Vanguard Will Pay $29.5M To Settle Red States' ESG Suit

By Spencer Brewer

The Vanguard Group Inc. will pay $29.5 million to settle claims brought by several conservative states accusing it and other large asset managers of driving up coal prices by pressuring publicly traded energy companies to lower their output to meet carbon emission reduction goals.

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X Corp. Beats OnlyFans Creator's Revenge Porn Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

A Texas federal judge has tossed an OnlyFans creator's proposed class action that sought to hold X Corp. liable under a revenge porn statute after someone shared his photos on the social media platform, saying the creator's images had not been "produced" by fraud or misrepresentation as required for damages.

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Judge Backs $19M Default Judgment In Amazon's Piracy Suit

By Ivan Moreno

A Texas federal judge has recommended a copyright default judgment of nearly $19 million against a man whom Amazon and other major studios accuse of running an illicit streaming operation that began with the sale of "jailbroken" Fire TV sticks to stream content for free.

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Kenvue Can't Duck Texas AG's Tylenol Autism Suit

By Emily Field

A Texas state court Thursday rejected Kenvue's bid to toss a lawsuit that Texas' attorney general has brought alleging Tylenol taken during pregnancy could cause autism in children, even though it is marketed as the safest pain relief for pregnant women and young children.

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Texas AG, Samsung Ink Deal To End TV Data Collection Suit

By Allison Grande

Samsung agreed to strengthen its data privacy disclosures in order to resolve a lawsuit being pressed by the Texas attorney general, who accused the company of "secretly" monitoring what smart TV consumers watch and unlawfully collecting their data without permission, the parties revealed Thursday.

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Panel Wary Of San Antonio Dodging Gambling Seizure Suit

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas appellate panel seemed skeptical of a bid by the city of San Antonio to ax a claim that the municipality wrongfully seized machines allegedly used for gambling and related equipment, saying Thursday the former owner of the machines simply has to raise a fact issue to go forward with the suit.

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Analysis

Are New Police Drone Programs A Big Help Or Big Brother?

By Jack Karp

Police are increasingly using drones as first responders to 911 calls, a practice they say helps them respond to crises much faster with far fewer officers, but that privacy advocates warn could lead to mass, warrantless surveillance.

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Atty Owns 'Sloppy' Incorrect Citations Before Texas Justices

By José Luis Martínez

A Houston attorney told a Texas appellate panel Thursday that incorrect case citations in his brief were "sloppy" and "embarrassing," taking responsibility for errors that included nonexistent cases and inaccurate quotations.

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Rehab Participants Not Employees, Court Told In Wage Suit

By Benjamin Morse

Participants in several Texas-based recovery programs for addiction cannot plausibly allege they were employees entitled to compensation, the faith-based nonprofit that operates the programs told a federal court, seeking to dismiss a proposed class and collective wage action.

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Antitrust Claims Over Oil Tubing Patents Saved By Fed. Circ.

By Theresa Schliep

The Federal Circuit on Thursday undid a Texas federal judge's conclusion that a company intended to defraud the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office when it got a patent on coiled tubing, but also revived claims accusing it of using fraudulently obtained patents to get a monopoly.

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Justices Told 'Skinny Label' Case Puts Generic Drugs At Risk

By Ryan Davis

The U.S. government, one named sponsor of the Hatch-Waxman Act, a generic-drug industry group and more have warned the U.S. Supreme Court that a decision that allowed a patent case involving a so-called skinny label to proceed threatens the availability of low-cost generic drugs.

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Co. Says $1.3B Gov't Fire Retardant Deal Props Up Monopoly

By Ganesh Setty

A Texas-based fire retardant company is accusing the U.S. Forest Service of inking an anticompetitive contract with a competitor valued at more than $1.3 billion, telling the Federal Claims Court this week that the contract creates a "perpetual monopoly" at taxpayers' expense.

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5th Circ. Affirms FDA's Vape Rule Despite Small Biz Concerns

By Sam Reisman

The Fifth Circuit on Thursday affirmed that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration complied with the law when it promulgated a new rule requiring companies seeking premarket authorization of new tobacco products to investigate the product's health effects.

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Buddy Mac Wins Court Approval To Sell Co-Owned Properties

By Ben Zigterman

A Texas bankruptcy judge on Thursday ruled that rent-to-own retailer Buddy Mac Holdings LLC can sell several co-owned properties, over the objection of co-owners who argued they had not been given proper notice.

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Fifth Third Bank Pursues $80M From Texas Developer

By Sydney Price

Fifth Third Bank has sued a San Antonio real estate developer in Texas federal court for more than $80 million, seeking to invoke guaranties on two troubled construction loans after the borrowing entities defaulted and filed for bankruptcy.

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Analysis

3 Federal Circuit Clashes To Watch In March

By Ryan Davis

The Federal Circuit will consider a pair of nine-figure patent cases next month, as ClearPlay seeks to revive a $469 million verdict against Dish Network that a judge threw out, while Netlist aims to preserve a $303 million finding that Samsung infringed its patents, and undo decisions invalidating them.

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Seyfarth Adds Trio Of Real Estate, Corporate Attys In Dallas

By Lynn LaRowe

Seyfarth Shaw LLP announced Thursday that it has strengthened its real estate, environmental and corporate benches with three lateral partner hires in Dallas who came aboard from Squire Patton Boggs LLP, Cole Schotz PC and Jackson Walker LLP.

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Brief

Okla. Judge Says Oil & Gas Royalty Fight Belongs In Texas

By Keith Goldberg

An Oklahoma federal judge on Thursday sent to Texas federal court a lawsuit claiming oil and gas producer APA Corp. underpaid oil and gas royalties, saying the underlying leases are located in Texas and the dispute will likely be governed under Texas law.

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Brief

Senate Judiciary Advances Illinois US Atty

By Nadia Dreid

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination of Gregory Gilmore to be U.S. attorney for the Central District of Illinois in a quick vote that passed without comment.

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What's Next After NLRB Dismissal Of SpaceX Suit

Though the National Labor Relations Board’s recent decision to dismiss its long-running unfair labor practice complaint against SpaceX on jurisdictional grounds temporarily resolves a circuit split over injunctions, constitutional and employee-classification questions remain, say attorneys at Proskauer.

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Series

Playing Piano Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Playing piano and practicing law share many parallels relating to managing complexity: Just as hearing an entire musical passage in my head allows me to reliably deliver the message, thinking about the audience's impression helps me create a legal narrative that keeps the reader engaged, says Michael Shepherd at Fish & Richardson.

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How Epstein Referred Clients To BigLaw Partners In His Orbit

By Aebra Coe

Billionaire and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein always had top lawyers in his orbit. He also had extensive and lasting relationships with several partners at BigLaw firms, files newly released by the Department of Justice show.

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Goldstein Placed Under Home Confinement Until Sentencing

By Jared Foretek

SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein was placed under home confinement by a Maryland federal judge until his sentencing, but will likely be able to keep his $3 million D.C. home after the jury that convicted him separately found there wasn't a clear nexus between the property and his mortgage fraud conviction.

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'One Way Or Another, ICE Will Comply,' Minn. Judge Vows

By Lauren Berg

The Minnesota federal court's chief judge who admonished U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for violating nearly 100 court orders concerning the Trump administration's immigration operations in the state vowed Thursday "to do whatever is required to protect the rule of law," including holding government officials in criminal contempt.

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IRS Broke Law 42K Times By Giving Info To ICE, Judge Says

By Anna Scott Farrell

The federal judge who stopped the Internal Revenue Service from sharing taxpayer addresses with immigration authorities said Thursday that a recent admission by the agency showed that it broke the law more than 42,000 times last summer when it disclosed addresses by relying on a computerized matching system.

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Calif. Atty Agrees To Discipline From State Bar Over AI Errors

By Hailey Konnath

A Los Angeles attorney has agreed to be disciplined for filing appellate briefs rife with artificial intelligence-hallucinated case law quotations, according to a stipulation approved Wednesday by the California State Bar Court, which found that he "recklessly and with gross negligence failed to perform legal services with competence."

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Reed Smith Says Atty Can't Expand Pay Bias Damages Period

By Grace Elletson

Reed Smith LLP is urging a New Jersey state court to rule that an attorney who claimed the firm unlawfully underpaid her cannot expand the time window for which she's seeking damages, arguing a legal doctrine used to revive continuing claims can't be used to collect back pay.

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Feds Seek To Toss DOJ Official's Suit Over Epstein-Talk Firing

By Lynn LaRowe

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a D.C. federal court to ax a wrongful termination lawsuit brought by a former DOJ official who was fired after he was surreptitiously filmed talking about Jeffrey Epstein on what he thought was a date, saying district courts don't have jurisdiction and the matter belongs in front of the Merit Systems Protection Board.

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