Albertsons Loses Bid For Docs On Kroger CEO's Exit

By Rae Ann Varona

The Kroger Co. does not have to turn over documents to Albertsons Cos. Inc. concerning former Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen's abrupt exit, the Delaware Chancery Court ruled Friday, saying that personal conduct that prompted McMullen's resignation wasn't relevant to Albertsons' litigation claims over the grocery chains' failed $25 billion merger.

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Jury Awards Mallinckrodt $9.5M In Nitric Oxide Patent Suit

By Adam Lidgett

A Delaware federal jury awarded Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals almost $9.5 million on Friday, finding that French industrial gas company Airgas Healthcare infringed patents covering its inhaled nitric oxide treatment.

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3rd Circ. Backs Fox News In DHS Expert's Defamation Suit

By Carla Baranauckas

The Third Circuit on Friday upheld a win for Fox News Network LLC and Fox Corp. in a defamation lawsuit from the onetime head of the Biden administration's disinformation watchdog, holding that the unflattering claims the network's hosts made about the agency were opinion or not proven to be untrue.

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Magnesium Producer's DIP Rollup Denied Amid Enviro Row

By Alex Wittenberg

A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Friday rejected US Magnesium's request to roll up some $3 million in existing debt after the state of Utah argued that doing so would improperly grant a lender liens on unencumbered assets, saying the evidence didn't support approving the rollup so early in the Chapter 11 case.

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DOJ Says States Can't Reverse Grant Cuts In OMB Reg Fight

By Tom Lotshaw

The Trump administration urged a Massachusetts federal judge to throw out a suit brought by a score of states accusing it of misinterpreting an Office of Management and Budget regulation to slash thousands of grants, arguing they must seek relief in another forum.

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Del. Judge Says Pet Med Co. Founder Liable For $40.2M

By Jeff Montgomery

A Delaware Superior Court judge has ruled the founder of a veterinary orthopedic implant venture must indemnify the company's recent buyer for $40.2 million from a $70 million patent infringement-related settlement, while capping the cumulative liability award after other costs at $55 million and awaiting proposals covering interest awards.

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Quinn Emanuel's $30M Fee Bid Flouts Ch. 11, Co. Says

By Julie Manganis

Israeli printed circuit maker Nano Dimension has told a Massachusetts federal judge that Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP can't claim a $30 million attorney's lien to make an "end run" around the bankruptcy of 3D printing company Desktop Metal, a former client that Nano acquired.

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Fed. Circ. Affirms PTAB's Slicing Of Fracking Patent Claims

By Theresa Schliep

The Federal Circuit on Friday backed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision invalidating claims in a patent relating to hydraulic fracturing pump technology, finding that the tribunal had sufficient evidence supporting its conclusion that the claims were obvious.

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Stewart Issues New Slate Of Discretionary Denials

By Dani Kass

Acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Coke Morgan Stewart rejected 18 petitions for Patent Trial and Appeal Board review based on discretionary factors on Friday, but didn't introduce new elements to her analysis.

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Novartis Takes Entresto Bench Trial Loss To Fed. Circ.

By Dani Kass

Novartis urged the Federal Circuit on Friday to save it from a Delaware federal judge's holding that generic-drug maker MSN Pharmaceuticals did not infringe a patent covering the blockbuster cardiovascular drug Entresto.

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3rd Circ. Backs Philly School In Worker's COVID Leave Suit

By Irene Spezzamonte

A former Philadelphia school employee resigned rather than being fired, the Third Circuit said Friday, affirming a federal court decision tossing his suit claiming he was discriminated against for refusing to get the coronavirus vaccine because of his religious beliefs.

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Cops Not Immune In Suit Over Fabricated Proof, 3rd Circ. Says

By P.J. D'Annunzio

The Third Circuit held in a precedential ruling Friday that police officers are not shielded by qualified immunity in malicious prosecution lawsuits involving allegations of fabricated evidence and forced confessions.

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Wabtec Wants Caterpillar Unit's Antitrust Claims Axed Again

By Nadia Dreid

Caterpillar subsidiary Progress Rail is trying "yet again" to "turn what are, at most, contract disputes into an antitrust lawsuit" after its claims against rail giant Wabtec over its 2019 merger with General Electric's transportation unit failed the first time around, a Delaware federal court has been told.

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Roundup

Higher Ed Real Estate: A Back To School Special

By Real Estate Authority Staff

As colleges and universities face mounting financial pressures and enrollment challenges, their real estate strategies are evolving. From legal battles over property disputes to creative approaches for monetizing underutilized assets, Law360 Real Estate Authority offers a window into real estate concerns in the higher education sector.

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Roundup

Real Estate Recap: CMBS Distress, Nuclear AI, Campus Golf

By Real Estate Authority Staff

Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including attorney perspectives on commercial mortgage-backed securities distress, the dawn of nuclear-powered data centers, and the albatross of golf courses on colleges and universities.

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Resilience Planning Is New Key To Corporate Sustainability

While the current wave of deregulation may reduce government enforcement related to climate issues, businesses still need to evaluate how climate volatility may affect their operations and create new legal risks — making the apolitical concept of resilience increasingly important for companies, says J. Michael Showalter at ArentFox Schiff.

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Agentic AI Puts A New Twist On Attorney Ethics Obligations

As lawyers increasingly use autonomous artificial intelligence agents, disciplinary authorities must decide whether attorney responsibility for an AI-caused legal ethics violation is personal or supervisory, and firms must enact strong policies regarding agentic AI use and supervision, says Grace Wynn at HWG.

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Ex-Epstein Prosecutor Maurene Comey Sues DOJ Over Firing

By Emily Sawicki

Maurene Comey, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who brought high-profile criminal cases against the likes of Jeffrey Epstein and Sean "Diddy" Combs, sued the Justice Department on Monday alleging her abrupt July firing came "solely or substantially" because she is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, a Trump critic.

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Tom Goldstein Can't Pay Attys With 'Tainted Funds,' DOJ Says

By Jeff Overley

Indicted appellate luminary Tom Goldstein cannot cover his legal bills by selling his multimillion-dollar home, because it's a "tainted asset" worth "far less" than his attorney fees, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a blistering court filing, adding that Goldstein may flee the country as his reputation and marriage collapse.

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Feds Urge 3rd Circ. To Restore NJ US Atty's Authority

By Emily Sawicki

The federal government has urged the Third Circuit to reverse a district court ruling disqualifying acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba from prosecuting two criminal cases in New Jersey after the clock allegedly ran out on her interim term, arguing that her appointment is valid and that the court erred in its interpretation of the statute.

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Calif. Court Issues AI Hallucinations 'Warning,' Sanctions Atty

By Y. Peter Kang

A California appeals court has issued a published opinion "as a warning" to Golden State attorneys to personally review case law quotations made by generative artificial intelligence, and imposed a $10,000 monetary sanction on plaintiff's counsel in an otherwise straightforward appeal in an employment case.

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Fired DOJ Deputy Says Lobbyists 'Playing Dangerous Game'

By Bryan Koenig

A former top Justice Department Antitrust Division deputy, allegedly fired for opposing the "pay-to-play" settlement clearing Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks, had a warning Monday for the lobbyists he said made the deal possible: there are only so many times they can go over division leadership.

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Stradley Ronon Wants Keesal Young's Poaching Suit Tossed

By Emma Cueto

Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young LLP has moved to nix a suit by California firm Keesal Young & Logan, saying its recruitment of 10 former Keesal Young attorneys was entirely above board and that the noncompete clauses in Keesal Young's partnership agreement were not allowed under California law.

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FTC Commissioner Says Antitrust Moment Has Been Building

By Matthew Perlman

Federal Trade Commissioner Mark R. Meador said Monday the current interest in antitrust enforcement has been building for the last several decades as corporate boardrooms increasingly take control over the economic lives of Americans.

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3 Law Firms Want Ford's 'Thermonuclear' RICO Suit Snuffed

By Linda Chiem

Knight Law Group LLP, the Altman Law Group and Wirtz Law APC have urged a California federal judge to dismantle Ford Motor Co.'s racketeering lawsuit accusing the firms of overzealous billing and conspiring to dupe unsuspecting clients in product liability and personal injury cases against automakers.

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Software Co. Defends Contempt Order Against Womble Atty

By Abigail Harrison

A North Carolina federal court fairly held Womble Bond Dickinson partner Pressly Millen in contempt after he and his client made misrepresentations in a "parallel" trademark dispute abroad, U.S.-based software company Dmarcian Inc. told the Fourth Circuit on Friday.

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DC Circ. Says Fed's Cook Can Keep Job For Now

By Jon Hill

A D.C. Circuit panel said Monday that Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook can remain on the central bank's board while challenging President Donald Trump's effort to fire her, clearing the way for her to participate in a key interest-rate policy vote this week.

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Senate Confirms Top Trump Economist To Federal Reserve

By Jon Hill

The U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed top White House economist Stephen Miran to the Federal Reserve Board on Monday, giving President Donald Trump a close ally at the central bank as he pushes for greater control over the traditionally independent body.

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DC Circ. Won't Stay District Court's Order On Quick Removals

By Jared Foretek

The D.C. Circuit declined to stay a district judge's suspension of specific U.S. Department of Homeland Security actions implementing expedited removal of noncitizen parolees Friday, saying that the government faces no irreparable harm from the order because it has separate, pre-existing regulatory authority to quickly deport parolees.

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W.Va., Idaho Tee Up Supreme Court Args In Trans Sports Fight

By Elaine Briseño

West Virginia and Idaho urged the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that courts should not use subjective preferences when analyzing whether laws that ban transgender athletes from competing on sports teams different from their sex assigned at birth violate the Constitution.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Katryna Perera and Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's governor weighed in on a challenge to recently approved state legislation that bars damages or "equitable" relief for some controlling stockholder or going-private deals. Meanwhile, Moelis told the Delaware Supreme Court that the struck-down stockholder agreement that triggered that legislation was valid. Additionally, one of two newly funded magistrates' posts in the Chancery Court has been filled.

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