Pillsbury Asks 2nd Circ. To Guard $4M Client Fee From SEC

By Aaron Keller

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP on Wednesday urged the Second Circuit to allow it to keep a $4 million advance payment retainer from the since-convicted former CEO of a bankrupt cybersecurity company, but the law firm conceded it should have clarified its rights after the government sought an asset freeze.

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Trump Taps Norton Rose Atty To Be EEOC General Counsel

By Anne Cullen

President Donald Trump has nominated Norton Rose Fulbright's global labor and employment head to serve a four-year term as general counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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Amazon Alexa Users Win Cert. Of 1.2M-Member BIPA Class

By Rae Ann Varona

An Illinois federal judge has certified a class of roughly 1.2 million users of Amazon's Alexa in litigation accusing the e-commerce giant of unlawfully collecting their biometric voice data, allowing two people to serve as representatives for those in the state for whom Amazon allegedly created voiceprints.

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TD Bank Accused Of Chinese Discrimination In AML Fallout

By Sydney Price

Ex-TD Bank employees on Wednesday hit the bank with a proposed class action accusing it of unlawfully targeting and firing its Chinese and Chinese-American workers in an attempt to show compliance with anti-money laundering procedures in the wake of enforcement actions taken by the U.S. government against the bank.

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Judge Unlikely To Find Eaton's Debt To Parent Wasn't Real

By Molly Moses

A U.S. Tax Court judge said Wednesday that he's unlikely to find that the intercompany debt U.S.-based Eaton Inc. owed its Irish parent was unreal and should be recharacterized as equity, all but dismissing an alternative argument raised by the Internal Revenue Service.

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SEC Enforcement Actions Plunged After Gensler, Report Says

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought far fewer enforcement actions against public companies and subsidiaries after its Biden-era leader Gary Gensler departed, with the former chair bringing 52 of the 56 actions the agency initiated in fiscal 2025 despite stepping down in January.

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Amazon Drivers Push For Class Cert. In Mass. Law Tip Suit

By Ben Adlin

Amazon delivery drivers who claim the e-commerce giant skimmed from their tips are asking a Seattle federal judge to revive claims under Massachusetts state law, arguing that drivers from that state may be eligible for "significant relief" beyond what they received through a 2021 settlement between Amazon and the Federal Trade Commission.

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6th Circ. Won't Explain Docs Ruling To FirstEnergy Investors

By Katryna Perera

The Sixth Circuit on Wednesday denied a request from FirstEnergy investors to clarify a ruling blocking them from accessing documents prepared by BigLaw firms investigating the company's $1 billion bribery scandal.

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Pirate-Ship Venture Ruling Tested At Del. Supreme Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Supreme Court pressed attorneys Wednesday on whether a Chancery Court ruling correctly upheld decades-old stock issuances and sidestepped a final determination on a joint-venture agreement at the center of a saga involving the Whydah pirate-treasure venture.

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Nestle Asks 9th Circ. To Nix False Ad Class In Child Labor Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

Nestle urged the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday to reverse certification of a class of millions of consumers who purchased chocolate labeled "sustainably sourced," saying claims the chocolate is produced through child labor and deforestation are untrue and the question of whether consumers purchased due to the labeling is highly individualized.

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Pool Co. Directors Hit With Derivative Suit In Del.

By Jeff Montgomery

Three stockholders of pool equipment company Hayward Holdings Inc. sued the company's directors and officers in Delaware's Court of Chancery late Tuesday, seeking derivative damages based on claims that — after thriving during the pandemic — the company failed to report ballooning customer inventories as insiders traded on bogus, upbeat news.

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Gilead Sciences' GC Will Leave Co. Next Month

By Sue Reisinger

Gilead Sciences Inc. announced Wednesday that Deborah H. Telman will no longer serve as its executive vice president for corporate affairs and general counsel as of Dec. 5, 2025.

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In-House Atty From Teva Joins Spencer Fane's DC Office

By Jack Rodgers

A former associate general counsel of Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israel-headquartered biopharmaceutical company, is returning to private practice with Spencer Fane LLP, where he will work as a partner with the firm's intellectual property practice group, according to a Monday announcement.

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Pierce Atwood Energy Pro Joins Barnes & Thornburg In DC

By Jack Rodgers

Marking his third career move in the last five years, a Pierce Atwood LLP partner has made the jump to Barnes & Thornburg LLP's office in Washington, D.C., to continue his work on transactional and regulatory matters related to new energy technologies.

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The Future Of Gen AI Training Amid Reddit Data Scraping Suit

Reddit's lawsuit against Perplexity AI is not framed as a classic copyright infringement fight, demonstrating that even when companies avoid fair use claims, the path by which training data is obtained is legally consequential, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

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Bonus Spotlight

BigLaw Begins To Fall In Line With Cravath Bonuses

By Aebra Coe

Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, McDermott Will & Schulte LLP and Dechert LLP are among the law firms following the lead of Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP on year-end associate bonuses this week, with at least five large firms matching the market leader within a day of Cravath's Tuesday announcement.

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Troutman Owes $3.7M In Atty Fees After $1M Malpractice Loss

By Jake Maher

Troutman Pepper Locke LLP must pay $3.7 million in attorney fees to a healthcare tech company that won on malpractice claims against the firm in 2024 after six years of litigation and an eight-day bench trial, a New Jersey state judge has ordered.

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Dissent Accuses Redistrict Ruling Of 'Judicial Misbehavior'

By Spencer Brewer

A Fifth Circuit judge denounced the judge who penned a federal court order blocking Texas' newly redrawn congressional map, saying in a Wednesday opinion the order blocking the redistricting amounts to the "most blatant exercise of judicial activism" he had ever seen.

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Halligan Says Grand Jury Never Saw Final Comey Indictment

By Jared Foretek

U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan acknowledged Wednesday that the full grand jury in the James Comey case never saw or voted on the final version of the indictment that was handed up to the court in the case. An attorney for Comey said the clarification was grounds for dismissal.

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Alaska Senator Pushes For Better Vetting After Judge Scandal

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said on Wednesday that after a federal judge in his state resigned in disgrace last year, he decided he had to revamp his selection process for judicial nominees.

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Latham DQ'd From Sleep Apnea Device Co.'s Patent Fight

By Madison Arnold

A Delaware federal court has disqualified Latham & Watkins LLP from representing the creator of a sleep apnea implant in its patent dispute after the firm served as counsel to the rival's underwriters, saying the "appearance of impropriety is glaring."

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The House's Plan B For Repealing Provision On DOJ Lawsuits

By Courtney Bublé

If the Senate does not take up a bill to repeal a provision in the government funding package allowing senators investigated by former special counsel Jack Smith to sue for damages, a Republican House member is already making contingency plans.

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Justices Told Presidential Firing Limits Is An 'Originalist' Idea

By Katie Buehler

A bipartisan collection of current and former government officials has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a 90-year-old ruling that empowers Congress to prohibit the president from firing certain agency officials at will, claiming the precedent has roots that date back to the country's founding and reflects key separation of powers principles.

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