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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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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Anthropic Judge Rips Opt-Out Law Firm As 'Quick Buck' Ploy

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge on Thursday blasted Arizona law firm ClaimsHero Holdings LLC for encouraging authors to opt out of Anthropic PBC's $1.5 billion deal to end copyright infringement claims, saying it looks like the firm is "trying to trick people" for a "quick buck."

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Analysis

High Court's Tariff Ruling May Trigger Refunds, Reimposition

By Dylan Moroses

Importers are being advised to prepare for potential refunds in the event the U.S. Supreme Court rules President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs are unlawful, leaving questions about how a refund process might play out and whether the duties would be reimposed.

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Apple, OpenAI Can't Yet Nix XAI Antitrust Suit, Judge Says

By Rae Ann Varona

A Texas federal judge on Thursday denied Apple and OpenAI's requests to toss an antitrust lawsuit that Elon Musk's xAI lodged to target a deal that integrated ChatGPT into the iPhone operating system, but suggested that resolving the suit without a jury trial may be the way to go.

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Rumble Cites Judge's Longtime Friendship With Google VP

By Bryan Koenig

Rumble asked a California federal judge to consider recusal should the Ninth Circuit revive its antitrust lawsuit against Google, citing a yearslong friendship with Google's top in-house litigation chief that involved the judge officiating at her wedding and their ongoing participation in a fantasy football league.

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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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Brief

WIPO Survey Finds Increased Trust In IP Systems

By Elliot Weld

The World Intellectual Property Organization released a survey finding increased trust and awareness in intellectual property systems.

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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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Red Bull Faces EU Probe Over Market Abuse Allegations

By Ronan Barnard

The European Commission said Thursday that it had opened an antitrust probe into Red Bull GmbH, saying the energy drink giant may have abused its dominance over the market by trying to stop competing drinks from being sold at retailers.

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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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Google Sues Cybercriminals Over Global Phishing Scams

By Joyce Hanson

Google has sued foreign cybercriminals behind phishing scams that claim to represent the U.S. Postal Service and the New York City government's website, among others, accusing them of texting millions of Americans phony messages that lure them into providing their payment information and other personal data.

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BofA, BNY Slam 'Razor-Thin' Epstein Enabling Claims

By Lauren Berg

Bank of America and the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. urged a Manhattan federal judge Thursday to toss lawsuits accusing them of enabling Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking enterprise and failing to timely report the late sex offender's suspicious transactions, saying "razor-thin allegations" don't connect the institutions to the crimes.

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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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EngageSmart Deal 'Screams' Disclosure Failures, Atty Says

By Jeff Montgomery

The record surrounding payment venture EngageSmart Inc.'s $4 billion take-private sale to affiliates of Vista Equity Partners LLC "screams" transparency shortfalls on the part of company directors and others, an attorney for stockholders who challenged the deal in Delaware's Court of Chancery told a vice chancellor on Thursday.

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J&J Bellwether Trial Over Talc Cancer Risks Kicks Off In LA

By Craig Clough

An attorney for one of two women who claim Johnson & Johnson's talcum products caused their ovarian cancer told a Los Angeles jury Thursday during opening statements in a bellwether trial that decades-old internal documents prove J&J knew its talc products contained toxic levels of asbestos but hid that information.

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Contract 'Mystifies' Judge Weighing Ammo Tech Secrets Suit

By Abigail Harrison

A North Carolina Business Court judge appeared mildly vexed at the terms of an employment contract underpinning an ammunition technology trade secrets suit, acknowledging in a Thursday hearing that "it's not the best worded contract in the history of the world."

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3rd Circ. Says Quest Didn't Eavesdrop In Data Privacy Suit

By P.J. D'Annunzio

The Third Circuit on Thursday upheld a win for Quest Diagnostics, which beat a class action alleging it inappropriately shared patient data with Meta Platforms through ad tracking software on its website, with the court reasoning that information was not unlawfully collected because it wasn't obtained through eavesdropping.

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Inequitable Conduct Dooms 5 Packaging Patents, Judge Rules

By Ryan Davis

A Massachusetts federal judge determined Thursday that five Inline Plastics Corp. food packaging patents asserted against Lacerta Group Inc. are unenforceable due to inequitable conduct because Inline omitted information about joint inventors when applying for the patents.

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Wachtell-Led Pfizer Closes Metsera Deal Worth Up To $10B

By Al Barbarino

Pfizer Inc. said Thursday that it has successfully completed its acquisition of Metsera Inc., securing the obesity drug developer after a tumultuous bidding war with Novo Nordisk and court fights that redirected the deal in Pfizer's favor.

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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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Del. US Atty Tapped For Acting Role After Interim Term Expires

By Jake Maher

Delaware's former interim U.S. attorney has been appointed acting U.S. attorney after the district court declined to keep her as the top federal prosecutor in the First State when her term expired.

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Advent GC Returns To Ropes & Gray To Co-Lead PCT Practice

By Andrea Keckley

Ropes & Gray LLP announced Thursday that an attorney who left its ranks a few years ago for private equity firm Advent International Corp. is set to return to the firm at the beginning of December as the co-leader of its global private capital transactions practice.

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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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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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Revisiting Jury Trial Right May Upend State Regulatory Power

Justice Neil Gorsuch’s recent use of a denial of certiorari to call for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit whether the Seventh Amendment jury trial right extends to states, building off last year's Jarkesy ruling, could foretell a profound change in state regulators' ability to enforce penalties against regulated companies, say attorneys at Sidley.

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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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Coalition Rips Trump Deputy AG's Claim Of 'War' With Judges

By Rose Krebs

A group of former federal judges on Thursday condemned what they called "inflammatory remarks" last week by Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche detailing the U.S. Department of Justice's "war" with "rogue activist" judges.

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Interview

Ex-Judge Worries Top Court Will Be 'Timid' In Checking Trump

By Chris Villani

A Massachusetts federal judge who recently resigned to more openly speak out against the Trump administration told Law360 on Thursday he is concerned the U.S. Supreme Court will be unwilling to provide a constitutional check on presidential overreach.

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Fired Immigration Judges Share Concerns As Cases Pile Up

By Courtney Bublé

Fired immigration judges spoke on Thursday about their "crushing" backlog of cases, a buildup exacerbated by the Trump administration's elimination of their colleagues' positions.

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Judge Halts Jackson Walker Secret Romance Settlements

By Adrian Cruz

A Texas federal judge has paused a number of settlements between Jackson Walker LLP and former clients, criticizing the firm for trying to undermine the U.S. Trustee's investigation into alleged malpractice stemming from a secret romance between a former partner and a bankruptcy judge.

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Judge Casts Doubt On Legitimacy Of Halligan's Appointment

By Jared Foretek

A federal judge in Virginia said Thursday that Attorney General Pam Bondi couldn't have reviewed the full transcript of the grand jury proceedings that netted an indictment of James Comey before ratifying the charges against the former FBI director because the U.S. Department of Justice didn't have them at the time.

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Jenner & Block Resolves $8M Fee Fight With Sierra Leone

By Gina Kim

Jenner & Block LLP and its former client Sierra Leone have resolved their fight over unpaid legal fees and allegedly fraudulent overbilling in the nation's underlying dispute with its iron ore mining concessionaire Gerald International Ltd., according to a minute order issued Thursday in D.C. federal court.

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Pipe Maker Names 2nd Firm In Asbestos RICO Suit

By Emily Field

A Los Angeles pipe manufacturer has added Massachusetts-based Sokolove Law to its civil racketeering lawsuit in Illinois federal court accusing Simmons Hanly Conroy LLP and others of orchestrating a scheme to fill the law firms' coffers by bringing baseless asbestos claims, alleging the Sokolove firm acted to find the cases.

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NY Gov't Ethics Watchdog Called To Testify Against AG James

By Andrea Keckley

The federal government subpoenaed the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government on Wednesday to testify in its case against New York Attorney General Letitia A. James.

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Judge Denies NJ Lawmaker's Bid To Toss ICE Facility Charges

By Parker Quinlan

A New Jersey federal judge on Thursday refused to toss the criminal indictment filed against U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., following a confrontation with federal agents at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark.

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Minn. Chief Federal Judge To Take Semi-Retired Status In July

By Courtney Bublé

Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz of the District of Minnesota will take semi-retired status next summer, according to an update on Thursday from the federal judiciary.

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