Ga. Police Officer Asks For New Trial In $40M Force Suit

By Kelcey Caulder

Atlanta police officer Jon Grubbs, who was ordered by a Georgia jury to pay $40 million to a man who was rendered quadriplegic after Grubbs shocked him with a Taser over suspicions of panhandling, has asked a federal judge for a new trial.

Motion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ga. Judge In 2020 Election Cases To Take Senior Status

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones of the Northern District of Georgia, who has presided over high-profile cases involving the 2020 election, voting rights and abortion, will take senior status on Jan. 1, 2025, according to an update Friday.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Judge Will Drop Some Charges For Convicted Atlanta Exec

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia federal judge moved forward Thursday with the government's request to drop four criminal counts against convicted Atlanta city hall official Mitzi Bickers after recent case law made the wire fraud charges nonviable.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

EEOC Sues Smithfield Foods In Ga. For Age Discrimination

By Kelcey Caulder

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against Smithfield Foods Inc. and Smithfield Fresh Meats Sales Corp. in Georgia federal court on Friday for age discrimination, alleging the companies violated federal law by firing a senior sales employee because of her age.

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

DC Circ. Won't Immediately Block EPA Power Plant GHG Rule

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is clear to implement its new greenhouse gas emissions rule for power plants — at least for now — after the D.C. Circuit on Friday rejected an effort to temporarily block it.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Analysis

Many Plans Already In Front Of 11th Circ. Trans Health Ruling

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision that a county health plan's coverage exclusion for gender transition surgery violated federal anti-discrimination law likely won't have a big impact on plans because they have already made adjustments for the U.S. Supreme Court ruling the appeals court applied, experts say.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Analysis

Trump's Potential Witness Could Be Defense 'Dynamite'

By Phillip Bantz

As Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan nears its end, experts say criminal defense attorney Robert Costello, who once advised the former president's ex-fixer and key prosecution witness Michael Cohen, has surfaced as a potentially bombshell witness for the defense.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ga. Baseball Player's Family Says Negligence Caused Death

By Chart Riggall

The family of a Georgia high school baseball player who died after a batting practice accident in 2023 has sued a slew of employees of his school district for their alleged negligence in a preventable incident.

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Aramark Spinoff Faces Investor Action Over Slow Growth

By Sydney Price

Uniform supplier Vestis Corp. was hit with a proposed class action on Friday alleging that it concealed years of underfunding prior to being spunoff by Aramark last year, leaving it unable to grow its revenue and retain customers.

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ga. OB-GYN Office Says Data Breach Class Action Falls Flat

By Madeline Lyskawa

An Atlanta OB-GYN practice has urged a Georgia federal judge to dismiss a proposed class suit over a data breach that allegedly impacted the personal and protected health information of tens of thousands of patients, arguing the lead plaintiff has failed to meet the requirements of the Class Action Fairness Act.

Motion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

$440M Cruise Line Ruling Over Cuba Dock May Be In Jeopardy

By Caroline Simson

An Eleventh Circuit panel appeared reluctant Friday to affirm a nearly half-billion-dollar judgment against four major cruise lines for "trafficking" in property seized by the communist Cuban government, as the underlying concession for a port facility in Havana expired in 2004.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Koch-Tied Group Says Transparency Law Offends Federalism

By Kat Lucero

The Corporate Transparency Act is unconstitutional because it does not regulate interstate commerce yet mandates that state-registered entities disclose personal information, a conservative group affiliated with the billionaire Koch brothers told the Eleventh Circuit on Friday.

1 document attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Kilpatrick Brings On Nelson Mullins Energy Pro In Atlanta, DC

By Madison Arnold

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP has picked up a new energy regulatory attorney in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., with a diverse background, including working for Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP as well as Google and the South Carolina House of Representatives.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Analysis

Alito Flag Report Fuels Ethics Debate, But Likely No Recusal

By Katie Buehler

Responses to a report that an upside-down American flag flew outside U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's home following the 2020 presidential election broke along partisan lines Friday, with conservatives decrying it as a smear campaign and liberals calling for his recusal from pending election-related cases and for general court ethics reform.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Solicitor General Says No High Court Case Is 'Hopeless'

By Thy Vo

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told lawyers Saturday that despite the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority, she has never thought a case she's overseen for the Biden administration was "entirely hopeless," and that there's always room to shape the court's opinion.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Analysis

How A $3K Pro Se Claim Led To A 9-0 High Court Decision

By Daniel Wilson

A milestone victory at the U.S. Supreme Court for $3,000 in wages started with a Pentagon worker’s principled commitment to his employer — a dedication that ironically led to a decadelong fight against his own bosses. Stuart R. Harrow and his attorneys speak to Law360 about how a seemingly low-stakes conflict turned into a high-profile case with reverberations for hundreds of federal employees.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Calif.'s Top Judge Launches Task Force To Probe AI Uses

By Lauren Berg

California Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero has created a new task force to look into how generative artificial intelligence could benefit the court system and its users, while also evaluating its potential risks, the court announced Friday.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Trump Hush Money Judge Warned For Biden Donation

By Frank G. Runyeon

The judge presiding over Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial was quietly cautioned after making a political campaign contribution to President Joe Biden and a Democratic group, disposing of an ethics investigation into the donation, it was confirmed Friday.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Menendez Bribery Trial: 5 Things To Know About Week 1

By Carla Baranauckas

Explosive opening statements, closed-door jury questioning and an FBI agent's recount of the moment he found a treasure trove of gold bars and cash highlighted the first week of trial in the government's second corruption case against U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

AG Garland Held In Contempt By House Committees

By Courtney Bublé

Two House committees voted late Thursday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for not turning over audio recordings of the president and his ghostwriter speaking with special counsel Robert Hur for his investigation into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents.

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Dozens Of Pro Bono Attys Back 3rd Circ. Nominee Mangi

By Courtney Bublé

Forty-nine pro bono partners, counsel and chairs from major law firms and organizations wrote to Senate leadership on Friday with concerns that the staunch opposition against Third Circuit nominee Adeel Mangi over his pro bono work will have a chilling effect on future attorneys seeking judgeships, according to a letter shared with Law360.

Letter attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Man Admits To Threatening Judge Over 'Don't Say Gay' Ruling

By Christine DeRosa

A retired teacher from Pensacola, Florida, has pled guilty to threatening to harm a federal judge in five voicemails he left after the jurist ruled against a challenge to Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law, federal prosecutors announced.

1 document attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Jenner & Block Sued For Firing Worker Over Vax Refusal

By Henrik Nilsson

A former Jenner & Block LLP employee filed a discrimination suit against the law firm Friday, claiming she was fired after the firm refused to provide a religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate despite her belief that taking the vaccine would make her complicit in abortion.

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ex-Baltimore State's Atty Says 20-Month Sentence Too Harsh

By Emily Sawicki

Former Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby has asked a federal judge to cut down prosecutors' requested 20-month prison sentence after she was convicted of abusing a COVID-19-era program to obtain money from a retirement fund and conning a lender to obtain a vacation home, arguing the proposal "stray[s] from the reality of this case."

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

'We Feel It': NJ Ranks 2nd In Ch. 11 Cases, Chief Judge Says

By George Woolston

New Jersey federal courts saw the second most Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings in the nation over the last year, Chief U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb of the District of New Jersey said on Friday.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

NJ Courts Chief Warns Plan To Pick Appeals Bench A 'Mistake'

By George Woolston

Chief Justice Stuart Rabner of the New Jersey Supreme Court on Friday defended how the state judiciary assigns appeals court judges, criticizing a proposal to move the power to appoint appellate judges from the chief justice to the state Senate and the governor's office.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

1st Circ. Rejects Ex-Immigration Judges' Bid For Asylum Redo

By Elliot Weld

The First Circuit's full bench refused to reopen a Salvadoran woman's case seeking asylum, despite former immigration judges weighing in to say that the judge who denied her asylum didn't follow a legal requirement to ensure her record was complete.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Haynes and Boone LLP and Lubin & Enoch PC lead this week's edition of Law360's Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously determined that federal courts do not have discretion to toss a case once it's decided that the claims belong in arbitration.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The SEC adopted cybersecurity rules to require investment advisers and broker-dealers to put procedures in place for detecting data breaches and for notifying customers when their personal information may have been compromised, and lawyers said SPACs won't get sought-after relief from a new 1% tax on stock buybacks under a recent Treasury Department proposal. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen a wave of claims filed against Verity Trustees Ltd., Harley-Davidson hit retailer Next with an intellectual property claim, Turkish e-commerce entrepreneur Demet Mutlu sue her ex-husband and Trendyol co-founder Evren Üçok and the Solicitors Regulation Authority file a claim against the former boss of collapsed law firm Axiom. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

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.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »