Atty Gets Prison For Conn. Law Firm Parking Lot Shooting

By Aaron Keller

A onetime Cramer & Anderson LLP partner was sentenced Friday to a seven-year prison term after being convicted of first-degree manslaughter for fatally shooting an attacker in the parking lot of his rural Litchfield, Connecticut, law firm, although his incarceration will be suspended after 2½ years.

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Willkie Atty's Ex-Landlord Says NY Post Leak Wasn't His Idea

By Brian Steele

A Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP partner's onetime landlord asked for a pretrial victory in a federal feud with his former tenants, telling a Connecticut court Friday he did not participate in his ex-attorney's leak of unflattering allegations about A. Mark Getachew and his wife to the New York Post.

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Payment Co. Faces Claims For 'Shockingly Easy' Data Access

By Ryan Harroff

Payment systems company Fiserv Inc. got hit with a data security suit by a credit union that claims its online banking platform is full of security flaws the company has known about for years and that allow "shockingly easy" attacks by cybercriminals.

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Free Speech Shields Rehab From Permit Suit, Court Says

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut drug treatment facility does not have to face claims, including unfair trade practices, lodged by a prospective competitor amid a contentious permit battle, a state appellate panel ruled Friday, finding that the state's anti-SLAPP statute is fatal to the case.

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Aetna Seeks Quick Appeal In $20M Air Ambulance Billing Case

By Aaron Keller

Aetna is seeking an immediate midstream appeal of an order in Connecticut federal court forcing it to face $20 million in emergency billing claims by six air ambulance companies, saying a quick decision could help settle a circuit split and stop copycat cases.

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Judge Questions Trump's Ability To Change Voting Law

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge on Friday questioned assertions by the government that President Donald Trump is authorized by the Constitution's "take care" clause to impose sweeping changes to federal election procedures despite existing statutes.

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Trump Seeks High Court's OK On Education Dept. Job Cuts

By Katie Buehler

The Trump administration has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to lift a Massachusetts federal judge's order halting massive job cuts at the U.S. Department of Education, arguing that the judge's finding that almost 1,400 employees must be reinstated to ensure the department's continued operation "has no basis in reality."

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Roundup

Real Estate Recap: Hotels, Healthcare REITs, Secondaries

By Real Estate Authority Staff

Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including where the hotel sector stands at the midyear, which states are trying to curb healthcare investment models and what is fueling the surge in the real estate secondaries market.

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Proposed State AI Rule Ban Could Alter Employer Compliance

A proposal in the congressional budget bill that would ban state and local enforcement of laws and regulations governing artificial intelligence may offer near-term clarity by freezing conflicting rules, but long-term planning would remain difficult for employers seeking safe, lawful AI deployment strategies, say attorneys at Fisher Phillips.

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How Attorneys Can Become Change Agents For Racial Equity

As the administration targets diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and law firms consider pulling back from their programs, lawyers who care about racial equity and justice can employ four strategies to create microspaces of justice, which can then be parlayed into drivers of transformational change, says Susan Sturm at Columbia Law School.

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WilmerHale Seeks Full Fed Compliance On Struck-Down Order

By Ali Sullivan

WilmerHale is asking a D.C. federal judge to make clear that a ruling invalidating an executive order against the firm applies to all federal agencies subject to President Donald Trump's directives.

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Judge Denies Obstructing ICE As Disciplinary Hearing Begins

By Julie Manganis

An attorney for a Massachusetts state judge, who was accused of plotting to let a man wanted by immigration agents escape out of a back door of a courthouse in 2018, said at the start of a disciplinary inquiry Monday that the judge did not know about the plan, pointing the finger at the wanted man's lawyer.

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Legal Industry Boosts Cuomo's Bid For NYC Mayor With $1.6M

By Anna Sanders

The legal industry has spent at least $1.57 million to support Andrew Cuomo’s candidacy for New York City mayor, with attorneys shelling out thousands to his campaign and an independent committee bolstering his bid.

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Simpson Thacher Mourns Chair, Pioneering Dealmaker Beattie

By Anna Sanders

Richard "Dick" Beattie, the senior chairman of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP whose pioneering deal work helped cement private equity's place in mergers and acquisitions, died on Friday at 86, the firm announced.

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Pro Bono Civil Counsel Not A Guarantee, 7th Circ. Rules

By Emily Sawicki

In a precedential ruling, the Seventh Circuit has found that a federal court in Peoria, Illinois, did not err when it ended the search for a pro bono attorney to represent a prisoner in a civil rights suit over medical care provided behind bars because it could not find willing counsel.

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Senate Confirms Brett Shumate To Head DOJ Civil Division

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 51-41 along party lines on Monday evening to confirm Brett Shumate to be assistant attorney general for the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

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2nd Circ. Affirms Dechert's Victory Over Hacking Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

The Second Circuit on Monday refused to revive a North Carolina trade executive's lawsuit alleging hacking by a private investigator on Dechert LLP's behalf, ruling in a nonprecedential opinion that a district judge's failure to review disputed portions of a magistrate judge's recommendation to dismiss the suit was ultimately harmless.

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Boies Schiller Faces DQ Bid In Law Firms' Battle In Florida

By Madison Arnold

Boies Schiller Flexner LLP and its attorney Sashi C. Bach are facing a disqualification bid in a Florida state court case between pharmaceutical mass tort firms and their former counsel, with the suing firms arguing that Boies Schiller cannot represent its co-defendants because of a conflict.

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Vice Chancellor Wants Clarity On Del. Corporate Law Change

By Jeff Montgomery

Citing "an important and urgent" need, a Delaware vice chancellor has asked the state supreme court to rule on the constitutionality of recent corporate law amendments providing conflicted directors or controlling investors expanded "safe harbor" liability shields for contested actions.

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Speaker Johnson Defends AI Moratorium In Reconciliation Bill

By Courtney Bublé

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., gave a full-throated defense on Monday of the AI moratorium included in the House's version of the budget reconciliation bill, which has drawn bipartisan criticism.

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Fla. Bar Rejects Ethics Probe Of Bondi While She's In Office

By Rose Krebs

The Florida Bar Association has told a group of lawyers, law professors and former judges that it will not open an ethics investigation into Pam Bondi's actions as attorney general, saying in a letter that it doesn't "investigate or prosecute sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office."

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Justices Urged To Keep Pause On 'Breakneck' Gov't Overhaul

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court should leave in place a California federal judge's order barring implementation of layoffs and reorganizations at various federal departments and agencies, several unions and nonprofits argued Monday, claiming a decision allowing the changes would irreversibly harm the federal government and render Congress and the judiciary powerless.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Hagens Berman's Steve W. Berman

By Ryan Boysen

Steve Berman turned 70 recently, and his long career as one of the nation's foremost plaintiffs attorneys is now littered with society-changing milestones and multibillion-dollar courtroom victories. Even so, he hasn't slowed down a wink.

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