AbbVie Can't Halt Miss. Discount Drug Law, 5th Circ. Says

By Lauren Berg

AbbVie and other pharmaceutical manufacturers that participate in Medicaid cannot preliminarily block a Mississippi law barring their interference with the distribution of discounted prescriptions to pharmacies serving low-income patients, the Fifth Circuit ruled Friday, saying the drugmakers haven't shown that the statute likely effectuates a taking of their property.

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Analysis

Fresh Angles On Display In ERISA Summer Filing Uptick

By Kellie Mejdrich

Attorneys dealing with a rise in Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases are paying close attention to a handful of recent suits with allegations that put a twist on traditional benefits disputes. Here, Law360 looks at three cases with fresh angles that lawyers are keeping an eye on.

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Ex-Conn. Assistant AG Faces DQ Bid In Price-Fixing Case

By Matthew Santoni

Drug companies accused of fixing prices for generics are seeking to disqualify former Connecticut Assistant Attorney General Joseph Nielsen and his law firm from representing insurers in a multidistrict litigation, arguing Nielsen had access to confidential information as a government attorney that he could unfairly use against them now.

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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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Ex-Investor Relations Exec Gets 15 Months For Inside Trades

By Stewart Bishop

A former managing director for LifeSci Advisors LLC was sentenced to 15 months in prison on Friday for passing confidential information about several of the investor relations firm's clients to two friends who used it to make over $500,000 in illicit profits.

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Bill Aims To Secure Advance Funding For Tribal Services

By Crystal Owens

A group of bipartisan federal lawmakers has reintroduced legislation that would authorize advance appropriations to the Indian Health Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education to avoid funding lapses, saying the agencies fund critical services to tribal nations.

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Anti-Vax Dr. Asks 11th Circ. To Revive NYT Defamation Suit

By Carolina Bolado

Alternative medicine proponent Dr. Joseph Mercola on Friday asked the Eleventh Circuit to revive his defamation suit against The New York Times over a 2021 report about his statements criticizing the COVID-19 vaccines, calling it a "character assassination piece to shut him down."

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23AndMe Inks $3.25M Data Breach Deal With Canadian Users

By Gina Kim

23andMe has asked a Missouri bankruptcy judge to approve a $3.25 million settlement reached with a class of 300,000 Canadian citizens whose information was compromised following a cybersecurity breach, touting the deal as an "excellent result" considering limited funds available and other issues implicated by the company's bankruptcy proceedings.

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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 former Master Chef presenter Gregg Wallace sue the BBC, Elon Musk's xAI take legal action against a staff engineer, and fashion mogul Kevin-Gerald Stanford file a fresh claim against Lion Capital-owned Klotho and EY amid a long-running All Saints share acquisition dispute.

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When AI Denies, Insurance Bad Faith Claims May Follow

Two recent rulings from Minnesota and Kentucky federal courts signal that past statements about claims-handling practices may leave insurers using artificial intelligence programs in claims administration vulnerable to suits alleging bad faith and unfair trade practices, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

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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 Tell Justices Trans Sports Bans Based On Science

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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