Aerospace & Defense

  • October 31, 2024

    A Boeing Space Exit, $3B Hot Dogs And More Deal Rumors

    Like the two astronauts currently stranded on the International Space Station, Boeing is reportedly looking to get out of space — by exiting its NASA business. In earthly news, foreign meat companies are reportedly eyeing popular hot dog brand Oscar Mayer at a price tag that could approach an arguably gluttonous $3 billion, and Blackstone could shell out five big ones — $5 billion, that is — for a cellphone infrastructure business. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other deal rumors from the past week.

  • October 31, 2024

    What DOJ's New National Security Obsession Means For Attys

    The Justice Department’s emerging criminal crackdown on corporate national security violations is putting increased pressure on white collar lawyers to be conversant, if not experts, on opaque, complex and swiftly evolving regulations.

  • October 31, 2024

    Defense Contractor, Ex-Exec Hit With Bribery Charges

    Defense contractor Cask Technologies LLC and its former executive vice president have been charged in California federal court with bribing a former civilian official of the U.S. Navy in exchange for government contracts.

  • October 31, 2024

    Ga. Private Pilot Sue Engine Co. After Golf Course Landing

    A Georgia man filed suit against a division of Avco Corp. alleging that the engine had failed in a small plane that he had rented, forcing him to crash-land on a golf course in Illinois, injuring him and his family.

  • October 31, 2024

    GAO Upholds NASA's $98M Aircraft Engineering Support Deal

    The U.S. Government Accountability Office has rejected a challenge from a Virginia engineering firm to a $98 million contract awarded to a rival company by NASA, disagreeing that the space agency had assessed bids improperly.

  • October 31, 2024

    Ex-Prez Who Stole Secrets Must Be Stopped, Company Says

    A Colorado company that makes environmental control technology for aircraft is asking a federal judge to enjoin its former president and other ex-employees from developing a competing product, arguing that it has already lost at least one customer worth "several million dollars" to the alleged trade secret theft.

  • October 31, 2024

    The 2024 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard

    Check out the Law360 Pulse Leaderboard to see which firms made the list of leaders in all-around excellence this year.

  • October 31, 2024

    Firms' Hiring Strategies Are Evolving In Fight For Top Spot

    Competition for top talent among elite law firms shows no signs of slowing down, even amid economic uncertainty, with financially strong firms deploying aggressive strategies to attract and retain skilled professionals to solidify their market position.

  • October 30, 2024

    Retrial Begins In Abu Ghraib Torture Case Against Contractor

    A Virginia-based defense contractor returned to a federal court in Alexandria on Wednesday to face claims that it aided and abetted torture at Iraq's Abu Ghraib military prison after a trial on the same allegations ended in a hung jury earlier this year.

  • October 30, 2024

    Army Corps Says Biz Inflated Costs Of Nixed Clean-Up Deal

    The Army Corps of Engineers pressed the federal claims court to ditch most of a disaster recovery contractor's $4.9 million contract termination claim, saying the contractor inflated the termination's costs by seeking payment for services that were already paid for.

  • October 30, 2024

    4th Circ. Affirms Soldier's Loss Against Fluor Over Bombing

    A split Fourth Circuit panel on Wednesday affirmed the dismissal of a soldier's lawsuit against Fluor Corp. over injuries he sustained in a 2016 suicide bombing in Afghanistan, holding the suit's state tort claims are preempted by a "combatant activities" exception in federal law.

  • October 30, 2024

    FCC To Consider Undersea Cable Security Review In Nov.

    The Federal Communications Commission next month is expected to embark on a review of security measures for undersea cables, an issue of growing concern over the last year.

  • October 30, 2024

    Southwest Seeks To Dismantle Military Leave Class

    Southwest Airlines urged a California federal judge to disassemble a nearly 3,000-member class of workers who say the company violated federal law by failing to pay them for short stints of military leave, saying new evidence shows there are too many individualized issues to warrant class treatment.

  • October 30, 2024

    Gov't Contracts Of The Month: Uranium And Missile Detection

    Over the past month, the Biden administration advanced plans to secure the nuclear energy supply chain with $3.5 billion worth of uranium enrichment contracts and added $1.8 billion to its next-generation missile detection program. Here are Law360's most note-worthy government contracts for October 2024.

  • October 30, 2024

    Gulfstream Arbitration Notice To Worker Adequate, Court Says

    Jet manufacturer Gulfstream Aerospace's use of a hyperlink to the terms of its arbitration requirement for employee disputes was adequate notice to a worker who later tried to sue, an intermediate Massachusetts appellate court said Wednesday.

  • October 29, 2024

    DOJ Will Restrict Data Swapping With 'Countries Of Concern'

    The U.S. Department of Justice has proposed new rules that will make it the regulator of any type of transaction that would put certain kinds of sensitive privacy data in the hands of any "covered persons" or "country of concern."

  • October 29, 2024

    'Breathtaking' Pentagon Leak Merits 16 Years, Feds Say

    Prosecutors urged a federal judge on Tuesday to sentence a former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman to more than 16 years in prison for posting top secret military documents to the social media platform Discord, calling the crimes a historic and "breathtaking" betrayal of national security.

  • October 29, 2024

    Bell Owes $16M In Trade Secrets Row With Vendor, Jury Finds

    A Texas jury on Tuesday largely found in favor of Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. in a suit claiming that it used a former vendor's trade secrets to prep a replacement supplier, concluding that Bell breached its contract with the vendor but that the Fort Worth, Texas-based aerospace manufacturer hadn't stolen intellectual property.

  • October 29, 2024

    US Finalizes Investment Ban On Chinese Emerging Tech

    The Biden administration finalized plans to ban U.S. investors from funding emerging Chinese technology, saying the restrictions are necessary to prevent Beijing from advancing technologies critical to its military modernization campaign. 

  • October 29, 2024

    GAO Says Space Force Right To Deny Inmarsat Satellite Deal

    The U.S. Government Accountability Office has denied a protest from satellite communications contractor Inmarsat over the U.S. Space Force's award of a $114.6 million contract for Ku-band satellite bandwidth and equipment, ruling that the government was justified in finding Inmarsat's proposal technically unacceptable.

  • October 29, 2024

    DOD Says Boeing Overcharged For Cargo Plane Spare Parts

    The Department of Defense's Office of the Inspector General has issued a report finding that the Air Force overpaid about $1 million for spare parts in a contract with Boeing for C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.

  • October 29, 2024

    Bannon Released From Prison As Election, NY Trial Loom

    Former President Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon was released from federal prison Tuesday after serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress, a week before Election Day and a month and a half ahead of his next criminal trial in New York.

  • October 29, 2024

    Cash-Strapped Boeing Prices Upsized $21B Share Sale

    Boeing said Tuesday it had priced an upsized sale of common and depositary shares to raise more than $21 billion, in an offering guided by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP that would bolster the plane maker's cash balances amid a protracted strike.

  • October 29, 2024

    Kasowitz Defense Tech Trio Joins Pillsbury In DC

    As investment in government contracts, defense, technology and cyber deals continues to increase, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP has hired a trio of policy experts to its government law and strategies team in Washington to assist with lobbying support of U.S. allied-owned defense companies and other clients.

  • October 29, 2024

    2nd Circ. Says FBI Agents Immune From Suit Over No-Fly List

    The Second Circuit on Tuesday upheld a lower court's decision finding immunity for FBI agents who were accused of placing four Muslim men on a no-fly database after they declined to become informants.

Expert Analysis

  • How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources

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    Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment

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    Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.

  • Suspension And Debarment: FY 2024 By The Numbers

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    The multiyear, downward trend in suspensions and debarments of government contractors continued in fiscal year 2024, largely fueled by a sharp decrease in exclusions of individuals — a welcome development that may indicate recognition that these actions can be more punitive than prophylactic, says David Robbins at Jenner & Block.

  • Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity

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    Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.

  • New Export Control Guidance Raises The Stakes For Banks

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    Recent guidance from the Bureau of Industry and Security alerts banks that they could be liable for facilitating export control violations, the latest example of regulators articulating the expectation that both financial institutions and corporations serve as gatekeepers to mitigate crime and aid enforcement efforts, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules

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    The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.

  • The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO

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    The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.

  • Why Diversity Jurisdiction Poses Investment Fund Hurdles

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    Federal courts' continued application of the exacting rules of diversity jurisdiction presents particular challenges for investment funds, and in the absence of any near-term reform, those who manage such funds should take action to avoid diversity jurisdiction pitfalls, say attorneys at Sher Tremonte.

  • Series

    Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The practice of patent law and beekeeping are not typically associated, but taking care of honeybees has enriched my legal practice by highlighting the importance of hands-on experience, continuous learning, mentorship and more, says David Longo at Oblon McClelland.

  • GAO Decision Offers Insights On Verifying TAA Compliance

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    The U.S. Government Accountability Office's August decision in Matter of: HPI Federal LLC serves as a reminder of the importance of verifying Trade Agreements Act compliance — and of understanding the parameters of an agency's acceptance of an offeror's TAA representation, say Amy Hoang and Sarah Barney at Seyfarth.

  • 3 Takeaways From Navy Shipbuilder's Fraud Guilty Plea

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    Austal USA’s recent plea agreement over accounting fraud charges highlights for other companies the benefits of cooperating with government investigations, the challenges posed by senior executives’ involvement in misconduct, and the high stakes for defense contractors, say Michael DeBernardis and Shayda Vance at Hughes Hubbard.

  • Opinion

    Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits

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    With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.

  • How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program

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    During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.

  • Series

    Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.

  • An Update On Legal Issues In The Drone Market

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    Marialuisa Gallozzi and Alex Slawson at Covington examine recent developments in the legal issues surrounding the growing drone market, including possible First Amendment protections, Fourth Amendment surveillance, and litigation involving criminal and civil penalties, evidentiary pursuits, and insurance.

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