'Where's Bob?' Nowhere Near Wife's Gold Bars, Jury Hears

By Carla Baranauckas

Sen. Robert Menendez and his future wife weren't living together when an alleged bribery scheme took root six years ago and continued residing mostly apart after they married, he in Washington, D.C., and she in her New Jersey home that had a closet filled with gold bars and cash, jurors heard Wednesday.

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Wage Damages Update Isn't Retroactive, NJ Justices Say

By George Woolston

The New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday held an amendment to the state's wage laws adding liquidated damages and extending the statute of limitations should only be applied to conduct that occurred after its effective date, backing the dismissal of some claims brought by laborers alleging unpaid pre- and post-shift work.

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Pardoned NJ Atty Suspended Over Tax, Fraud Convictions

By Jake Maher

A former Gilmore & Monahan PA partner — who was convicted of failing to pay payroll taxes and lying on a loan application, and was pardoned by then-President Donald Trump — has received a two-year suspension from practicing law in New Jersey, though it will be largely offset by a previous suspension he served, according to a Wednesday order. 

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Feds Push To Bar Fox Rothschild Atty's Testimony In Retrial

By Emily Johnson

In a renewed bid, the government has urged a New Jersey federal court to bar a Fox Rothschild LLP partner from testifying as an expert witness in the retrial of a securities fraud case that ended in a dramatic mistrial, arguing that his testimony would constitute an irrelevant and an improper bid to bolster the defense.

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Longtime Public Defender To Lead NJ Conviction Review Unit

By Jake Maher

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin has tapped a former public defender in Monmouth County and current chief of staff of the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability to lead the OPIA's Conviction Review Unit, where she will investigate cases with plausible claims of wrongful conviction.

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Anthem Blue Cross Owes $3.8M For COVID Tests, Lab Says

By Aaron Keller

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Connecticut should be forced to pay nearly $3.8 million for medical laboratory work, including COVID-19 tests, that the insurer either denied, underpaid or failed to acknowledge, according to a federal lawsuit by a New Jersey-based company with facilities in Pennsylvania.

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Daimler Settles Worker's Suit Claiming Pot Test Got Him Fired

By Grace Elletson

Daimler Truck North America LLC has settled an employee's New Jersey federal court suit claiming he was illegally fired over a positive cannabis test following an accident in a company vehicle, even though he wasn't found at fault for the incident, according to a Wednesday court filing.

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3rd Circ. Says Pa. City Isn't Covered In Cop's Employment Suit

By Elizabeth Daley

A Pennsylvania city cannot obtain coverage for underlying litigation brought by a police officer who has repeatedly sued the city, as his present suit is related to previous ones and is therefore excluded by the policy, the Third Circuit said Wednesday.

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NJ Firm Picks Up An Ex-NPE Patent Litigator

By Andrew Karpan

A small New Jersey firm has hired a longtime patent litigator from the "nonpracticing entity" trenches, who tells Law360 that he's since sworn off "NPE work," because it's become too hard to make money from those cases.

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Series

Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.

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Analysis

In Hush Money Case, Jury May Choose To Keep Silent, Too

By Cara Salvatore

Though Donald Trump's gag order violations have earned him a threat of jail time, First Amendment experts say jurors in the New York case will likely be free to speak their mind afterward if they want to — a dynamic that in rare instances has led to posttrial controversy.

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Trump Taking Criminal Gag Order Appeal To NY's High Court

By Lauren Berg

Former president Donald Trump wants New York's highest court to review a gag order intended to stop him from criticizing witnesses and others involved in his criminal fraud trial, according to a docket entry Wednesday, just a day after a lower appellate court refused to overturn the order.

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Womble Bond Names 'Fearless Leader' As Chair, CEO-Elect

By Tracey Read

Womble Bond Dickinson announced Wednesday that global finance partner Merrick Benn has been elected U.S. chair and CEO, for a three-year term effective Jan. 1.

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Paul Weiss Establishes Center To Combat Hate

By Lynn LaRowe

Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP announced Wednesday that it has launched the Center to Combat Hate, an organization that will partner with civil rights groups and educational institutions to use litigation in tackling violence and intimidation driven by hate.

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Tesla Fires Back At Claims It Bullied Retired Law Professor

By Alison Knezevich

Tesla has pushed back against allegations that it tried to bully a retired law professor out of weighing in on an investor suit over CEO Elon Musk's $56 billion compensation plan, according to new filings in Delaware.

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Senators Release 'Road Map' For Crafting Federal AI Policy

By Jared Foretek

A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday laid out a "road map" for artificial intelligence policy that calls for increased AI innovation funding, testing of potential harms posed by AI and consideration of the technology's workforce implications.

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NY Magistrate Judge, SD Law Partner OK'd For District Courts

By Courtney Buble

The Senate voted 51-42 on Wednesday to confirm Magistrate Judge Sanket Jayshukh Bulsara to the Eastern District of New York and 61-33 to confirm Eric C. Schulte, partner at Davenport Evans Hurwitz & Smith LLP, to the District of South Dakota.

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US Attorney For Colorado Resigns From Post

By Thy Vo

U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado Cole Finegan announced Wednesday that he will step down at the end of May to return to the private sector, after serving for more than two years in the role.

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House Dems Launch Task Force To Address High Court 'Crisis'

By Courtney Bublé

A group of House Democrats on Wednesday launched a task force seeking to bring more transparency and accountability to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Fees Sought For Missed Depo During Atty's Solar Eclipse Trip

By Lynn LaRowe

In following up on a Florida federal judge's sanctioning of a lawyer whose client missed a deposition while the attorney was solar eclipse viewing, AAA is asking the court to award it more than $7,800 in fees and costs as it fights a gender discrimination lawsuit.

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Del. Justices Ask: Do Attys Get Thinner Slice Of $1B Dell Pie?

By Leslie A. Pappas

A near record-breaking $266.7 million fee for stockholder attorneys who settled a Chancery Court class action against Dell Technologies Inc. for $1 billion had Delaware's Supreme Court raising questions Wednesday about how the state traditionally calculates attorney fee awards in large class action settlements.

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DocuSign Investors Near Cert. In Post-COVID Prospects Fight

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge told counsel Wednesday he's inclined to certify a class of investors who allege DocuSign and its top brass misled investors about the e-signature company's post-pandemic growth prospects, saying DocuSign's challenges to the class-wide damages model seem premature, and the investors easily meet other class certification requirements.

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