Blake Lively Wants Baldoni's Atty Sanctioned For Comments

By Emily Sawicki

Actress Blake Lively has asked a Manhattan federal judge to sanction the attorney representing "It Ends With Us" co-star Justin Baldoni in her ongoing defamation case, alleging the lawyer repeatedly defied a February court order blocking extrajudicial statements likely to prejudice the case.

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Ghislaine Maxwell Slams Feds' Bid To Unseal Grand Jury Docs

By Lauren Berg

Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking children for late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, urged a New York federal judge Tuesday to deny the government's bid to unseal grand jury transcripts, saying release of the sealed materials could jeopardize the appeal of her 2021 conviction.

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Lead Kicked From Pharma Investor Case Over Rogue Emails

By Emily Sawicki

The lead plaintiff in a securities class action against Spectrum Pharmaceuticals in Manhattan federal court was removed from the case Tuesday when a federal judge found he broke confidentiality rules by going behind his lawyers' backs in an attempt to push his own settlement plan and fixating on unrelated conspiracy theories.

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Tornado Cash Jury Still Out, SEC Leader Backs Privacy Tech

By Stewart Bishop

Jury deliberations in the money laundering and sanctions trial of Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm continued Tuesday with no verdict, one day after a top securities regulator championed the legitimacy of privacy-protecting technologies, much like defense claims about the cryptocurrency tumbler.

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2nd Circ. Nixes Madoff Feeder Fund Clawback Suits

By Ben Zigterman

About 300 clawback lawsuits filed by the liquidators of British Virgin Islands-based funds that invested in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities should be dismissed, a Second Circuit panel said on Tuesday, finding the deals were protected by the U.S. Bankruptcy Code's safe harbor for securities transactions.

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States Win Ruling To Shield FEMA Disaster Prevention Funds

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge on Tuesday temporarily barred the Trump administration from redirecting more than $4 billion in funds allocated by Congress for natural disaster mitigation efforts toward other Federal Emergency Management Agency programs.

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NY Loses Bid To Move Climate Superfund Suit Upstate

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

The federal government's lawsuit challenging New York's climate change Superfund law will proceed in the New York City court where it was filed, rather than in a judicial district closer to the state capitol as the state had requested, a judge said.

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Fed. Hazmat Law Doesn't Bar Negligence Suit, 2nd Circ. Says

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut federal judge was wrong to find that the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act preempted a propane company's common-law negligence and recklessness claims over damage it suffered from a heating oil spill, the Second Circuit ruled Tuesday in restoring a lawsuit seeking more than $500,000 to cover remediation costs.

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Advocacy Org. Wants FTC's Full, Dropped Pepsi Complaint

By Bryan Koenig

The Federal Trade Commission's price discrimination complaint against Pepsi could become public after all, despite the agency dropping the lawsuit, after a New York federal judge on Tuesday permitted an advocacy group to intervene in the case in order to seek the full, unredacted filing.

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Lottery.com SPAC Exec Wants Info From California Fraud Case

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge said Tuesday that he will weigh a request by a special purpose acquisition company CEO accused of fraud in a merger involving Lottery.com Inc. to have New York prosecutors provide discovery from a California criminal case.

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States Push DOJ To Crack Down On Illegal Offshore Gambling

By Elaine Briseño

Attorneys general from several states have written a letter asking the U.S. Department of Justice to target the "rampant spread" of illicit offshore online sports betting and gambling operations, which they say are harming United States citizens and depriving states of tax revenue.

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SVB Directed To Object To Ch. 11 Claims In Standing Fight

By Clara Geoghegan

The former parent company of Silicon Valley Bank and liquidators tasked with winding up its Cayman Islands branch locked horns on Tuesday over standing in a $294 million lawsuit, prompting a New York bankruptcy judge to request that SVB Financial object to claims as having been filed too late.

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Voyager Digital's Former Bank Escapes Fraud Suit, For Now 

By Sydney Price

Voyager Digital's former bank, Metropolitan Commercial Bank, has won dismissal of a 53-count suit alleging it was complicit in bad behavior by the now-defunct crypto lender and should be on the hook for repaying platform users, with the court ruling that the complaint as-is does not plausibly plead fraud or unjust enrichment.

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Long Island Town Challenges Tribal Land Determination

By Crystal Owens

A Long Island town is challenging a federal government decision to place 84 acres into a restricted fee status for the Shinnecock Indian Nation, saying its effect has recognized the property as Indian Country in such a way that has destroyed the municipality's regulatory jurisdiction.

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Simpson Thacher Adds Tax, Funds Pro From Dechert

By Andrea Keckley

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP announced Monday that it has continued its growth in the tax and registered funds spaces, welcoming a partner from Dechert LLP to its New York office.

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White & Case Lands Baker Botts Benefits Chair

By Anna Sanders

The firmwide executive compensation and employee benefits chair at Baker Botts LLP became the 20th U.S. lateral partner to join White & Case LLP this year, according to a Tuesday announcement.

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2nd Circ. Reinforces Consensus On Vacating Foreign Awards

In Molecular Dynamics v. Spectrum Dynamics Medical, the Second Circuit recently affirmed that federal district courts do not possess subject matter jurisdiction to vacate foreign arbitral awards, strengthening this consensus across the circuits most active in recognition and enforcement actions, says Ed Mullins at Reed Smith.

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Opinion

The Legal Education Status Quo Is No Longer Tenable

As underscored by the fallout from California’s February bar exam, legal education and licensure are tethered to outdated systems, and the industry must implement several key reforms to remain relevant and responsive to 21st century legal needs, says Matthew Nehmer at The Colleges of Law.

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Law, Medical School Orgs Face Application Fee Antitrust Suits

By Gina Kim

The Law School Admission Council and the Association of American Medical Colleges have each been hit with a proposed class action in Pennsylvania and D.C. federal courts, respectively, by candidates who said the nonprofits conspired with their member schools to charge excessive application fees that have been fixed at the same price regardless of the school.

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Judge Mulls Sanctioning Hagens Berman In Thalidomide Suits

By Lauren Berg

The Pennsylvania federal judge presiding over dozens of product liability actions against manufacturers of the morning sickness drug thalidomide Tuesday ordered Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP to explain why it shouldn't be sanctioned for allegedly conducting "grossly inadequate" pre-suit inquiries, obstructing discovery and doctoring evidence.

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Analysis

Tesla Verdict Could Embolden Plaintiffs With Similar Claims

By Carolina Bolado

The $329 million verdict handed down by jurors in Miami on Friday over a fatal Florida Keys crash is the first to find Tesla's autopilot defective and will likely embolden other plaintiffs with similar claims to take them to trial, personal injury attorneys told Law360.

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Analysis

A Free Exercise 'Blueprint' In Colo. Abortion Reversal Order

By Mark Payne

A Colorado federal judge's decision to allow medication abortion "reversals" on free exercise grounds could serve as a model for other lawsuits meant to legitimize a practice that is outside the standard practice of medicine.

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Law Profs Urge 11th Circ. To Toss Judge-Shopping Sanctions

By Madison Arnold

A group of seven law school professors is urging the Eleventh Circuit to toss a sanctions ruling against three attorneys for judge shopping, arguing that federal law does not forbid the practice and citing the "potentially chilling effect the order will have on counsel, especially those involved in pro bono representation."

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OptumRx Urges Panel To DQ Motley Rice In LA Opioid Suit

By Craig Clough

OptumRx told a California appellate panel Tuesday that Motley Rice should be disqualified from representing Los Angeles County in a lawsuit alleging it colluded with drugmakers to fuel the opioid crisis, saying the firm violated state law by using confidential information obtained in the case in other lawsuits it's handling against Optum.

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Feature

Meet FDA Chief Counsel Sean Keveney

By Dan McKay

The new top attorney at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, described as a "tremendous technical lawyer," rose through the ranks as a federal prosecutor before helping lead President Donald Trump's confrontation with elite universities this year.

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5th Circ. Says Texas Voter ID Law Is Legally Sound

By Spencer Brewer

A Fifth Circuit panel upheld a Texas law that requires voters to provide an identification number when voting by mail, finding the law complies with the Civil Rights Act and that the state designed it to combat mail-in ballot fraud.

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Ex-USPTO Heads, Judges Oppose Anti-Patent Thicket Bill

By Elliot Weld

A pro-innovation group composed of former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officials and former Federal Circuit judges on Tuesday asked Congress to oppose a bill introduced last month that would limit so-called patent thickets used by pharmaceutical companies to restrict the production of generic counterparts to their drugs.

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Analysis

Medicaid Cuts May Worsen Incarceration-Linked Death Risks

By Hannah Albarazi

A new public health investigation reveals an association between incarceration and elevated risk of early death, not only for people who have been behind bars but for entire communities. Experts caution that impending disinvestment in Medicaid could worsen outcomes in vulnerable populations.

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Ex-Patent Examiner Fights USPTO Exclusion At High Court

By Adam Lidgett

A former U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examiner wants the U.S. Supreme Court to review his exclusion from practicing before the agency, saying the justices should look at issues relating to a suspension he received and also federal civil rights protections.

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Approach The Bench: Justice Wecht On Judicial Campaigns

By Cara Bayles and Steven Trader

If running for judicial office often requires walking the line of being a sitting jurist and a politician, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht is no stranger to that tightrope.

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