Hill-Rom Escapes Pennsylvania Hospital's Monopoly Claims

By Matthew Santoni

Tower Health's Reading Hospital failed to specifically outline how hospital equipment supplier Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. allegedly monopolized the hospital bed market, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled Friday in dismissing Reading's proposed class action with prejudice.

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Insurance Agency Says It's Not Liable For Lack Of Coverage

By Ganesh Setty

An insurance agency told a Pennsylvania state court that it can't be held liable for a furniture company's roughly $534,000 cyber loss, arguing that under state law, there is "no common law duty to advise, inform, or recommend optional coverage to the insured."

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3rd Circ. Unsure When Uber Wage Case Hits Dead End

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Third Circuit panel on Monday questioned at what point a judge is permitted to declare that a case can't be resolved, as it considered a bid by Uber drivers to revive employment misclassification claims that already resulted in two deadlocked juries.   

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Engineer Who Tried To Pass Secrets To Russia Gets 10½ Years

By Brian Steele

A onetime defense contractor who held national security clearances will spend more than a decade in prison after he admitted to trying to help Russia and disclosing information about U.S. fighter jets to an undercover FBI agent, federal prosecutors said Monday.

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Feds Urge 3rd Circ. To Restore NJ US Atty's Authority

By Emily Sawicki

The federal government has urged the Third Circuit to reverse a district court ruling disqualifying acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba from prosecuting two criminal cases in New Jersey after the clock allegedly ran out on her interim term, arguing that her appointment is valid and that the court erred in its interpretation of the statute.

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In Reversal, 3rd Circ. Lets Honda Challenge NJ Town Tow Law

By Elizabeth Daley

A Third Circuit panel reversed a district court's decision Monday, finding that Honda can argue it was denied due process after a New Jersey borough seized its vehicle from an uninsured lessee for driving uninsured, with a suspended license and registration.

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Kirkland, Gibson Dunn Advise On $1B Blackstone Energy Deal

By Al Barbarino

Blackstone will pay nearly $1 billion to purchase the Hill Top Energy Center natural gas power plant from Ardian, with Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP steering the private equity firms on the agreement, the firms said Monday. 

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Cozen O'Connor Picks Up 2 Jackson Lewis Attys In Philly

By James Boyle

Cozen O'Connor is expanding its employment law resources in Philadelphia with the additions of two attorneys who have moved their practices from Jackson Lewis PC.

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Fed. Circ. Rulings Refine Patent Claim Construction Standards

Four Federal Circuit patent decisions this year clarify several crucial principles governing patent claim construction, including the importance of prosecution history, and the need for error-free, precise language from claims drafters, say attorneys at Taft.

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Ex-Epstein Prosecutor Maurene Comey Sues DOJ Over Firing

By Emily Sawicki

Maurene Comey, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who brought high-profile criminal cases against the likes of Jeffrey Epstein and Sean "Diddy" Combs, sued the Justice Department on Monday alleging her abrupt July firing came "solely or substantially" because she is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, a Trump critic.

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Tom Goldstein Can't Pay Attys With 'Tainted Funds,' DOJ Says

By Jeff Overley

Indicted appellate luminary Tom Goldstein cannot cover his legal bills by selling his multimillion-dollar home, because it's a "tainted asset" worth "far less" than his attorney fees, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a blistering court filing, adding that Goldstein may flee the country as his reputation and marriage collapse.

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Calif. Court Issues AI Hallucinations 'Warning,' Sanctions Atty

By Y. Peter Kang

A California appeals court has issued a published opinion "as a warning" to Golden State attorneys to personally review case law quotations made by generative artificial intelligence, and imposed a $10,000 monetary sanction on plaintiff's counsel in an otherwise straightforward appeal in an employment case.

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Fired DOJ Deputy Says Lobbyists 'Playing Dangerous Game'

By Bryan Koenig

A former top Justice Department Antitrust Division deputy, allegedly fired for opposing the "pay-to-play" settlement clearing Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks, had a warning Monday for the lobbyists he said made the deal possible: there are only so many times they can go over division leadership.

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Stradley Ronon Wants Keesal Young's Poaching Suit Tossed

By Emma Cueto

Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young LLP has moved to nix a suit by California firm Keesal Young & Logan, saying its recruitment of 10 former Keesal Young attorneys was entirely above board and that the noncompete clauses in Keesal Young's partnership agreement were not allowed under California law.

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FTC Commissioner Says Antitrust Moment Has Been Building

By Matthew Perlman

Federal Trade Commissioner Mark R. Meador said Monday the current interest in antitrust enforcement has been building for the last several decades as corporate boardrooms increasingly take control over the economic lives of Americans.

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3 Law Firms Want Ford's 'Thermonuclear' RICO Suit Snuffed

By Linda Chiem

Knight Law Group LLP, the Altman Law Group and Wirtz Law APC have urged a California federal judge to dismantle Ford Motor Co.'s racketeering lawsuit accusing the firms of overzealous billing and conspiring to dupe unsuspecting clients in product liability and personal injury cases against automakers.

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Software Co. Defends Contempt Order Against Womble Atty

By Abigail Harrison

A North Carolina federal court fairly held Womble Bond Dickinson partner Pressly Millen in contempt after he and his client made misrepresentations in a "parallel" trademark dispute abroad, U.S.-based software company Dmarcian Inc. told the Fourth Circuit on Friday.

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DC Circ. Says Fed's Cook Can Keep Job For Now

By Jon Hill

A D.C. Circuit panel said Monday that Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook can remain on the central bank's board while challenging President Donald Trump's effort to fire her, clearing the way for her to participate in a key interest-rate policy vote this week.

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Senate Confirms Top Trump Economist To Federal Reserve

By Jon Hill

The U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed top White House economist Stephen Miran to the Federal Reserve Board on Monday, giving President Donald Trump a close ally at the central bank as he pushes for greater control over the traditionally independent body.

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DC Circ. Won't Stay District Court's Order On Quick Removals

By Jared Foretek

The D.C. Circuit declined to stay a district judge's suspension of specific U.S. Department of Homeland Security actions implementing expedited removal of noncitizen parolees Friday, saying that the government faces no irreparable harm from the order because it has separate, pre-existing regulatory authority to quickly deport parolees.

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W.Va., Idaho Tell Justices Trans Sports Bans Based On Science

By Elaine Briseño

West Virginia and Idaho urged the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that courts should not use subjective preferences when analyzing whether laws that ban transgender athletes from competing on sports teams different from their sex assigned at birth violate the Constitution.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Katryna Perera and Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's governor weighed in on a challenge to recently approved state legislation that bars damages or "equitable" relief for some controlling stockholder or going-private deals. Meanwhile, Moelis told the Delaware Supreme Court that the struck-down stockholder agreement that triggered that legislation was valid. Additionally, one of two newly funded magistrates' posts in the Chancery Court has been filled.

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