GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

It is of little solace to general counsel that most big law firms hiked their billing rates this year just slightly less than last year's increase. And it looks like Elon Musk is settling with the former chief legal officer and the general counsel of Twitter, along with two other executives, over their suit to obtain millions in promised severance pay. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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SEC's Atkins Commits To Expanding Use Of Wells Process

By Aislinn Keely

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins plans to refresh the agency's Wells process of engaging with firms ahead of potential enforcement actions, saying he intends for the agency to be more forthcoming with investigative findings and provide more time and opportunities to respond to these findings.

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EDTX Jury Says Samsung Owes $445.5M After Patent Trial

By Adam Lidgett

Samsung has to pay up about $445.5 million after a Texas federal jury found that the South Korean electronics giant infringed a series of patents related to wireless communication network efficiency owned by Collision Communications.

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Analysis

Back Where We Started: Life After FTC's Noncompete Ban

By Matthew Perlman

Now that the Federal Trade Commission has abandoned efforts for a nationwide ban on noncompete clauses, the employment provisions remain subject to a constellation of changing state laws and can sometimes still violate federal law in certain situations.

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Roundup

Employment Authority: EEOC Cracks Down On Opioid Bias

Law360 Employment Authority covers the biggest employment cases and trends. Catch up this week with coverage on why the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission appears to be cracking down on bias toward workers' opioid prescriptions, what two mixed rulings on captive audience bans mean for the landscape of the labor fight, and how today's U.S. Department of Labor compares to its mission under President Donald Trump's first term. 

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Analysis

OpenAI's Sora Backlash Shows IP Challenges For Tech Cos.

By Ivan Moreno

OpenAI's new version of its video-generation model Sora has highlighted the growing tension between the development of artificial intelligence technologies and intellectual property rights, with the company emphasizing an opt-in approach for copyright owners for using their works after backlash over a reported opt-out policy.

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Analysis

Experts Doubt Gold Card Will Siphon Off EB-5 Investors

By Britain Eakin

Concerns that President Donald Trump's gold card will siphon off noncitizens who would otherwise seek permanent residency through the EB-5 investor program might be overblown, with experts suggesting the program's 35-year track record and stability will continue attracting foreign investors.

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Musk Accuses OpenAI Ex-Exec Of Subpoena 'Cat And Mouse'

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal magistrate judge is allowing Elon Musk to serve a deposition subpoena by Federal Express to a tech executive who briefly served as OpenAI's interim CEO after hearing that process servers and investigators had attempted personal service 11 times but were "stonewalled" by the woman and her security.

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SEC's Atkins Criticizes Del. As 'Uninterested' In IPO Reform

By Jessica Corso

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins said he is "disappointed" by recent changes to Delaware law that he believes will drive up litigation costs for public companies and make the state seem "uninterested in reform" that would encourage more companies to file initial public offerings there.

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AstraZeneca Strikes 'Most Favored Nation' Price Deal

By Dan McKay

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca on Friday cut a deal with the Trump administration to reduce drug prices in the United States, agreeing to provide its medications for Medicaid beneficiaries at discount prices.

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SEC Guidance Aims To Ease IPO Process During Shutdown

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

As the federal government shutdown lingers, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has updated its guidance to advise companies on how they can still move forward with initial public offerings.

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GoPro Beats Infringement Claims In $174M Camera IP Trial

By Bonnie Eslinger and Elliot Weld

A California federal jury cleared camera giant GoPro of accusations that some of its products infringed two video camera technology patents in a case where Contour IP Holding LLC had sought $174 million in damages.

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Wyden Urges Justices To Revive UBS Retaliation Case Again

By Sarah Jarvis

Sen. Ron Wyden and several whistleblower organizations have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to revive for a second time a fired UBS worker's whistleblower retaliation lawsuit, pointing to a "deep and direct conflict" the Second Circuit has created with its latest decision in the case.

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Justices Told SEC 'Dead Wrong' On Activist Investor Suits

By Jessica Corso

An activist investor has told the U.S. Supreme Court that a series of investment funds, with the backing of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, are "dead wrong" to say it has no right to sue over their decision to dilute the investor's voting shares.

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StubHub Sued Over Failure To Refund Swift's Eras Tour Show

By Gina Kim

Online ticket reseller StubHub regularly reneges on its "FanProtect Guarantee" to either provide comparable tickets or refund customers if the tickets they bought aren't available the day of the concert, according to a proposed class action by a woman who says she was swindled out of thousands of dollars during Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.

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Delta, Aeromexico Say USDOT Erred In Blocking Partnership

By Hailey Konnath

Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico have asked the Eleventh Circuit to vacate the U.S. Department of Transportation's order terminating approval of their joint venture and ordering them to dismantle it by January, according to a petition for review posted to the case docket Friday.

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Prosecutors, Ex-AT&T Exec To Resolve Bribery Case With DPA

By Celeste Bott

A former AT&T executive will not be retried on charges that he bribed ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan early next year as planned, as his attorneys and prosecutors told an Illinois federal judge that they've agreed to resolve the matter with a deferred prosecution agreement.

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Amazon Gets Massive Antitrust Class Action Trial Delayed

By Bryan Koenig

Amazon.com Inc. has got a reprieve from facing a massive consumer antitrust class action and a California attorney general enforcement action in overlapping trials, with a Washington federal judge granting the retail giant's bid to delay the consumer case from October 2026 to June 2027.

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Profs Say Apple Used Copyrighted Material For AI Training

By Elliot Weld

Two neuroscientists have sued Apple in California federal court, claiming it made use of their copyrighted materials to train its artificial intelligence model Apple Intelligence.

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Cummins To Settle Investor Suit Over Emissions Scandal

By Emilie Ruscoe

Engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. and an investor have reached an agreement to settle proposed class action claims that the company hurt investors by hiding emissions control devices in certain engines, for which the company has paid a record $2 billion to settle regulators' Clean Air Act claims.

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Pharma Co. Escapes Suit Over Ex-CEO's Alleged Misconduct

By Sydney Price

Exscientia PLC on Friday won dismissal of a proposed class action related to the termination of its CEO after claims emerged that he participated in inappropriate workplace relationships, with the court finding the investors failed to show that the company's statements about its culture and governance were anything more than puffery.

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DOJ Can't Pause Review Of UnitedHealth Deal Amid Shutdown

By Gina Kim

A Maryland federal judge rejected the U.S. Department of Justice's bid to stay its recently settled case with UnitedHealth over the company's merger with Amedisys because of the government shutdown and lapse in appropriations, ruling that a stay would impede the DOJ's ability to evaluate the public interest in the settlement.

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Chancery Resolves Caribevision TV's Control, Management

By Jeff Montgomery

A series of rulings by a Delaware vice chancellor on Friday resolved for now disputes over control of Caribevision TV Network LLC, the self-described media "eyes and ears of the Caribbean" that recently saw police called in to block an attempt to replace the company's CEO.

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Biz Groups, GOP Reps Ask Justices To Sink Colo. Climate Suit

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

Business groups and over 100 Republican lawmakers are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a decision by Colorado's top court allowing Boulder's climate change tort against Exxon Mobil Corp. and Suncor Energy Inc. to proceed in state court.

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Roundup

Taxation With Representation: Sullivan, MoFo, Freshfields

By Zak Kostro

In this week's Taxation With Representation, Fifth Third Bancorp acquires Comerica in an all-stock deal, Qualtrics buys experience analytics firm Press Ganey Forsta, and SoftBank buys ABB's robotics division.

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Shutdown May Stall Hearings, But Gov't Probes Quietly Go On

Thanks to staff assurances under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, the core work of congressional investigations continues during the shutdown that began Oct. 1 — and so does the investigative work that is performed behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

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Opinion

Ending Quarterly Reporting Would Erode Investor Protection

President Donald Trump recently called for an end to the long-standing practice of corporate quarterly reporting, but doing so would reduce transparency, create information asymmetries, provide more opportunities for corporate fraud and risk increased stock price volatility, while not meaningfully increasing long-term investments, say attorneys at Bleichmar Fonti.

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How Trump Admin. Is Shifting Biden's Antitrust Merger Enforcement

Antitrust enforcement trends under the Trump administration have included a moderation in the agencies' approach to merger enforcement as compared to enforcers compared to the prior administration, but dealmakers should still expect aggressive enforcement when the agencies believe consumers will be harmed and they expect to win in court, say attorneys at Rule Garza.

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How Financial Cos. Can Prep As NYDFS Cyber Changes Loom

Financial institutions supervised by the New York State Department of Financial Services can prepare for two critical cybersecurity requirements relating to multifactor authentication and asset inventories, effective Nov. 1, by conducting gap analyses and allocating resources to high-risk assets, among other steps, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

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Series

Adapting To Private Practice: 3 Tips On Finding The Right Job

After 23 years as a state and federal prosecutor, when I contemplated moving to a law firm, practicing solo or going in-house, I found there's a critical first step — deep self-reflection on what you truly want to do and where your strengths lie, says Rachael Jones at McKool Smith.

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Analysis

Retribution, Intent Claims May Defuse Bombshell James Case

By Phillip Bantz

The Trump administration's indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James is tightly crafted and offers a straightforward presentation of the government's case, but experts say James appears to have a strong argument that she did not intend to break the law and is being unfairly targeted for what amounts to a minor offense.

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Up Next At High Court: Voting Rights & Warrantless Entries

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will return Tuesday to hear oral arguments in four cases, including a dispute over the constitutionality of the last remaining provision of the Voting Rights Act and whether federal prisoners seeking postconviction relief are subject to the same rules as state inmates.

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9th Circ. Flouting 'Imperial Judiciary' Warning, Judges Assert

By Jeff Overley

A large contingent of Ninth Circuit judges accused colleagues Friday of ignoring recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions limiting legal remedies in politically charged disputes, adding fresh fuel to a heated debate over the judiciary's handling of suits against the Trump administration.

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NY State Courts Release AI Rules For Judges, Staff

By Matt Perez

The New York State Court System on Friday released an interim policy on the use of artificial intelligence software by judges and staff, which goes into effect immediately and remains subject to change.

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Ga. Judge Charged With DUI At Florida Strip Club

By Chart Riggall

The Georgia judge who heads up the state's council of superior court jurists was arrested for driving under the influence outside a Jacksonville, Florida, strip club this week after hitting another vehicle with his Mercedes, according to arrest records.

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Atty's Due Process Claims Challenging Disbarments Trimmed

By Emily Sawicki

A former attorney has had most of a due process suit fighting his disbarment in Florida and reciprocal discipline in Massachusetts and New York thrown out, with a Manhattan federal judge finding that New York lacks personal jurisdiction over out-of-state disciplinary officials.

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NJ Senate President Calls For Monitor Of State AG Unit

By Madison Arnold

New Jersey Senate President Nicholas Scutari on Friday called for the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee the state's Office of Public Integrity and Accountability, saying it has been troubled with failed prosecutions, botched investigations and misconduct.

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Brief

Bill Would Let Judges, Prosecutors Carry Concealed Guns

By Courtney Bublé

Two Republicans have introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate that would allow current and retired federal judges and state, local and federal prosecutors to carry concealed firearms in response to increasing concerns about judicial security.

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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 Paddington Bear's creators and Studio Canal sue the company behind Spitting Image, Blackpool Football Club's former owner Owen Oyston bring a fresh claim against the club, and Mishcon de Reya sue a Saudi investment group.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Solomon Ward Seidenwurm & Smith LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the full Ninth Circuit held that denials of California anti-SLAPP motions can no longer be appealed in the midst of litigation.

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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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