NJ Panel Backs Atty's Defamation Suit Against GOP

By Carla Baranauckas

A New Jersey appellate panel refused Thursday to short‑circuit a Garden State municipal attorney's defamation suit against a slate of Republican candidates and their campaign committee, holding that the state's new anti‑SLAPP statute does not entitle the defendants to early dismissal or fees because key factual disputes require discovery.

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AbbVie Sues Over Bids To Market Generic Migraine Drugs

By George Woolston

AbbVie and its Allergan unit have filed patent infringement lawsuits against MSN Pharmaceuticals and Hetero in New Jersey federal court, alleging the two pharmaceutical companies are infringing on patents for the migraine drug Qulipta.

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NJ Man Cops To Role In North Korea Cyberfraud Scheme

By Gina Kim

A New Jersey man charged in a cyberfraud scheme to generate revenue for North Korea's weapons of mass destruction programs by fraudulently obtaining remote information technology positions at more than 100 U.S. companies pled guilty to conspiracy charges Wednesday in Massachusetts federal court, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

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VW Can't Nix Bulk Of Tiguan Oil-Guzzling Defect Suit

By Mike Curley

A New Jersey federal judge on Thursday denied the bulk of Volkswagen Group of America Inc.'s bid to dismiss a proposed class action from drivers in seven states who say their 2022 and 2023 Tiguan vehicles have a defect causing them to consume oil, saying the complaint sufficiently states most of its claims under the seven states' laws.

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NJ County Prosecutor, 9 Judicial Noms Get Senate Panel's OK

By Jake Maher

The New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee voted at a hearing Thursday to advance the acting Hudson County prosecutor for the full-time position and signed off on nine nominees for the state Superior Court.

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3rd Circ. Rules Hotel Room Searches After Checkout Are Legal

By Parker Quinlan

The Third Circuit on Thursday ruled that hotel guests are not entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy after checking out, rejecting an appeal from a man arrested after hotel staff notified police that they found drugs in his room.

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3rd Circ. Upholds 24-Year Drug, Fraud Sentence

By Jarek Rutz

A Third Circuit panel on Thursday upheld a roughly 24-year prison sentence imposed on a Pennsylvania man convicted of marijuana trafficking and wire fraud, rejecting arguments that the trial judge improperly relied on acquitted conduct, overstated the man's leadership role and imposed an excessive punishment.

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Venezuela Says Citgo Auction Marred By Conflicts

By Caroline Simson

Venezuela pressed the Third Circuit Thursday to overturn an order greenlighting the nearly $6 billion sale of Citgo to satisfy billions of dollars of the country's debt, arguing that the underlying attachment orders are void and that the proceeding was marred by "obvious" conflicts of interest.

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Brief

Greenberg Traurig Adds Ex-Prosecutor In Long Island

By Emily Sawicki

Greenberg Traurig LLP has added a former assistant U.S. attorney as a shareholder in its litigation practice, bulking up the commercial litigation, government investigations and regulatory capabilities of its Long Island, New York, offices.

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States Fight To Block EPA From Wiping Out $7B Solar Funding

By Dorothy Atkins

A coalition of states urged a Washington federal district judge Thursday to preliminarily block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from cutting solar power grant programs, arguing that without an injunction the Trump administration could transfer $7 billion back to the Treasury and "we will be entirely out of luck."

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How 11th Circ.'s Zafirov Decision Could Upend Qui Tam Cases

Oral argument before the Eleventh Circuit last month in U.S. ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates suggests that the court may affirm a lower court's opinion that the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act are unconstitutional — which could wreak havoc on pending and future qui tam cases, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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ERISA Litigation Trends To Watch With 2025 In The Rearview

There were significant developments in Employee Retirement Income Security Act litigation in 2025, including plaintiffs pushing the bounds of sponsor and fiduciary liability and defendants scoring district court wins, and although the types of claims might change, ERISA litigation will likely be just as active in 2026, say attorneys at Groom Law.

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Series

Muay Thai Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Muay Thai kickboxing has taught me that in order to win, one must stick to one's game plan and adapt under pressure, just as when facing challenges by opposing counsel or judges, says Mark Schork at Feldman Shepherd.

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Law Firms Closed 2025 With Continued 'Appetite For Hiring'

By Tracey Read

The legal sector continued to defy hiring expectations in spite of uncertainty in the U.S. economy as 2025 drew to a close.

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NY Courts Open To Attys Using AI To Prep Filings

By Andrea Keckley

Lawyers should not be barred outright from using artificial intelligence tools to prepare court documents, a New York court system advisory committee said in its annual report on Thursday.

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New Trade Group Joins Litigation Finance Lobbying Fight

By Ryan Boysen

A new trade group for litigation funders has launched with the aim of enlisting personal injury and mass tort attorneys in a fight against proposed federal laws that it says could threaten the $16 billion litigation finance industry.

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Bruce Fein Unauthorized To Represent Maduro, Atty Says

By Rachel Rippetoe

When constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein entered an appearance as counsel for former Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro on Tuesday, it was without having ever spoken to the client, according to a Thursday filing by Maduro's attorney Barry Pollack seeking to remove Fein from the case.

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Roundup

Up Next At High Court: Pollution Lawsuits & Trans Athletes

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will kick off the new year by hearing disputes over the constitutionality of state laws banning transgender female athletes from female-only sports and whether state or federal courts are the proper forum for lawsuits seeking to hold major oil companies accountable for harm caused by their oil production activities along Louisiana's coast. 

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Goldberg Segalla Fights Ex-IP Co-Chair's $4M Arbitration Bid

By Theresa Schliep

An arbitration fight Goldberg Segalla LLP initiated against a former co-chair of its intellectual property group over proceeds from transferred cases spilled into New York state court, where the firm is seeking relief from his counterclaims that it shorted him nearly $4 million in compensation.

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Jones Day To Help Restore David Bowie's Old London Home

By Jamie Lennox

Jones Day's charitable foundation will help to restore the childhood home of musical icon David Bowie before it opens to the public in late 2027, the historical trust leading the project said Friday.

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NJ Justices Nix Atty Registration Fee Hike After Bar Pushback

By Rose Krebs

The New Jersey Supreme Court has rejected a request to raise the annual registration fee for attorneys after the state's bar association complained that a proposed $27 hike for certain attorneys, following prior year increases, was too much at a time when they and their firms face "significantly increasing operational costs."

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Gov't Can't Use NYT Article As Evidence In Goldstein Trial

By Jared Foretek

A Maryland federal judge on Friday barred prosecutors from pre-admitting Thomas Goldstein's statements in a New York Times article as evidence in the SCOTUSblog co-founder's tax fraud trial, but she left open the possibility for the government to call either Jeffrey Toobin, the article's author, or a Times fact-checker, as a witness.

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Calif. Wage Suit Settles Months After Atty Admits To AI Mishap

By Emily Sawicki

A proposed wage and hour class action that drew the legal world's attention in November after the plaintiff's counsel admitted to using a half-dozen artificial intelligence tools to prepare a botched motion has now ended, with a Northern California federal judge granting a joint dismissal following a settlement agreement.

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Comey, James Fight DOJ Push To Combine Dismissal Appeals

By Jack Karp

Former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James are pushing back against federal prosecutors' effort to consolidate their currently separate appeals of the beleaguered prosecutions against the pair at the Fourth Circuit.

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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 a collapsed investment firm revive a $15 million dispute with a hedge fund, major Hollywood studios bring an IP claim against the U.K.'s largest internet providers over illegal streaming, and the Department of Health and Social Care sue the law firm and barrister representing it in a pharma competition damages case.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

In technology, the increasing use of artificial intelligence by legal departments will be a major concern for general counsel seeking to control costs in the New Year. And in labor matters, the National Labor Relations Board has a new general counsel along with a quorum and is ready to start deciding cases again.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a Ninth Circuit panel affirmed a ruling in which Apple beat claims it illegally blocked third-party access to Apple Watch medical data so it could create rival software.

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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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