Texas Jury Awards $1.1B To Child Abused By Oil Scion

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas jury on Thursday slapped a descendant of an original Humble Oil investor with a $1.1 billion verdict — thought to be one of the largest individual-child abuse verdicts in U.S. history — in a suit over abuse of his 2-year-old stepson that caused severe brain injuries.

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Ex-InterOil Exec Faces $210M Ruling, Seeks Appeal Bond Cut

By José Luis Martínez

A former executive of long-acquired oil company InterOil must pay a Swiss investor $210 million in damages and interest under a final judgment entered Thursday in Texas federal court, affirming a jury's findings last year that the executive breached agreements between the two.

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Southwest Can't Fly Past Workers' Retirement Plan Suit

By José Luis Martínez

Southwest Airlines Co. retirement plan beneficiaries pleaded sufficient facts to state claims for breach of fiduciary duty and for failure to monitor in alleging that the company and its executives failed to remove an underperforming fund that lagged its benchmark, a Texas federal judge ruled this week.

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Steakhouse Chain Hit With $21.2M Judgment In Tip, Wage Suit

By Benjamin Morse

A Texas federal judge entered a roughly $21.2 million judgment against a steakhouse chain and its owner in a lawsuit brought by hundreds of workers alleging unpaid wages and misappropriated tips, according to a court filing.

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X Corp.'s Lack Of Antitrust Injury Dooms Ad Boycott Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

A Texas federal judge Thursday dismissed X Corp.'s sprawling antitrust suit that accused several advertisers of unlawfully boycotting the Elon Musk-owned social media company by substantially cutting back on or stopping ad purchases, saying X didn't suffer any antitrust injury.

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Elon Musk Slams Twitter Stock Verdict Over Jury's $4.20 'Joke'

By Lauren Berg

Elon Musk did not get a fair trial over claims he defrauded Twitter investors before acquiring the social media platform, the tech billionaire's lawyer told a California federal judge Thursday, saying the jury rolled a marijuana "joke" into the verdict form to mock Musk and the trial process.

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Venezuelan Leader Says Ex-Fla. Rep Couldn't Get US Meetings

By Carolina Bolado

A Venezuelan political opposition leader told jurors Thursday that he connected with former Florida congressman David Rivera to try to secure meetings with high-level U.S. officials in the first Trump administration, but Rivera — who is on trial for allegedly failing to register as a foreign agent — failed to deliver.

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Ill. Man Pleads Guilty To Sending Threats To Judges

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois financial analyst pled guilty Thursday to sending threatening letters to two federal judges in Texas and Florida, as well as to employees of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, that contained pictures of ammunition and a warning to "be careful."

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Crypto Developer Loses Bid To Block Potential DOJ Action

By Sarah Jarvis

A Texas federal court tossed a crypto software developer's suit against U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi seeking protection over his forthcoming software from an enforcement action under federal money transmitting laws, finding the developer failed to show a substantial threat of prosecution.

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Xfinity Lands $4.9M Win In Imposter Fraud Case

By Elliot Weld

Xfinity has won a $4.9 million judgment against a man and his company accused of impersonating Xfinity to customers and offering them nonexistent services for money.

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Texas Court Won't Dismiss Patient's Cancer Misdiagnosis Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

A Texas appellate court has greenlighted a suit accusing a physician and two healthcare companies of misdiagnosing a patient with cancer, finding the plaintiff's expert report adequately outlined how the alleged negligence led to an unnecessary procedure.

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Brief

Exxon Settles Suit Over Cleanup Of Seattle Gas Station Site

By Ben Adlin

Exxon Mobil Corp. has reached a settlement with a Seattle property owner who sought to hold the company liable for cleanup costs at the site of a former gas station, according to a motion approved Thursday by a Washington federal judge.

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Core Scientific Can't Move Crypto Patent Case Across Texas

By Elliot Weld

A judge in the Eastern District of Texas denied a bid by cryptocurrency mining company Core Scientific Inc. to move a case accusing it of infringing cryptography patents to the Western District of Texas, saying Core had not shown that it was clearly a more convenient venue.

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Judge Lends Ear To Audi's Caesar Analogy To End Patent Suit

By Craig Clough

A Michigan federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit accusing Audi of infringing a patent for location-tracking technology, drawing on its analogy of Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon to find that the patent describes an abstract idea ineligible for protection under the Alice precedent.

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Paul Weiss, Skadden Guide $22B US Life Insurance Merger

By Al Barbarino

Corebridge Financial Inc. and Equitable Holdings Inc. said Thursday they have agreed to merge in an all-stock transaction that values the combined company at about $22 billion, in a deal steered by Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP and Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP.

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Keys To Federal Carbon Compliance In Data Center Siting

Recent statements from the White House and state governors about making data centers pay for their own power infrastructure have underlined the importance of choosing locations, generation technologies and deal structures to optimize carbon, permitting and compliance costs, say attorneys at Davis Graham.

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Assessing Potential Legal Claims From Private Credit Turmoil

Amid the downturn in the private credit markets spurred by multiple high-profile bankruptcies, a New York lawsuit stemming from the collapse of First Brands provides an important case study for investors to help minimize future losses and maximize any potential recovery in the event of a private credit default, say attorneys at Bleichmar Fonti.

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Opinion

AI Doc Ruling Got Privilege Analysis Wrong

Broad reasoning used by a New York federal judge in U.S. v. Heppner — to determine the criminal defendant's interactions with a generative artificial intelligence platform were not protected — mistakenly treats AI use as dispositive disclosure to a third party and adopts an unduly narrow conception of work product, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert.

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BigLaw Races To Capture Expanding Fund Finance Market

By Kevin Penton

Debt financing work at the fund level has long been dominated on the lender side by attorneys from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP, Haynes Boone and Mayer Brown LLP, but other firms are increasingly crafting formal practices and poaching fund finance stars from the more established players.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

The Lanier Law Firm, Kiesel Law LLP, Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP, Wagstaff & Cartmell LLP and Beasley Allen Law Firm lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a California state jury in a bellwether trial found Meta and Google liable for harming the mental health of a woman who says she became addicted to their social media platforms as a child.

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NJ Federal Judge DQs Beasley Allen In J&J Talc MDL

By Emily Sawicki

A New Jersey federal judge has disqualified the Beasley Allen Law Firm from representing hundreds of plaintiffs in sprawling multidistrict litigation over Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder, holding that the firm violated ethics rules by collaborating with former outside counsel for J&J, a ruling the law firm has vowed to appeal.

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Atty Sanctioned For AI Hallucinations In Workers' Comp Row

By Gianna Ferrarin

A New Jersey appellate court on Friday ordered an attorney to pay $1,000 in sanctions for failing to rectify AI-hallucinated case citations pointed out to him in an appeal concerning reimbursement sought by a workers' compensation carrier.

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen Apple hit back at a tech company's wireless charging patent claim, a flurry of businesses bring COVID-19 pandemic insurance claims as a key deadline draws closer and Ipulse Partners LLP file a claim against a luxury yacht company it represented in a trademark dispute. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Polsinelli Hires Practice Head From McDermott In NY

By Andrea Keckley

Polsinelli PC said Thursday that it has hired a longtime McDermott Will & Schulte LLP attorney to co-lead its special situations and alternative investment practice, saying the move "further advanc[es] the firm's strategic focus on private credit, distressed investing, and complex restructuring matters."

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Apollo, BlackRock Deny Asking Kirkland To Abandon Optimum

By Tracey Read

Apollo, Ares, BlackRock and other major financial companies have denied Optimum Communications' claims accusing them of "bullying" Kirkland & Ellis LLP into withdrawing as the telecommunications company's transaction counsel to get revenge for a collusion lawsuit filed in New York federal court.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

A federal judge has stopped the Pentagon from dropping AI giant Anthropic from the government's supply chain, and Latham & Watkins ranked first in a survey of in-house legal leaders on which law firms are most helpful in developing business, followed by King & Spalding, Jones Day and Ropes & Gray.

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Firms Targeted By Trump Urge DC Circ. To Uphold EO Rulings

By Alison Knezevich

Four law firms targeted last year by President Donald Trump urged the D.C. Circuit on Friday to affirm lower court rulings that struck down executive orders restricting their ability to practice law, saying the directives blatantly violate the Constitution.

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Brief

Amazon Swaps MoFo In, Perkins Coie Out In Cooker Suit

By Ben Adlin

Amazon.com LLP switched counsel Friday in a customer's product defect suit accusing the retail giant of selling a faulty pressure cooker that allegedly malfunctioned and caused her severe burns, substituting two Morrison Foerster LLP attorneys in place of an outgoing Perkins Coie LLP lawyer.

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Mich. Judge Signals No Stay If Attys Exit Retaliation Suit

By Melanie Dorsey

A Michigan federal judge said Friday she is not inclined to pause a long-running sexual harassment suit again if counsel for an attorney who is suing her ex-mentor and former firm are allowed to withdraw, telling the parties, "We've been here. We've done this," as she heard arguments over a motion to exit the case.

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Judiciary Nixes Amicus Disclosure Reform Over Potential Chill

By Emily Sawicki

The federal judiciary has been asked not to move forward with a plan to add to amicus brief disclosure requirements designed to curb "dark money" groups from bankrolling amicus briefs, after rules committee chairs pulled the recommendation over concerns of a possible chilling effect.

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Ex-Williams & Connolly Clerk Accused Of Posting Client Info

By Hailey Konnath

A former Williams & Connolly LLP clerk has been posting confidential firm information — including client information and work email exchanges — and he's threatening to "keep leaking" the materials, which he called "a fun read," according to a suit filed in District of Columbia Superior Court.

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Mayer Brown's $21M Fee Bid In RI Truck Tolls Suit Rebuffed

By Linda Chiem

A Rhode Island federal judge on Friday rebuffed Mayer Brown LLP's bid for $21 million in attorney fees for representing the commercial trucking industry's lead trade group in long-running litigation over the state's truck tolling program, saying the American Trucking Associations ultimately was not the "prevailing party."

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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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FCC Told It Can't Make Foreign Call Centers Speak English

By Nadia Dreid

The National Creditors Bar Association is not pleased with the Federal Communications Commission's plans to pass new rules that would require companies to make sure their foreign call center operators speak "American Standard English," saying the agency has no power over foreign employees.

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