Starbucks DEI Goals Are 'Race-Based Quotas,' Fla. AG Claims

By Ben Adlin

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is accusing coffee giant Starbucks Corp. of violating state civil rights protections in its efforts to promote an inclusive workforce, claiming in a state lawsuit Wednesday that the company's diversity, equity and inclusion policies "cross the line into illegal, race-based quotas."

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Del. Supreme Court Backs AMC's $99.3M D&O Coverage Bid

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Supreme Court has upheld a Superior Court ruling that AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. can seek directors and officers insurance coverage for its $99.3 million share-based settlement of a 2023 stockholder lawsuit, rejecting Midvale Indemnity Co.'s bid to block recovery tied to the company's preferred-equity conversion and reverse stock split.

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Del. Court Keeps Alive Board Liability Claims In Blue Bell Suit

By Jeff Montgomery

Citing questions surrounding a five-year failure to press director and officer claims to liability releases during litigation over tainted ice cream, a Delaware vice chancellor on Wednesday rejected judgment on the pleadings favoring the releases, marking the latest twist of the eight-year Blue Bell Creameries damages saga.

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Texas Co. Owes $10M To Woman Shot At Gun-Friendly Event

By Y. Peter Kang

A Texas state jury has awarded more than $10 million to a woman who was shot in the hand at a company-sponsored event that allowed employees and clients to shoot firearms as part of the festivities, with the jury finding the company negligently exposed the woman to a dangerous condition.

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OCC Review Flags Big Banks For Debanking Policies

By Jon Hill

A top U.S. banking regulator said Wednesday that some of the nation's largest banks improperly restricted services to industries including adult entertainment and oil drilling, according to preliminary findings from a White House-commissioned debanking review.

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Justices Chew Over 'Close' Case On Fund Contract Disputes

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday waffled over whether there was a private right to sue to void contracts that allegedly violate the Investment Company Act, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh saying that a decision on the case involving an activist investor's voting rights would be "extremely close."

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Regulate AI With Existing Regs, Financial Industry Lobby Says

By Sarah Jarvis

The Financial Services Institute on Wednesday recommended that regulators apply existing rules and standards to artificial intelligence, saying they should use new rules only when AI brings "genuinely new issues or significantly alters existing risks."

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FTC Upholds 2021 Ban On SpyFone CEO's Surveillance Apps

By Allison Grande

The Federal Trade Commission has refused to revisit its 2021 order permanently banning the marketer of the surveillance app SpyFone from distributing the product or similar monitoring services, finding that the company's CEO had failed to show that there had been any changes in the law, the agency's priorities or other relevant circumstances in recent years. 

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Judge Probes IRS Expert On Method For Eaton's Credit Rating

By Molly Moses

A U.S. Tax Court judge asked an IRS expert Wednesday about his calculation of a standalone credit rating for Eaton's U.S. group in 2012, when it acquired an Irish entity and inverted, noting that the expert, unlike ratings agency Standard & Poor's, factored in Eaton's debt to the Irish parent.

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Gov't Urges Justices To Review ERISA Pleading Standard Split

By Grace Elletson

The U.S. solicitor general and the solicitor of labor said the U.S. Supreme Court needs to clarify that workers must back their suits targeting underperforming retirement funds with proper comparison proof, urging the justices to take up a case taking aim at Parker-Hannifin Corp.'s retirement plan management.

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Diagnostic Co. Agrees To Oversight Reforms In Derivative Suit

By Sydney Price

A California federal judge has granted preliminary approval to a deal ending shareholder derivative claims that diagnostics company CareDx's executives and directors damaged the company by concealing its scheme to inflate its testing services revenue.

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4th Circ. Hints $166M Fight​​​​​​​ Could Create Circuit Split

By Abigail Harrison

In questioning counsel for an insolvent Dutch insurance company trying to confirm a $166 million arbitral award against convicted insurance mogul Greg Lindberg, two Fourth Circuit judges quipped the insurer likely wants to avoid a circuit split over interpreting the Federal Arbitration Act and keep the case out of the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Ex-Software CEO Asks Delaware Justices To Revive $20M Claim

By Jarek Rutz

The former CEO of a software company asked a Delaware Supreme Court panel on Wednesday to revive his $20 million claim against London investment firm 3i Group PLC, arguing that a lower court misread Texas venue rulings and Delaware's tolling law.

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Boardwalk Pipeline Case Sees Partial Reversal

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday partially revived long-running challenges to Loews Corp.'s 2018, $1.5 billion cash-out of Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP, ruling that the Chancery Court misread the high court's 2022 guidance and prematurely shut down minority unitholder claims attacking the legal opinion that triggered the buyout.

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StubHub Brass Face Suit Over IPO Cash Flow Claims

By Emilie Ruscoe

Officers and directors of event ticketing platform StubHub Holdings Inc. allegedly breached their fiduciary duties in the lead-up to StubHub's $758 million initial public offering in September by concealing a change dramatically affecting the company's free cash flow, according to a new shareholder derivative suit.

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'Crazy' To Link Talc With Ovarian Cancer, J&J Expert Says

By Craig Clough

Johnson & Johnson rested its defense Wednesday in a Los Angeles bellwether trial over claims its talc products caused two women's ovarian cancer, with a gynecologic oncologist appearing as its last witness and telling the jury the idea of talc used for feminine hygiene reaching the ovaries is "crazy."

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How 11th Circ.'s Qui Tam Review Could Affect FCA Litigation

On Dec. 12, the Eleventh Circuit will hear arguments in U.S. ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, setting the stage for a decision that could drastically reduce enforcement under the False Claims Act, and presenting an opportunity to seek U.S. Supreme Court review of the act's whistleblower provisions, say attorneys at Epstein Becker.

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Series

The Biz Court Digest: Welcome To Miami

After nearly 20 years in operation, the Miami Complex Business Litigation Division is a pioneer upon which other jurisdictions in the state have been modeled, adopting many innovations to keep its cases running more efficiently and staffing experienced judges who are accustomed to hearing business disputes, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

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Bonus Spotlight

Litigation Shops Paying Above-Market Bonuses, Reports Say

By Andrea Keckley

Litigation boutiques Yetter Coleman LLP and Dunn Isaacson Rhee LLP are giving above-market bonuses to their associates, according to reports from Above the Law and Bloomberg.

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Jack Smith To Launch Firm With Willkie Partner, 2 Ex-Deputies

By Jack Rodgers

Jack Smith, the former Justice Department special counsel appointed to investigate President Donald Trump, is set to launch his own firm alongside two of his former top deputies and the co-chair of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP's investigations and enforcement practice.

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Judge Bove Faces Complaint Over Trump Rally Attendance

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. Circuit Judge Emil Bove, who previously served as President Donald Trump's personal defense attorney and a top official at the U.S. Department of Justice, has been hit with a judicial misconduct complaint for his appearance at a Trump event on Tuesday night.

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Analysis

Wanted: Temporary US Attorney, No Experience Needed

By Phillip Bantz

Frustrated by a string of court rulings disqualifying several of his U.S. attorney picks, President Donald Trump lamented recently that he might "just have to keep appointing people for three months and then just appoint another one, another one." Experts say the idea raises legal and practical issues.

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Akerman Beats Healthcare Cos.' Bid To Escape Fee Suit

By Madison Arnold

Akerman LLP can continue its fees lawsuit against Rennova Health Inc. and other defendants after they lost their motion to dismiss the suit for being "facially time-barred, factually flawed and legally indefensible," a Florida state judge has ruled.

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Fla. Atty Faces Bar Referral Over 'Hallucinated' Case In Filing

By Madison Arnold

A Florida appeals court will refer an attorney to the state's Bar after she filed a brief that included a "hallucinated" case.

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AGs Say Judicial Safety Threats Reaching 'All-Time Highs'

By Matthew Santoni

Attorneys general for 43 states, three territories and the District of Columbia signed a letter to Congress urging more financial support for judicial security in the face of threats against judges, including funding for a program that lets judges scrub addresses and personal information from online databases.

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Disciplined Attys Want High Court's Take On Judge Criticism

By David Minsky

A father-daughter team of attorneys have brought a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court challenging their suspensions for criticizing a Florida state judge who reversed a $2.75 million jury verdict in favor of their client in a racial discrimination lawsuit, saying their comments are protected by the First Amendment. 

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McIver's Immunity Disputed In Detention Center Assault Case

By Elizabeth Daley

Federal prosecutors asked a New Jersey federal judge to maintain all charges against U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, who was accused in an indictment of assaulting federal officers outside an immigration detention center during a scrum in which the mayor of Newark was arrested in May.

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