Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court delivered a busy first week of December, featuring commercial disputes, post-closing merger and acquisition battles and renewed scrutiny of fiduciary conduct ranging from oil and gas investments to healthcare acquisitions. 

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Bernstein Litowitz Corp. Founder Returns To 'Stabilize' Group

By Rose Krebs

Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP announced Monday that it has welcomed back a prominent shareholder lawyer to co-lead its corporate governance practice following the controversial departure of the group's former leader to launch a boutique firm.

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Del. Chancellor Finds Prince Estate Battle Will Play On

By Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's chancellor on Monday tossed some but not all amended counterclaims in a long-running battle among some relatives of the musician known as Prince and managing members of his estate, while saying a neutral party could help resolve the case.

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Trump SPAC's Ex-CEO Seeks $50K Daily Sanctions In Fee Row

By Katryna Perera

A former CEO of Donald Trump-tied blank check company Digital World Acquisition Corp. has urged the Delaware Chancery Court to impose a $50,000-per-day sanction against the company for allegedly "throwing a tantrum" and refusing to pay roughly $2 million of a $2.9 million and growing legal fee advancement order in connection with litigation in Florida.

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1st Circ. Keeps Planned Parenthood Funding Ban In Place

By Dan McKay

The First Circuit on Monday issued an administrative stay that temporarily keeps in place a ban on Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, pausing a lower court's ruling.

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Chancery Blocks Opt-Out In $32M Emisphere Settlement

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court on Monday signed off on a $32 million class settlement over Emisphere Technologies Inc.'s $1.8 billion sale to Novo Nordisk AS, rejecting Emisphere investor IsZo Capital LP's push to opt out and pursue its own claims and trimming the investors' fee request to a 23.5% cut of the fund.

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Justices Turn Down Machine Learning Patent Eligibility Case

By Ryan Davis and Elliot Weld

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left intact a decision that Recentive Analytics Inc. machine learning patents are invalid for claiming only abstract ideas, turning aside the company's argument in a dispute with Fox Corp. that the ruling effectively bars many artificial intelligence patents.

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Judge Backs Cutting $800M In FTX Ch. 11 Claims

By Rick Archer

A federal appellate judge has upheld the Delaware bankruptcy court's decision to pay out almost nothing on $800 million in claims against collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, agreeing with the bankruptcy judge that the crypto assets tied to those claims were essentially worthless.

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Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Express Mobile's Patents Or $40M Win

By Dani Kass

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board rightfully invalidated claims of three Express Mobile web-design patents, and a Delaware federal judge properly found Shopify didn't infringe additional, related patents, the Federal Circuit held Monday.

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Opinion

Horizontal Stare Decisis Should Not Be Casually Discarded

Eliminating the so-called law of the circuit doctrine — as recently proposed by a Fifth Circuit judge, echoing Justice Neil Gorsuch’s concurrence in Loper Bright — would undermine public confidence in the judiciary’s independence and create costly uncertainty for litigants, says Lawrence Bluestone at Genova Burns.

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Series

The Law Firm Merger Diaries: Getting The Message Across

Communications and brand strategy during a law firm merger represent a crucial thread that runs through every stage of a combination and should include clear messaging, leverage modern marketing tools and embrace the chance to evolve, says Ashley Horne at Womble Bond.

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US Lawyer Numbers Surge With Hefty 2024 Graduating Class

By Tracey Read

The number of U.S. lawyers showed marked growth for the first time since 2020, due to a 2024 graduating class that was nearly 12% larger than any other class since 2012, a study from the American Bar Association released Monday showed.

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Habba Resigns As Acting US Atty After DQ Ruling At 3rd Circ.

By Jake Maher

Alina Habba stepped down Monday as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey following a Third Circuit ruling that she was unlawfully appointed to the position, with the U.S. Department of Justice unveiling that a trio of officials will take on her responsibilities.

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Conservative Justices Probe 'Husk' Of FTC Firing Protections

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority pushed back Monday against the 90-year-old precedent permitting the removal only for cause of Federal Trade Commission members, and perhaps those serving other independent agencies, calling those safeguards a "dried husk" and wondering where to draw the line for protected agencies.

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Ex-Josh Cellars President Fights Gibson Dunn Withdrawal Bid

By Elliot Weld

The former president of the company behind the Josh Cellars wine brand disputed Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP's version of events around his allegedly unpaid legal bills, saying he has questions about the reasonableness of the firm's charges, which must be arbitrated per his contract with the firm.

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Carlton Fields Steps Aside In 'Irreconcilable' Miss America Case

By Emily Johnson

A Florida federal judge allowed Carlton Fields and its attorneys on Monday to withdraw from representing the plaintiffs in a dispute over the ownership of the Miss America pageant, after the firm said "irreconcilable differences" drew it to ask to step down.

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Jury Expert Sues Atty For 'Pirating' Her Jan. 6 Venue Report

By Matt Perez

A New Hampshire defense attorney representing a defendant charged for crimes related to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sued in D.C. federal court for allegedly stealing a copyrighted study analyzing attitudes in the jury pool of the District of Columbia.

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Litigation Funder Says Attys Hid Deal To Evade $1.5M Payout

By Christine DeRosa

A Florida-based litigation funder has sued two California attorneys and a law firm, alleging they secretly settled a client's civil dispute and steered the money so they wouldn't have to repay over $1.5 million.

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Analysis

What To Do When Jurors Don't 'Trust The Science'

By Chris Villani

The pandemic and initiatives from the second administration of President Donald Trump challenging decades of established scientific norms have made science more politicized, and attorneys say picking a jury and presenting scientific evidence is increasingly challenging.

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Brief

Senators Kelly, Slotkin Set Up Legal Defense Funds

By Courtney Bublé

After appearing in a video encouraging members of the military and intelligence community to not follow illegal orders, Sens. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., have established legal defense funds.

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Defense Bill Includes Protections For Retired Justices

By Courtney Bublé

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 released Sunday night extends U.S. Supreme Court police protection for retired and former justices and their immediate family members.

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