DOJ Outline Of New Fraud Role Doesn't Mention WH Oversight

By Courtney Bublé

A U.S. Department of Justice official explained the parameters of the new role of assistant attorney general for fraud in a recent letter to Congress, obtained Wednesday by Law360, but did not mention the individual will be overseen by the White House, as the vice president previously said.

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5th Circ. Leans Toward Vacating Airline Fees Disclosure Rule

By Spencer Brewer

The full Fifth Circuit wanted to know Wednesday why it shouldn't just do away with a Biden-era rule requiring airlines to more clearly disclose add-on fees upfront, saying that the government seemed to be arguing that the court should just vacate the rule.

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Justices Wary Of Greenlighting Trump Bid To Fire Fed's Cook

By Jon Hill

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared reluctant to let President Donald Trump immediately oust Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook, with multiple justices expressing doubts about administration claims of broad presidential removal power over the central bank.

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Holmes Seeks Trump Clemency For Theranos Fraud Sentence

By Rae Ann Varona

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes has asked President Donald Trump to commute an 11-year prison sentence she's been serving for defrauding investors with bogus blood-testing technology, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney.

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EXp Brass Can't Shake Claims It Ignored Sexual Misconduct

By Sarah Jarvis

The Delaware Chancery Court has allowed the bulk of a shareholder lawsuit against eXp World Holdings Inc. to proceed, saying it is reasonable to infer the real estate brokerage's board "effectively did nothing" in response to red flags about widespread allegations of drugging, rape and sexual assault.

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AI Recruiting Co. Eightfold Sued Over Job Applicant 'Dossiers'

By Dorothy Atkins

Job applicants have hit Eightfold AI with a proposed class action in California court, alleging the artificial intelligence company's business model violates longstanding consumer protection statutes by using "opaque" closely guarded AI algorithms to scrape personal data and generate "dossiers" on job applicants for major employers without applicants' knowledge or consent.

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Jefferies Steered Feds To $200M Water Ponzi Case, Judge Told

By Pete Brush

Two men charged in connection with an allegedly massive water-vending Ponzi scheme were investigated after counsel for investment giant Jefferies — one defendant's former employer — walked the case into the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office, a federal judge heard Wednesday.

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Ex-TD Bank Worker Cops To Taking Money Laundering Bribes

By Katryna Perera

A former New Jersey-based TD Bank NA employee pled guilty on Wednesday to accepting bribes and leveraging his position to facilitate the movement of over $26 million to Colombia through TD Bank accounts.

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FINRA Says Firm Broke Reg BI By Not Spotting Risky Trading

By Sydney Price

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has accused a broker-dealer and its ex-CEO of violating Regulation Best Interest by failing to identify suspicious, excessive trading in a customer account by a representative of the firm, causing the client $1.2 million in losses.

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SEC Wins $9.7M In Cemtrex Fraud Case After 2nd Circ. Remand

By Katryna Perera

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has secured a $9.7 million judgment against the founder of an industrial manufacturer who allegedly diverted over $7.3 million of investor funds from his company to his private accounts, after the Second Circuit vacated the previous disgorgement award and remanded the case.

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NJ Firm Must Face Full SEC Suit Over Investment Allocations

By Katryna Perera

A New Jersey federal judge allowed all claims of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suit against a Garden State financial firm and its founder to proceed, finding Wednesday the regulator has adequately pleaded scheme liability, knowledge of wrongdoing and other counts.

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Senate Agriculture Unveils Crypto Bill Without Dem Backing

By Aislinn Keely

The chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee released the text of a proposal to expand the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's authority over crypto Wednesday evening, despite failing to reach a bipartisan agreement on the text ahead of a markup slated for next week.

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Robinhood Warns Of Gambling Suit 'Threat' After Kalshi Loss

By Jessica Corso

Trading platform Robinhood is once again calling for a federal judge to block Massachusetts from taking enforcement action against it for allegedly offering access to sports betting, saying it faces a "a real and imminent threat" of prosecution given the state's victory against another prediction markets firm Tuesday.

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US Says Utah Tribe Lacks Injury Claim In $16M Clean Air Deal

By Crystal Owens

The federal government is asking the Tenth Circuit to deny the Ute Tribe's appeal to overturn a lower court's denial of its intervention to challenge a $16 million Clean Air Act consent decree, arguing that the Utah Indigenous nation can't identify any cognizable injury.

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Businesses Seek OK On $436M Toyota Forklift Emissions Deal

By Mike Curley

A proposed class of businesses is asking a California federal court to give the go-ahead on a $436 million settlement with Toyota Industries Corp. and its material handling affiliates in a suit that alleged the company misled them on their forklift and construction engine emissions.

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Schwab Nixed From DOL Enforcement Suit Against Other Firm

By Katryna Perera

A Pennsylvania federal judge on Wednesday dismissed two Schwab companies from a U.S. Department of Labor enforcement case, finding the financial services providers' participation was no longer needed in the agency's dispute against another firm.

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Feds Oppose Bail For Conn. Oil Trader During FCPA Appeal

By Aaron Keller

Federal prosecutors are fighting an oil trader's bid for freedom while he appeals a 15-month Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prison sentence, arguing the trader should begin serving time by Feb. 9 because his jury conviction probably won't be reversed.

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4th Circ. Says Judge Wrongly Blocked Trump Grant Freeze

By Keith Goldberg

The Fourth Circuit on Wednesday wiped out a federal district judge's order restoring 32 congressionally funded grants frozen by the Trump administration, saying it's a contractual matter for the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to decide.

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Feds Say Medicare Steering Case Meets FCA Legal Bar

By Julie Manganis

The government said Wednesday that its False Claims Act complaint accusing insurers and brokers of participating in a kickback scheme to steer customers to Medicare Advantage plans doesn't conflict with a First Circuit decision last year setting out the standard for such cases.  

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Brief

Texas AG Launches Investigation Into Vaccine Incentives

By Spencer Brewer

The Texas attorney general launched what it characterized as a sweeping, multi-industry investigation into financial incentives for medical providers to recommend childhood vaccines, saying providers regularly dish out vaccines that "are not proven to be safe or necessary."

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FTC Mulling Deal With Express Scripts In PBM Case

By Matthew Perlman

The Federal Trade Commission is considering a potential settlement with Express Scripts in the agency's case accusing the country's three largest pharmacy benefit managers of inflating insulin prices through rebate schemes.

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CVS, UnitedHealth, Express Scripts Duck PBM Antitrust Suit

By Lauren Berg

A Missouri federal judge has thrown out a proposed class action accusing the country's three largest pharmacy benefit managers — owned by CVS, UnitedHealth Group and Cigna Group — of inflating prescription costs through their rebating practices.

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Analysis

FTC Must 'Scale A Slick Wall' To Revive Meta Suit

By Bryan Koenig

The Federal Trade Commission set itself up for a tough fight to overturn a D.C. federal judge's rejection of its lawsuit accusing Meta of monopolizing personal social media through its purchases of WhatsApp and Instagram.

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Midwives Challenge Miss. Practice Limits In Antitrust Suit

By Gianna Ferrarin

The American College of Nurse-Midwives launched a suit seeking to permanently block Mississippi rules requiring certified nurse-midwives to obtain collaboration agreements with physicians, arguing the rules unlawfully restrict competition and exacerbate public health challenges in the state.

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Feds Back Freight Broker In High Court Negligence Case

By Linda Chiem

The federal government urged the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday to hold that federal law unequivocally shields freight brokers from state-based negligence and personal injury claims, throwing its support behind broker and logistics giant C.H. Robinson in a closely watched case.

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FCC Warns Shows To Follow Political 'Equal Opportunity' Reg

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission cautioned TV broadcasters Wednesday that no exemption has been found that would let talk shows get around the agency's political equal opportunity rules.

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3rd Circ. Questions Mushroom Farmer's Tax Bill Accounting

By Matthew Santoni

A Third Circuit panel appeared skeptical Wednesday of a woman's bid to reduce her prison term for tax violations connected to her family's mushroom farm, with judges suggesting that different swaths of taxes she failed to pay the government could be grouped together as "relevant conduct" under federal sentencing guidelines.

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Morgan Lewis Adds Crypto-Focused Investment Atty

By James Boyle

An attorney specializing in advising companies on cryptocurrency matters and derivatives transactions has moved his practice recently to Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP's Pittsburgh office after more than two years with Blank Rome LLP.

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How SEC Civil Penalties Became Arbitrary: The Framework

An examination of how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has recently applied guidelines governing the imposition of monetary penalties in enforcement actions shows that civil penalty awards in many cases are inconsistent with the rules established to structure them, say David Slovick at Kopecky Schumacher and Phil Lieberman at Vanderbilt Law.

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OCC's New Fee Clearance Shows Further Ease Around Crypto

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's recent holding that banks can use crypto-assets to pay certain blockchain network fees shows that the OCC is further warming to the idea that organizations are using new methods to do "the very old business of banking," say attorneys at Jones Day.

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FDA's 2025 Enforcement Scorecard Highlights Data Focus

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's increased enforcement activity in 2025 was driven by artificial intelligence and a focus on foreign manufacturers, necessitating proactive compliance strategies for an environment that is increasingly reliant on data, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

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How A 1947 Tugboat Ruling May Shape Work Product In AI Era

Rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence test work-product principles first articulated in the U.S. Supreme Court’s nearly 80-year-old Hickman v. Taylor decision, as courts and ethics bodies confront whether disclosure of attorneys’ AI prompts and outputs would reveal their thought processes, say Larry Silver and Sasha Burton at Langsam Stevens.

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Analysis

Nonprofits, Not BigLaw, Lead Legal Challenges To Trump

By Jack Karp

Public interest groups are handling a majority of the lawsuits filed against the second Trump administration, while most large firms remain on the sidelines, according to a review by Law360 of more than 400 lawsuits filed in the first year of Trump's second term.  

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Ballard Partners Led In Lobbying Earnings As Trump Returned

By Alison Knezevich

Ballard Partners more than quadrupled its annual federal lobbying revenue in 2025 amid President Donald Trump's return to office, surpassing the law firm policy practices that have led K Street in recent years.

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Former SG Prelogar Joins Cooley Team On Trump EO Appeal

By Alison Knezevich

Former Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar has joined the legal team representing Jenner & Block LLP in its fight with President Donald Trump's administration over his executive order targeting the BigLaw firm, according to a new court filing.

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Lawyer Testifies Goldstein Dodged $500K Poker Repayment

By Jared Foretek

A former employee at Thomas Goldstein's law firm recounted in court Wednesday that a U.S. Internal Revenue Service levy was placed on the SCOTUSblog founder's accounts, while a lawyer at another firm said Goldstein dodged repaying him for money invested in his poker-playing exploits.

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House Speaker Johnson Supports Impeachment Of Judges

By Courtney Bublé

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Wednesday threw his support behind efforts to impeach federal judges in Washington, D.C., and Maryland.

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NYC Indigent Defense Program In 'Crisis,' Task Force Reports

By Andrea Keckley

The New York City Assigned Counsel Plan, which provides lawyers to indigent people in criminal and family courts who can't be served by institutional legal service providers, is "in a state of crisis," a New York City Bar task force said in an interim report released Wednesday.

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7th Circ. Cautions Pro Se Litigants To Avoid AI-Induced Errors

By Celeste Bott

The Seventh Circuit offered guidance to litigants using artificial intelligence while representing themselves in a ruling remanding a pro se plaintiff's civil rights case Wednesday, saying that AI has "great promise" for those who can't afford legal counsel, but that it doesn't abdicate them of their duty to avoid misrepresentations in court filings.

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