Hagens Berman Referred To DOJ For Alleged Misconduct

By Emma Cueto

A Pennsylvania federal judge on Tuesday recommended to the U.S. Department of Justice that it investigate powerhouse plaintiffs firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP's conduct in connection with several since-dropped product liability cases that a special master found to be filed in bad faith.

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Vanguard Investors' Attys Seek $8.3M Fee

By Sydney Price

Attorneys representing investors that settled with Vanguard for $25 million to end claims the company improperly triggered an asset sell-off that damaged investors asked a Pennsylvania federal court on Tuesday to award them $8.3 million in fees in addition to other expenses.

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Pa. Justices To Review Vote Restricting Solitary Confinement

By Matthew Santoni

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court will consider whether a 2021 voter referendum restricting the use of solitary confinement and pepper spray at the Allegheny County Jail infringed on the jail employee union's collective bargaining rights, the court announced Tuesday.

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Plan Members Assert Standing In Cigna Data Breach Fight

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A group of Cigna health plan participants who claimed that the company failed to protect their data when it tracked their website activities asked a Pennsylvania federal judge not to throw out the suit, arguing that the proposed class had standing to sue over the alleged violations of state and federal privacy laws.

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Judge Doubts That FEMA Funds Freeze Is Harmless

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge on Tuesday appeared to push back on assertions by the Trump administration that states are not entitled to a court order vacating what the government says is a temporary freeze of Federal Emergency Management Agency funds intended to pay for disaster-mitigating projects.

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Judge Blocks Planned Parenthood Funding Cut In 22 States

By Dan McKay

A Massachusetts federal judge Tuesday stopped the Trump administration from halting Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood clinics in 22 states, ruling the funding cutoff likely violated requirements to warn the states ahead of time about the change.

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Breast Pump Co. To Pay $1M For Alleged Tricare Overbilling

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania reached a $1 million settlement with a breast pump company and its owner, resolving allegations that they submitted false claims for reimbursement for service members and their families.

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US Steel Agrees To Fine Over Monongahela River Oil Slicks

By Matthew Santoni

U.S. Steel will pay the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection $135,000 and take several steps to monitor and mitigate discharges of oily, greasy sheens from its Mon Valley Works Irvin Plant into the Monongahela River, the DEP announced Tuesday.

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Homebuyers Defend NAR Antitrust Claims Against Brokerage

By Nate Beck

A group of homebuyers told a Pennsylvania federal judge that brokerage Hanna Holdings failed to show cause for escaping antitrust claims over its use of rules set by the National Association of Realtors that artificially drove up the cost of house purchases.

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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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Wells Fargo Beneficiary's Hidden Trust Claims Are Too Late

By Emilie Ruscoe

Wells Fargo has beaten claims that it intentionally concealed a Massachusetts man's trust fund and drove him to financial instability, after a federal judge found the man didn't take appropriate steps to find his trust decades earlier.

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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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3rd Circ. Weighs 'Information' Meaning In Credit Report Rift

By George Woolston

A panel of the Third Circuit on Tuesday considered whether Experian acted reasonably when it reported that a New Jersey consumer was behind on child support payments despite the consumer's efforts to dispute that report's accuracy, questioning whether the purported delinquency had to be reported in the first place.

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Opinion

Nursing Home Abuse Cases Face 3 Barriers That Need Reform

Recent headlines reveal persistent gaps in oversight and protection for vulnerable residents in long-term care, but prosecution of these cases is often stymied by numerous challenges that will require a comprehensive overhaul of regulatory, legal and financial structures to address, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University.

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Bonus Spotlight

Sheppard Mullin To Offer Larger Bonuses To Busy Associates

By Kevin Penton

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP associates who labored past 2,000 hours in 2025 can expect to see a little extra in their upcoming bonus checks, according to an internal memo obtained by Law360.

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King & Spalding Atty Dies In Mountain Climbing Accident

By Kelcey Caulder

People at King & Spalding LLP are mourning after an appellate attorney from the firm and a mountain guide fell to their deaths climbing New Zealand's tallest mountain.

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Approach The Bench: Judge Robart On Living Under Threats

By Cara Bayles and Steven Trader

It's been nearly nine years since U.S. District Judge James Robart blocked President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order barring travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, and though the judge has had a long career — including groundbreaking patent and securities decisions — he still occasionally gets recognized as that "so-called judge."

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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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Dentons Sees Ex-Partner's Appeal Nixed In California

By Caroline Simson

California's highest court has quietly tossed litigation filed by a former Dentons partner who was fired over a $34 million contingency fee due from a Chinese client following an arbitration matter, several months after advising the parties to prepare for oral arguments.

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The Top In-House Hires Of November

By Sue Reisinger

Elon Musk's xAI has a new but familiar general counsel, while several sports groups — including the New York Mets, PGA of America and the SEC college athletic conference — also brought on new legal leaders in November.

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SDNY Head Backs Good Deals For Quick Cooperation By Cos.

By Stewart Bishop

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton on Tuesday said he's prepared to offer "real benefits" to corporations facing criminal investigations if they quickly agree to cooperate and compensate victims, ideally in the form of comprehensive, government-wide resolutions.

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Exclusive

14 Ex-Lawmakers Tell USPTO Proposed Rules Violate The Law

By Ryan Davis

A group of 14 former members of Congress, including America Invents Act sponsor Patrick Leahy, has told the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that the agency's proposal to restrict many patent challenges "violates foundational American legal principles and the AIA."

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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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2 New Judges Confirmed To NC Federal Court

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Senate confirmed two federal judges for North Carolina on Tuesday.

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