Texas Judge Calls Late Bid To Disqualify Atty 'Dilatory Tactic'

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge on Tuesday denied a request to disqualify an attorney representing the former chief executive of a real estate company related to the late mogul Gene Phillips, saying the attempt to knock out the attorney came way too late in the game.

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Houston's Race-Conscious Contracting Program Struck Down

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Houston's program awarding public contracts on a race-conscious basis violated the Fourteenth Amendment in the first federal challenge to such a program following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 decision striking down affirmative action admissions policies.

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Texas Workers Seek To Void IRS Wage Withholding Regs

By Kat Lucero

The Internal Revenue Service's income tax withholding regulations resulted in employers overdeducting taxes from their employees' paychecks, two workers told a Texas federal court, arguing the agency's rulemaking violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

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Fish & Richardson Slams IP DQ Bid As Possibly Manufactured

By Lynn LaRowe

LVMH urged a Texas federal court to reject a bid to boot Fish & Richardson PC from defending the luxury goods business against an infringement lawsuit over patents for nonfungible token display technology, saying the company behind the suit may have tried to "manufacture" a conflict to disqualify the firm.

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Flawed NLRB Protections Can't Stop Case, Texas Judge Says

By Braden Campbell

National Labor Relations Board members' and judges' job protections are unconstitutional, but these flaws don't block the agency from prosecuting labor violations, a Texas federal judge said in a decision splitting with a recent ruling from a different district.

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4 Firms Guide Meta, BlackRock's $14B Data Center Project

By Isaac Monterose

Meta and BlackRock are teaming up to develop a $14 billion, 1-gigawatt data center campus in El Paso, Texas, with guidance from Latham, Eversheds Sutherland, Kirkland and Milbank, the companies announced Tuesday.

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Texas Justices Urged To Affirm Pasture Land Values

By Michael Nunes

The Texas Supreme Court should uphold the state comptroller's assessment values of pasture land, the comptroller argued, saying the high court should let lower court rulings stand finding that the local appraisal district failed to show why the value of the properties should be reduced.

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Texas Panel Says Sysco Can't Arbitrate Driver Injury Claim

By Mike Curley

A Texas appeals court on Tuesday found that Sysco USA I Inc. cannot compel arbitration in a delivery driver's injury suit, as the driver is exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act as a transportation worker.

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Alkegen Can Draw On Ch. 11 Financing In Prepack Case

By Vince Sullivan

Bankrupt specialty materials maker Alkegen received permission Tuesday from a Texas judge to access part of a $630 million bankruptcy loan from existing lenders after opposition over the size of the interim package was overruled.

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ICE Ordered By Texas Judge To Release Shooting Witness

By Rae Ann Varona

A Texas federal judge has ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release a Mexican national whom ICE officers took into custody after agency officers shot the driver of a car he was in, saying his ongoing detention violates his due process rights.

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Judge Calls Off IP Trial, Threatens Sanctions Against Apple

By Elliot Weld

A Texas federal judge has vacated an impending trial date for a patent infringement suit against Apple, saying he needed time to resolve outstanding jurisdictional issues, but ordered Apple to explain why it shouldn't be sanctioned for raising those issues so close to trial.

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Fed. Circ. Won't Rethink Expert Decision In Microsoft Case

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit has turned down Microsoft's request that it revisit a panel's decision that reopened the damages amount issue in a patent infringement case brought against the tech giant by Israeli company Exafer Ltd.

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Albright Preserves Verdict Clearing Roku On Streaming Patents

By Elliot Weld

A Texas federal judge on Tuesday said he wouldn't grant a new trial or a favorable judgment to a company that asserted two patents against Roku after a jury cleared the streaming device maker in 2024.

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Split PTAB Upholds Fiber Optics Component Patent

By Ryan Davis

A divided panel of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has decided that Cambridge Industries USA Inc. failed to show that any challenged claims are invalid in an Applied Optoelectronics Inc. patent on technology used in fiber optic networks.

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Public Finance Pro Rejoins Greenberg Traurig In Houston

By Christine DeRosa

Greenberg Traurig LLP announced Tuesday that it has grown its public finance and infrastructure practice in Texas with the return of an attorney from Cantu Harden Montoya LLP.

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Rare DOJ Military Bias Suit Shows Peril Of Co. Admissions

Although the government rarely litigates Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act claims against private employers, Opara v. UV Memory Care demonstrates that it will do so when an employer's own admissions build the case, potentially resulting in significant compliance obligations and long-term consequences, says Bradford Kelley at Littler.

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Opinion

Qualified Immunity Bill's Reach Goes Beyond Federal Officers

The federal Qualified Immunity Abolition Act, introduced earlier this year and described by the bill sponsors as a federal-officer measure, would in actuality reach the entire universe of Section 1983 defendants, a distinction that matters as much to defense counsel as to plaintiffs, says attorney V. James DeSimone.

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How Does In-House Pay Compare? Take The Law360 Survey

How do in-house salaries vary across industries, roles, and organizational revenue? What compensation tools are companies using to lure top talent? Help Law360 Pulse answer these questions and more in this year's In-House Compensation Survey.

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Simpson Thacher Hung Client Out To Dry, Jury Hears

By Madison Arnold

A legal ethics expert told a Florida jury Wednesday that he believes Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP's actions when representing Patriot National Inc. constitute legal malpractice leading up to the insurance services company declaring bankruptcy.

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Senate Postpones Key Vote For AG Nominee Blanche

By Courtney Bublé

The committee vote on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's bid to take the permanent role, slated for Thursday, was postponed after Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., were not fully on board.

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GOP Bill To Curb Judge Shopping May Have Limited Effect

By Courtney Bublé

A Senate Republican has introduced legislation that he says will fix the judge shopping issue, but court observers don't think it will make much of a difference.

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King & Spalding Told To End 'Shenanigans' In Bid To Exit Case

By Brian Steele

The individual defendants in a $300 million fraud lawsuit have accused King & Spalding LLP of appellate "shenanigans" while it seeks to exit the case due to an alleged ethics conflict, claiming the firm has falsely denied representing corporate clients despite an attorney's appearance suggesting otherwise.

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9th Circ. Vacates Orrick Win In Stock Transfer Deal Dispute

By Hailey Konnath

The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday reversed a lower court's finding that Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP can't be held liable in a battle over a stock transfer agreement gone awry, ruling that California law does allow a party to the transfer to pursue equitable indemnity in the case.

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DOJ Wants To Let Immigration Judges Fine For Contempt

By Britain Eakin

The Executive Office for Immigration Review proposed a rule Wednesday that would allow immigration judges to impose civil monetary penalties for contempt on attorneys, their noncitizen clients and witnesses, operationalizing a power that has lain dormant since 1996.

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Legal Aid Union Alleges Unlawful Incentives To Break Strike

By Andrea Keckley

The Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem union announced on the third workday of its strike Tuesday that it has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing its management of offering unlawful incentives to cross the picket line.

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Former Trump Lawyer Officially Takes The Helm At SDNY

By Hailey Konnath

James McDonald, a former Sullivan & Cromwell LLP partner who represented President Donald Trump in his appeal of his criminal conviction, was sworn in as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday after McDonald's predecessor Jay Clayton departed to serve as director of national intelligence.

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2nd Circ. Backs Ex-Shkreli Atty's 401(k) Restitution Deal

By Lauren Berg

A New York trial judge erred in rejecting a retirement-fund garnishment deal that would have protected Martin Shkreli's convicted former lawyer from tax penalties, the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday.

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DOJ Wants New Judge In Fired Court-Appointed US Atty's Suit

By Jack Karp

A lawsuit from the Seattle U.S. attorney who was swiftly fired from his post by President Donald Trump shortly after being appointed to it by a federal court should be reassigned to a different judge, the administration has told a Washington federal court.

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Segal McCambridge Settles Fired Secretary's Age Bias Suit

By Grace Elletson

Law firm Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney Ltd. has struck a deal to end a New York federal court suit from a former secretary who said her colleagues mistreated her because of her age, according to a Wednesday court filing.

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Comey Rips '86 47' Case, Says Warrants 'Misstated Facts'

By Lauren Berg

James Comey is taking another angle in his effort to dismiss an indictment stemming from a picture of seashells he posted on Instagram, telling a North Carolina federal judge that the government is pursuing the "vindictive" case because of President Donald Trump's "deep-seated animosity" toward the former FBI director.

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