Judiciary Dems Seek DOJ Replies Before Blanche Hearing

By Courtney Bublé

Ahead of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing for the permanent position, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are demanding he provide answers to their outstanding oversight inquiries.

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'Do Your Part,' Mass. Judge Chides Read Case Attys Post-Leak

By Cara Salvatore

A Massachusetts judge on Wednesday lectured counsel in the high-profile civil case against Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman acquitted of murdering her Boston police officer boyfriend, to honor their ethical obligations after sensitive information leaked on social media.

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Aide To Ex-NYC Mayor Cites 'Glaring Holes' In Bribery Case

By Stewart Bishop

An attorney for Frank Carone, the former chief of staff to former New York Mayor Eric Adams, on Wednesday said there are "glaring holes" in the indictment alleging Carone took bribes from a hotel owner in exchange for a multimillion-dollar migrant housing contract. 

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Watchdog Says DOL Needs Better Info Sharing Controls

By Kellie Mejdrich

The U.S. Department of Labor's lack of controls over information sharing between subagencies and nongovernmental entities, including law firms and legal advocacy organizations, may have unfairly advantaged those parties with privileged investigative information, an agency watchdog reported, though use of the practice has dropped off. 

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Brief

Texas Federal Judge Requires Confirmation Of AI Checks

By Emily Sawicki

Attorneys and self-represented parties appearing before U.S. District Judge Ernest Gonzalez of the Western District of Texas are now required to certify that they have independently verified the contents of any filings created or edited using artificial intelligence.

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Chinese Investors Say Wash. EB-5 Developer Misused Funds

By Elaine Briseño

Chinese investors have filed a RICO Act lawsuit in Washington federal court, alleging that developers of a partially completed mixed-use project on a former copper smelter Superfund site along Puget Sound misused funds from their $39 million investment in the venture and let it fall into default.

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Wash. Atty Loses Bid For Jury In Dispute Over Bar Sanctions

By Emily Sawicki

A Washington lawyer sanctioned and disciplined for bringing a "frivolous" election suit in 2021 against then-Gov. Jay Inslee has lost her bid to have her ethics charges heard by a jury, with a state appeals panel finding no error in a trial court's ruling that it lacked jurisdiction to take on the disciplinary matter.

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White House Recordkeeping Suit Paused While Gov't Appeals

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A D.C. federal judge has paused a suit accusing the Trump administration of skirting White House recordkeeping rules while the government appeals the preliminary injunction granted last month.

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Whistleblower's Ex-Atty Must Pay $111K For Fighting DQ

By Carla Baranauckas

A New Jersey magistrate judge on Wednesday refused to revisit sanctions against an attorney removed from a business dispute for mishandling privileged documents, ordering him to pay nearly $111,000 in legal fees to a South Korean company for the costs of litigating his disqualification and failed appeal.

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Pullman & Comley Escapes Challenge To Municipal Tax Work

By Aaron Keller

Pullman & Comley LLC has escaped claims that a Connecticut town illegally delegated its tax collection authority to it and one of its attorneys, with a judge agreeing to dissolve an order blocking a home sale and dismiss the action at the request of the parties.

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Mazie Slater Beats Benicar Fees Sanctions Row Discovery Bid

By George Woolston

A New Jersey federal judge has blocked the latest bid by former Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman clients to conduct more discovery in order to fight the firm's sanctions bid in their suit over allegedly excessive attorney fees, finding they failed to show exceptional circumstances existed.

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Chen Says Herridge Must Name Source Even Under Her Test

By Jared Foretek

A woman claiming that an FBI agent smeared her by leaking confidential records to then-Fox News journalist Catherine Herridge told the U.S. Supreme Court not to halt Herridge's contempt finding and $800-per-day fine any longer, saying that even under Herridge's preferred test, she would still have to identify her source.

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Mich. Judge Calls Ex-GM Worker Vexatious, Tosses Bias Suit

By Susan Smiley

A Michigan federal judge labeled a former General Motors employee a "vexatious litigator" in an opinion issued Tuesday after she filed "five separate lawsuits raising the same claims" against the same defendants and dismissed her workplace bias and harassment suit against General Motors Flint Assembly and UAW Local 598.

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Resale Ticket Buyers Must Arbitrate Live Nation Claims

By Matthew Perlman

A New York federal court has sent antitrust claims from concertgoers who purchased Ticketmaster tickets on the secondary market to arbitration, after finding an arbitration clause in Live Nation's terms of service is enforceable.

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Ill. Judge Can't Probe Robbery Dismissal Sanctions, Feds Say

By Lauraann Wood

Federal prosecutors in Chicago say an Illinois magistrate judge looking to probe possible sanctions over missteps that led the government to dismiss a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives robbery case lacks authority to do so, and they anticipate seeking the Seventh Circuit's "immediate" intervention if she decides any differently.

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Attorney Mental Health Is An Ethical Obligation In The AI Era

As attorneys cope with the increasing unpredictability that artificial intelligence and constant policy changes have created, particularly in practice areas where they carry the emotional weight of clients’ most consequential life events, otherwise soft discussions about self-care are a matter of professional competence, says attorney Jack Jrada.

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Leveraging AI In MDL Discovery And Case Management

Generative and agentic artificial intelligence tools can help teams organize and digest the vast volume of documents inherent to multidistrict litigation, but workflows must be designed to maximize the tools' strengths and maintain human control of key operational and ethical factors, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

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Legal Sector Jobs Spike With Work 'Churning Right Along'

By Aebra Coe

The legal sector added 5,100 jobs in June, the largest increase the industry has seen in more than two years, according to preliminary, seasonally adjusted data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, the Asian Law Caucus and the Democracy Defenders Fund lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump's bid to limit birthright citizenship.

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Feds Seek Up To 21 Months For Ex-Judge On ICE Obstruction

By Elizabeth Daley

A former Wisconsin judge who was convicted of obstructing ICE officers' courthouse arrest of a man facing misdemeanor charges by pointing him to a side door should spend up to 21 months in prison, the government said in a sentencing memo, recommending she be made an example.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week 

By Sue Reisinger

Amid the changes coming for general counsel, the policies and enforcement priorities of federal regulators may fluctuate more rapidly after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this week that could dramatically remake independent government agencies. And the EEOC rescinded affirmative action documents that have guided employers for decades.

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Georgia Atty Can't Revive Defamation Suit Over Ethics Case

By Emily Johnson

The Georgia Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of a Georgia attorney's defamation suit against two people involved in an unsuccessful disciplinary action against her, saying her rambling appeal failed to prove that the trial court erred in dismissing her claims.

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When Does A Firm's 'Breakup' Fee-Split Contract Go Too Far?

By Rachel Rippetoe

It looked like a win for plaintiffs' firms when the Kentucky Supreme Court recently upheld a firm's 75% claim on fees from cases an attorney took with him when he launched his own practice, but the narrow ruling may leave room for lawyers to challenge similar agreements as penalties for leaving their firms.

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Judges To Tour Rust Belt To Build Trust In Courts

By James Boyle

Days after the Fourth of July celebration of America's 250th birthday, a group of current and retired judges will lead a four-day bus tour through three states to promote one of the bedrock principles of the country's independence: the rule of law.

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Analysis

Breaking Down The Vote: The High Court Term In Review

By Jack Karp

The U.S. Supreme Court's stark ideological divisions were on full display this term, particularly as it issued long-awaited rulings in the last few days of June. Here, Law360 dives into the numbers behind this court term.

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Mass Tort Titan Paul J. Napoli Dies

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

Paul J. Napoli, an influential plaintiffs attorney who worked on some of the nation's highest-profile mass tort matters in recent decades, died on Tuesday at the age of 58.

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Skadden Adds Mass Torts Litigator As Partner In Chicago

By Christine DeRosa

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP has grown its mass torts litigation offerings in Chicago with the addition of a Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum LLP attorney, the firm said.

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'Embarrassed' Conn. Atty Details ChatGPT Briefing Errors

By Aaron Keller

With a sanctions hearing on the horizon, a Connecticut attorney has told the state's highest court he is "extremely embarrassed" by artificial intelligence errors in briefs filed in two recently decided cases, explaining he used ChatGPT to edit his research without knowing it could make "unprompted changes to the content."

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Del. Magistrate Orders JPMorgan To Advance Javice Fees

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court ruled Thursday that JPMorgan Chase & Co. must advance millions more in disputed legal fees to cover the appeal of the convicted founder of college financial aid startup Frank, concluding the bank failed to meet Delaware's demanding standard for withholding advancement by showing the billing requests reflected "clear abuse."

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Ex-DOJ Fraud Section Chief Joins Fried Frank

By Nadia Dreid

Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP has added a veteran litigator from the U.S. Department of Justice who also brings more than a decade of experience representing financial institutions in white collar, enforcement and complex litigation spaces.

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Reed Smith Adds Ex-Norton Rose Partner, RE Atty In Munich

By Nate Beck

Reed Smith LLP has bolstered its private equity practice with the hire of a former Norton Rose Fulbright group leader in Munich.

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McCarter Atty Knew 'Magic Words' For $20M Deals, Court Told

By Brian Steele

If a onetime McCarter & English LLP partner had raised a single red flag about a Long Island town's legally flimsy agreement to repay $20 million worth of a businessman's loans, the ill-fated deals never would have gone forward, a Connecticut court heard Thursday.

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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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