A Florida federal court has rejected sanctions motions leveled against Tristar Products Inc. and its counsel at Fried Frank for bringing a doomed anti-racketeering patent fraud lawsuit against Telebrands Corp., finding that the claims were not frivolous despite "myriad" flaws and "sloppy lawyering."
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Legal Ethics
TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2025 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

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Fried Frank Escapes Sanctions Over Flawed RICO Patent Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A Florida federal court has rejected sanctions motions leveled against Tristar Products Inc. and its counsel at Fried Frank for bringing a doomed anti-racketeering patent fraud lawsuit against Telebrands Corp., finding that the claims were not frivolous despite "myriad" flaws and "sloppy lawyering."

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NJ Feds Say Habba's US Atty Role Unusual, But Not Unlawful

By Lauren Berg

Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba on Monday doubled down on her argument that President Donald Trump legally appointed her New Jersey's top federal prosecutor, telling a federal judge that this is simply "an unusual situation" created when the district court last month refused to extend her interim tenure.

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Burr & Forman Must Face Claims From Healthcare Scheme

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia federal judge has denied Burr & Forman LLP's bid to escape a lawsuit accusing the firm of being party to a massive healthcare fraud scheme, ruling that it must largely face malpractice and breach of fiduciary claims from a pair of bankruptcy trustees.

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Ex-GC Ordered To Destroy Files In Trade Secret Dispute

By Danielle Ferguson

Storehouse In A Box secured a permanent injunction against its former general counsel and chief operating officer, barring him from using or accessing confidential information the e-commerce company alleges he misappropriated after being put on leave, according to a Monday order.

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Ex-NY AG Immune From Malicious Prosecution Suit

By Cara Salvatore

Former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has immunity from a suit by a former New York City Council member claiming wrongful prosecution, a federal judge has ruled.

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Ga. Gov. Hopeful Asks Judge To Spurn AG's Fundraising Suit

By Chart Riggall

Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones hit back Monday at Attorney General Chris Carr's suit alleging state fundraising laws have given Jones an edge in their upcoming contest for the state governorship, accusing his Republican primary rival of flip-flopping on a law that Carr himself has defended in court on numerous occasions.

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Fla. Suit Over Atty Access To Detention Center Transferred

By David Minsky

A Florida federal judge on Monday transferred a proposed class action lawsuit accusing the government of restricting attorney access to an Everglades immigrant detention center, ruling that the current district isn't proper for the claims against state officials.

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DISCIPLINARY MATTERS

Mass. Justices Affirm 3-Year Suspension For Bankruptcy Atty

By Julie Manganis

Massachusetts' highest court on Monday affirmed a three-year license suspension for a Boston bankruptcy attorney over a series of rules violations, including misrepresentations to federal and state courts, since 2014.

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LITIGATION

Whiteford Taylor Must Face Wire Fraud Malpractice Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A Maryland federal judge has declined to toss the majority of a malpractice and gross negligence suit brought by the founder of a construction company who accused his former business partners and their shared counsel of being partially to blame for hackers stealing his $4 million share of proceeds from the sale of their business.

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NJ Firms End Battle Over $25M Fee In Verizon Pole Injury Case

By Jake Maher

Several New Jersey firms have ended a long dispute over a $25 million fee from a personal injury case against Verizon in a suit that already went to trial in 2021 and recently had another trial ordered.

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Stone Hilton Takes Aim At Sex Harassment Claim

By Lynn LaRowe

For the second time this month, Stone Hilton PLLC has asked a federal court to trim a former employee's lawsuit, saying her allegations of sexual harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress do not rise to the level of "severe or pervasive" or "extreme and outrageous" as the law requires.

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Moore & Van Allen Wants Out Of Floridians' Malpractice Suit

By Adrian Cruz

Moore & Van Allen PLLC has asked a Florida federal judge to dismiss a malpractice suit accusing it of mishandling some residents' employee stock ownership trust, claiming that the suit brought against the North Carolina-based firm is being litigated in the wrong venue.

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Patent Licensing Co. Drops Starbucks Infringement Suit

By Adam Lidgett

A patent licensing company has agreed to drop its suit alleging Starbucks infringed a patent covering a mobile ordering system, although defamation claims against one of the coffee chain's attorneys remains at play in another case.

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LabMD Fights Dinsmore's Bid To Toss Malpractice Suit

By Rose Krebs

Now-shuttered LabMD Inc. and its CEO are pushing back against a bid from Dinsmore & Shohl LLP and a legal nonprofit to have a malpractice suit in Georgia federal court tossed, saying they haven't abandoned the case but rather were delayed in pursuing arbitration because they were searching for "competent counsel."

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Ex-Conrail CEO Loses Bid To Overturn $11M Arbitration Award

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Pennsylvania federal judge has upheld an $11 million arbitration award against former Conrail CEO David LeVan over a failed Gettysburg casino project that later spurred a legal malpractice case against Saul Ewing LLP in which LeVan claimed he was poorly advised during the deal's fallout.

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Biz Court Shoots Down Arb. Bid In Widow's Asset Fight

By Abigail Harrison

A widow contending that she can't be forced into arbitration over who owns assets of her late husband's business venture was granted a pretrial win after a North Carolina business court judge found "no competent evidence" for an agreement that would force her to do so.

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McCarter & English Fights Family's Bid For $4.6M Set-Aside

By Brian Steele

Family members of a deceased Connecticut shopping mall developer are not entitled to a $4.6 million damages placeholder in an asset mismanagement lawsuit against McCarter & English LLP, the law firm and an attorney's estate are arguing in opposing the demand in state court.

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NJ Law Firm Not Covered In Malpractice Suit, Court Says

By Hope Patti

An insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify a Princeton law firm against a malpractice suit alleging that one of its attorneys assisted a client in misappropriating her husband's assets, a New Jersey federal court ruled Monday, finding that a prior knowledge exclusion bars coverage.

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NJ Seeks To Toss Ex-Judge's 'Second Bite' In Firing Suit

By Jake Maher

New Jersey on Friday asked a state court to award it a victory over some of the claims in a former workers' compensation judge that she was unconstitutionally removed from her job after similar claims in a separate suit of hers were rejected in December.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Rebuttal

BigLaw Settlements Should Not Spur Ethics Deregulation

A recent Law360 op-ed argued that loosening law firm funding restrictions would make BigLaw firms less inclined to settle with the Trump administration, but deregulating legal financing ethics may well prove to be not merely ineffective, but counterproductive, says Laurel Kilgour at the American Economic Liberties Project.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Litigation Funder Burford Eyes Investments In US Law Firms

By Ryan Boysen

Burford Capital LLC, the world's largest litigation funder, is eyeing an investment model to put money directly in U.S. law firms after years of investing in U.S. lawsuits, its chief development officer told Law360 Pulse.

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Fired DOJ Antitrust Deputy Warns Of Lobbyist Influence

By Matthew Perlman

The former top deputy for the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Roger P. Alford, defended the agency's leadership Monday while calling out a pair of senior officials and warning of the influence that lobbyists are wielding over merger reviews and other issues.

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SDNY Judges OK Trump's Selection Of Jay Clayton As US Atty

By Hailey Konnath

The Southern District of New York on Monday permitted Jay Clayton to continue overseeing the district's prosecutorial office, appointing Clayton as U.S. attorney just a day before his tenure as interim U.S. attorney was set to expire.

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Lawmaker Pans 'Selective' Charges Over ICE Facility Clash

By Carla Baranauckas

U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver has moved to dismiss criminal charges against her from a May confrontation with federal agents at an immigrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey, arguing she is immune from prosecution under the U.S. Constitution's speech or debate clause and is being selectively targeted by the government.

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Treasury Seeks Input On Tech To Combat Crypto Crimes

By Aislinn Keely

The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Monday asked the public to share feedback on how novel technologies might be used to detect and thwart illicit crypto activity, fulfilling a directive under a recently signed bill to regulate stable value tokens.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Sydney Price and Jeff Montgomery

Executives and board members of Cencora Corp. tentatively settled a stockholder derivative suit for $111.25 million, VectoIQ board members reached a $6.3 million deal on stockholder claims over electric carmaker Nikola's prospects, and class attorneys who secured a $50 million derivative suit settlement saw their proposed 25% attorney fee cut by almost half. Here's the latest from the Delaware Chancery Court.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Archer & Greiner

Arnold & Porter

Baker Botts

Blank Rome

Burr & Forman

Castellani Law Firm

Clark Hill

Coughlin Midlige

DNL Zito

Dewey & LeBoeuf

Dinsmore & Shohl

Emmanuel Sheppard

Engstrom Lee

Freeman Mathis

Fried Frank

Frost Domel

Garteiser Honea

Gaskins Hancock

Goldberg Segalla

Hinshaw & Culbertson

Jenner & Block

Kang Haggerty

Keller Postman

King & Spalding

Kirsch Gelband

Kramon & Graham

Krovatin Nau

Littler Mendelson

Lowell & Associates

Mason Griffin & Pierson

Mazie Slater

McCarter & English

Mehri & Skalet

Miller Canfield

Miller Johnson Snell

Mintz & Gold

Moore & Van Allen

Nagel Rice

PCB Byrne

Paul Weiss

Perkins Coie

Pierson Ferdinand LLP

Pryor Cashman

Quinn Emanuel

Reed Smith

Robbins Alloy

SML Avvocati

Saul Ewing

Shutts & Bowen

Sirianni Youtz

Smith Gambrell

Stone & Magnanini

Sullivan & Cromwell

U.S. Immigration Law Counsel

Ward and Smith

Weinberg Wheeler

Wenzel Fenton

Whiteford Taylor

Wiggin & Dana

Williams Mullen

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.

American Bar Association

American Civil Liberties Union

American Economic Liberties Project

Armistice Capital LLC

Burford Capital LLC

Business Insider Inc.

Cause of Action Institute

Cencora Inc.

Financial Times Group Ltd.

GreatBanc Trust Co.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

Juniper Networks Inc.

Koch Inc.

National Amusements Inc

Newmark Group Inc.

Paramount Global

Skydance Media LLC

Starbucks Corp.

Tech Policy Institute

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The New York Times Co.

Twitter Inc.

USA Today International Corp.

Verizon Communications Inc.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Arizona Supreme Court

Delaware Court of Chancery

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Executive Office for Immigration Review

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Federal Trade Commission

Financial Stability Board

Financial Stability Oversight Council

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

New Jersey Court

New York Attorney General's Office

New York City Council

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate