Analysis

Here's What Comes Next After Trump's Conviction

By Phillip Bantz

Donald Trump's forthcoming appeal of his historic conviction Thursday in the New York hush money case could include challenges to the state's evidence and jury instructions, but it's unlikely the case will be resolved before Election Day.

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Donald Trump Convicted Of All 34 Counts In NY Trial

By Frank Runyeon, Rachel Scharf, Stewart Bishop and Elliot Weld

Former President Donald Trump was convicted by a Manhattan jury Thursday of 34 felonies over a plot to illegally sway the 2016 presidential election in his favor by concealing hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

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What The Trump Verdict Was Like From Inside The Courtroom

By Frank Runyeon, Rachel Scharf and Stewart Bishop

Law360 reporters were providing live updates from the Manhattan criminal courthouse as a jury found Donald Trump guilty of falsifying business records. Here's a blow-by-blow of the historic verdict.

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Trump's Niece Can't Escape His Suit Over NYT Tax Story

By Henrik Nilsson

A New York appellate panel ruled Thursday that former President Donald Trump can pursue claims that his niece, Mary Trump, breached a confidentiality agreement by sharing his tax records with The New York Times, handing him a legal win the same day he was convicted of 34 felony counts.

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5th Circ. Says WWII Art Transfer Is Act Of Foreign Gov't

By Henrik Nilsson

The Fifth Circuit said it's not its job to determine whether a Netherlands art foundation wrongly transferred to the United States an 18th-century painting once seized by Nazi Germany, upholding the dismissal of a suit filed by a Jewish art collector's heir over the 1949 transfer.

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DOJ's Kanter Says AI Cos. Could Exploit Creators

By Matthew Perlman

The head of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Jonathan Kanter, said Thursday that a lack of competition between artificial intelligence companies could allow them to exploit writers, artists and other content creators.

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'I Don't Need Help Running The Court,' Judge Chides Attys

By Danielle Ferguson

A Michigan state judge on Thursday appeared frustrated with attorneys for MGM and its former law firm arguing over potential conflicts in an underlying case, telling them to stop avoiding his questions and saying he didn't "need help running the court."

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'South Park'-Quoting Judge Says CEO Can't 'Blame Canada'

By P.J. D'Annunzio

In a ruling drawing on the show about four foul-mouthed boys from Colorado, a Pennsylvania federal judge said a CEO who sued his former company could not blame Canada for an unfavorable arbitration ruling in a case where he claimed he was wrongly fired from his post.

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The 'Not-Postings' Of A Delaware Chancery Court Judge

By Leslie A. Pappas

Close observers of Delaware's Court of Chancery have recently gotten a new window into the First State's preeminent court of equity: Delaware Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster, one of seven judges on the court's bench, has recently rejoined LinkedIn.

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Cher Gets Key Win In Royalty Fight With Sonny Bono's Widow

By Ivan Moreno

The Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony-winning star Cher has now won a key victory in California federal court in a dispute over song royalties with the widow of ex-husband Sonny Bono, with a judge concluding that Mary Bono must continue to pay the female half of Sonny & Cher composition royalties under a 1978 marriage settlement agreement, or MSA, following their 1975 divorce.

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Ex-WWE Worker Pauses Trafficking Claims For DOJ Probe

By Brian Steele

A former World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. paralegal has agreed to put her sexual assault and trafficking lawsuit against the company, founder Vince McMahon and a former executive on hold while the U.S. Department of Justice conducts a "nonpublic investigation," the plaintiff's counsel said Thursday.

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Mich. Judge Refers Atty To Calif. Bar Over Flint PR Stunt

By Hannah Albarazi

A Michigan federal judge overseeing contaminated drinking water litigation in Flint, Michigan, referred a California attorney to that state's bar on Thursday after the lawyer refused to provide more details, or submit to the court's jurisdiction, over her involvement in an alleged smear campaign targeting a lawyer for Flint children.

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RFK Jr. Turns To FEC Over CNN Debate Shut Out

By Madeline Lyskawa

The campaign for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has accused CNN, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump of violating federal election law by holding a debate that excludes Kennedy, in a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission.

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Madonna Fan Didn't Cherish Late Show With Nudity, Suit Says

By Craig Clough

Madonna and four concert venues were hit with a class action in California state court Wednesday by a fan who says he purchased a $500 ticket to see the pop singer in an "uncomfortably hot" arena that featured a lip-syncing star who took the stage very late with "pornographic" topless dancers.

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New 3-On-3 Women's Hoops League Eyes Historic Salaries

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

A new three-on-three basketball league co-founded by current WNBA players Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier on Thursday unveiled its "groundbreaking" women's sports compensation and ownership model that will give players equity and vested interest in the league's success while also providing the "highest average salary" in women's professional sports history, according to its announcement.

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Deals Rumor Mill: Aramco, Double Eagle, WeWork

By Tom Zanki

Saudi Arabia is planning a stock sale of state-backed oil giant Armaco that could exceed $10 billion, Double Eagle hopes to unload a Permian-based oil producer for $6.5 billion, and Adam Neumman has ended his bid to reacquire WeWork. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other notable deal rumors from the past week.

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Netflix Fails To Show Inventor, Funder Violated Injunction

By Dani Kass

A California federal judge has said Netflix couldn't prove a Finnish inventor violated an injunction tied to his concealment of certain legal funds, or that a litigation fund manager the inventor worked with needs to face claims tied to that concealment.

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NCAA Loses Bid To Sink Reggie Bush Defamation Suit

By Elaine Briseño

The NCAA has failed in its bid to get an early toss of the defamation suit filed by 2005 Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, with an Indiana court ruling a dismissal is premature at this point because the former running back has met the pleading standards.

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ITC Judge Clears Amazon In Video Tech Co.'s Patent Case

By Adam Lidgett

A U.S. International Trade Commission judge has found that Amazon hasn't broken federal patent trade law by importing streaming products, dealing a setback to video technology company DivX LLC in its infringement case.

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State Farm Says Atari Seeks Windfall With IP Suit Over Ad

By Ivan Moreno

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. has urged a Texas federal judge to dismiss a copyright complaint from Atari Interactive Inc., saying the insurer did nothing wrong when it briefly used part of the 1980s arcade game Crystal Castles in a commercial to attract younger customers.

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KKR's $24B NetCo Buy Gets EU Regulatory Approval

By Al Barbarino

The European Commission said Thursday it has approved KKR & Co.'s planned $23.7 billion acquisition of NetCo from Italian telecommunications provider TIM Group, paving the way for the close of one of the largest deals announced last year. 

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VR Fitness App Ends $353M Antitrust Row With Meta, For Now

By Gina Kim

An app developer that sued Meta, Mark Zuckerberg and others seeking $353 million for alleged antitrust violations after the social media platform reneged on a deal to launch the plaintiff's virtual reality fitness app voluntarily dropped his case, for now, according to a notice filed Wednesday in California federal court.

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X Corp. Aims For 'Jugular' In Defamation Suit, Watchdog Says

By Spencer Brewer

Media Matters for America says X Corp. shouldn't be allowed to target the left-leaning media watchdog's "financial jugular" by accessing its donor lists or its most sensitive financial documents, asking a federal judge Wednesday to reject the social platform's attempt to force production of the documents in a defamation suit.

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NCAA V. Athletes Suits Paused As Parties Talk Final Deal

By David Steele

The consolidated cases in the class action against the NCAA over athletes' name, image and likeness compensation were stayed by a California federal judge Thursday, the next step toward finalizing the multibillion-dollar settlement the two sides reached last week.

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NYU Law Review Beats Bias Claims Over Diversity Efforts

By Matt Perez

A New York federal court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit from a self-described straight white male, first-year law student at New York University claiming the NYU Law Review is discriminatory.

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UPenn Retools Fight Against Defamation Suit Over Email

By Katherine Smith

An email addressing how an anthropology professor handled the remains of the 1985 MOVE house bombing victims cannot be considered defamatory because it was rooted in personal perspectives and not facts, the University of Pennsylvania told a federal court Wednesday.

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Politics Not Behind Radio Host's Firing, Broadcaster Argues

By Elaine Briseño

The broadcaster accused of wrongfully terminating radio host Grant Napear after he tweeted "All lives matter" told a California federal court in its bid for summary judgment that Napear's firing had nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with the disrespectful tone and timing of the post.

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Musk Won't Appeal Deposition Order In SEC's Twitter Case

By Hailey Konnath

Elon Musk has agreed to waive his right to appeal a California federal judge's order forcing him to testify again in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's suit over his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now known as X, according to a stipulation filed Thursday.

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Chicago Kiosk Salesman Gets 1 Year For Filing False Returns

By Anna Scott Farrell

An electronic-sweepstakes kiosk salesman from Chicago was sentenced to a year in prison for filing false tax returns that included more than $500,000 in inflated business expenses, according to Illinois federal court documents.

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Morgan Stanley Helped Musk's Stealth Twitter Buys, Suit Says​​​​​​​

By Hailey Konnath

Elon Musk and his wealth manager tapped Morgan Stanley to help the Tesla CEO quietly acquire billions of dollars in Twitter securities without tipping off the market before he announced plans to take over the social media company, according to an amended complaint filed in New York federal court.

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FCC Lifts Freeze On TV Stations Changing Channels

By Nadia Dreid

Class A and low-power television stations will now be able to change the channel with the Federal Communications Commission's blessing, something the agency has announced it is willing to give under the right circumstances for the first time in 14 years.

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FCC Subsidy Reforms Could Be Drafted On Capitol Hill Soon

By Christopher Cole

A working group on Capitol Hill studying a potential overhaul of the Federal Communications Commission's subsidy regime could produce draft reforms soon, but a big stumbling block will be how to expand contributions to the fund, telecom experts say.

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Gov't Broadband Rules Must Not Deter Providers, NTIA Told

By Christopher Cole

Small to medium-size internet providers could shy away from the federal government's massive broadband expansion program if rules requiring low-cost internet service end up being too heavy-handed, industry groups told the U.S. Department of Commerce.

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StubHub Owes TicketManager $16M For Breach, Jury Says

By Craig Clough

A Los Angeles jury has found following a monthlong trial that StubHub owes more than $16 million for breaching its contract with Spotlight Ticket Management, which does business as TicketManager, and interfering in the company's relationship with American Express.

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Only $100K Owed For NJ Theater's Virus Losses, Judge Says

By Ganesh Setty

A Zurich unit owed a theater only $100,000 for its COVID-19-related losses under its policy's communicable disease coverage provision, a New Jersey federal court ruled, rejecting the theater's arguments that each public health order constituted a separate occurrence and that a "blanket" $1.9 million limit was applicable.

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Honduran Workers Say Carnival Overworked, Underpaid Them

By Alyssa Aquino

Two Honduran seasonal workers have filed suit in a Virginia federal court, saying they were forced to work 80 hours a week assembling and disassembling rides for a traveling carnival for only a little more than $400 a week.

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BF Borgers Clients Should Review Compliance, Liability

After the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently announced enforcement proceedings against audit firm BF Borgers for fabricating audit documentation for hundreds of public companies, those companies will need to follow special procedures for disclosure and reporting — and may need to prepare for litigation from the plaintiffs bar, say attorneys at Debevoise.

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Perspectives

Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys

As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.

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Orrick Leads List Of Top Law Firms For Women, Diversity

By Aebra Coe

Talent strategies firm Seramount released its latest list of the 45 best law firms for women and diversity this week, with the 2024 cohort of winners showing strides over previous years in representation, advancement and benefits for lawyers who are women or from other underrepresented groups.

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Houston Judge's Vast Display Reflects 25 Years On Bench

By Catherine Marfin

Along the hallways leading to U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison's Houston courtroom hang hundreds of notes, photos, thank-you cards and other correspondence, serving as a kind of interactive scrapbook of Judge Ellison's 25 years on the bench.

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Analysis

In Rarity, 1 Party's Judges Gain 100% Control Of Circuit Bench

By Jeff Overley

At the First Circuit, the judges' robes are all black, but the judges are all blue. It's a new and unusual instance of one political party's judicial picks controlling each active seat on a federal appeals court, and the Democratic dominance could prove magnetic for ideologically charged litigation.

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Orrick's $8M Deal To End Data Breach Claims Nears Prelim OK

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge indicated Friday that she'll preliminarily approve Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP's $8 million deal to end putative class claims over a 2023 data breach that purportedly exposed personal information for 638,000 individuals, but said the "very broad" scope of the settlement's release "raised my eyebrows."

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Smith Gambrell Faces Slimmed Data Breach Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A California federal judge has trimmed the claims a proposed class of data breach victims brought against international law firm Smith Gambrell & Russell LLP, leaving the firm to face claims of negligence, invasion of privacy and violation of the California Unfair Competition Law.

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Analysis

Blockbuster Summer: 10 Big Issues Justices Still Must Decide

By Katie Buehler

As the calendar flips over to June, the U.S. Supreme Court still has heaps of cases to decide on issues ranging from trademark registration rules to judicial deference and presidential immunity. Here, Law360 looks at 10 of the most important topics the court has yet to decide.

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Analysis

Del. Chancellor Questions 'Rush' To Amend Corporation Law

By Jeff Montgomery

Weeks before the Delaware State Bar Association sent state lawmakers a draft bill explicitly allowing corporations to broadly cede some governance rights to chosen stockholders, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of Delaware Chancery Court made an unprecedented, direct appeal to think twice.

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Trump Condemns NY Trial As Verdict Echoes In DC

By Rachel Scharf

A day after his conviction on 34 felony counts, former president Donald Trump on Friday attacked the Manhattan jury's verdict in a lengthy speech that mischaracterized multiple elements of the case as the decision reverberated through Washington, D.C.

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Trump's New York Prosecutors Called To House Hearing

By Courtney Bublé

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, demanded on Friday that Manhattan prosecutors appear for a hearing on June 13 on the prosecution of former President Donald Trump, who was convicted on Thursday of 34 felonies.

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Disbarring Giuliani Would 'Protect The Public,' DC Panel Says

By Alison Knezevich

A Washington, D.C., attorney ethics panel agreed Friday that Rudy Giuliani's role in former President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn Pennsylvania's presidential election in 2020 amounted to misconduct "of the utmost seriousness," and that disbarring him would "protect the public, the courts, and the integrity of the legal profession."

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Texas Judge Opts Not To Recuse And Tosses Chamber Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A Texas federal judge has thrown out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's suit seeking to block the Federal Trade Commission from implementing a ban on noncompete clauses because a different plaintiff was first to file, adding he declined to recuse himself because no companies in his stock portfolio were parties in the case.

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Illinois Strengthens Atty Ethics Rules For Harassment, Bias

By Celeste Bott

The Illinois Supreme Court has announced that the state's professional conduct rules for attorneys have been amended to deem the act of engaging in harassment or discrimination as professional misconduct, and not just in the event a court or administrative agency finds that a lawyer violated a law prohibiting such actions.

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DOJ Looks To End A Legacy Of Bias In Sex Assault Cases

By Hannah Albarazi

The U.S. Department of Justice says that legal fallacies and misogynistic stereotypes often lead prosecutors to decline to charge alleged perpetrators of sexual violence, but new guidance from the department is pushing prosecutors to give more credence to victims and see that their claims are more thoroughly investigated.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Brewer Attorneys & Counselors, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and attorneys Eugene Volokh and Alan Morrison lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the National Rifle Association can proceed with certain claims in the gun rights group's lawsuit against a former New York state official.

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The Top In-House Hires Of May

By Michele Gorman

Legal department hires during the last full month of spring included high-profile appointments at Southwest, Hormel and UnitedHealth. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from May.

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Off The Bench: NCAA Transfers Freed, Atty Plays Cards Right

By David Steele

In this week's Off the Bench, the NCAA agrees to more historic rule changes while experts examine its post-House settlement future, and a patent lawyer looks back at his transformation into a poker champion.

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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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