Soldier Aware Of Maduro Raid Bet On Polymarket, Feds Say

By Pete Brush

A U.S. Army sergeant stationed in North Carolina who helped plan the capture of deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro made lucrative, unlawful prediction market bets on the raid that saw Maduro brought to New York in January, Manhattan federal prosecutors charged on Thursday.

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NTSB's LaGuardia Crash Probe Flags Lack Of Runway Alerts

By Linda Chiem

Fire truck crew members didn't know that air traffic controllers' instructions to stop were directed at them before they collided with an Air Canada passenger jet landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport last month, and the lack of a transponder on the truck prevented a runway collision warning system from sending out alerts, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.

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ICE Courthouse Arrest Policy Faces New Stay Bid After Error

By Adrian Cruz

Civil rights groups suing the U.S. government to block immigration courthouse arrests asked a New York federal judge to stay the enforcement of the arrest policy, arguing that government attorneys have retracted their original position on the legality of the arrests.

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Mobile Game Co. Hit With $420M Verdict In False Ad Trial

By Elliot Weld

Papaya Gaming Ltd. on Thursday was hit with a jury verdict in New York telling it to pay $420 million in damages in a trial over its alleged misrepresentations about its mobile games being based on skill and not using bots.

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Spirit In 'Advanced' Talks With Gov't For Ch. 11 Financing

By Clara Geoghegan

Spirit Aviation is in "very advanced discussions" on a government-funded financing package after the war in Iran derailed its second Chapter 11's plans, one of the budget airline's attorneys said at a Thursday bankruptcy hearing in New York.

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2nd Circ. Revives Copyright Fight Over Michael Jordan Video

By Ivan Moreno

The Second Circuit on Thursday revived parts of a videographer's copyright lawsuit against an online news publisher, ruling in a precedential decision that a lower court wrongly dismissed infringement claims over a video showing basketball legend Michael Jordan breaking up a fight and screenshots used with headlines.

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5-Hour Energy Founder Blasts Fired Exec's Severance Claims

By Pete Brush

Billionaire energy drink mogul Manoj Bhargava told a Manhattan federal jury Thursday that he fired an executive from a publishing business he bought because the executive helped run it "into the ground" — pushing back against the man's severance claims.

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Huawei's Long-Awaited NY RICO Trial Moved To Fall

By Stewart Bishop

A Brooklyn federal judge on Thursday said the racketeering trial of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. will be delayed from June until September, after prosecutors filed streamlined charges over the weekend in one of two seven-year-old criminal cases the Chinese telecom company faces in the U.S.

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BJ's Ordered To Put Climate Study Pitch Before Shareholders

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge ordered BJ's Wholesale Club to include at its June annual meeting a request to poll shareholders on whether it should conduct a climate study, in what appears to be the first such ruling since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced last fall it would no longer review most rejected proxy ballot questions.

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2nd Circ. Backs NBCUniversal In Suit Over Video Data Sharing

By Allison Grande

The Second Circuit on Thursday refused to revive a proposed class action accusing NBCUniversal of violating the Video Privacy Protection Act, finding that the dispute was "materially indistinguishable" from a separate precedential panel ruling that set the standard for what qualifies as personally identifiable information under the federal law.

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Robinhood Hit With Class Action Over Illegal Sports Betting

By Tom Lotshaw

A proposed class action California, Michigan, New Jersey and New York residents filed against Robinhood Markets Inc. accuses the company of deceptively running an unlicensed sports gambling operation and seeks to recover billions of dollars in lost wagers and damages.

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Fed. Circ. Partly Reboots Patent Suit Over YouTube Content ID

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit ruled Thursday that a New York federal court needs to take another look at a patent licensing company's claim that Google and YouTube's Content ID system infringes one of its patents, but backed a finding that claims in two other patents were invalid.

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Another 'Inventing Anna' Attorney Gets Disbarred

By Emily Sawicki

A New York state appeals court has accepted the resignation of a New York City attorney amid a misconduct investigation, reportedly leaving high-profile socialite scammer Anna Sorokin without legal counsel while facing fee claims from her former lawyer, according to a Thursday notice by opposing counsel.

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Ch. 11 Trustee To Take Over NY Personal Injury Law Firm

By Emily Lever

A New York judge has agreed to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee to take over the estate of bankrupt personal injury firm Munawar Law Group PLLC following an examiner's report showing that the firm's principal may have made up to $6 million in fraudulent transfers.

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Judge Questions DOJ Bid To End Suit Over Trans Care Memo

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Massachusetts federal judge appeared unmoved Thursday by a U.S. Department of Justice lawyer's argument that a suit challenging directives on prosecuting providers of gender-affirming care for transgender children is an abstract debate, noting that some providers have deemed the care too risky and stopped services. 

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Dechert Leads StepStone On $1.58B Credit Fund

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Dechert LLP-led private investment firm StepStone Group Inc. on Thursday revealed that it wrapped fundraising for its second credit fund well above target after securing $1.58 billion in commitments.

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Unions Urge Judge To Keep AI Surveillance Case Alive

By Britain Eakin

Unions challenging the Trump administration's alleged surveillance of noncitizens' viewpoints to find targets for immigration enforcement urged a New York federal judge Wednesday to reject the government's dismissal bid, saying First Amendment injuries to their members give them standing.

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Sterlington Hires Int'l Disputes Pro From Quinn Emanuel

By Andrea Keckley

Sterlington PLLC has announced the hiring of an arbitrator and commercial litigator who handled a wealth of high-stakes international disputes during his decade with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.

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4 True Lender State Laws And 1 Appeal For Fintechs To Watch

The fintech industry faces increased scrutiny through proposed true lender laws from several states, as well as ongoing litigation regarding the impact of Colorado's opt-out from the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act — all of which should heighten industry participants' vigilance, say attorneys at Womble Bond.

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Series

Officiating Football Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Though they may seem to have little in common, officiating football has sharpened many of the same skills that define effective lawyering in management-side labor and employment: preparation, judgment, composure, credibility and ability to make difficult decisions in real time, says Josh Nadreau at Fisher Phillips.

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DLA Piper Clears Vote To End Verein, Unify Leadership

By Tracey Read

DLA Piper announced Friday that firm partners on both sides of the Atlantic have "overwhelmingly approved" a plan to dissolve its Swiss verein structure effective May 1.

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Exclusive

Judge Albright Reflects On 8 Years Shaping Patent Law

By Dani Kass

U.S. District Judge Alan Albright will be walking away from the Western District of Texas at the end of the summer, ready to head back into patent litigation work. He talked with Law360 on Friday about the rockier elements of his judgeship and lessons he'll take into private practice.

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Commerce Department's General Counsel Departs

By Christine DeRosa

The U.S. Department of Commerce's general counsel has left the agency after just over a year, the agency confirmed on Friday.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

In what may be a first, a federal judge has ordered BJ's Wholesale Club to put an investor's climate-related proxy proposal up for a vote of the shareholders at the company's annual meeting. And a new study shows that more in-house counsel are staying in place despite pay increases slowing amid less competition for talent.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Consovoy McCarthy PLLC, Butler Prather LLP, Bowen Painter LLC and Cannella Snyder LLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Fluor Corp. can be held liable for a veteran's state-based injury claims stemming from a 2016 suicide bombing in Afghanistan.

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen a Hong Kong company sue the government and a COVID-19 PPE company linked to Tory peer Michelle Mone, an oligarch bring a fresh claim against a rival in a long-running feud, a rugby league club sue over a canceled mass dance event, and Visa and Mastercard hit with legal action from H&M, Eurostar, and Bang & Olufsen. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Oregon Lawyer Ordered To Pay Attorney Fees For Use Of AI

By Matt Perez

An Oregon attorney was sanctioned by a state appellate court for filing a brief containing a fabricated list of authorities because she used generative artificial intelligence, marking the first case in the jurisdiction to present the option of awarding attorney fees as a sanction as opposed to fines payable to the court.

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Akin Can't 'Recast' Appeal As Good-Faith Effort, 9th Circ. Told

By Lauren Berg

A European winemaker slammed attempts by a U.S. importer and its Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP attorneys to "recast a frivolous appeal as a good-faith effort," saying they should have to pay monetary sanctions for pursuing what the Ninth Circuit called a "self-indulgent" appeal of a valid arbitration award.

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Atty, Brother Say Father's Last Will Altered In Secret

By Emily Sawicki

A Blank Rome LLP attorney and his brother have sued the attorney who executed their father's will in New Jersey federal court, alleging the lawyer preyed on their ailing father toward the end of his life to alter his beneficiaries through undue influence, forgery and fraud.

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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.

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