7th Circ. Judge Questions Madigan Jury's Intent Instruction

By Lauraann Wood

A Seventh Circuit judge appeared skeptical Thursday that jurors received a proper intent instruction before they ultimately convicted former Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan of participating in bribery schemes involving Exelon Corp. subsidiary Commonwealth Edison and a former Chicago alderman.

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SEC Says FTX Auditor Didn't Understand Crypto Markets

By Emilie Ruscoe

A Prager Metis equity partner who led the firm's audits of defunct crypto asset trading platform FTX has been barred, for now, from appearing or practicing before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the regulator's claims he mishandled the FTX financial reviews and improperly blessed its financial statements.

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Fed Ends Crédit Agricole, Goldman Enforcement Orders

By Jon Hill

The Federal Reserve said Thursday that it has closed out another batch of longstanding enforcement actions against big banks, freeing Crédit Agricole, Goldman Sachs and Taiwan's Mega Bank from orders that date to at least 2018.

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Combs Takes Sentencing Argument To Flummoxed 2nd Circ.

By Cara Salvatore

A Second Circuit panel struggled Thursday with Sean "Diddy" Combs' argument that he was penalized too severely for transporting women for prostitution, saying it is the first appeals court nationwide to attempt to interpret new sentencing protocols on acquitted conduct.

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States Tell Jury That Live Nation Isn't Above The Law

By Stewart Bishop

Counsel for 33 states and the District of Columbia on Thursday urged a Manhattan federal jury to show the world that even "a $36 billion behemoth" like Live Nation isn't above antitrust laws and find it liable for flagrantly monopolizing the U.S. live entertainment market, to the detriment of artists, venue operators and fans.

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Rivera's Ex-Partner Kept Cut Of $50M Venezuela Contract

By Carolina Bolado

Real estate developer and convicted drug trafficker Hugo Perera told jurors Thursday he regretted "1,000%" getting involved with former U.S. Rep. David Rivera in a $50 million contract with a unit of Venezuela's state-owned oil company but admitted he kept his $5 million cut of the deal.

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SEC Accuses VC Fund Of Management Fee Fraud

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday sued Backswing Ventures GP LLC and its principal in a Florida federal court, alleging the venture capital firm paid itself seven times as much money in management fees than it told investors it would.

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Citron Founder Loses Bid To Trim DOJ Fraud Case

By Craig Clough

A California federal judge has rejected Citron Research founder Andrew Left's bid to trim the federal government's criminal securities fraud case, saying the indictment's first count is not "duplicitous" because it alleges a single market-manipulation scheme involving multiple misleading statements and does not need to be split into multiple counts.

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Software Co. Investor Claim Sounds 'Like Fraud,' Judge Says

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia federal judge signaled Thursday that supply chain software firm Manhattan Associates Inc. may have to face a shareholder class action from investors who say they were misled about the company's revenues, remarking that their claim, at least as alleged, "sounds to me like fraud."

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Crypto CEO Fights Extradition On Human Rights Grounds

By Ronan Barnard

The former chief executive of a crypto-asset company fought against extradition to the U.S. on fraud charges on Thursday, telling a London court that it would violate his human rights as he would be at an increased risk of suicide.

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Mich. Panel Clarifies Role Of Intent In Miranda Waiver Rules

By Susan Smiley

A Michigan state appellate panel said Wednesday that intent matters when police officers read suspects their Miranda rights in the midst of questioning them, then seek to use information gathered during the post-Miranda interview to build a case against them.

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Companies Linked To Scam Network Seek Ch. 15 Recognition

By Emily Lever

Court-appointed liquidators of the companies in the Prince Group — linked by U.S. and U.K. authorities to a massive Cambodia-based "pig butchering" network that used human-trafficked captives to sell scam crypto investments — are seeking Chapter 15 recognition of their insolvency proceedings.

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Arizona Check Casher Says FinCEN Rule Is 'Crushing' Business

By Sarah Jarvis

A Phoenix-area money services business has sued the Treasury Department over an order targeting such businesses along the Southern border for heightened anti-money laundering reporting requirements, saying the measure imposes "business-crushing burdens" that may force it to close.

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5th Circ. Revives Reinsurance Broker Row Over Credit Mishap

By Abraham Gross

The Fifth Circuit revived a suit by an insurer's owner alleging that its broker failed to administer its reinsurance program properly, leading to over $100 million in losses when it discovered the program lacked a valid line of credit.

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Fuel Executive Gets 5 Years For $4.5M Navy Fraud Scheme

By Elaine Briseño

A Florida federal judge sentenced a former fuel executive to five years in prison after a jury found him guilty of defrauding the U.S. Department of Defense of more than $4.5 million.

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Series

Alpine Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Skiing has shaped habits I rely on daily as an attorney — focus, resilience and the ability to remain steady when circumstances shift rapidly — and influences the way I approach legal strategy, client counseling and teamwork, says Isaku Begert at Marshall Gerstein.

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DLA Piper Partner Rejects Pregnant Atty's Account Of Firing

By Pete Brush

The DLA Piper partner who fired a pregnant associate said she did so lawfully, telling a Manhattan federal jury her former employee was "in over her head" and disputing that the associate raised pregnancy bias concerns on a termination call.

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6th Circ. Won't Revisit EFAA Ruling Against Adams & Reese

By Patrick Hoff

The Sixth Circuit said it won't reconsider its ruling that a law barring mandatory arbitration of sexual harassment cases kept a former Adams & Reese LLP paralegal's sex harassment and disability bias suit in court, concluding that the firm's objections were already considered.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen the owner of an oil tanker stuck in the Strait of Hormuz sued by an energy company and an insurer, law firm Boodle Hatfield LLP and two Serle Court barristers sued by a group of Winston Churchill's great-grandchildren, and Welsh Water hit with a fresh class action over polluted rivers.

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Calif. Atty Avoids Sanctions For Filing Bogus Citations With AI

By Matt Perez

A California attorney has avoided sanctions over his use of artificial intelligence for a filing in a civil rights case, which resulted in false citations.

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Another Gov't Atty From Vt. Joins Stris & Maher's Team

By Jack Rodgers

A former civil chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont has joined Stris & Maher LLP's practice as a partner, the firm announced Friday.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Other states might follow the lead of California and break with President Donald Trump's policies in implementing guardrails for state agencies to contract with AI companies. And after three individual indictments last month for selling banned tech to China, Supermicro has hired Munger Tolles & Olson LLP to conduct an independent investigation, assigned its general counsel to lead an internal compliance review, and shaken up its compliance leadership.

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NJ Justices Won't Review Beasley Allen's DQ From Talc Cases

By George Woolston

The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to review a lower court's order booting the Beasley Allen Law Firm from multicounty litigation in the Garden State over Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder, according to an order made public Friday.

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Conn. Justices Block Agency's Bias Probe Into Atty Licensing

By Brian Steele

Because citizens blocked the legislature from reviewing court decisions when ratifying the state's 1818 constitution, a Connecticut human rights agency has no power to investigate alleged bias in attorney licensing decisions, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Friday in a unanimous opinion.

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Airline Worker Asks To Expand Sanctions Row In Bias Case

By Emily Brill

A Southwest Airlines flight attendant who was fired after sending her union's president pictures of aborted fetuses is pushing for additional remedies in a sanctions dispute stemming from her long-running religious discrimination lawsuit against the airline, from which she received $800,000 after winning a jury trial in 2022.

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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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Trump Taps Personal Atty For 2nd Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced on Friday evening he's tapping Matthew Schwartz, his attorney in the New York hush money case, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 

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