"Spider-Man" star Tobey Maguire told the jury Wednesday in Thomas Goldstein's tax fraud trial that he paid $500,000 for his legal services to another poker player the former SCOTUSblog founder owed money to, rather than Goldstein's law firm.
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THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

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Tobey Maguire Says He Rerouted Fee To Goldstein

By Jared Foretek

"Spider-Man" star Tobey Maguire told the jury Wednesday in Thomas Goldstein's tax fraud trial that he paid $500,000 for his legal services to another poker player the former SCOTUSblog founder owed money to, rather than Goldstein's law firm.

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Tom Goldstein Saga Could Go From Courtroom To Big Screen

By Rachel Rippetoe

As federal prosecutors are two weeks into detailing SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein's storied descent into the world of high-stakes poker during his tax fraud trial in Maryland, Hollywood producers are gearing up to tell the same story on-screen.

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Record Label Says 2 Live Crew Gave Up Rights In Bankruptcy

By Carolina Bolado

A Miami-based record label told an Eleventh Circuit panel Wednesday that a lower court erred in determining rap group 2 Live Crew never gave up termination rights under the Copyright Act, arguing instead that the rights were included in the sale of the records in a 1996 bankruptcy.

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TED Talks Producer Can't Nix Video Data Sharing Privacy Suit

By Lauren Berg

A Manhattan federal judge won't toss a lawsuit alleging the nonprofit producer of TED Talks unlawfully disclosed to third-party trackers the personally identifiable information of consumers who made accounts to watch videos on its website and app, saying the consumers have adequately alleged the disclosures violate the Video Privacy Protection Act.

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Jordan Card Seller Found Guilty Of Faking 'Mint' Grades

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal jury on Wednesday convicted a Washington state man of meticulously faking grades to boost the value of big-dollar trading cards, including an iconic Michael Jordan rookie card, to rip off buyers seeking collectibles in prime condition.

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Anthropic Hit With 2nd Music IP Suit, This Time For $3B

By Hailey Konnath

Major music publishers already suing Anthropic for copyright infringement filed a second, $3 billion suit against the artificial intelligence company on Wednesday, a move they say is necessary to hold Anthropic accountable for "brazen," newly discovered mass infringement of sheet music and songbooks.

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Analysis

Trade Secret Filings Hit Record High In 2025, Report Finds

By Ivan Moreno

Trade secret litigation reached an all-time high in 2025, with more than 1,500 federal cases filed for the first time ever, according to a new report by legal analytics firm Lex Machina, which also highlights trends about damages, the busiest courts and the law firms most frequently involved.

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2026 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2026 editorial advisory boards.

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PRIVACY & CONSUMER PROTECTION

Social Media Addiction Laws Eyed By Conn. Governor, AG

By Aaron Keller

Connecticut lawmakers will consider forcing social media companies to display mental health warning labels and file state reports detailing the numbers of youth users, parental consent figures and average daily screen time statistics, Gov. Ned Lamont and Attorney General William M. Tong said in a Wednesday statement.

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Google To Pay Android Users $135M To End Data Use Suit

By Allison Grande

Google agreed to pay $135 million and obtain consent from new Android users for use of their cellular data to resolve a proposed class action accusing it of conducting "passive" data transfers without consumers' knowledge or consent over the Android operating system, according to a proposed deal filed in California federal court.

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7th Circ. Weighs 'Unprecedented' Clearview AI Privacy Deal

By Celeste Bott

The Seventh Circuit on Wednesday raised misgivings about a novel settlement ending multidistrict litigation over Clearview AI's collection of biometric data online, pressing an attorney for those objecting to the deal to offer alternatives they'd deem fair, given the risk of the company going bankrupt and class members receiving no payout at all.

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Gospel Label Seeks To Stop Singer's Music Release In IT Row

By Kelcey Caulder

A Christian music record label asked a Georgia federal court to block a Grammy Award-winning gospel singer and his company from releasing new music in a dispute over intellectual property rights and millions in royalties.

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COMPETITION

LegitScript's Counterclaims Against PharmacyChecker Tossed

By Matthew Perlman

An Oregon federal court dismissed LegitScript's counterclaims accusing PharmacyChecker.com of making false statements about the legality of importing prescription drugs, in a suit accusing the pharmacy accreditation provider of blacklisting the price-checking website.

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SECURITIES & WHITE COLLAR

SEC Says Musk Can't Fight 'Uncontested' Facts In Twitter Case

By Katryna Perera

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday further urged a D.C. federal judge to grant it an early win in the agency's enforcement action against Elon Musk over his Twitter stock purchases, saying Musk's recent opposition brief "only confirms that the court should grant" summary judgment.

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Crypto Investors Want Mark Cuban Suit Sent To Texas

By Sydney Price

Crypto investors suing billionaire Mark Cuban and his former NBA team the Dallas Mavericks over their alleged promotion of the collapsed exchange Voyager have asked a Florida federal judge to transfer their claims to Texas, a month after the judge dismissed the claims on personal jurisdiction grounds.

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Data Co.'s Brass, Top Customer Face SEC 'Round-Trip' Claims

By Emilie Ruscoe

Executives of a now-bankrupt data intelligence company face U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims that they conspired with one of the company's biggest customers on a so-called round-trip accounting scheme to overstate the company's revenue and become a more attractive target for a special purpose acquisition company.

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TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Senators Question If FirstNet, AT&T Need More Oversight

By Christopher Cole

A U.S. Senate panel Wednesday examined calls to reform the national first responder network and to rework AT&T's 25-year exclusive contract to provide network coverage for emergency personnel across the country.

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FCC Sees Dead People On Lifeline, But Dems Balk At New Reg

By Christopher Cole

Democrats are bristling against a plan by the Federal Communications Commission to reduce purported fraud in the Lifeline program, where the agency says some states enrolled dead people and others who don't qualify.

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Brief

FCC Chair Signals Feb. Vote On 900 MHz Expansion

By Corey Rothauser

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said the commission plans to vote next month on an order that would allow broadband deployment across the full 10 megahertz of the 900 MHz band, a move the nation's railroads have said they would support but only with strict safeguards in place.

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HOSPITALITY

Casino License Revocation Order Off The Mark, 8th Circ. Told

By Crystal Owens

Two Cherokee Nation entities say an Arkansas federal court "struck out on its own" when it dismissed claims over the revocation of an Arkansas-issued gambling license, telling the Eighth Circuit that the decision sets a dangerous precedent that will haunt the state as it seeks multimillion-dollar investors.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

What Businesses Offering AI Should Expect From The FTC

The Federal Trade Commission's move to reopen and set aside an administrative order against Rytr shows that the FTC is serious about executing on the administration's Artificial Intelligence Action Plan, and won't stand in the way of businesses offering AI products with pro-consumer, legitimate uses, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

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Series

Judges On AI: How Judicial Use Informs Guardrails

U.S. Magistrate Judge Maritza Dominguez Braswell at the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado discusses why having a sense of how generative AI tools behave, where they add value, where they introduce risk and how they are reshaping the practice of law is key for today's judges.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

ICE Violated Nearly 100 Court Orders, Minn. Judge Says

By Rae Ann Varona

The Minnesota federal court's chief judge admonished U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday for violating nearly 100 court orders concerning the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota while another judge, on the same day, temporarily blocked ICE from unlawfully arresting and detaining refugees in the North Star State.

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Fla. Prosecutors' Detention Defense Met With Sanction Threat

By Adrian Cruz

The U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida, Gregory Kehoe, along with an assistant U.S. attorney have been threatened with sanctions by a federal judge for the methods their office used in defending the mandatory detention of noncitizens.

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Brief

Trump Announces Pick For New Assistant AG For Fraud Role

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday evening that he would be nominating Colin McDonald, associate deputy attorney general, for the newly created assistant attorney general for fraud role.

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USPTO Seeks 'Serious Sanctions' For Chinese Co.'s 19K Apps

By Rae Ann Varona

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says the "most serious sanctions" are warranted against a China-based company for filing more than 19,000 trademark submissions using names of U.S.-licensed attorneys who did not review the applications, saying submissions were at times filed in 3-minute intervals "or less."

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Prosecutors Form New Group To Fight Federal Overreach

By Ryan Boysen

Several progressive prosecutors have launched a new group to hold accountable federal officials who "exceed their lawful authority," amid a growing backlash to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and the recent killing of two protesters by immigration agents in Minneapolis.

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Promo that reads 2025 Practice Groups of the Year

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AT&T Inc.

American Bar Association

American College of Trial Lawyers

Anthropic PBC

Association of American Railroads

Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law

Cherokee Nation Entertainment LLC

Clearview AI

Concord Music Group Inc.

Dallas Mavericks Inc.

FIRST

Google LLC

Grover Gaming

Instagram Inc.

Insulet Corporation

International Refugee Assistance Project

JTH Tax LLC

Ketchum Inc.

LegitScript LLC

Lex Machina Inc.

LexisNexis Legal & Professional

LinkedIn Corp.

Meta Platforms Inc.

NASCAR Digital Media LLC

National Basketball Association Inc.

New York County Lawyers' Association

Paramount Global

Public Citizen Inc.

RELX PLC

Tesla Inc.

TikTok Inc.

Twitter Inc.

University of Miami

Verizon Communications Inc.

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Arroyo Law Firm

Ballard Spahr

Bartlit Beck

Berger Montague

Boies Schiller

Bona Law PC

Bradley Arant

Brown Rudnick

Bursor & Fisher

Clement & Murphy

Coblentz Patch

Cooley LLP

Cowan Liebowitz

David Boies

Doniger Burroughs

Faegre Drinker

Fisher & Phillips

Fowler White Burnett

Goldstein & Russell

Gordon Rees

Greenberg Traurig

Jackson Lewis PC

Jones Day

K&L Gates

Korein Tillery

Kula & Associates PA

Littler Mendelson

Loevy & Loevy

Lynch Thompson

McCarter & English

McDaniel Wolff

McManis Faulkner

Munger Tolles

Napoli Shkolnik

Ogletree Deakins

Ojala-Barbour Law Firm

Oppenheim & Zebrak

Paul Hastings

Quinn Emanuel

Reed Smith

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Taft Stettinius

Tannenbaum Helpern

Tonkon Torp

Weil Gotshal

WilmerHale

Winston & Strawn

Wolfe Law Miami

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Arkansas Supreme Court

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

City and County of San Francisco, California

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Trade Commission

Internal Revenue Service

Minnesota Attorney General's Office

National Telecommunications and Information Administration

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota

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

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota

U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. Government Accountability Office

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Colorado