal court to send their trademark dispute over use of the word "Swizzle" to a magistrate judge for mediation and pause all deadlines in the case until that process is complete.

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US Rebukes WTO Siding With China On Energy Tax Credits

By Dylan Moroses

The U.S. Trade Representative condemned the World Trade Organization's decision to side with China in a dispute over energy tax credits passed during former President Joe Biden's term Friday, calling the global body's dispute resolution mechanism inadequate.

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FTC Taps Goodwin Atty For Consumer Protection Deputy Role

By Emilie Ruscoe

A veteran of Goodwin Procter LLP has been tapped to serve as deputy director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, the regulator announced.

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Viewing The Merger Landscape Through An HPE-Juniper Lens

If considerations beyond antitrust law were taken into account to determine whether Section 7 of the Clayton Act was violated in the Hewlett Packard Enterprise-Juniper Networks deal, then legal practitioners advocating deal clearance may now have to argue that deals should be justified by considerations not set forth in the merger guidelines, says Matthew Cantor of Shinder Cantor.

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Aviation Watch: Busy Skies, Tough Market For Airlines In 2026

After a turbulent year in the U.S. commercial aviation sector, demand for air travel and premium service shows no signs of slackening in 2026, with airlines facing the need to compete in a saturated market, while seeking opportunities for consolidation and pursuing other avenues to profitability, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.

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Aerospace And Defense Law: Trends To Follow In 2026

Some of the key 2026 developments to watch in aerospace and defense contracting law stem from provisions of this year's National Defense Authorization Act, a push to reform procurement, executive orders that announced Trump administration priorities, the upcoming Artemis space mission and continuing efforts to deploy artificial intelligence, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

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4 Quick Emotional Resets For Lawyers With Conflict Fatigue

Though the emotional wear and tear of legal work can trap attorneys in conflict fatigue — leaving them unable to shake off tense interactions or return to a calm baseline — simple therapeutic techniques for resetting the nervous system can help break the cycle, says Chantel Cohen at CWC Coaching & Therapy.

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Paul Weiss Chair's Emails To Epstein Include Apollo Info

By Aebra Coe

Files released by the Department of Justice over the weekend belonging to the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein show a yearslong relationship between Epstein and Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp, which included dinners, phone calls and meetings, as well as communication related to Paul Weiss client Apollo Global Management.

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Ex-Goldstein Employee Claims Accountants Made Mistakes

By Jared Foretek

Defense attorneys for SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein presented evidence Monday that his firm's tax accountants made serious mistakes in tax filings for Goldstein's wife, Amy Howe, in 2021.

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6th Circ. Clears Judge Boasberg In DOJ Ethics Complaint

By Courtney Bublé

The complaint the U.S. Department of Justice filed against Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia has been dismissed.

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Fenwick Reaches Deal In FTX Crypto Scam Suit

By Madison Arnold

Fenwick & West LLP and victims of the infamous FTX Trading Ltd. cryptocurrency scam are working toward a settlement in a case over the firm's alleged role in the trading platform's collapse.

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NYC Bar Opinion Warns Attys On Use Of AI Recording Tools

Attorneys who use artificial intelligence tools to record, transcribe and summarize conversations with clients should heed the New York City Bar Association’s recent opinion addressing the legal and ethical risks posed by such tools, and follow several best practices to avoid violating the Rules of Professional Conduct, say attorneys at Smith Gambrell.

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Watchdog Renews Halligan Bar Complaint After Court Rulings

By Emily Sawicki

The nonprofit Campaign for Accountability on Monday once again launched a bar complaint against former interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan in Virginia, after the Virginia State Bar declined to pursue an ethics investigation against the attorney last year, calling it a matter for the courts to determine.

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Brief

Judiciary Open As Usual Until Thursday Despite Shutdown

By Courtney Bublé

The federal judiciary has enough funding to sustain normal operations until Thursday, following the partial government shutdown that started at midnight on Saturday.

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DOJ Defends NJ US Atty Office Funding Amid Scrutiny

By Matthew Santoni

Defending the three-person leadership structure of New Jersey's federal prosecution operations since the departure of Alina Habba, an administrator told a federal court that two of the attorneys running the office are paid through the office's budget and the third is funded through the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

U.S. enforcers reached three new merger settlements, while the Federal Trade Commission successfully blocked a $945 million heart valve deal and lodged an appeal for its case targeting Meta's past acquisitions.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jeff Montgomery

A pair of new high-dollar suits in Delaware's Court of Chancery showed last week that post-deal stock appraisal suits still have legs, despite some efforts to reduce potential from deal-price gains challenges. The week ended with Delaware's justices nipping $100 million from the attorney fees owed by Tesla founder Elon Musk from $176.2 million to roughly $70.9 million, rejecting part of a Court of Chancery fee calculation.

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The Top In-House Hires Of January

By Sue Reisinger

Legal department hires over the first month of 2026 included high-profile appointments at SiriusXM, at a host of West Coast tech companies including Microsoft and Meta, and at Black & Decker. Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from January.

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