Maryland Judge Keeps Kids' Privacy Law Challenge

By Jared Foretek

NetChoice's challenge to Maryland's "Kids Code" law regulating online privacy protections for children survived the state's motion to dismiss, after a Maryland federal judge Monday said the trade association had made sufficient claims that the law burdens protected speech.

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John Deere Rival Can't Appeal Info Safeguards In FTC Case

By Lauraann Wood

A Deere & Co. competitor looking to shield confidential information it produced for a U.S. Federal Trade Commission right-to-repair investigation from related multidistrict litigation targeting Deere cannot tap the Seventh Circuit to resolve legal questions surrounding its failed protective order request, an Illinois federal judge said.

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Live Nation Trims But Can't Shake Off Taylor Swift Fans' Suit

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge has tossed for good negligence and fraud claims from a lawsuit by hundreds of Taylor Swift fans who allege Live Nation Entertainment Inc. and Ticketmaster LLC's anticompetitive conduct caused the Eras tour ticket sale "disaster," but kept alive breach of contract and antitrust claims.

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NRDC Tells 9th Circ. EPA Would 'Neuter' Public TSCA Rights

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

The Natural Resources Defense Council has asked the Ninth Circuit to reject the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's narrow reading of citizen enforcement rights under the Toxic Substances Control Act, saying it would unfairly restrict challenges to agency inaction.

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Tenn. Judge OKs $141M In RealPage Landlord Settlements

By Isaac Monterose

A Tennessee federal judge has preliminarily approved $141.8 million worth of class settlements for antitrust claims lodged against landlords that allegedly used RealPage Inc.'s revenue management software to fix rent prices for residential properties.

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6th Circ. Largely Shoots Down Ohio Derailment Atty Fee Fight

By Rae Ann Varona

The Sixth Circuit on Tuesday largely refused to revive Morgan & Morgan's bid to halt the allocation of attorney fees from a $600 million class settlement between Norfolk Southern and residents affected by the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment disaster, but remanded it for a look into the firm's individual allocation amount.

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Ford Offered 'Paltry' Refund Over Missing Feature, Suit Says

By Gina Kim

Ford admitted it misrepresented that some of its F-150 Lightning trucks have a forward sensing system that helps drivers avoid hitting objects while parking, but will only offer a "paltry $100 refund" for those misrepresentations, alleges a proposed class action filed Tuesday in California federal court.

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Va. Jails Warn Site Commission Ban Could Curtail Services

By Christopher Cole

Regional jails in Virginia are concerned that a renewed plan to prohibit site commissions from prison phone call providers will eat into the facilities' revenue stream and lead to a reduction in services for incarcerated people.

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Brief

MoonPay Secures NY Trust Charter For Crypto Custody

By Aislinn Keely

Cryptocurrency firm MoonPay announced Tuesday that New York State Department of Financial Services has given it the green light to provide crypto custody and over-the-counter trading services as a New York limited purpose trust company.

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Circus, Bank Of America Agree To Wrap Up Online Theft Suit

By Kelcey Caulder

An Atlanta-based circus company and Bank of America have struck a tentative deal to end a lawsuit claiming the financial services giant let online thieves siphon off more than $4.8 million of the circus' funds, according to a filing in Georgia federal court. 

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Oil Giants Sued Over Climate-Linked Rise In Insurance Costs

By Ben Adlin

The fossil fuel industry spent decades pushing a coordinated disinformation campaign to conceal its central role in climate change, saddling homeowners with a multibillion-dollar increase in insurance costs as disasters grew more frequent and severe, according to a proposed class action filed Tuesday in Washington federal court.

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Nev. Judge Denies Robinhood's Bid To Shield Event Contracts

By Aislinn Keely

A Nevada federal judge declined to bar the state's gaming regulators from taking action over Robinhood's sports wagers for now in a Tuesday order that marked U.S. District Judge Andrew P. Gordon's second refusal to shield an event contract offering despite previously granting the relief to Kalshi.

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DOJ Fights Bid To Nix Agri Stats Antitrust Case Ahead Of Trial

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Department of Justice told a Minnesota federal court that Agri Stats has been helping chicken, pork and turkey producers exchange sensitive information for decades, as government enforcers opposed the company's bid to end their information-sharing case ahead of trial.

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Chancery Won't Block Sale In 'War Dogs' Figure Loan Dispute

By Jarek Rutz

A Delaware Chancery judge declined to allow a real estate investor to lift a disputed second mortgage blocking the sale of a distressed Oklahoma apartment complex in a dispute with a hard-money lender the investor says is run by the convicted fraudster whose story was dramatized in the movie "War Dogs."

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Former Fox Exec Says Philly Station Complaint Still Valid

By Christopher Cole

A former Fox media executive has called on the Federal Communications Commission to revive the Media and Democracy Project's complaint against Fox TV's Philadelphia station, saying it differs from recently debated "news distortion" complaints against major networks.

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LendingTree's QuoteWizard Unit Hit With Telemarketing Suit

By Gina Kim

Lending Tree's insurance comparison subsidiary QuoteWizard.com LLC violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by placing unsolicited prerecorded telemarketing calls to people's phones without first getting their express consent, according to a proposed class action filed Monday in North Carolina federal court.

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FTC, Ticket Resellers Look To Toss Dueling BOTS Act Cases

By Matthew Perlman

Ticket brokers have asked to toss the Federal Trade Commission's case accusing them of bypassing Ticketmaster limits to buy and resell hundreds of thousands of concert tickets, while the commission asked to nix a preemptive case seeking to block the enforcement action.

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Kaiser Cleared To Pay $46M For Sharing Data With Tech Cos.

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge granted preliminary approval Tuesday to a settlement of at least $46 million from three Kaiser Permanente entities to resolve claims by 13.1 million patients across the country who say it disclosed their information to Google, Microsoft, Twitter and other third parties without consent.

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Binance Faces New Terror Funding Suit From Oct. 7 Victims

By Aislinn Keely

More than 300 survivors and family members of those harmed in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel are suing cryptocurrency exchange Binance and its leadership for "knowingly, willfully, and systematically" assisting the groups that planned the attacks by concealing the movement of $1 billion.

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11th Circ. Lets Fla. Enforce Social Media Law Amid Appeal

By Hailey Konnath

A split Eleventh Circuit panel on Tuesday allowed Florida to enforce its law banning children 13 and under from social media while the Sunshine State appeals a lower court's injunction, ruling that Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is likely to succeed in his argument that the law is constitutional.

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Yardi Looks To Calif. Win In Wash. Rent-Fixing Suit

By Grace Dixon

Yardi Systems Inc. told a Washington federal court that source code it turned over confirms that its revenue management software doesn't rely on confidential competitor data, echoing defenses that led to one of the first defeats of algorithmic rent-setting antitrust suits.

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Baby Vaseline Not Hypoallergenic As Claimed, Suit Says

By Mike Curley

Buyers of Vaseline petroleum jelly are suing the maker in New Jersey federal court, saying the "hypoallergenic" product's fragrance chemicals are allergens.

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AG Watch: Ohio's Prediction Market Preemption Battle

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is playing a significant part in two cases involving Kalshi before the Third Circuit and the Southern District of Ohio, the latest in a growing string of court battles regarding which regulations govern prediction markets that will have notable consequences on sports gambling nationwide, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

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What Developers Must Know About PJM Grid Connection Plan

As PJM Interconnection, the nation's largest grid operator, reforms its interconnection process in an effort to accelerate capacity expansion amid surging demand, developers interested in PJM's new expedited track should anticipate significant up-front costs, and plan carefully to minimize delays that could jeopardize project completion, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

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Considerations When Invoking The Common-Interest Privilege

To successfully leverage the common-interest doctrine in a multiparty transaction or complex litigation, practitioners should be able to demonstrate that the parties intended for it to apply, that an underlying privilege like attorney-client has attached, and guard against disclosures that could waive privilege and defeat its purpose, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

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Bonus Spotlight

Magic Circle Firms Enchant Associates With Top-Tier Bonuses

By Tracey Read

U.S. associates at Linklaters LLP and Clifford Chance LLP have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season, as the Magic Circle firms Wednesday became the latest to match the BigLaw standard for this year's associate bonuses.

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Analysis

After Big Win For 2 Trump Foes, A Third Faces 'Tougher Job'

By Phillip Bantz

The recent dismissal of federal criminal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey does little to help President Donald Trump's ex-national security adviser John Bolton, whose defense in a classified-materials case presents a thornier set of legal and factual issues, experts say.

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Roundup

Up Next At High Court: ISP Liability & State Subpoena Suits

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will return Monday for the first week of its December oral argument session, during which the justices will consider whether internet service providers can be held liable for contributing to their customers' infringing activity online and whether the subjects of state subpoenas are required to first challenge them in state court. 

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Interview

For Covington's Adrian Perry, Music Is A Family Affair

By Theresa Schliep

Despite having a famous rock star dad, Covington & Burling LLP partner Adrian J. Perry wasn't all that interested in being a musician as a young child, but he knew as early as 6 years old that he wanted to be a lawyer.

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Analysis

Calif. Privacy Agency Gaining Steam Ahead Of 5th Anniversary

By Allison Grande

California's data privacy regulator has taken several notable steps in recent months, including handing down its first penalty upward of $1 million dollars and finalizing long-awaited rules on topics such as cybersecurity audits and technologies that use artificial intelligence, and the groundbreaking agency shows no signs of slowing down as its fifth anniversary approaches. 

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Split 6th Circ. Shields Baker Donelson, Not City Councilman

By Matt Perez

In a published opinion, the Sixth Circuit has found that Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC is shielded by qualified immunity as outside counsel for the city of Nashville in litigation over the law firm's firing of a city election commission chair and member of the firm.

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Foley & Lardner Hit With Malpractice Suit Over Chancery Loss

By Rose Krebs

Foley & Lardner LLP has been sued in Delaware Superior Court by three officers of a now-defunct food recycling company who say the firm was negligent when representing them in a Chancery Court case that led to a $1.6 million judgment against them and another officer.

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DOJ Asks Court If It Can Release Epstein Files Under New Law

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking a New York federal court's permission to publicly release the files related to the investigation of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, clarifying Wednesday that it wants to release search warrant results, travel and financial records, police reports, and other materials.

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Keesal Young Poaching Suit Against Stradley Ronon Trimmed

By Madison Arnold

A California state judge cleared Keesal Young & Logan to pursue most of its lawsuit alleging Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young crossed the line when it recruited 10 former Keesal Young attorneys, finding that claims such as inducing breach of contract could move forward, in part, because of conversations among the attorneys.

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DOJ Says Ex-Employees Can't Challenge Firings In Fed. Court

By Rose Krebs

The government says a D.C. federal court lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate a lawsuit filed by a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and two other ex-Department of Justice employees, alleging they were unlawfully fired.

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Hub Hires: Todd & Weld, Freshfields, Shipman

By Julie Manganis

It was a busy November in Boston's legal community as another firm expanded into the market, and a longtime judge traded his gavel for the ability to address his growing concerns about the Trump administration.

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