UVA Strikes Deal To End DOJ's Civil Rights Probes

By Patrick Hoff

The U.S. Department of Justice paused five civil rights investigations into the University of Virginia on Wednesday after the school agreed to follow discrimination guidance the DOJ issued in July for federal funding recipients that looked to rein in diversity, equity and inclusion programs and discourage transgender athletes.

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Analysis

Fintechs, Banks Clash Over Open Banking Rule Revisions

By Aislinn Keely

Trade groups representing banks and fintechs clashed in comment letters over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's plans to revise its data-sharing mandate, as banks urged the agency to scrap much of the earlier rule for favoring fintechs, while the tech upstarts argued many of the provisions remain necessary to bust banks' allegedly anticompetitive behavior.

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OCC Drops $10M Fine, Ban In Wells Fargo Ex-Exec Deal

By Jon Hill

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has agreed to end a long-running case accusing a former Wells Fargo risk officer of failing to prevent the bank's fake accounts scandal, striking a deal that drops its pursuit of a $10 million fine and industry ban.

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'The Right Facts' Can Reduce Cos.' Tariff Impacts, Atty Says

By Molly Moses

Multinational companies with U.S. distributors that typically bear fewer business risks and earn low profit margins may be able to mitigate the effect of U.S. tariffs on their business as a whole by having a foreign principal bear the tariff costs, an attorney said Wednesday.

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Presidential Firing Limits Fight Builds At High Court

By Katie Buehler

The ousted U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board chair has encouraged the U.S. Supreme Court to include a caveat for "legislative courts" if it overturns precedent that empowers Congress to limit the president's authority to fire certain agency officials, but opponents of independent agencies want a clean break from the status quo. 

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State AGs Push Back In First Amendment Subpoena Fight

By Hannah Albarazi

A coalition of state attorneys general is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to safeguard their fundamental investigative authority, warning in an amicus brief filed Tuesday that a New Jersey anti-abortion center's challenge could allow subpoenaed entities to routinely bypass state courts and tie up enforcement actions in federal litigation.

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UBS Urges Justices Not To Revive Retaliation Case Again

By Katryna Perera

UBS Securities is urging the U.S. Supreme Court not to revive, for a second time, a fired worker's whistleblower retaliation lawsuit, arguing that lower courts should be allowed to consider questions about jury instructions regarding the meaning of "contributing factor" in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act before the high court weighs in.

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Brief

Ex-Mars Candy Exec Must Forfeit Accounts After $28M Fraud

By Aaron Keller

A former Mars Inc. risk executive who pled guilty to a $28.4 million wire fraud and tax evasion scheme must forfeit eight personal financial accounts subject to third-party objections within 30 days, according to a preliminary order signed by a Connecticut federal judge.

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Experian Can't Slash CFPB Suit Over Tolling Deal 'Mistake'

By Katryna Perera

A California federal judge on Wednesday refused to toss part of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau suit against Experian's U.S. operating subsidiary, saying the credit bureau's statute-of-limitations defense "defies logic" to suggest Experian Information Solutions wasn't bound by a tolling deal its own lawyers helped negotiate.

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Trump Admin Battles DC Circ. Rehearing Bid In CFPB Case

By Jon Hill

The Trump administration has urged the full D.C. Circuit to keep in place a split panel's ruling that would allow mass layoffs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, dismissing a union-led bid for full-court review as one that's built on a misguided "straw man" attack.

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Banks Want Ill. Fee Law Block Extended To Card Networks

By Celeste Bott

Banking industry groups urged an Illinois federal judge Wednesday to permanently block an Illinois law that bans swipe fees on tax and tip portions of payment card transactions, arguing she has already correctly held that national banks are federally preempted from its reach, and that the court should extend that relief to card networks and others involved in the payment process.

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FINRA Hits Barclays With $150K Fine For IPO Work

By Jessica Corso

Barclays Capital Inc. has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle accusations that it violated the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's conflict of interest rules when serving as an underwriter on a $700 million initial public offering.

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EDGAR Filer Worker Cops To Insider Trading Conspiracy

By Emilie Ruscoe

A former employee of a company that handles U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings for public companies has pled guilty to insider trading in connection with federal prosecutors' charges he used nonpublic information to buy up shares of issuers poised to announce positive news.

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Investor Advocates Criticize SEC's New Arbitration Stance

By Jessica Corso

Two investor advocacy groups are speaking out against a recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission decision to allow some newly public companies to adopt mandatory arbitration clauses, arguing that the move undermines shareholder rights and could make the U.S. a less attractive place to invest.

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Crypto Exchange Fined $126.4M For AML Violations In Canada

By Sydney Price

A Canadian financial regulator on Wednesday ordered crypto exchange Cryptomus to pay a 177 million Canadian dollar ($126.4 million) penalty to resolve anti-money laundering compliance claims, many of which concern transactions connected to sex trafficking and fraud.

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NHL Embraces Prediction Market With Kalshi, Polymarket Deals

By Elaine Briseño

The National Hockey League on Wednesday announced it had entered "landmark" multiyear agreements with Polymarket and Kalshi following a recent surge in the popularity of prediction market platforms, which have also faced several recent legal challenges.

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Energy Secretary Urges EU To Rethink Sustainability Rules

By Keith Goldberg

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday urged European leaders to scrap, or at least revise, proposed European Union corporate sustainability rules, claiming they will hamper exports of liquefied natural gas to the continent.

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Trump Flouted Clean Air Act With Rule Delay, Enviro Orgs. Say

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

President Donald Trump violated the Clean Air Act when he delayed deadlines to comply with air pollution standards for companies in the chemical manufacturing industry, green groups alleged in Washington federal court Wednesday.

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Ex-Conn. School Buildings Official Convicted Of Corruption

By Aaron Keller

A federal jury on Wednesday convicted Connecticut's former school construction director on corruption charges, agreeing with prosecutors that Konstantinos "Kosta" Diamantis accepted bribes, committed extortion and lied to both the FBI and the IRS about payments he admitted accepting from two construction firms.

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Ed Dept. Must Face States' Case Over Mental Health Grants

By Rachel Riley

A Seattle federal judge declined to throw out a lawsuit accusing the U.S. Department of Education of illegally discontinuing grants for student mental health programming, recognizing that Washington and other states have valid claims that the move will cut them off from money meant for reducing violence in schools.

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NIH Sued For Access To Research On Trans Youth Care

By Gianna Ferrarin

A conservative government watchdog group sued the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday seeking access to data from a multiyear study on the impact of gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender youth.

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Hi-Tech Pharma Fraud Charges Just A 'Paper Case,' Jury Told

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia-based dietary supplement outfit and its longtime CEO urged a Peach State jury Wednesday to acquit them of charges that they forged regulatory documents and slipped prescription drugs into their pills, deriding the federal charges against them as "regulation by prosecution."

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States Back Boston Hospital In Fight Over Trans Care Records

By Chris Villani

A group of states backed a Boston hospital in its bid to block the Trump administration from accessing transgender care records, warning a federal judge that allowing the government's request could expose a wide variety of doctors to criminal charges.

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NJ Justices To Review Judicial Privacy Law For 3rd Circ. Case

By Jake Maher

The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to a request from the Third Circuit to interpret whether the judicial privacy measure Daniel's Law requires a certain mental state in order to establish liability.

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Novo Nordisk Paid Patient Benefits, Not Bribes, Jury Hears

By Ben Adlin

Novo Nordisk Inc. paid benefits to patients with a rare form of hemophilia and not bribes as a group of plaintiffs in an alleged kickback scheme have claimed, a Washington jury was told Wednesday during emotional testimony on the third day of a multiweek trial.

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Texas Book Rating Law Struck Down As Unconstitutional

By Rae Ann Varona

A Texas federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Texas law aimed at regulating the types of books available at public school libraries still "misses the mark" on achieving its goal and is unconstitutional for a number of reasons, including forcing booksellers to take on the state government's preferred messages.

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Bankers Ask FCC To Further Delay Call Consent Rule To 2027

By Gina Kim

Financial service providers Monday pushed for the Federal Communications Commission to extend by a year the April 2026 deadline to implement a "revoke-all" rule making it easier to opt out of robotexts and calls while the agency reconsiders it, warning they could waste resources to comply if the rule is changed or modified.

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Broadcast Distributors Decry Blackout Of Nexstar Stations

By Nadia Dreid

Nexstar Media Group is coming under fire for using a looming blackout as "deal leverage" in negotiations with Verizon that will decide how much the TV station titan will receive in exchange for letting Verizon retransmit Nexstar's channels.

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Gutting Broadband Labels Erodes Consumer Trust, FCC Told

By Christopher Cole

A pro-consumer group is warning that reducing the data disclosed on broadband "nutrition" labels will undermine consumer trust about the online services they're receiving.

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Tax Court Judge Warns Against Unchecked AI Use In Filings

By Kat Lucero

A U.S. Tax Court judge cautioned attorneys Wednesday against relying on artificial intelligence to write filings without verifying the information it generates, saying recent "unfortunate incidents" have prompted the court to double down on accuracy in using such tools.

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Baker Donelson Hires CFPB Veteran In DC

By Jack Rodgers

Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC has hired for its Washington, D.C., team a 12-year veteran of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who brings more than two decades of legal experience working on financial services matters.

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New Mass. 'Junk Fee' Regs Will Be Felt Across Industries

The reach of a newly effective regulation prohibiting so-called junk fees and deceptive pricing in Massachusetts will be widespread across industries, which should prompt businesses to take note of new advertising, pricing information and negative option requirements, say attorneys at Hinshaw.

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SEC's No-Action Relief Could Dramatically Alter Retail Voting

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently cleared the way for ExxonMobil to institute a novel change in retail shareholder voting that could greatly increase voter turnout, granting no-action relief that represents an effective and meaningful step toward modernizing the shareholder voting process and the much-needed democratization of retail investors, say attorneys at Cozen.

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SDNY OpenAI Order Clarifies Preservation Standards For AI

The Southern District of New York’s recent order in the OpenAI copyright infringement litigation, denying discovery of The New York Times' artificial intelligence technology use, clarifies that traditional preservation benchmarks apply to AI content, relieving organizations from using a “keep everything” approach, says Philip Favro at Favro Law.

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Personnel File Access Laws Pose New Risks For Employers

The state law trend toward expanding employee access to personnel files can have extensive consequences for employers, but companies can take proactive steps to avoid disputes and potential litigation based on such records, says Randi May at Tannenbaum Helpern.

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The Law360 Pulse Prestige Leaders: A Look At The Top Firms

By Rachel Reimer and Xiumei Dong

Clients flock to firms with prestigious reputations, and so does top talent. Here's a peek at the top 10 firms in this year's Law360 Pulse Prestige Leaders — a ranking of law firms the industry recognizes for their prominence, power and distinction.

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Racial, Class Gaps Persist In Strong Year For Law Grad Hiring

By Xiumei Dong

Employment for the class of 2024 reached near-record levels, but graduates from underrepresented backgrounds were less likely to secure attorney positions or judicial clerkships, according to newly released data from the National Association for Law Placement.

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Analysis

Ex-NY AGs Say James Case Will Rally Office: 'Fuel To The Fire'

By Phillip Bantz

New York Attorney General Letitia James' criminal prosecution is unlikely to have any significant effect on the day-to-day operations of her office, including its suits against the federal government and an appeal in President Donald Trump's nearly $500 million civil fraud case, but former leaders of the office say it could strengthen the resolve of her staff.

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5th Circ. Judge Oldham Repudiates 'Holy Rule' For Precedents

By Jeff Overley

The Fifth Circuit's bedrock principle of strictly following even the most "extreme outlier judgments" of circuit panels is "deeply inconsistent with the federal judicial function," U.S. Circuit Judge Andrew S. Oldham said Wednesday night at a high-profile Heritage Foundation event.

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Former Jack Smith DOJ Leaders Launch DC Boutique

By Daniel Connolly

Two attorneys who supported former special counsel Jack Smith in his criminal prosecutions of Donald Trump have now launched a boutique law firm that will specialize in services such as criminal defense and helping state and local governments handle public corruption investigations.

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Gilstrap, Albright Flouting Venue Law, Fed. Circ. Told

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Circuit is being asked to step in and decide if two well-known Texas federal judges, U.S. District Judges Rodney Gilstrap and Alan Albright, have been flouting patent venue law by refusing to transfer out infringement cases if any step of the patented method was performed in their section of the Lone Star State.

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Baker McKenzie Partner Hired Security In Dispute With Ex-Atty

By Alison Knezevich

The managing partner of Baker McKenzie's Washington, D.C., office told a Maryland state judge Wednesday that he has had to employ a protective detail because of harassment and threats from a former firm associate who he says falsely accused him of sexual assault.

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Analysis

Farmers' Ohio Deal Is Latest Amid Banking M&A Surge

By Al Barbarino

Farmers National Banc Corp. said Wednesday it has agreed to purchase Middlefield Banc Corp. for $299 million, amid a record-breaking run for banking deals that experts tell Law360 is being fueled by more favorable regulatory dynamics and years of pent-up demand. 

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Holland & Hart Partner Confirmed To Montana Seat

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Senate voted 52-45, along party lines, Wednesday evening on the confirmation of William Mercer, a Holland & Hart LLP partner and veteran government attorney, to the District of Montana.

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La. Justice Faces Questions On Campaigns At Nom Hearing

By Courtney Bublé

Two nominees for Louisiana federal court positions appeared before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, including a state Supreme Court justice who faced Democratic questions about the election process for his current role.

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Kirkland Partner, Ex-Sen. Cornyn Counsel Tapped For US Atty

By Lynn LaRowe

A Dallas-based Kirkland & Ellis LLP litigation partner who previously served as U.S. Sen. John Cornyn's chief counsel has been nominated as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

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Brief

Squires Confirms USPTO Has Funds To Last The Year

By Theresa Schliep

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has enough funds to last through the year in the event that the government shutdown continues, Director John Squires told agency personnel on Wednesday.

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