Aerospace & Defense

  • June 28, 2024

    Fla. Air Force Vet Charged With Sharing Classified Information

    A Florida Air Force veteran was accused of distributing classified materials about military aircraft in a federal indictment, which charged him with several counts of sharing national defense information that could be used to harm the United States.

  • June 28, 2024

    Navy Accused Of Favoring Mentor-Protege Cos. On $50B Deal

    A Navy contractor has urged a Court of Federal Claims judge to overturn the U.S. Navy's modification to a $50 billion professional services contract, saying the change had given an unfair advantage to mentor-protégé joint ventures and their member companies.

  • June 28, 2024

    NJ Contractor Admits To Defrauding Defense Dept.

    A New Jersey businessman has admitted in federal court to engaging in two multiyear schemes to defraud the U.S. Defense Department on contracts for military equipment parts and agreeing to rig bids for government contracts.

  • June 28, 2024

    House Passes Contentious $833B Defense Spending Bill

    The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed an $833 billion bill funding the Pentagon for 2025, amid a veto threat over contentious issues such as cutting funding for Ukraine and a bar on gender-affirming care.

  • June 28, 2024

    Gov't Contracts Of The Month: Space Launches And Satellites

    June saw NASA and the U.S. Space Force doling out billions of dollars for weather satellites, information technology services and national security space launches. Here, Law360 looks at some of the most noteworthy government contracts over the last month.

  • June 28, 2024

    Satellite Cos. Call For More Detail On FCC's Space Debris Plan

    Satellite companies are telling the Federal Communications Commission that more work needs to be done before it moves forward on an accidental explosion probability threshold for satellites, with several arguing in recent weeks that the agency needs more comment to establish a clear metric.

  • June 28, 2024

    Afghans Who Aided U.S. Gov't Sue Over Kids' Visa Denials

    A group of Afghan nationals who supported the U.S. government in its decades-long war against the Taliban sued the federal government in Virginia federal court Thursday, claiming their children's visa applications were arbitrarily denied after years of processing delays, forcing them to remain in Afghanistan and putting them in grave danger.

  • June 28, 2024

    Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, Vinson, Skadden

    In this week's Taxation with Representation, Aareal Bank AG and Advent International sell a property management and maintenance software company, Webtoon Entertainment Inc. and Tamboran Resources Corp. price initial public offerings, SM Energy Company acquires oil and gas assets, and Nokia sells Alcatel Submarine Networks to the French state.

  • June 28, 2024

    Skadden Guides Nokia On $2.3B Infinera Buy, Stock Pops

    Skadden is representing Nokia on a deal to buy Silicon Valley optical-transmission equipment maker Infinera at a $2.3 billion enterprise value, as the Finnish telecommunications giant looks to upsize its North American optical markets business. 

  • June 28, 2024

    Supreme Court Strikes Down Chevron Deference

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned a decades-old precedent that instructed judges about when they could defer to federal agencies' interpretations of law in rulemaking, depriving courts of a commonly used analytic tool and leaving lots of questions about what comes next.

  • June 27, 2024

    Menendez Met Alleged Briber Pre-Gold Price Search, Jury Told

    An FBI cell tower expert told Sen. Robert Menendez's bribery jury Thursday that the phones of the senator, his wife and co-defendant developer Fred Daibes all pinged in the same location minutes before the senator did a web search for "how much is one kilo of gold worth."

  • June 27, 2024

    Sen. Brown Asks White House To Enforce Mexican Steel Curbs

    Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has argued an alleged surge of Mexican steel into the U.S. threatens to undermine the domestic economy in a letter urging the Biden administration to enforce a trade deal restricting Mexican steel.

  • June 27, 2024

    Navy Wrongly Ended Deal Over Staffing Req, Fed. Circ. Told

    A U.S. Navy contractor has urged the Federal Circuit to overturn the branch's decision to cancel a support services task order for default, saying the Navy had imposed unjustified staffing requirements on the deal and wrongly sought to debar the company from contracting.

  • June 27, 2024

    SpaceX Says Local Regs Best Suited For Fixing 'Dead Zones'

    SpaceX is steadily deploying a fleet of satellites to cover mobile carrier "dead zones" across the globe, but cautions the Federal Communications Commission that it must allow each country's regulators to govern issues like signal interference on the ground.

  • June 27, 2024

    Deals Rumor Mill: Boeing, Blackstone, Bosch

    Boeing offers $4 billion for parts maker Spirit AeroSystems, Blackstone could sell Legence at up to $5 billion value, and Bosch mulls a bid for Whirlpool. Here, Law360 breaks down the notable deal rumors from the past week.

  • June 27, 2024

    US Service Members Want Timeshare Class Action Certified

    A putative class of U.S. service members who borrowed timeshare loans pushed for class certification for their suit in Florida federal court against two timeshare companies, which were accused of violating the Military Lending Act by not making legally required disclosures about the loans and arbitration requirements.

  • June 27, 2024

    Boeing Settles Suit Claiming NC Fund Ransomed Plane Parts

    The Boeing Co. and the private investment firm it accused of forcing a new supply contract under false pretenses before raising prices for aircraft parts by more than 300% have agreed to settle their dispute, according to a new notice filed in North Carolina federal court.

  • June 27, 2024

    NTSB Rips Boeing For Blabbing About Blowout Probe

    The National Transportation Safety Board sanctioned Boeing on Thursday for sharing nonpublic details of an ongoing investigation into January's 737 Max 9 midair door plug blowout, deepening the American aerospace giant's regulatory troubles amid multiple probes into its safety culture and quality control.

  • June 27, 2024

    Fla. Judge Denies Trump's Bid To Toss Mar-A-Lago Warrant

    The Florida judge overseeing Donald Trump's federal criminal case involving allegations of illegally keeping classified documents after leaving the White House denied the former president's bid Thursday for a hearing on the validity of the Mar-a-Lago search, but said she'd consider an evidence suppression hearing.

  • June 27, 2024

    4th Circ. Won't Revive Navy Hospital Gangrene Suit

    The Fourth Circuit declined to revive a North Carolina woman's lawsuit over a U.S. Navy hospital allegedly misdiagnosing her kidney failure and causing her to contract gangrene and require multiple amputations, standing by a lower court's ruling that her suit was filed too late under a state-level statute.

  • June 27, 2024

    Nokia To Sell Submarine Network To France In $375M Deal

    Skadden-led Nokia said Thursday it has agreed to sell submarine network business Alcatel Submarine Networks, or ASN, to the French state at an enterprise value of €350 million ($375 million).

  • June 26, 2024

    Menendez Pals 'Generous,' Jeweler Says In Joke-Filled Testimony

    A jeweler who helped Sen. Robert Menendez's wife sell gold bars that were supposedly bribes testified Wednesday the codefendants who gave Menendez the bars have always been generous, salting his testimony with so many droll comments that the New York federal judge — who initially bantered back — eventually gave a special instruction reinforcing that the trial is "very serious."

  • June 26, 2024

    VA Can't 'Short-Circuit' Racial Bias Suit With Appeal, Vet Says

    The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs should not be allowed to challenge a Connecticut federal judge's decision to let a Black Marine Corps veteran proceed with his systemic-discrimination suit against the department because it has not met the standards for lodging an interlocutory appeal, the plaintiffs have argued.

  • June 26, 2024

    Julian Assange Freed After Judge Accepts US Plea Deal

    Julian Assange returned to his native Australia on Wednesday hours after a federal judge in the Northern Mariana Islands accepted his plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice and sentenced him to time served for conspiring to disclose national security information.

  • June 26, 2024

    Italian Co. To Pay Feds $538K Over N. Korean Animation Job

    Mondo TV has agreed to pay $538,000 to resolve allegations by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control that the Italy-based animation studio violated American sanctions regulations by paying an animation studio tied to the North Korean government through U.S. financial institutions, OFAC announced Wednesday.

Expert Analysis

  • How Harsher Penalties For AI Crimes May Work In Practice

    Author Photo

    With recent pronouncements from the U.S. Department of Justice that prosecutors may seek sentencing enhancements for crimes committed using artificial intelligence, defense counsel should understand how the sentencing guidelines and statutory factors will come into play, says Jennie VonCannon at Crowell & Moring.

  • Document Retention Best Practices To Lower Litigation Risks

    Author Photo

    As new technologies emerge and terabytes of data can be within the purview of a single discovery request, businesses small and large should take four document management steps to effectively minimize risks of litigation and discovery sanctions long before litigation ensues, says Kimbrilee Weber at Norris McLaughlin.

  • Series

    Riding My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Using the Peloton platform for cycling, running, rowing and more taught me that fostering a mind-body connection will not only benefit you physically and emotionally, but also inspire stamina, focus, discipline and empathy in your legal career, says Christopher Ward at Polsinelli.

  • Compliance Steps After ABA White Collar Crime Conference

    Author Photo

    Senior law enforcement officials’ statements this month at the American Bar Association's white collar crime conference suggest government enforcement efforts this year will increasingly focus on whistleblower incentives, artificial intelligence and data protection, and companies will need to update their compliance programs accordingly, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents

    Author Photo

    Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.

  • What 2 Years Of Ukraine-Russia Conflict Can Teach Cos.

    Author Photo

    A few key legal lessons for the global business community since Russia's invasion of Ukraine could help protect global commerce in times of future conflict, including how to respond to disparate trade restrictions and sanctions, navigate war-related contract disputes, and protect against heightened cybersecurity risks, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Risks Of Nonmutual Offensive Collateral Estoppel In MDLs

    Author Photo

    After the Supreme Court declined to review the Sixth Circuit's ruling in the E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. personal injury litigation, nonmutual offensive collateral estoppel could show up in more MDLs, and transform the loss of a single MDL bellwether trial into a de facto classwide decision that binds thousands of other MDL cases, say Chantale Fiebig and Luke Sullivan at Weil Gotshal.

  • Wesco Ch. 11 Ruling Marks Shift In Uptier Claim Treatment

    Author Photo

    A Texas bankruptcy court’s recent decision in In re: Wesco Aircraft Holdings leaves nonparticipating creditors with a road map to litigate to judgment non-pro rata liability management transactions, and foreshadows that bankruptcy courts may no longer be a friendly forum for these types of claims, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Takeaways From Groundbreaking Data Transfer Order

    Author Photo

    A recent first-of-its-kind executive order and related proposed rulemaking lay the groundwork for important outbound U.S. data protections, but they may have unintended consequences related to the types of data and the subjects within their scope, say attorneys at Kirkland.

  • FARA Enforcement May Soon Be In The Halls Of Higher Ed

    Author Photo

    Given Congress’ increased attention to rising foreign influence on U.S. college campuses, the U.S. Department of Justice may soon turn the Foreign Agents Registration Act spotlight on educational institutions and groups, which will need to review their possible obligations under the statute, says Tessa Capeloto at Wiley.

  • What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks

    Author Photo

    Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.

  • How The FAA Is Embracing Simplified Flight Controls

    Author Photo

    The Federal Aviation Administration's openness to approving simplified flight controls as part of its forthcoming refresh of regulations governing light-sport aircraft and sport pilot certificates is valuable and welcome — and the same approach can be brought to general aviation aircraft, says Paul Alp at Adams and Reese.

  • Making The Pitch For A Civil Resolution In A Criminal Case

    Author Photo

    Even without the depth of visibility into prosecutorial decision making offered by special counsel Robert Hur’s recently released report, defense counsel may be able to make the case for civil resolutions of criminal investigations while minimizing a potential negative response from prosecutors to such an argument, says Bill Athanas at Bradley Arant.

  • Litigation Inspiration: A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment

    Author Photo

    As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.

  • Series

    Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    A lifetime of skiing has helped me develop important professional skills, and taught me that embracing challenges with a spirit of adventure can allow lawyers to push boundaries, expand their capabilities and ultimately excel in their careers, says Andrea Przybysz at Tucker Ellis.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Aerospace & Defense archive.
Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!