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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NFL Kicker Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Flight Attendants

By Y. Peter Kang

Two flight attendants who worked on a transatlantic charter flight for the Jacksonville Jaguars have sued the team and kicker Brandon McManus in Florida state court, alleging he sexually assaulted them during the eight-hour flight to London.

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Ex-Citgo Execs Jailed In Venezuela For 5 Years File $400M Suit

By Lauren Berg

Two brothers who both served as Citgo vice presidents filed a $400 million suit in Texas on Thursday accusing their former employer of conspiring with Venezuela's authoritarian government to falsely convict them of financial crimes, resulting in their wrongful imprisonment of nearly five years.

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Justices Revive NRA's Free Speech Claims Against NY Official

By Abraham Gross

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the National Rifle Association can proceed with certain claims in its lawsuit alleging that a former New York state official violated the gun rights group's free speech protections by pressuring financial institutions to cut ties with it.

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FAA Caps 737 Max Production Amid Boeing Safety Plan Fixes

By Linda Chiem

The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it will continue to limit Boeing's production of 737 Max jets as the company presses ahead with overhauling its safety culture under an FAA-mandated corrective action plan following January's midair blowout aboard an Alaska Airlines flight.

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Transportation Co. Must Face Negligence Claims In Crash Suit

By Mike Curley

A Texas federal judge isn't letting Panther II Transportation Inc. escape negligence claims from a suit alleging one of its drivers hit a vehicle on the highway, finding there's sufficient evidence for a jury to conclude the company should have known the driver posed a risk without additional training.

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Dollar General Gets To Close Door On Injury Suit

By Mike Curley

The Georgia Court of Appeals has shut down a patron's suit against Dollar General Store alleging she injured her hand closing a faulty door, saying the hazard was not hidden, she had as much knowledge of it as employees, and she'd negotiated the door successfully earlier the same day.

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Kraft-Owned Paper Mill Inks $18M Deal In Emissions Suit

By Mike Curley

Property owners who sued the operators of a paper mill co-owned by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft have asked a South Carolina federal court to approve an $18 million settlement to end nuisance and personal injury claims over the mill's emissions.

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Real Estate Investor Beats Niece's Suit Over Fall At LA Home

By Jonathan Capriel

Real estate investor and philanthropist Stanley Black can't be held liable for injuries suffered by his niece when she tripped and fell on the driveway of his Sunset Boulevard mansion, a California state appeals court has ruled, saying there's no evidence of defects on the driveway she walked on many times before.

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Judge Exits Military Families' Suit Over Fatal Osprey Crash

By Alyssa Aquino

A California federal judge recused himself from the wrongful death lawsuit launched by the families of the U.S. Marines killed when a Bell-Boeing-made V-22 Osprey went down, a recent court filing shows.

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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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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: May Lessons

In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses four notable circuit court decisions on topics from automobile insurance to securities — and provides key takeaways for counsel on issues including circuit-specific ascertainability requirements and how to conduct a Daubert analysis prior to class certification.

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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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12 Keys To Successful Post-Trial Juror Interviews

Post-trial interviews offer attorneys an avenue to gain valuable insights into juror decision making and get feedback that can inform future litigation strategies, but certain best practices must be followed to get the most out of this research tool, say Alexa Hiley and Brianna Smith at IMS Legal.

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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

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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