Texas Justices Pass On Uri Suits Targeting Power Suppliers

By Spencer Brewer

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday turned down a bid to revive claims that power plant companies' negligent handling of equipment and staff harmed electric consumers during a deadly winter storm in 2021.

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Texas Justices Take Up Challenge To $4M Subrogation Lien

By Spencer Brewer

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday granted a petition to review a finding that an insurance company has the right to collect a $4 million subrogation lien from workers who were injured in a plywood mill explosion.

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Jailed Energy Trader Won't Fight $7.7M Judgment

By José Luis Martínez

An energy trader who reported to prison this year told a Texas federal court Friday he does not oppose entry of a more than $7.7 million civil judgment in favor of his former employer, as long as it's credited against the restitution he was ordered to pay by the federal government in separate proceedings.

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Texas Justices Order New Trial In Crane Breakage Suit

By Mike Curley

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday ordered a new trial in a suit alleging a contractor failed to properly repair a crane, saying the trial court abused its discretion by denying the contractor's bid to substitute an expert when its original choice left the state and refused to testify shortly before trial.

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'Total Inaction' On Discovery Dooms Texas Dram Shop Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

A Texas appellate court has affirmed the dismissal of a Dram Shop Act suit accusing an Arlington bar of overserving alcohol to a woman who later drove drunk and got into a fatal crash, citing the plaintiffs' "total inaction" regarding discovery over a two-year period.

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Uber Crash Liability Case Review Denied By Texas High Court

By José Luis Martínez

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday declined to review a case brought by passengers injured in a car crash during a trip arranged through Uber Technologies Inc.'s app, leaving intact a lower court ruling rejecting their liability claims and finding that the company's drivers are independent contractors under state law.

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Up Next At High Court: Birthright Citizenship, Arbitration

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will close out its March oral arguments session by hearing a nationwide class's blockbuster challenge to President Donald Trump's limited view of birthright citizenship, as well as a dispute over federal courts' authority to confirm or vacate arbitration awards in cases they've formerly overseen.

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Texas Calls Vape Sellers' Suit Over China Law 'Speculative'

By Mike Curley

The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts is urging a federal court to throw out a suit from a group of vape sellers challenging a new law banning the sale of e-cigarette products that use liquids from China and other "adversaries," saying they don't have standing to sue.

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Roundup

Real Estate Recap: Private Credit, Multifamily Potential, ICE

Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including attorney insights into a pivotal moment for private credit, industry perspective on undervalued multifamily markets and a look at the litigation over immigration detention center projects.

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Family Members Get Prison Terms For Tax Refund Scheme

By Anna Scott Farrell

Family members convicted of designing a trust scheme that tried to net $8.5 million in tax refunds were sentenced to prison by a Texas federal judge and ordered to pay back $1.7 million they spent on cryptocurrency and luxuries, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Vital Farms' New Software Cracked Its Revenue, Suit Says

By Sydney Price

Pasture-raised eggs producer Vital Farms was hit with a proposed shareholder class action Friday in Texas federal court alleging the company misled investors about a software system rollout that disrupted shipments to retailers and triggered a stock drop when its impact was revealed.

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Lawyer Says Contract With Rivera Was For Venezuela's Oil Co.

By Carolina Bolado

The $50 million consulting contract that former Florida Congressman David Rivera signed with the U.S. affiliate of Venezuela's state-owned oil company was ultimately funded and controlled by the Venezuelan parent company, the attorney who drafted the document said Friday at Rivera's trial on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent.

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5th Circ. Won't Revive Ex-Health IT Co. Worker's Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The Fifth Circuit upheld a healthcare information technology provider's win over a Black former manager's lawsuit claiming she was fired for complaining that a white male colleague was treated better, saying she couldn't overcome the company's rationale for letting her go.

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Analysis

Injunction Constraints Impede Utility Patent Counterfeit Cases

By Dani Kass

A Texas federal judge ruled this month that the strongest tool to stop counterfeiters in so-called Schedule A cases doesn't apply to utility patents, which attorneys say cements a long-standing practice of retailers relying on trademarks and design patents.

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High Court Asked To Review $168M Trade Secret Award

By Ivan Moreno

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Fifth Circuit ruling that upheld a $168 million judgment in a trade secret case, arguing the decision allowed an unjust enrichment award without proof that an IT competitor suffered any monetary harm.

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Brief

ITC To Probe Memory Tech Imports at Texas Firm's Request

By Dylan Moroses

The U.S. International Trade Commission will investigate whether certain memory chips imported into the U.S. by a Japanese company and a South Korean company are infringing eight patents held by a Texas-based technology firm, according to a recent notice.

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Brief

ITC Will Review Solar Cell Imports For Infringement

By Jack McLoone

The U.S. International Trade Commission is launching an investigation into claims by an Arizona-based solar company accusing nearly 50 companies of importing solar cells into the U.S. that infringe one of its patents.

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State Carbon Cost Disparities Are Pivotal In Data Center Siting

When choosing U.S. data center locations, developers must carefully consider the patchwork of state and regional carbon emission pricing regimes that are layered on top of the federal permitting framework, creating compliance cost differentials that could add up to billions of dollars, say attorneys at Davis Graham.

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Series

Watching Hallmark Movies Makes Me A Better Lawyer

I realize you may be judging me for watching, and actually enjoying, Hallmark Channel movies, but the escapism and storylines actually demonstrate qualities and actions that lead to an efficient, productive and positive legal practice, says Karen Ross at Tucker Ellis.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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