Opt-Out 'Oversight' May Not Excuse Burford In Price-Fix Deal

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge considering a $32 million price-fixing settlement between turkey producer Cargill and a group of direct purchasers seemed skeptical Wednesday of two Burford Capitol subsidiaries' assertion that they should be considered excluded from the deal despite submitting their opt-out request a day late.

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Tenn. School Sues Vet Group Over Accreditation Rules

By Matthew Perlman

Lincoln Memorial University filed a lawsuit in Tennessee federal court on Wednesday accusing a trade association for veterinarians of restricting competition for veterinary schools and vet services with burdensome accreditation requirements.

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DC Judge Delves Into Facts Of Long-Running Price-Fix MDL

By Nadia Dreid

A D.C. federal judge spent four hours Wednesday morning trying to sort out the facts in sprawling, long-running multidistrict litigation accusing the country's four largest railroad companies of fixing fuel surcharge prices, so that she can tackle summary judgment.

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Judge Skeptical That Assa Abloy Needn't Extend Supply Deal

By Bryan Koenig

A D.C. federal judge suggested Tuesday that Assa Abloy faces an uphill fight resisting efforts by its divestiture buyer to extend a supply agreement inked as part of an asset sale deal resolving a U.S. Department of Justice merger lawsuit.

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Nurse Staffing Exec Can't Nix Conviction, Sanctions Floated

By Matthew Perlman

A Nevada federal court has refused a nurse staffing executive's bid to undo his conviction on wage-fixing and wire fraud charges, and threatened his attorneys with sanctions for allegedly making repeated misrepresentations to the court.

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Ex-Drug Exec Must Testify, But Keeps 5th Amendment Rights

By Bryan Koenig

Sandoz, Teva, Actavis and Taro can again subpoena the deposition testimony of a former Actavis and Teva executive, but a Pennsylvania federal judge is still allowing the witness to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, even though the Justice Department dropped the criminal charges against him.

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Brief

Senate Adds Full 5-Year Term For New FCC Commissioner

By Christopher Cole

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Olivia Trusty, a newly added member of the Federal Communications Commission, to serve another five years in addition to the term ending June 30 that lawmakers had approved the day before.

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PE Firm's £570M Buy Of Tech Biz Clears US Antitrust Check

By Dawood Fakhir

U.S. private equity firm TA Associates said Wednesday that the U.S. antitrust authorities have not objected to its approximately £570 million ($756 million) cash acquisition of British tech businesses FD Technologies PLC.

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DOJ Defends Using Written Depos In HPE-Juniper Merger Trial

By Jared Foretek

The U.S. Department of Justice is defending its proposal to include written deposition testimony into the record for its upcoming antitrust trial against Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks, saying that playing depositions live would waste crucial time in what is scheduled to be an eight-day trial.

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Nippon, US Steel Officially Close Deal, Backed By 5 Law Firms

By Al Barbarino

Nippon Steel has officially closed its purchase of U.S. Steel, the companies announced Wednesday, forming a global steelmaking partnership backed by $11 billion in planned U.S. investments and a national security agreement with the federal government.

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Colo. Judge Trims REIT's Antitrust MDL Coverage Dispute

By Hope Patti

A Colorado federal court trimmed a real estate investment trust's suit seeking coverage for antitrust multidistrict litigation, saying the trust's statutory bad faith claim under Colorado law could not proceed because of a New York choice-of-law provision in its primary policy.

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NC Panel Rejects HCA Unit's Appeal Over Rival Project Award

By Gianna Ferrarin

A North Carolina appeals court on Wednesday rejected an HCA Healthcare subsidiary's challenge to an award of a certificate of need allowing a rival to build a new acute care facility, backing a decision in favor of the state health department behind the award.

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Judge Warns Overeager Samsung, ZTE Attys Not To Bug Staff

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge has issued a short, stern warning to counsel in Samsung's antitrust fight against ZTE over its standard essential patents' licensing practices, telling counsel not to contact court staff again about the status of their pending stipulation and noting "future improper communications to court staff may result in sanctions."

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FTC, Amazon Trade Blows Over Attempts To End Prime Case

By Rachel Riley

The Federal Trade Commission and Amazon have slammed one another in federal court filings over their competing bids to win regulators' case targeting Prime subscription enrollment practices, continuing to spar over the applicability of a consumer protection law shielding online shoppers.

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NY Exterminator Says Its 'Black Widow' TM Is 'Incontestable'

By Aaron Keller

A downstate New York pest exterminator on Wednesday urged a Connecticut federal judge to rule that a Constitution State competitor infringed its logo and confused customers, arguing it owns "valid, incontestable" trademarks that have been in use since 2003.

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Brief

Tesla Says Justices Shouldn't Wait On La. Auto Sales Law

By Nadia Dreid

Tesla is asking the U.S. Supreme Court not to push off considering Louisiana regulators' petition seeking to appeal the revival of a lawsuit brought by the electric-car maker targeting the state's ban on direct sales by automakers, even though the state has asked the justices to wait.

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Brief

Tenn. Basketball Player Taking Extra Season Bid To 6th Circ.

By David Steele

College basketball player Zakai Zeigler will take his attempt to play a fifth season at the University of Tennessee to the Sixth Circuit, after filing a notice on Wednesday appealing a Tennessee federal judge's denial of a temporary injunction against the NCAA and its "four-season" eligibility rule.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Teaching Yourself Legal Tech

New graduates often enter practice unfamiliar with even basic professional software, but budding lawyers can use on-the-job opportunities to both catch up on technological skills and explore the advanced legal and artificial intelligence tools that will open doors, says Alyssa Sones at Sheppard Mullin.

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'Absolutely Disgusting': Litigant's Stashed Gum Irks Judge

By Hailey Konnath

A Florida federal judge admonished a plaintiff for sticking her chewed gum to a courtroom table, leading to a federal prosecutor getting the gum stuck to her skirt later, calling it "absolutely disgusting" and saying he "never dreamed" he would have to "write an order like this."

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9th Circ. Backs 'Legitimate' Bar Membership Admission Rules

By Lauren Berg

The Ninth Circuit on Friday tossed a challenge to local rules in district courts in the circuit requiring lawyers to be bar members in the state where the court is located in order to seek general admission, saying admission rules aren't unconstitutional and there are several "legitimate reasons" for the rule.

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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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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton and Andrea Keckley

WilmerHale leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Federal Circuit vacated a $300 million patent infringement jury verdict against Apple, based on instructions by a Texas federal judge that the appellate court panel determined to be erroneous.

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Feature

Current And Former GCs Urge Law Grads To 'Rise Up'

By Michele Gorman

From sharing details about being part of the first class of female graduates at Washington and Lee University School of Law to explaining how a middle-school teaching job led to obtaining a law degree, five commencement speakers — all current or former general counsel — recently shared their wisdom for the next generation of attorneys.

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Trump Taps Atty Dropped By Biden For Eastern Ky. Fed. Court

By Ali Sullivan

President Donald Trump has announced plans to nominate former Kentucky Solicitor General Chad Meredith to serve as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

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NJ Court Greenlights Beasley Allen Attys In Talc Litigation

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state judge will allow two Beasley Allen Law Firm attorneys to represent a California couple in their suit accusing Johnson & Johnson of selling carcinogenic talc-based baby powder and appear pro hac vice despite the company's vehement opposition.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

A new report showed a dip in the average size of corporate legal teams over the last year, and an attorney focused on special purpose acquisition companies is predicting the Trump administration's friendly stance on cryptocurrency will spawn a wave of new cryptocurrency-related ventures going public in the coming months. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Attys Face Sanctions For 'Sweeping' Copying Of Firm's Motion

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge has ordered The Neil Jones Food Co.'s defense counsel to explain why she shouldn't sanction them for filing a dismissal motion that appears to plagiarize a losing motion filed by another firm in another case in the district, slamming the "sweeping copy and paste" conduct as "patently unacceptable."

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen Pogust Goodhead face legal action from mining giant BHP Group, Trainline bring a procurement claim against the Department for Transport, Sworders auction house sue Conservative peer Patricia Rawlings, and Nokia hit with a patents claim by Hisense. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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