Roundup

Defamation Litigation Roundup: FDA, Lively, Alexander Bros.

By Theresa Schliep

In this month's review of defamation fights, Law360 highlights a pharmaceutical company's suit against a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration official, as well as the latest decision siding against President Donald Trump in his fights with media companies.

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Cher Wins $187K In Royalties In Sonny Bono Estate Dispute

By Elliot Weld

Actress and singer Cher was granted about $187,000 in royalties by a California federal judge who ruled that the money had been retained by her late ex-husband and one-time musical collaborator Sonny Bono's estate improperly.

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Fla. Judge Reduces Damages In Megan Thee Stallion Verdict

By David Minsky

A Florida federal judge on Tuesday reduced the amount of damages awarded to Megan Thee Stallion after a jury found that an online blogger shared a deepfake porn video over the internet and accused the rapper of lying in court, ruling that the writer was not served with a pre-suit notice for defamation.

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Fox News, FedEx Ink Clawback Settlements With Guo Trustee

By Aaron Keller

The trustee handling Chinese exile Miles Guo's $374 million Chapter 11 estate has asked a Connecticut bankruptcy judge to approve sealed settlements in clawback claims once totaling nearly $4 million against Fox News, FedEx, Marcum LLP and seven other entities after a mediator agreed the terms were reasonable.

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Miss America Sanctions Bid Must Be Axed, Fla. Court Told

By Madison Arnold

The plaintiffs in a Florida federal court battle over the ownership of the Miss America pageant have pushed back against a sanctions bid against their attorneys, saying the court should reject it because it's "wholly meritless."

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Feds 'Engaging' MLB Pitchers On Plea Talks But No Offer Yet

By Pete Brush

A Brooklyn federal judge on Tuesday set a May trial date for two Major League Baseball pitchers accused of conspiring to throw pitches that would secure gambling payouts, after prosecutors expressed interest in exploring plea talks amid an ongoing investigation.

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Twitter Investors Lose Bid To DQ Musk Counsel Spiro

By Katryna Perera

A California federal judge has denied an attempt by Twitter investors to have Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP partner Alex Spiro disqualified from serving as both lead counsel for Elon Musk and a witness in a trial over claims that Musk tried to tank Twitter's stock.

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Protesters Drop Use-Of-Force Suit After Feds Leave Town

By Lauren Berg

Clergy, protesters and journalists on Tuesday dropped their lawsuit accusing federal agents of violently violating their First Amendment rights to protest peacefully and report news during the Trump administration's now-quiet immigration crackdown in Chicago, telling a federal judge the plaintiffs "won our case the day they left town."

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House GOP Pushing 'Suite' Of Bills To Protect Kids Online

By Allison Grande

Several House Republicans on Tuesday threw their support behind nearly 20 legislative proposals that they argued are critical for tackling the myriad of harms facing children online while avoiding First Amendment issues that have derailed similar state efforts, drawing a rebuke from Democrats who questioned how the bills would be enforced given recent cuts at the Federal Trade Commission. 

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MVP: Hueston Hennigan's Moez Kaba

By Corey Rothauser

Moez Kaba, a co-founder of Hueston Hennigan LLP and one of the firm's top trial lawyers, led a unit of The Walt Disney Co. to a decisive win in a copyright suit over "Moana," secured an appellate victory for McDonald's Corp. in a challenge to its diversity statements and helped Amazon's Twitch unit defeat lawsuits over a gunman's 2022 livestreamed mass shooting in New York, earning him a spot as one of the 2025 Law360 Media & Entertainment MVPs.

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Accusers Seek To Revive Katt Williams Suit Over Judicial Bias

By Lynn LaRowe

Four women whose suit against comedian Katt Williams was tossed by a Georgia federal judge on a finding that the claims related to a 2016 altercation outside a nightclub were time-barred, asked the court Tuesday to reconsider on the basis that the judge is hostile to their lawyer and did not render an impartial decision.

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Trio Of Firms Advises On Planned $500M Eventbrite Sale

By Al Barbarino

Eventbrite Inc. said on Tuesday it has agreed to be acquired by Italian technology company Bending Spoons in an all-cash deal valuing the event management platform at about $500 million and steered by three law firms. 

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Startup's Accent Translation Trade Secrets Suit Can Proceed

By Elliot Weld

A California federal judge has denied a technology company's attempt to escape a suit alleging it stole trade secrets related to an accent translation technology from an artificial intelligence startup, saying the tech company's insistence that its rival did not make enough of an effort to defend the secrets does not make for grounds to dismiss the case at this time.

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Wash. AI Task Force Proposes Guardrails And Disclosures

By Rachel Riley

A Washington state task force Monday unveiled a set of proposed guardrails and disclosure requirements for the responsible use of artificial intelligence, including mandating that developers publicly share details about data used to train their models and requiring law enforcement to disclose the use of AI tools.

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Cox Failed To Protect Sensitive Data From Breach, Suit Says

By Kelcey Caulder

Communications and automotive services company Cox Enterprises failed to adequately safeguard its back-office business operations platform against a data breach, putting personally identifiable information at risk of being stolen, according to a proposed class action filed in Georgia federal court.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

The FTC urged a D.C. court to block a deal involving a new heart valve treatment, and courts rejected the commission's monopolization case over Meta's past acquisitions and the agency's challenge of a medical device coatings deal. Here, Law360 looks at the major merger review developments from November.

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Judge Combines Antitrust Suits Against Zillow, Redfin

By Isaac Monterose

A Virginia federal judge has consolidated two separate antitrust suits filed by the Federal Trade Commission and multiple states against property listing companies Zillow Group Inc., Zillow Inc. and Redfin Corp.

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'I'm A Drug Addict LOL': Skaggs' Widow Denies Red Flags

By Gina Kim

An attorney defending the Los Angeles Angels against negligence claims related to the overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs confronted his widow on the stand Tuesday with his texts about drug use, including one message saying, "I'm a drug addict lol," but she maintained that she never observed any "red flags."

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Post-Gazette Publisher Tries Again To Pause Benefits Order

By Emily Brill

If the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette must restore its union-represented editorial staff's pre-2020 healthcare benefits, it will shut down, the newspaper's publisher claimed in a brief filed with the Third Circuit, requesting another shot at pausing an injunction that compelled the paper to restore the benefits.

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X, Former Workers Lay Down Swords In Arbitration Fee Fight

By Grace Elletson

X Corp. and employees laid off after Twitter's 2022 acquisition by Elon Musk told an Illinois federal judge they have ended their battle over claims that the social media company unlawfully refused to pick up the tab for arbitration fees.

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Ex-FCC Official Condemns Rollback Of Biden Cyber Rule

By Courtney Bublé

A former senior career official at the Federal Communications Commission testified on Tuesday that it was a mistake for the agency to scrap a Biden-era ruling to require telecommunications companies to beef up their security in the aftermath of the Salt Typhoon cyberattack.

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NTIA Chief Says Broadband Program Reforms Save $21B

By Christopher Cole

The federal government has shaved $21 billion off the cost of a broadband deployment program through recent reforms and will unveil policies soon on how those savings will be used, the head of the agency leading the effort said Tuesday.

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NTIA Signals Interest In Reducing Students' Screen Time

By Christopher Cole

A branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce will lead a new federal effort to cut down on "excessive" use of devices by students, the agency's administrator said Tuesday.

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LA Atty Accused Of Using AI 'Hallucinations' Sanctioned

By Rae Ann Varona

A California state appeals court has ordered an attorney accused of including artificial intelligence "hallucinations" in a client's opening brief to pay $7,500 to the court, saying in a published opinion that the attorney is subject to sanctions for inaccuracies, regardless of whether they were the result of AI.

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Ex-Bernstein Litowitz Atty Starts Firm After Contentious Exit

By Adrian Cruz

A former Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP partner known for handling high-profile stockholder cases has led the launch of a boutique focused on corporate disputes and securities litigation after the firm says he was fired for misconduct.

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Fed. Circ. Pushes DC Circ. Not To Rethink Newman Decision

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit has urged the D.C. Circuit to ignore Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's request to rehear a decision upholding the dismissal of her suit against the colleagues who suspended her, saying the judiciary has the right to police its own internal matters.

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Bonus Spotlight

High Billers At McKool Smith To Pocket Extra Bonus Money

By Tracey Read

McKool Smith is the latest BigLaw firm to announce extra cash for attorneys who went above and beyond with billable hours in 2025, according to an internal memo obtained by Law360 Pulse.

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1st Circ. Doubts Ex-BigLaw Atty's Campaign Finance Appeal

By Chris Villani

The First Circuit on Wednesday expressed misgivings about a former BigLaw attorney's argument that a jury that convicted him of a campaign finance scheme during a failed run for Congress should have been required to unanimously find that each specific transaction was illegal.

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Wilson Sonsini To Switch Leaders For 1st Time Since 2012

By Andrea Keckley

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC announced plans for its first top leadership transition in more than a decade on Wednesday, tapping a Palo Alto, California-based litigator and a New York-based corporate lawyer to begin co-leading the firm at the start of next August.

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Mass. Court Says Plea Deal Inattention May Be Ineffectiveness

By Julie Manganis

Massachusetts' highest court on Wednesday concluded that a lawyer's failure to seek a plea bargain if asked to do so by a defendant may amount to ineffective assistance of counsel requiring a new trial under certain circumstances.

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WilmerHale Hires BNP Paribas Director In Boston

By James Boyle

An attorney with nearly 30 years of experience counseling clients on financial regulatory matters, including 10 years with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, has moved his practice to WilmerHale's Boston office.

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FTC Backs Nixing ABA Role As 'Gatekeeper' For Texas Bar

By Lynn LaRowe

The Federal Trade Commission has endorsed a proposal from the Texas Supreme Court to abandon a rule requiring graduation from a law school approved by the American Bar Association for admittance to the state bar, saying the organization's "accreditation monopoly" hurts competition and consumers.

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Virginia Bar Declines To Investigate Interim US Atty Halligan

By Ryan Boysen

The Virginia State Bar has declined to investigate whether Lindsey Halligan should face discipline over her scandal-plagued tenure as the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, just days after a federal judge ruled she was not properly appointed to that post.

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Troutman Atty Is 3rd NC Federal Judge Confirmed This Week

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 57-41 on Wednesday to confirm Matthew Orso, a partner at Troutman Pepper Locke LLP, to the Western District of North Carolina as a federal district judge.

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AGs Say Sun, Taro Settlement Mustn't Touch State Claims

By Bryan Koenig

State attorneys general have asked a Pennsylvania federal judge to again ensure their claims remain untouched by a settlement between private plaintiffs and generic-drug makers in sprawling price-fixing litigation, this time focusing on a $200 million deal between Sun Pharmaceutical, Taro Pharmaceuticals and employee benefit plans.

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Trump Would Prefer Jack Smith Testify In Public

By Courtney Bublé

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, subpoenaed former counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday for a closed-door deposition, to which President Donald Trump said he would rather see a public testimony.

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