Analysis

What To Know About DOL's Benefits Enforcement Update

By Kellie Mejdrich

The U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits arm recently issued updated enforcement guidance that highlighted the agency's goal of shifting to focus more on breaches of the fiduciary duty of loyalty under federal benefits law. Here are three things experts said stood out about the DOL's update.

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DOL's Warning For Proxy Advisers Acts On A Trump Order

By Patrick Hoff

The U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits division cautioned Wednesday that proxy advisory firms may be providing advice that could make them fiduciaries under federal law, following through on a directive that President Donald Trump issued in December.

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Jury Finds Live Nation Monopolized Concert Ticketing

By Stewart Bishop

Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary harmed competition in the live entertainment sector by willfully monopolizing ticketing services to major concert venues and unlawfully tying artists' use of large amphitheaters to Live Nation's promotional services, a Manhattan federal jury found on Wednesday.

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Food Apps' NYC Data Win Seems 'Weird' To 2nd Circ. Judges

By Jeff Overley

Does the First Amendment allow Uber Eats to keep your Chick-fil-A order a secret? At the Second Circuit on Wednesday, the fate of a New York City law aimed at reducing restaurant reliance on food delivery apps appeared to hinge heavily on that curious question.

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GM Not Privy To Ex-Chrysler Exec's Spousal Talks, Panel Told

By Melanie Dorsey

A former Fiat Chrysler labor executive convicted for his role in a union bribery scheme could risk incriminating himself if he gives General Motors privileged information, including communications with his wife, as part of the latter automaker's civil lawsuit over alleged corruption, his attorney argued before a Michigan appeals court Wednesday.

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Consumer Cases Drive Class Action Spike, Report Says

By Y. Peter Kang

Federal class action filings spiked in 2025 after nearly a decade of relative stability, fueled by a surge in consumer protection lawsuits tied to data breaches, digital commerce and online accessibility claims, according to a new report from Lex Machina.

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Texas Can't Revive Anti-ESG Law While Appeal Plays Out

By Sarah Jarvis

A Texas federal judge refused to pause an injunction pending appeal on a state law restricting state investments in businesses that aim to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, finding the law's language clearly intends to disfavor groups with certain viewpoints and is unlikely to survive appeal.

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NY Appeals Panel Doubts NYC's Climate Suit Can Be Revived

By Frank G. Runyeon

New York state appeals judges voiced skepticism Wednesday of New York City's bid to revive its lawsuit against major energy companies for "greenwashing" their gasoline products, highlighting the lack of alleged false claims and questioning whether they were even misleading.

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Judge Ices Calif. Climate Suit As Justices Mull Boulder Case

By Tom Lotshaw

A California state court judge has put on hold coordinated climate litigation that state and local governments have filed against oil and gas companies while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a similar case brought by the city and county of Boulder, Colorado.

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Mexican Businessman Cleared In Texas Pemex Bribes Case

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Texas federal judge has acquitted a Mexican businessman living in the U.S. whom a jury convicted of bribing foreign officials to secure business from Mexico's state-owned oil company, saying prosecutors didn't provide the translators who interpreted evidence at trial for cross-examination.

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737 Max Families Ask Full 5th Circ. To Weigh DOJ-Boeing Deal

By Linda Chiem

Families of 737 Max 8 crash victims have asked the full Fifth Circuit to review a panel's recent decision accepting the U.S. Department of Justice's refusal to criminally prosecute Boeing for allegedly conspiring to defraud safety regulators, saying it allows corporate defendants to game the courts through a "mootness" loophole.

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Amazon Can't Nix MIT Economist Input On Antitrust Case

By Rachel Riley

A Seattle federal judge has shot down Amazon's bid to rule out a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor's opinions backing proposed class antitrust claims, finding the expert used a "peer reviewed economic model based on real-world transactional data" to conclude that Amazon's "anti-discounting policies" heightened prices in other online marketplaces.

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UBS Must Reveal Atty Comms In Ex-Trader's $400M Libor Suit

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut state judge has ordered UBS AG to hand some communications with its lawyers and prosecutors in U.S. and U.K. criminal cases to former trader Tom Hayes, whose $400 million lawsuit claims he was made a scapegoat to shield senior bank executives from Libor-rigging allegations.

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Judge Limits Evidence In Revived Deloitte Trade Secret Case

By Ivan Moreno

A West Virginia federal judge has narrowed the evidence prosecutors can present at trial in a revived trade secret case against two former Deloitte employees, curtailing use of an internal investigative report from the company they joined and restricting how "trade secrets" may be used to describe allegedly confidential materials.

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Chamber Backs 9th Circ. Rehearing Of Funko Investor Suit

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is backing Funko Inc.'s call for Ninth Circuit to rehear an investor dispute over the toy-maker's write-down of excessive inventory, arguing that the court's decision to revive the lawsuit "degrades a critical firewall against abusive litigation."

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Fla. Judge Told Ex-CEO Drove Energy Drinks Co. Into Ch. 11

By David Minsky

A liquidating trust Wednesday urged a Florida federal bankruptcy judge to hold the former CEO of the company that makes Bang Energy drinks liable for breaching fiduciary duty, arguing that a multimillion-dollar judgment stemming from his violation of a trademark settlement partially contributed to the business' Chapter 11.

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Cvent Investors Reach $12M Deal To End Take-Private Suit

By Katryna Perera

Stockholders of cloud-based event management technology provider Cvent Holding Corp. have reached a $12 million settlement with the company, its top brass and its controlling shareholder over claims that they breached their fiduciary duties in connection with the company's $4.6 billion take-private sale to affiliates of Blackstone Inc.

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Chancery Trims Liberty Media SiriusXM Deal Suit

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court has partially trimmed a stockholder challenge to Liberty Media Corp.'s restructuring of its Sirius XM Holdings Inc. stake, dismissing claims against a special committee while allowing others to proceed against directors accused of favoring the company's controller.

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Leo Says Missteps Sank $50M SpaceX Investment In Appeal

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday grappled with whether a fund manager's handling of a failed $50 million SpaceX investment crossed the line into fiduciary misconduct, as attorneys for both sides clashed over causation, fairness and a controversial $16 million fee award stemming from the dispute.

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Biopharma Co. Says Ex-Worker Used Files To Build AI Rival

By Mark Payne

A biopharmaceutical consulting firm's ex-contractor illegally downloaded thousands of proprietary internal files and emails that he then used to launch a rival company powered by artificial intelligence, the firm claimed in a lawsuit, alleging that the former contractor violated federal trade secrets law.

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Drugmaker Aquestive's Brass Sued Over FDA Setback

By Sydney Price

Executives and directors of pharmaceutical company Aquestive Therapeutics Inc. were hit with a shareholder's derivative suit Wednesday accusing them of ignoring deficiencies in a research study for Aquestive's allergic reaction treatment, which eventually prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reject the company's new drug application.

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The 2026 Lawyer Satisfaction Survey: Where Do You Stand?

How is your work-life balance? Are you content with your compensation and opportunities for advancement at work? Take the 2026 Law360 Lawyer Satisfaction Survey and share your thoughts.

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White & Case Hires Reed Smith M&A Partner In DC

By Jack Rodgers

White & Case LLP has hired a former Reed Smith LLP partner, who is joining the team in Washington, D.C., to continue her practice focused on mergers and acquisitions matters.

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Willkie Adds O'Melveny Litigator To Los Angeles Office

By James Boyle

Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP expanded its Los Angeles office with the recent addition of a litigator who moved her practice after nearly 15 years with O'Melveny & Myers LLP.

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Fraud Enforcement, Sentencing Face Unusual Convergence

The Trump administration’s newly created task force to eliminate fraud and the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s recent proposals to scale back certain elements of the federal sentencing framework seem to point in opposite directions, creating a collision of policy priorities that may reshape how fraud cases are charged, negotiated and sentenced for years to come, says David Tarras at Tarras Defense.

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How CFPB Opinion Changes Earned Wage Access Definition

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent conclusion that earned wage access is not "credit" for purposes of Regulation Z of the Truth in Lending Act improves on prior guidance on these products in several meaningful ways, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

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Opinion

CBP's $166B Tariff Refund Portal Needs 4 Safeguards

Before launching its automated web portal to process tariff-refund disbursements on April 20, U.S. Customs and Border Protection should apply the expensive lessons learned from the pandemic-era employee retention credit, says Peter Gariepy at RubinBrown.

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Meta, Uber Verdicts Top Product Liability Trials

By Emily Field

This year has brought major courtroom setbacks for tech platforms and app companies. Juries issued headline-making verdicts against Meta and Google over claims their platforms harm young users, while Uber lost its first federal bellwether trial over driver assaults and now faces a second sexual assault case.

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Analysis

Bondi's Contempt Defenses Are Strong, But Not Without Risk

By Phillip Bantz

Former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi currently has some potentially powerful defenses against Congress' relatively limited abilities to force her to comply with a subpoena to be deposed under oath about the Epstein files, but her exposure to being held in criminal contempt could shift with the political winds, experts said.

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Calif. Lawyer Sues Over State Bar Investigations

By Andrea Keckley

A California trial lawyer claimed in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday that he has been unfairly investigated by the state bar since 2019, alleging the office "illegally prioritizes revenue-generation over protection of the public."

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Analysis

AGs' Win Over Live Nation Leaves DOJ Watching From The Side

By Bryan Koenig

Live Nation Entertainment Inc.'s across-the-board trial rout by 34 state attorneys general underscores the ascendancy of state antitrust enforcers looking to fill perceived enforcement gaps left by the U.S. Department of Justice during President Donald Trump's second term.

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NJ US Atty's Office Turmoil Doesn't Nix Conviction, Judge Rules

By Carla Baranauckas

A federal judge on Thursday rejected a New Jersey criminal defendant's attempt to dismiss his conviction and disqualify the state's top federal prosecutor, holding that the appointment of the current U.S. attorney complies with federal law and that any earlier defects in leadership do not warrant dismissal.

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Judiciary Panel Loves Paralegal's Idea To Modernize Briefs

By Jeff Overley

An Arizona paralegal's unsolicited idea for overhauling a procedural rule governing the format of briefs found a surprisingly enthusiastic audience Thursday at a federal judiciary meeting, where prominent officials and attorneys voiced strong interest and agreed to explore the concept in earnest.

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Ramey Says Sanctions Violation Was 'Misunderstanding'

By Elliot Weld

William Ramey, an intellectual property attorney sanctioned in several federal jurisdictions, told a California federal judge Thursday that any violations of a previous sanctions order regarding his ability to practice law in the state were due to "good-faith misunderstanding of the scope of the court's order — not willful disregard."

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Judge Doubts Broad Shift In Immigration Hearing Access

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge appeared unconvinced Thursday by a human rights group's claim that the public is getting less access to immigration court hearings in Minnesota during the second Trump administration.

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Citizens Group Says 27 States Are Eyeing AI Chatbot Laws

By Joyce Hanson

Twenty-seven U.S. states are looking at passing laws to make artificial intelligence companies face liability claims in civil suits if they fail to protect consumers who interact with chatbots, while another three states have already enacted protections, according to a citizens group's new legislative tracker.

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Optimum Defends Antitrust Suit Against Apollo, BlackRock

By Alex Wittenberg

Apollo, Ares, BlackRock and other financial giants are colluding to block Optimum Communications Inc. from negotiating a debt refinancing to avert bankruptcy, acting as a "cartel" and locking Optimum out of credit markets, Optimum said in a brief opposing the investors' bid to dismiss its antitrust suit in New York.

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Sentencing Commission Votes To Enact Modest Reform Agenda

By Stewart Bishop

The U.S. Sentencing Commission on Thursday voted to enact multiple revisions to the federal sentencing guidelines, including the first inflationary adjustment in over a decade for calculating penalties for economic crimes, but declined to take action on a series of more transformational changes that were under consideration.

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