The Texas attorney general's office and four of Ken Paxton's former deputies took jabs at each other over whether a court should hear more evidence in their long-running whistleblower suit, with the office alleging the aides have sought attorney fees outside the scope of the case while the ex-employees say the office "misses the point."
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TOP NEWS

Paxton Says Ex-Aides Want Excessive Whistleblower Atty Fees

By Catherine Marfin

The Texas attorney general's office and four of Ken Paxton's former deputies took jabs at each other over whether a court should hear more evidence in their long-running whistleblower suit, with the office alleging the aides have sought attorney fees outside the scope of the case while the ex-employees say the office "misses the point."

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CFPB Hasn't Justified Pausing Comerica Suit, Judge Rules

By Hailey Konnath

A Texas federal judge on Monday refused to pause the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's case accusing Comerica of mismanaging a government benefit card program, ruling that the CFPB hasn't explained why staying the case "would be in the interest of justice."

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Texas Atty Wants Allstate Sanctioned Over 'Dead' Expert Claim

By Brandon Lowrey

A prominent Houston lawyer has denied filing a document purportedly signed by a long-dead expert witness and urged a Texas federal judge to sanction Allstate for accusing him of doing so, saying the signature actually belonged to the deceased expert's similarly named son.

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POLICY & REGULATION

FTC Wants Pause On Noncompete Appeals, Pending Decision

By Jared Foretek

The Federal Trade Commission is asking two circuit courts to pause their reviews of its ban on noncompete clauses, saying it needs time to reconsider whether it actually wants to defend the rule.

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LITIGATION

Dynata Would 'Hopefully' Have Paid Bill, Staffing Co. Says

By Spencer Brewer

The CEO of a staffing company told an attorney for Dynata LLC that it has nobody to blame but itself for a class action accusing Dynata of misclassifying workers' employment status, adding during a trial in Texas state court that the company can't claim breach of contract to justify withholding $8 million to the staffing company.

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Anadarko Says Partner Waived Arbitration With Oil Well Suit

By Catherine Marfin

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has urged a Texas court to reject its partner's bid to arbitrate a dispute over an oil well on the outer continental shelf, alleging a since-abandoned lawsuit by the partner company forecloses any arbitration rights it may have had.

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FIFTH CIRCUIT

Split 5th Circ. Vacates Death Sentence Over Brady Violations

By Emily Sawicki

A split Fifth Circuit has reversed and vacated a Texas woman's murder conviction and death sentence after 27 years, having determined that prosecutors failed to properly disclose evidence in accordance with U.S. Supreme Court precedent, and remanded the case to Amarillo, Texas, federal court.

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Treasury's CTA Halt Doesn't Justify Block, Feds Tell 5th Circ.

By Kevin Pinner

The U.S. Treasury Department halting enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act on domestic entities doesn't add justification to a nationwide block on the law because it's a valid exercise of Congress' powers to regulate commerce, taxes, foreign affairs and national security, the U.S. government told the Fifth Circuit.

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BANKRUPTCY

Business Telecom Co. Mitel Files $1.1B Prepack Ch. 11

By Rick Archer

Communications software company Mitel Networks filed for Chapter 11 protection Monday in a Texas bankruptcy court with a prepackaged equity-swap plan it says will cut $1.15 billion from its more than $1.3 billion in secured debt.

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Nike Wins $355K From Lululemon In Shoe Patent Trial

By Ryan Davis

A New York federal jury has found that athletic apparel maker Lululemon infringed one Nike footwear manufacturing patent but did not infringe a second, and awarded Nike $355,450 in damages, well below the $2.8 million the shoe giant was seeking.

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PEOPLE

Tax Pro Rejoins Norton Rose From Reed Smith In Houston

By Lynn LaRowe

Norton Rose Fulbright announced Monday that it has bulked up in the face of increased demand in the corporate transactions space with the return of a tax partner in Houston who came aboard from Reed Smith LLP.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

National Lawyers Guild Slams Trump's Perkins Coie Order

By Rachel Riley

The Seattle Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild denounced President Donald Trump's recent executive order revoking Perkins Coie LLP's security clearances, saying on Monday the decision "exemplifies his complete disregard for the rule of law and his contempt for core American democratic values."

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GOP Sens. Escalate Fight With ABA Over 'Leftist' Statements

By Courtney Bublé

A group of Senate Republicans are once again going after the American Bar Association, which they claim has become a "leftist" organization, and announced Monday they will disregard ABA ratings on judicial nominees and encouraged the Trump administration and their colleagues to do the same.

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Paul Hastings Reelects Chair, Managing Partner To 2nd Terms

By Tracey Read

Paul Hastings LLP Chair Frank Lopez and Managing Partner Sherrese Smith have been reelected to their second three-year terms, the firm said Monday.

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Judge Who Shot Wife Gets Mistrial As Jury Hangs On Murder

By Gina Kim

A California judge declared a mistrial Monday in the murder trial of Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, who shot and killed his wife in their Anaheim Hills home in 2023, after jurors said they remained at an impasse over whether he was guilty of second-degree murder.

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Analysis

SEC Leaves Meme Coin Fraud For Other Cops To Chase

By Aislinn Keely

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff's decision to say that so-called meme coins are beyond the agency's purview is a welcome change from past practices, experts say, but the devil is in the details when it comes to policing fraud and helping consumers recover when projects go bust.

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Del. Bar Panel OKs Corp. Law Bill To Curb Class Suits, Fees

By Jeff Montgomery

A key panel of the Delaware's State Bar Association overwhelmingly approved on Monday a pending bill to put new constraints on corporate stockholder lawsuits, over objections that the measure will snuff out shareholder protections from conflicted boards and corporation controllers.

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High Court Will Review Colo.'s Conversion Therapy Ban

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it will review a challenge to Colorado's ban on licensed therapists providing conversion therapy to transgender minors, in a case that asks whether the state's law is a permissible regulation of professional conduct or an unconstitutional restriction of speech.

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2 Firms Sued After Cyber Thief Steals $442K From Estate

By Ryan Harroff

Law firms SutterWilliams LLC and Allender & Allender PA were hit with a negligence and malpractice suit after a cybercriminal allegedly used spoofed email accounts to trick an attorney at the latter firm into handing over $442,600 from the sale of a late Pennsylvania sheriff's deputy's house in Florida.

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Paul Hastings Adds Kirkland Atty As Global M&A Co-Chair

By Tracey Read

Paul Hastings LLP has hired a third global co-chair for its mergers and acquisitions practice who was one of the youngest M&A partners in the world to have announced well over $1 trillion in deals, the firm said Monday.

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Hagens Berman Comms With Ghosting Client Kept Privileged

By Ryan Boysen

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP doesn't have to turn over texts and emails with a client who disappeared from a putative class action against Apple and Amazon, a Washington federal judge has ruled, despite the tech giants' accusations that the firm lied about those communications.

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J. Crew Wins Confirmation Of Ex-GC's Arbitration Loss

By Lauren Berg

A New York federal judge confirmed an arbitrator's ruling Monday that found J. Crew hadn't fired its former legal chief, Maria DiLorenzo, in retaliation for her complaints about colleagues' discriminatory comments about her hearing loss.

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Clerks May Seek Political Jobs On 'Case-By-Case Basis'

By Emily Sawicki

Individual federal judges may determine whether their clerks may seek political posts while employed by the judiciary, the Judicial Conference of the United States' Committee on Codes of Conduct now recommends, months after issuing guidance advising clerks to hold off seeking such roles until their clerkships end.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

A&O Shearman

Allender & Allender

Arete Law Group

Arnold & Porter

Baker & Hostetler

Bernstein Burkley

Bernstein Litowitz

Cain & Skarnulis

Clifford Chance

Covington & Burling

Cravath Swaine

Davis Wright Tremaine

Faegre Drinker

Gibbs & Bruns

Hagens Berman

Hunton Andrews

K&L Gates

Kirkland & Ellis

Latham & Watkins

Law Offices of Don Tittle PLLC

Lewis Brisbois

Littler Mendelson

Martin Disiere

Meade Neese

Michelman & Robinson

Morgan Lewis

Norton Rose

Orrick Herrington

Paul Hastings

Paul Weiss

Pearman Law Firm

Perkins Coie

Porter Hedges

Redgrave LLP

Reed Smith

Sidley Austin

Sullivan & Cromwell

Weil Gotshal

Wigdor LLP

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AbbVie Inc.

Adidas AG

Alliance Defending Freedom

Amazon.com Inc.

Amcor PLC

American Bar Association

Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

Apple Inc.

Bragg

Business Roundtable

Comerica Inc.

Constellation Brands Inc.

Dynata LLC

FTI Consulting Inc.

Harvard University

Human Rights Campaign

J. Crew Group Inc.

Kellanova Co.

Loyola University New Orleans

Mars Inc.

Mitel Networks Corp.

National Federation of Independent Business

New Balance Inc.

New York University

Nike Inc.

Occidental Petroleum Corp.

RingCentral Inc.

Shiftsmart Inc.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

State Bar of Texas

Tesla Inc.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Verizon Communications Inc.

Wells Fargo & Co.

Wynn Resorts Ltd.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Dallas County, Texas

Executive Office of the President

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Trade Commission

Judicial Conference of the United States

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Texas Attorney General's Office

Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Texas Ethics Commission

Texas Supreme Court

U.S. Agency for International Development

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District & Bankruptcy Courts of Southern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court