Many NY Trial Judges Elevated In Secret, Report Finds

By Frank G. Runyeon

Hundreds of New York state judges are permanently elevated to top trial courts via a secretive appointment process, according to a report released Thursday.

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Analysis

Why Ethics Complaints Against Halligan Face 'Very High Bar'

By Phillip Bantz

Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan for the Eastern District of Virginia could face bar disciplinary action or court sanctions if the prosecutions she's pursuing at President Donald Trump's behest are found to be politically motivated or baseless, although proving ethics allegations will be an uphill battle, experts say.

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Ex-Va. Federal Prosecutor Joins NY AG James' Defense Team

By Lauren Berg

The former deputy criminal chief for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Norfolk, Virginia, Thursday joined the team defending New York Attorney General Letitia James in the government's case accusing her of mortgage-related fraud, filed after the president encouraged prosecutors to take action against his "guilty as hell" political opponents.

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FEMA Ordered To Restore $34M NY Anti-Terror Funds

By Lauren Berg

A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to restore nearly $34 million in slashed funds to protect New York's massive transit system from terrorism, saying the White House unlawfully tied the state's grant to immigration policy.

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Reed Smith Booted From Eletson Ch. 11 Over Clients' Existence

By Vince Sullivan

A New York bankruptcy judge disqualified Reed Smith LLP from continued work in the Chapter 11 case of reorganized oil and gas shipping company Eletson Holdings on Thursday, saying the law firm's clients no longer exist.

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MoneyLion Settles CFPB's Suit Over Military Service Charges

By Sydney Price

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and MoneyLion Inc. will settle a Biden-era enforcement action accusing the fintech lender of overcharging military service members, according to a filing in New York federal court.

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Unions Challenge Feds' AI Surveillance Of Noncitizens' Views

By Rae Ann Varona

Three labor unions sued the Trump administration in New York federal court Thursday to stop a surveillance program they allege scours online activity for viewpoints the administration doesn't like and leverages the threat of immigration enforcement to coerce silence.

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USDA Can't Curb SNAP Benefits As States Fight Data Demand

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge on Wednesday preliminarily blocked the U.S. Department of Agriculture from withholding potentially billions of dollars in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit funds from states that refuse to turn over highly sensitive personal information on millions of SNAP food assistance benefit recipients.

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States Battle Trump Admin To Recover Solar Program Funds

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

Attorneys general from across the country are suing the Trump administration for allegedly violating the Constitution and federal law by canceling a $7 billion program providing solar equipment to low-income households.

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Macy's, Discount Tire Co. Hit With Wash. Anti-Spam Suits

By Ben Adlin

Macy's and Discount Tire Co. are the latest businesses targeted by a wave of proposed class actions in which consumers claim the companies broke a Washington state law outlawing commercial emails with false or misleading subject lines.

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Jack Nicklaus Tells Jury He Wanted 'Freedom' Back After Pact

By David Minsky

Golf legend Jack Nicklaus told a Florida jury on Thursday that he filed for an arbitration in Miami to reclaim his intellectual property after parting ways with the company named after him, but added the chairman "did not want to give me my freedom." 

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Peloton Moves To Toss Investors' Revived COVID-19 Suit

By Jessica Corso

Peloton has once again moved to dismiss a proposed class action lawsuit revived by the Second Circuit last month, saying that investors couldn't prove executives intentionally misled them into believing that a spike in demand during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic was sustainable.

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Wall Street Giants Sued Over Alleged Stock Manipulation

By Emilie Ruscoe

An investor in Israeli chipmaker Eltek Ltd. has sued Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC and Interactive Brokers Group Inc., alleging they had a role in a complex stock price manipulation scheme that played out over years, causing trading prices for the tech company's shares to be "irrationally depressed."

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Schools Look To Duck Early Admissions Antitrust Case

By Matthew Santoni

A proposed class action against 32 colleges and universities fails to turn the "early decision" application process into an alleged conspiracy not to compete for applicants, in part because the schools have no reason to entice committed students away from their first choice of colleges, the defendants argued to a Massachusetts federal court.

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Hospital Insurer Seeks Ch. 15 After NY Child Abuse Claims

By Ben Zigterman

Northeast Insurance Co., a captive insurer for several hospitals and a Jewish nonprofit, asked a New York bankruptcy judge for Chapter 15 recognition of its Bermuda liquidation filing, saying it was rendered insolvent by claims stemming from the state's Child Victims Act.

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MTA Wants Truckers' Congestion Pricing Suit Tossed

By Linda Chiem

New York officials have told a Manhattan federal judge that an amended lawsuit alleging congestion pricing tolls wrongfully discriminate against commercial truckers still doesn't offer any new facts suggesting the tolls are unreasonable or violate federal law, so the lawsuit should be tossed for good.

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4th Circ. OKs $811M Award In CFPB Immigrant Bond Co. Suit

By Katryna Perera

The Fourth Circuit has affirmed an $811 million judgment awarded to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in its enforcement case against immigrant bond companies accused of engaging in abusive practices.

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NY Counties Want Court To Toss Rest Of 911 Tribal Bias Suit

By Nadia Dreid

Two New York counties have asked a federal judge to rethink her dismissal of only part of a lawsuit brought by the Cayuga Nation that accuses the counties of refusing to forward 911 calls made from the tribe's land to the tribal police unless the nation pays to connect the force to the counties' 911 system.

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BakerHostetler Adds Loeb & Loeb Corporate Group In NY

By Anna Sanders

BakerHostetler hired a quartet of dealmaking partners from Loeb & Loeb LLP for the firm's business practice group Thursday as part of its efforts to deepen capabilities in mergers and acquisitions, private equity and debt finance.

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Series

Traveling Solo Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Traveling by myself has taught me to assess risk, understand tone and stay calm in high-pressure situations, which are not only useful life skills, but the foundation of how I support my clients, says Lacey Gutierrez at Group Five Legal.

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Loan Forgiveness Overhaul May Chill Legal Aid Work

By Alison Knezevich

Civil legal services groups and public defenders say the Trump administration's proposed change to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program would politicize the initiative and make it harder to recruit attorneys to jobs that pay less than the private sector.

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Atty Quits Ga. Bar's 'Facade' Committee On Client Solicitation

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia attorney resigned Friday as head of the state bar's committee on attorney-client solicitation, accusing the bar of not even "reaching for a garden hose" while unlawful solicitation of accident victims has spread "like wildfire" across the Peach State.

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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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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen Johnson & Johnson hit with a £1 billion ($1.34 billion) claim for allegedly selling contaminated baby powder, Carter-Ruck bring a claim against the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and Hewlett Packard file a probate claim against the estate of Mike Lynch.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Exxon was hit with a proposed class action alleging its new program to enable automated proxy voting for retail investors is intended to stifle shareholder dissent. Meanwhile, a new survey found that nearly two-thirds of in-house legal departments think they will rely less on outside legal service providers because of generative artificial intelligence. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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NY Court Orders Hearing On Counsel Conflict In Drug Case

By Elizabeth Daley

A man who pled guilty to gun and drug charges and was sentenced to 12 years in prison can argue for a new trial due to ineffective counsel after a similarly culpable co-defendant got a light sentence allegedly due to cooperation between their attorneys, a New York state appeals court said in a reversal.

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Utah Fires Motley Rice From Opioid Case

By Jack Karp

The state of Utah has fired Motley Rice LLC from representing it in long-running litigation over the opioid crisis, a spokesperson for the Utah attorney general's office confirmed to Law360 Pulse on Friday.

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Ga. Judge Resigns After DUI Arrest Outside Fla. Strip Club

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia Superior Court jurist who led the state's Council of Superior Court Judges stepped down from the bench Thursday after his driving under the influence arrest last week outside a Jacksonville, Florida, strip club.

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UC Law School Can Drop Hastings Name, Appeals Court Says

By Andrea Keckley

California is allowed to drop Serranus Clinton Hastings' name from the University of California's San Francisco-based law school, a state appeals court has ruled, backing a trial judge's decision to toss a lawsuit filed by the former chief state Supreme Court justice's descendants and various school alumni.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Caldwell Cassady & Curry PC and Miller Fair Henry PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California federal jury found Samsung must pay nearly $445.5 million for infringing four wireless communication patents.

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Liberty Mutual Attys Face Sanctions Bid Over Citation Errors

By Emily Sawicki

A St. Louis federal court is weighing whether to sanction Liberty Mutual Personal Insurance Company's lawyers after they submitted a motion containing citation errors and then, after a warning, "somehow" submitted a second motion with the same types of mistakes.

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Federal Courts To Scale Back Operations Amid Shutdown

By Ryan Boysen

The federal court system has run out of money and will scale back operations beginning Monday as a result of the ongoing government shutdown, possibly leading to case delays.

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Robbins Geller To Steer REIT Investors' Suit Over $787M Deal

By Sydney Price

Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP will lead a proposed class of investors in real estate investment trust Broadmark Realty Capital Inc. who claim they were misled by executives from the REIT ahead of a $787 million merger with Ready Capital Corp. in 2023.

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