Elon Musk made "deliberate and carefully devised" statements to drive down Twitter's stock price after offering $44 billion for the company, Twitter investors' counsel told a California federal jury during closing arguments Tuesday, while Musk's lawyer insisted that there's no evidence of securities fraud and that it's not a crime to "tweet stupid things."
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

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Were Musk's Tweets 'Deliberate' Or 'Stupid'? Jury To Decide

By Bonnie Eslinger

Elon Musk made "deliberate and carefully devised" statements to drive down Twitter's stock price after offering $44 billion for the company, Twitter investors' counsel told a California federal jury during closing arguments Tuesday, while Musk's lawyer insisted that there's no evidence of securities fraud and that it's not a crime to "tweet stupid things."

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OpenAI, Musk Can't Argue Over Wealth In $38M Fraud Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge laid out the ground rules for an upcoming April jury trial on Elon Musk's claims OpenAI duped him into donating $38 million, barring evidence regarding the "wealth or lack thereof of any party," unless the dispute reaches the punitive damages stage, which the judge called "unlikely."

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Instagram Layers Backups To Catch Bad Content, Jury Told

By Cara Salvatore

Instagram's algorithm data head told a New Mexico jury Tuesday that Meta layers processes to ward against harmful content, so if a violating post is missed and starts going viral, it can be caught by a backstop.

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Edwards Beats Heart Valve IP Suit Just Before Trial

By Elliot Weld

A Delaware federal judge has ruled in favor of Edwards Lifesciences Corp. in a patent infringement suit brought against it by rival Aortic Innovations LLC, finding that the term "frame" as it appears in the patent claims lacks written description.

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$200M Exxon Contract Trade Secrets Row Ended

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas state court judge issued a final judgment ordering that a contractor take nothing from its over $200 million claim that a rival allegedly used proprietary information to secure a lucrative maintenance work contract for Exxon, doing away with the lawsuit Tuesday.

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EMPLOYMENT & BENEFITS

Union Health Fund Wins $3.5M Debt Litigation Against Suit Co.

By Emily Brill

A Rochester, New York, suit manufacturer owes a union healthcare fund about $3.5 million, a New York federal judge ruled Tuesday, saying the fund presented evidence that the manufacturer skipped out on over two years of payments.

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CRIMINAL PRACTICE

NJ High Court Eyes Global Plea Deal After Nixed Conviction

By Brandon Lowrey

A man who pled guilty to two indictments urged the New Jersey Supreme Court to let him withdraw his global guilty plea Tuesday, saying that an appellate win in one of the cases has strengthened his negotiating position.

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9th Circ. Affirms Enhanced Sentence For Illegal Reentry

By Tom Lotshaw

A Ninth Circuit panel ruled a California federal judge properly enhanced a man's sentence for a second illegal reentry conviction based on a prior conviction for making false statements to officers who arrested him for entering the U.S. without authorization.

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3rd Circ. Upholds 8-Year Bid In Lottery Scam Targeting Elderly

By Elizabeth Daley

A Jamaican sentenced to more than eight years in prison for leading a lottery scam in New York City that fleeced at least eight elderly people of hundreds of thousands of dollars cannot escape his judgment, the Third Circuit said, upholding a district court's decision.

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PERSONAL INJURY & MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

9th Circ. Says Idaho Doc Must Face Wash. Fatal Overdose Suit

By Mike Curley

A Ninth Circuit panel has reversed the dismissal of a suit alleging an Idaho-based doctor overprescribed drugs to a Washington woman, leading to her death, finding that the doctor and her clinic had enough contacts with Washington for a federal district court in that state to have jurisdiction.

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REAL ESTATE

Conn. Panel Mostly Affirms $16.8M Building Permit Verdict

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut appeals court on Tuesday affirmed most of a $16.8 million recklessness verdict favoring the owners of a party goods store against the city of Danbury for permitting, inspecting and clearing for occupancy a 30,000-square-foot building that violated city codes and could have collapsed during use.

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PEOPLE

Clyde & Co. Opens Indiana Office With Lewis Brisbois Duo

By Tracey Read

London-founded Clyde & Co. LLP has expanded its U.S. footprint by launching an office in Highland, Indiana, and bringing on a pair of former Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP trial attorneys, the firm announced on Tuesday.

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King & Spalding Adds Winston & Strawn IP Litigator In SF

By James Mills

The parade of Winston & Strawn LLP litigators moving to King & Spalding LLP continues with a patent litigator being the latest to make the move, becoming a partner in the San Francisco office.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Industry Leaders Grapple With BigLaw Recruiting 'Chaos'

By Aebra Coe

Many large law firms hit elite law school campuses last September to begin recruiting first-year students for their 2027 summer associate job openings, in what panelists at a New York City Bar Association event Tuesday described as a dysfunctional system unhelpful to both law students and law firms.

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Latham Hires Desmarais IP Partner In DC

By Jack Rodgers

Latham & Wakins LLP has hired a Desmarais LLP partner in D.C., who helped represent GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals in an ongoing infringement suit against Moderna Inc., the firm announced Tuesday.

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Health Litigator Rejoins Holland & Knight From In-House Role

By Madison Arnold

A former Holland & Knight LLP attorney has returned to the firm in Jacksonville, Florida, after a 10-year stint in-house at Florida Blue, a subsidiary of GuideWell Mutual Holding Corp.

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Calif. Bills Would Reform Litigation Funding, Client Recruiting

By Emily Sawicki

Two new bills introduced to the California Assembly this week seek to impose reforms on the state's legal industry, including adding mandatory disbarment for attorneys convicted of felony "capping" — or illegally paying for client recruitment — and blocking corporate litigation funders from influencing cases.

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Brief

Prior Counsel In Settled EBay Harassment Case Eyes Payment

By Julie Manganis

An attorney who previously represented a Massachusetts couple in a harassment lawsuit against eBay and three former executives has asked a federal judge to hold off on entering a dismissal in the now-settled case until she receives assurances she will be paid.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Ahmad Zavitsanos

Anderson & Kreiger

ArentFox Schiff

Barclay Damon

Clyde & Co

Cooley LLP

Cotchett Pitre

Dechert LLP

Desmarais LLP

Diller Law

Downtown LA Law Group

Evans Craven

Fain Anderson

Finkelstein & Partners

Finkelstein Blankinship

Fish & Richardson

Forsberg & Umlauf

Goldman Ismail

Hinshaw & Culbertson

Holland & Knight

Howd & Ludorf

Hueston Hennigan

KSB Litigation

Keil & Correa

Kellogg Hansen

Killian & Gephart

King & Spalding

Knobbe Martens

Lewis Brisbois

Lowell & Associates

Martin G. Weinberg PC

Mary Schultz Law PS

McDermott Will & Schulte

McKool Smith

MoloLamken

Morris Nichols

Morrison & Foerster

Motley Rice

Norton Rose

Pashman Stein

Quinn Emanuel

Rimon PC

Ropes & Gray

Scalli Murphy Law

Sidley Austin

Toberoff & Associates

Troutman

Wachtell Lipton

WilmerHale

Wilson Sonsini

Winston & Strawn

Young Conaway

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

7-Eleven Inc.

American Bar Association

American Civil Liberties Union

Apple Inc.

Brown & Root Industrial Services LLC

Consumer Attorneys of California

Federal Bar Association

Florida Blue

Fordham University

George Washington University

Google LLC

GuideWell Mutual Holding Corp.

Hickey Freeman Company Inc.

Human Genome Sciences, Inc.

Instagram Inc.

LinkedIn Corp.

Los Angeles Times

Make-A-Wish Foundation of America

Meta Platforms Inc.

Microsoft Corp.

Moderna Inc.

New York City Bar Association

New York University

OpenAI OpCo LLC

Pfizer Inc.

Publishers Clearing House Inc.

State Bar of California

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson

Twitter Inc.

eBay Inc.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Chambers County, Texas

Colorado Supreme Court

Delaware Court of Chancery

New Jersey Attorney General's Office

New Jersey Office of the Public Defender

New Jersey Supreme Court

New Mexico Attorney General's Office

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

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

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

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

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington