Google Says Latest EU Probe Attacks Anti-Spam Efforts

By Matthew Perlman

Google said on Thursday that a new investigation launched by European enforcers into the tech giant's compliance with recently enacted rules for digital markets targets a practice designed to keep spam from infiltrating search results.

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Analysis

As Backlogged SEC Reopens, Attys Jostle To 'Get In Line'

By Jessica Corso

Thousands of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission employees who were sent home last month finally returned to their offices Thursday, and experts say it will likely take at least a month for them to catch up with a backlog of casework and submissions for initial public offerings.

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Analysis

Clean Energy Cos. Tap Private Cash To Beat Tax Credit Clock

By Keith Goldberg

Clean energy developers are increasingly looking to privately held investors to ensure they can do enough work to keep their projects fully eligible for tax credits that start phasing out next year, energy development attorneys told Law360.

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Ex-FCC Members Say Carr's Abusing News Distortion Policy

By Nadia Dreid

Nearly a dozen former Federal Communications Commission officials — including seven once-commissioners — told the agency that it ought to repeal its news distortion policy "in full," accusing the head of the FCC of using the policy to police speech.

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FCC Looks To Avoid 'Red Flag' Reg Hurdles In Space

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission says it envisions a framework for the fast-growing space industry that rejects heavy-handed regulations, which a top official on Thursday likened to British 19th-century "red flag laws" putting the brakes on the early auto industry.

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Chancery Presses Fox, Investors To End Discovery Fight

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court pressed Fox Corp. and a coalition of public pension plaintiffs Thursday to break a stalemate over the scope of summary judgment discovery, signaling neither side will be allowed to bottleneck the consequential inquiry into director Jacques Nasser's independence from Fox founder Rupert Murdoch.

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Trump To Pardon UK Billionaire Lewis For Insider Trading

By Dorothy Atkins

President Donald Trump has agreed to pardon 88-year-old British billionaire Joseph Lewis, who was sentenced to three years of probation for feeding nonpublic stock tips to his girlfriend and private-jet pilots.

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Wells Fargo Must Face Mortgage Borrowers' Fee Claims

By Emilie Ruscoe

Wells Fargo can't shed a proposed class action alleging it improperly charged mortgage borrowers certain fees and failed to properly remediate the issue, according to a ruling by a San Francisco federal judge, which also trimmed some claims.

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BofA Double-Charges Autopay Users Who Pay Early, Suit Says

By Gina Kim

Bank of America does not adjust automatic payments on credit cards when customers pay off their statement balance in the middle of a billing cycle and ends up charging them a second time, despite there being no outstanding balance, according to a proposed class action filed Tuesday in Illinois federal court.

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SEC's Northeast Deputy Enforcement Head To Depart Agency

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday that the deputy director of the enforcement division for the Northeast will leave the agency, following stints as the regional director of the New York office and acting deputy director of the enforcement division.

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Bank Regulators Preview Timelines For Planned Fintech Rules

By Aislinn Keely

Federal banking regulators say they're focused on executing their fintech rulemaking agendas in the coming months, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. planning to circulate a stablecoin licensing regime by year's end and the Federal Reserve intending to provide fintechs easier access to its payment rails by the close of next year.

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OCC Must Deny Sony Bank's Crypto Charter Bid, Critics Say

By Jon Hill

Banking and community interest groups are urging the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to reject Sony Bank's bid to charter a cryptocurrency-focused offshoot, warning it could exceed the agency's authority and risk skirting longstanding banking system safeguards.

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Davis Polk, Skadden Guide Grayscale IPO Filing

By Grace Dixon

Digital currency investment platform Grayscale Investments Inc. indicated plans for an initial public offering in a November securities filing prepared by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.

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Coinbase Counsel's DExit Letter Triggers Class Atty Pushback

By Jeff Montgomery

A Grant & Eisenhofer PA principal has challenged Coinbase Global Inc.'s continued limiting of public disclosures in a Delaware Court of Chancery suit alleging insider trading ahead of a stock plunge, after the company told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday it will recharter in Texas.

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Robinhood Can't Block Hypothetical Mass. Gaming Liability

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge on Thursday refused to preemptively shield Robinhood against hypothetical enforcement actions based on the financial platform's role in offering access to prediction market KalshiEX.

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Brief

Feds Launch Interagency Crypto Scam Task Force

By Nadia Dreid

The FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice and D.C. federal prosecutors have teamed up to launch a task force that will focus on cryptocurrency scams the government says originate from criminal networks in Southeast Asia and bilk millions out of their digital currency each year.

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EV Makers Tell 1st Circ. Fuel Economy Rule Freeze Unlawful

By Linda Chiem

A coalition of electric vehicle manufacturers and suppliers told the First Circuit that the Trump administration has created a regulatory vacuum by refusing to enforce existing vehicle fuel economy standards, jeopardizing more than $100 million in compliance credits that are essential to the EV industry.

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Chemours Urges 4th Circ. To Lift River Pollution Injunction

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

The Chemours Co. FC LLC on Wednesday asked the Fourth Circuit to strike down an injunction blocking the company from continuing to discharge forever chemicals into the Ohio River.

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Mich. Fundraising Pro Must Face Ballot Campaign Charges

By Carolyn Muyskens

A fundraising and political consultant on Wednesday lost an appeal to quash criminal charges related to an alleged "dark money scheme" to obscure the backers of a Michigan ballot campaign.

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Fed Frees SocGen, ICBC From 2018 Enforcement Orders

By Sarah Jarvis

The Federal Reserve said Thursday it has lifted a pair of 2018 consent orders against Société Générale SA and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, ending long-running enforcement actions tied to alleged sanctions violations at the former and alleged anti-money-laundering deficiencies at the latter.

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'Gray Market' Indian Snack Imports Get Temporarily Banned

By Ben Adlin

Indian snack food maker Haldiram's won a federal court order temporarily banning a food supplier in Washington state from importing or distributing its branded products over claims that the supplier repackaged and sold food not meant for sale in the U.S.

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Presidential Firing Limits Needed At FERC, Justices Told

By Keith Goldberg

Former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission members on Thursday told the U.S. Supreme Court that overturning limits on the president's authority to fire certain agency officials could undermine FERC's independent oversight of the electricity and gas industries and harm companies and consumers.

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FTC Fails To Block Doctors' Testimony In $945M Merger Case

By Bryan Koenig

A D.C. federal judge refused Thursday to bar a pair of outside doctors and consultants from vouching for Edwards Lifesciences Corp.'s planned JenaValve Technology Inc. acquisition, preferring to let the Federal Trade Commission contest their testimony in cross-examination and saying from the bench that he'll "make some popcorn."

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2nd Circ. Upholds NY's Ban On Selling Diet Pills To Minors

By Dorothy Atkins

The Second Circuit on Thursday rejected a trade group's bid to block a New York law that bars companies from selling weight loss and muscle-building supplements to minors, finding the group likely won't win its First Amendment challenges and retailers' "speculative predictions" of lost sales aren't enough to show irreparable harm.

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Ohio Lawmakers OK Property Tax Valuation Process Changes

By Zak Kostro

Ohio would make changes to its process for adjusting proposed property values for tax purposes under a bill unanimously approved by state lawmakers and headed to Gov. Mike DeWine.

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Trump Org. Pushes DC Circ. To Back IRS Leaker's Sentence

By Anna Scott Farrell

President Donald Trump's private business organization said it opposes any reduction to the five-year prison sentence of the former IRS contractor who leaked Trump's tax returns and thousands of others, telling the D.C. Circuit the leaker has been shown enough leniency.

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Analysis

Hemp Policy At Crossroads After Government Reopening Bill

By Sam Reisman

Hemp industry advocates are pledging to use the one-year gap between enactment and implementation of the government funding agreement, which effectively recriminalized most hemp-derived THC products, to craft new regulatory legislation that stops short of a full ban.

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How Nasdaq, SEC Proposals May Transform Listing Standards

Both Nasdaq and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have increasingly focused their recent regulatory efforts on small and foreign issuers, particularly those from China, reflecting an intention to strengthen the overall quality of companies accessing U.S. markets, but also potentially introducing a chilling effect on certain issuers, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

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Legal Guardrails For AI Tools In The Hiring Process

Although artificial intelligence can help close the gaps that bad actors exploit in modern recruiting, its precision also makes it subject to tighter scrutiny, meaning new regulatory regimes should be top of mind for U.S.-centric employers exploring fraud-focused AI-enabled tools, say attorneys at Ogletree.

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New NCAA Betting Policy Fits Trend Of Eased Restrictions

Allowing NCAA student-athletes to bet on professional sports fits into a decade-long trend of treating college athletes more like adults in a commercial system, but decreasing player restrictions translates to increased compliance burdens for schools, say attorneys at Robins Kaplan.

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Wash. Email Subject Line Ruling Puts Retailers On The Hook

The Washington state Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Old Navy, finding that a state law prohibits misleading email subject lines, has opened the door to nationwide copycat litigation, introducing potential exposure measured not in thousands, but in millions or even billions of dollars for retailers, say attorneys at Benesch.

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Defeating Estoppel-Based Claims In Legal Malpractice Actions

State supreme court cases from recent years have addressed whether positions taken by attorneys in an underlying lawsuit can be used against them in a subsequent legal malpractice action, providing a foundation to defeat ex-clients’ estoppel claims, says Christopher Blazejewski at Sherin and Lodgen.

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Series

Building With Lego Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Building with Lego has taught me to follow directions and adapt to unexpected challenges, and in pairing discipline with imagination, allows me to stay grounded while finding new ways to make complex deals come together, says Paul Levin at Venable.

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New California Bar Leader Aims To Rebuild Public Trust

By Tracey Read

After less than two weeks on the job, Laura Enderton-Speed, the California State Bar's new executive director, is already busy working to strengthen trust in the organization following the botched administration of the February bar exam.

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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 Freeths face a professional negligence claim from a Scottish car dealership, Rolls-Royce sue logistics giant Kuehne + Nagel, and a team of Oberon Investments Group investment managers sued by their former employer.  

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Experts say it will likely take at least a month for the thousands of SEC employees now back to work after the government shutdown to catch up with submissions for initial public offerings. Meanwhile, clean energy developers are increasingly looking to privately held investors amid a race to beat a July 2026 cutoff to maintain eligibility for clean electricity investment and production tax credits. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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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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Buchalter Won't Be Sanctioned For 'Hallucinated' AI Citations

By Rose Krebs

An Oregon federal judge has decided not to sanction Buchalter PC and other counsel representing an environmental nonprofit in a trademark infringement dispute for submitting "hallucinated" case citations generated by an artificial intelligence tool, saying he is satisfied with "remedial actions" already done or to be taken.

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King & Spalding, Atty Move To End Bias Suit At 4th Circ.

By Grace Elletson

King & Spalding LLP and an attorney who complained that she didn't apply to a summer associate program as a straight, white woman because the firm sought diverse applicants have agreed to end her bias case, according to a filing in the Fourth Circuit.

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Manning Kass Hit With Age Bias Suit In Calif.

By Christine DeRosa

Manning & Kass Ellrod Ramirez Trester LLP is facing an age bias lawsuit in California state court alleging a firm leader has made ageist comments at employees over 40 and is trying to drive those workers out of the firm.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Sidley Austin LLP and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a Washington federal jury cleared Novo Nordisk of allegations that it defrauded the state's Medicaid and Medicare systems by paying kickbacks and promoting off-label use to illegally boost prescriptions of its hemophilia drug NovoSeven.

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Non-Attys Could Help Close Georgia's Civil Justice Gap

By Emily Johnson

Low-income Georgians and rural Georgians face several barriers to accessing legal services, including living in a legal desert, according to a Georgia Supreme Court committee’s report. The panel's proposal allowing "limited licensed legal practitioners" to assist with civil housing and consumer debt matters could improve access to justice across the state.

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House Eyes Vote To Repeal Provision On Senators' Lawsuits

By Courtney Bublé

A House bill to repeal a controversial provision tucked into the government funding package that would allow senators investigated by former special counsel Jack Smith to sue for damages is listed for possible consideration on the schedule for the week of Nov. 17.

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Northern NY US Atty To Defend DOJ In Maurene Comey Suit

By Jack Karp

The U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of New York has agreed to defend the U.S. Department of Justice against a lawsuit from former FBI Director James Comey's daughter over what she calls her illegal firing, that office informed a New York federal judge this week.

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DOJ Official Among Trump Picks For District Courts

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced judicial nominees for federal courts in Tennessee, Indiana and Missouri on Friday, including a current U.S. Department of Justice official.

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Frequent DEI Foe Takes Aim At Mich. Law Firm's Scholarships

By Madison Arnold

American Alliance for Equal Rights, a group known for challenging diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships, has set its sights on Michigan personal injury firm Buckfire & Buckfire PC for alleged discrimination via the firm's scholarship programs for minorities.

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NC, Utah Attorneys General Launch Nationwide AI Task Force

By Matt Perez

Democratic North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Republican Utah Attorney General Derek Brown have announced the formation of a nationwide artificial intelligence task force in collaboration with developers OpenAI and Microsoft, as well as the Attorney General Alliance, a nonprofit group of bipartisan state attorneys general.

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How To Kill A Person: A Legal Battle Over Execution Methods

By Marco Poggio

As botched executions pile up and states reach for untested methods like nitrogen hypoxia, prisoners are turning to the courts for a say in how they will die — and are being met with a legal framework stacked against finding execution methods unconstitutional.

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Perkins Coie Sued By Omani Co. Over Trade Case Defense

By Rachel Riley

An Omani screw manufacturer has launched a legal malpractice suit in Washington state court accusing Perkins Coie LLP of a "series of deadly mistakes" while representing the Middle Eastern company in a U.S. Department of Commerce probe, allegedly leading to steep penalties and tariffs that cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars.

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Analysis

Feds' Use Of AI In Permitting, Rulemaking Raises Concerns

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

Federal government agencies with environmental responsibilities have begun using artificial intelligence tools, but attorneys say information about exactly why, how and when they are being used has been hard to get, leading to uncertainty about their effectiveness and shortcomings.

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'Constitutional Word Salad': Judge Rips Suit Over Mascot Ban

By Bonnie Eslinger

A New York federal court judge denied a Long Island school district's bid to amend claims in a lawsuit challenging the state's ban on Indigenous mascots, calling proposed changes a "constitutional word salad," but said a district parent could add First Amendment claims to the litigation.

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