NCAA To End Transfer Rules In Deal With DOJ

By David Steele

The NCAA agreed on Thursday to stop enforcing all rules governing athletes transferring from one institution to another, as part of a proposed consent decree filed by the U.S. Department of Justice to settle an antitrust suit against the organization by 10 states and the District of Columbia.

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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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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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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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Ex-Penn State Football Team Doc Wins $5.25M Retaliation Suit

By Matthew Santoni

A Pennsylvania jury awarded $5.25 million to a former doctor for the Pennsylvania State University football team who claimed he was fired for reporting that head coach James Franklin pressured him to push student-athletes back onto the field before they were ready, according to a verdict sheet made public Friday.

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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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'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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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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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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Kalshi Says Elections Aren't Games In Voting Wager Hearing

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge on Thursday tried to weigh whether gambling on elections can be considered "gaming" in predictions market Kalshi's challenge to a U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission order blocking it from offering election-based futures contracts.

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Retired NBA Star Ends Coverage Suit Against BCBS

By Travis Bland

Former NBA player Rodney Rogers on Thursday dropped claims that Blue Cross Blue Shield abruptly ended at-home nursing care in violation of his policy but kept the door open to refile the claims.

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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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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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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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Nike Scores Partial Win In Adidas '3 Stripes' Appeal

By Tabitha Burbidge

Nike successfully challenged a German regional court's ruling preventing it from using a stripe pattern on five of its trouser designs, in the latest round of its stripe-centric trademark dispute with Adidas.

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Swansea City Hit Ex-Head Coach With £750K Contract Claim

By Ronan Barnard

A Welsh football club has sued its former coach in a London court for over £750,000 ($955,000), alleging he breached his contract when he moved to work for a competing team, according to newly public court filings.

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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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