Justice Alito Stays Order Blocking Texas Redistricting

By Spencer Brewer

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito temporarily stayed a court order blocking Texas from adopting new congressional maps late Friday, allowing the state to move forward with redistricting plans a lower court found were adopted through unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.

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Tata Must Pay $168M For Trade Secrets Theft, 5th Circ. Says

By Spencer Brewer

A Fifth Circuit panel found Friday that Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. stole IT company Computer Sciences Corp.'s technology concerning source code and life insurance software documentation, keeping intact a $168 million verdict against Tata.

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Texas Supreme Court Rejects $4B Oil Spill Tax Refund Bid

By Michael Nunes

The Texas Supreme Court declined Friday to hear an oil company's claim seeking a franchise tax refund for $4 billion in settlement expenses it paid due to its stake in the well involved in the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

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Analysis

IP Notebook: Kahwa Mix-Up, WallStreetBets, Hotel California

By Ivan Moreno

This round of Law360's look at emerging copyright and trademark issues includes a Federal Circuit case over an obscure tea drink and a nod to the Eagles' "Hotel California" in a precedential decision that is a primer on having an actual intent to use a trademark.

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Judge Blocks Meritage's Bid To Split Defect Coverage Claims

By Hope Patti

A Texas federal court has refused to separate claims for stucco home construction defects, which it previously held are covered under Meritage Homes' policies with AIG, from claims that have yet to be resolved or asserted in a coverage dispute over $11 million in underlying settlements.

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Roundup

Real Estate Recap: REIT Reporting, Defining Water

By Real Estate Authority Staff

Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including reactions from real estate attorneys in two areas primed for deregulation.

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Stay Denied In Ch. 11 Suit Over $100M Special Needs Fraud

By David Minsky

A Florida bankruptcy judge on Friday declined to halt an adversary class action against a Texas bank accused of aiding the alleged $100 million theft from a special needs trust, allowing document discovery to proceed while the bank's motion to toss the case is pending. 

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Brief

Debt Negotiator Settles Case Against Conn. Banking Chief

By Aaron Keller

Following a Connecticut Supreme Court opinion, a law firm and a linked support services company have agreed to settle a lawsuit that questioned whether the state banking commissioner could regulate their debt negotiation services or if the judicial branch enjoyed that exclusive responsibility.

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Florida Sues ISS, Glass Lewis Over ESG Advice

By Jessica Corso

The state of Florida is suing Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis & Co. LLC, alleging that the proxy advisory firms are abusing their dominant place in the market by promoting ideological and environmental causes "at the expense of traditional metrics of financial growth."

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Unique Aspects Of Texas' Approach To AI Regulation

The Texas Responsible AI Governance Act — which will soon be the sole comprehensive artificial intelligence law in the U.S. — pulls threads from EU and Colorado laws but introduces more targeted rules with fewer obligations on commercial entities, say attorneys at MVA Law.

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Opinion

Despite Deputy AG Remarks, DOJ Can't Sideline DC Bar

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s recent suggestion that the D.C. Bar would be prevented from reviewing misconduct complaints about U.S. Department of Justice attorneys runs contrary to federal statutes, local rules and decades of case law, and sends the troubling message that federal prosecutors are subject to different rules, say attorneys at HWG.

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Bonus Spotlight

5 BigLaw Firms Match Prevailing Year-End, Special Bonuses

By Anna Sanders

BigLaw continues to dole out extra cash for attorneys just in time for the holidays, with five more firms matching the year-end and special bonuses previously announced by their peers.

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Feds' Claim Against Judge Weighing Trans Troops Ban Tossed

By Lauren Berg

The D.C. Circuit's chief judge tossed the U.S. Department of Justice's misconduct complaint against the federal judge overseeing litigation challenging the Trump administration's ban on transgender troops serving in the military, saying judicial misconduct proceedings are not the appropriate avenue to address concerns about a judge's impartiality.

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Comey, James Defeat Charges Over Halligan's Appointment

By Ryan Boysen

A federal judge on Monday dismissed the headline-grabbing indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, finding the controversial prosecutor handling both cases was not properly appointed.

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Calif. Personal Injury Law Firm Sued Over Ransomware Attack

By Gina Kim

A former Adamson Ahdoot LLP client lodged a proposed class action in California state court on Friday over a Nov. 3 ransomware attack, alleging the law firm failed to protect his personal information despite touting on its website that it follows industry standards to do so.

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Feature

Prep, Panic & Poise: Inside An Associate's First Oral Argument

By Jeff Overley

Fraser M. Holmes followed a long professional path to a Texas court's lectern. He'd been a baseball blogger, travel writer and social studies teacher before appellate law beckoned. After years of toil, a milestone moment — his first oral argument — finally arrived, but as justices took the bench, his heart sank: "Oh, my God. I think I've just forgotten my entire argument."

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Google Calls Rumble's Recusal Bid Irrelevant To Its Appeal

By Andrea Keckley

Google is urging the Ninth Circuit to disregard concerns Rumble has raised about the trial judge's relationship with the tech giant's litigation vice president, saying Friday that the information is irrelevant to the YouTube rival's appeal of the court's ruling that its antitrust lawsuit was filed too late.

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Oversight Chair Seeks USPTO Briefing On Litigation Funding

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is seeking a briefing by the end of the month from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on third-party litigation funding and reforms the agency is working on.

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8th Circ. Won't Force Judge's Recusal In Pork Price-Fixing Case

By Matthew Perlman

The Eighth Circuit has denied a mandamus petition from Agri Stats Inc. and major pork producers who are seeking a Minnesota federal judge's recusal in price-fixing litigation based on a law clerk's previous work on a related case.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court last week delivered a packed mix of fraud allegations, merger fallout, corporate-governance reforms and jurisdictional fights, while a new academic report ignited debate over attorney fee awards in Delaware's influential corporate forum.

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