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Appellate
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August 20, 2024
Fed. Circ. Flips Samsung's Win In 'Slide To Unlock' Patent Suit
The Federal Circuit on Tuesday revived part of a small smartphone company's patent suit against Samsung over its "swipe to unlock" feature, saying that one of Neonode Smartphone's core patent claims was more definite in its scope than the lower court gave it credit for.
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August 20, 2024
DOD Tells DC Circ. It Can Set Criteria For Soldier Citizenship
The U.S. Department of Defense is urging the D.C. Circuit to reverse a district court injunction permanently blocking the agency from setting service duration requirements for noncitizen soldiers to become citizens, saying Congress authorized it to do so.
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August 20, 2024
Fla. Attys' Licenses Suspended In Connection To Assault Case
The Florida Supreme Court has suspended the licenses of a Tallahassee attorney couple after they pled no contest to charges related to a criminal case in which their former babysitter accused them of sexual assault during an incident at the couple's home.
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August 20, 2024
Ex-Client Opposes Amicus In McCarter & English Fee Fight
A dietary supplement maker has asked Connecticut's highest court to reject a bid by the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association to file a friend-of-court brief in a case questioning whether McCarter & English LLP can obtain punitive damages in a fee dispute, saying no additional input is necessary because no tort occurred.
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August 20, 2024
Ex-State's Atty Says Md. Trial Convictions Should Be Axed
Former Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby is vying to upend her convictions for perjury and mortgage fraud, telling the Fourth Circuit the federal prosecution was riddled with errors from the outset.
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August 20, 2024
Mich. Judge Says She's Falsely Accused In Watchdog's Probe
A Michigan state judge said she now knows the "injustice" of being falsely accused, urging a judicial watchdog to reject charges that she lied to investigators who were probing another judge's misconduct.
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August 20, 2024
NC Panel Revives Meddling Claims Against Real Estate Atty
A real estate attorney must face renewed claims that he helped a stranger meddle in an ownership fight among heirs over a parcel of land in Charlotte, the North Carolina Court of Appeals said Tuesday.
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August 20, 2024
States, Coal Cos. Seek High Court Block Of EPA Mercury Rule
A group of red states and coal companies have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the D.C. Circuit's decision allowing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to implement a mercury air pollution rule while their legal challenges play out.
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August 20, 2024
AMC Shareholder Wants Opt-Out Fight In US High Court
Arguing that stockholder rights to opt out of class-wide monetary settlements should no longer be "dependent on the accident of geography," attorneys for an AMC Entertainment Inc. stockholder asked the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday to review opt-out denials in a deal that ended a Delaware Court of Chancery suit last year.
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August 20, 2024
'Full Steam Ahead' For Pandemic IG Despite Sunset Fear
A pandemic watchdog office is poised to shutter in seven months — its pleas for an extension have gone unheeded. But in the meantime, its remaining employees, some working away in their nondescript Alexandria, Virginia, office, others from their homes, are hustling to recover millions of dollars from COVID-19 fraudsters.
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August 20, 2024
Mass. AG Can't Enforce Housing Act, State's Top Court Told
Massachusetts' attorney general lacks the authority to force compliance with a law requiring communities to create multifamily housing zoning districts because lawmakers have already included the loss of some types of state aid as a penalty, but no other enforcement powers, lawyers for the town of Milton have told the state's highest court.
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August 20, 2024
A Deep Dive Into Law360 Pulse's 2024 Women In Law Report
The legal industry continues to see incremental gains for female lawyers in private practice in the U.S., according to a Law360 Pulse analysis, with women now representing 40.6% of all attorneys and 51% of all associates.
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August 20, 2024
These Firms Have The Most Women In Equity Partnerships
The legal industry still has a long way to go before it can achieve gender parity at its upper levels. But these law firms are performing better than others in breaking the proverbial glass ceiling that prevents women from attaining leadership roles.
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August 20, 2024
BNSF Urges 5th Circ. To Nix Colorblind Conductor's ADA Suit
BNSF Railway Co. urged the Fifth Circuit to reject a colorblind conductor's bid to revive his disability bias suit claiming he was illegally fired for failing a vision test, arguing that the former employee's impairment disqualified him for the job.
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August 20, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
A nearly record-breaking attorney fee got the nod in Delaware last week, along with Chancery Court settlements involving an international private jet service and a chain of trampoline parks. New disputes involved a famous burger restaurant chain, a computer-chip maker, a now-defunct genomic science company, and a historic manor house in west London.
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August 20, 2024
Mich. County Will Pause Court Closures Opposed By Judges
A Michigan county has agreed to pause plans to consolidate seven court locations into one courthouse in Flint and get judges' buy-in on the future of the court facilities, resolving a lawsuit filed by the judges.
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August 19, 2024
Hospital Says NLRB Injunction Bid Relies On Disputed Facts
A National Labor Relations Board official's request for an injunction compelling a Michigan hospital to resume recognizing a Service Employees International Union affiliate is short on uncontested facts and heavy on pressure to adopt the official's findings, the hospital argued Monday, urging a federal judge to deny the request.
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August 19, 2024
Ariz. Sheriff Can't Ax Racial Profiling Injunction, 9th Circ. Says
The Ninth Circuit on Monday kept in place a permanent injunction in a class action alleging the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona racially profiled Latinos for traffic stops under the guise of immigration enforcement, saying the district court was within its powers to assign an independent monitor.
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August 19, 2024
Military Reservist Tells High Court Top-Up Pay Law Is Broad
A federal employee who was denied top-up pay while on active duty as a military reservist urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to rule that all federally employed reservists are owed differential pay if serving during a national emergency, regardless of the circumstances.
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August 19, 2024
Fed. Circ. Urged To Review Dish's Fight Over Atty Fee Liability
A technology industry group on Monday urged the full Federal Circuit to take a look at a precedential panel decision preventing Dish Network LLC from collecting fees directly from a patent litigation company's lawyer, arguing that the ruling "rips a gaping hole" in legal fee jurisprudence that would "immunize" lawyers from ever having to pay attorney fees for filing baseless patent lawsuits.
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August 19, 2024
Justices Urged To Refuse Rent-To-Own Co. Fee Suit
Two consumers suing a rent-to-own furniture store over fees that are allegedly barred under California law urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday not to review a Ninth Circuit decision nixing the company's arbitration bid, arguing that the case is too fact-specific to warrant the court's attention.
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August 19, 2024
Texas Says Biden's River Barrier Claims Insist On Jury Trial
Texas told the Fifth Circuit that a federal judge got it wrong by denying its right to jury trial in a fight over the state's use of a border barrier in the Rio Grande, saying in a Monday brief that the government's claims carry a right for a jury trial.
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August 19, 2024
FERC Can't OK Calif. Hydropower Permit Delays, DC Circ. Told
A Northern California water district has told the D.C. Circuit that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission wrongly concluded that the state water board did not waive its Clean Water Act permitting authority with regard to two hydroelectric dam projects, adding that it is not blocked from arguing so.
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August 19, 2024
9th Circ. Partially Revives State Farm Car Value Class Action
A split Ninth Circuit panel partially revived a class action accusing State Farm of undervaluing policyholders' totaled vehicles when paying out claims, saying Monday that a Washington federal court abused its discretion in decertifying one of two classes based on a previous Ninth Circuit ruling.
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August 19, 2024
9th Circ. Told Psilocybin Petition Is Backed By Precedent
A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday dissected opposing arguments from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and a Seattle doctor over whether there is precedent to allow the dispensing of psilocybin — a psychedelic compound — to treat terminally ill patients.
Expert Analysis
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What High Court Ruling Means For Sexual Harassment Claims
In its recent Smith v. Spizzirri decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a district court compelling a case to arbitration is obligated to stay the case rather than dismissing it, but this requirement may result in sexual harassment cases not being heard by appellate courts, says Abe Melamed at Signature Resolution.
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Trademark In Artistic Works 1 Year After Jack Daniel's
In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court's Jack Daniel's v. VIP Products ruling, courts have applied Jack Daniel's inconsistently to deny First Amendment protection to artistic works, providing guidance for dismissing trademark claims relating to film and TV titles, say Hardy Ehlers and Neema Sahni at Covington.
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9th Circ. Ruling Broadens Sweep Of Securities 'Solicitation'
The Ninth Circuit's recent revival of a putative securities fraud class action against Genius Brands for hiring a stock promoter to write favorable articles about it shows that companies should view "solicitation" broadly in considering whether they may have paid someone to urge an investor to purchase a security, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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Why Jurors Balk At 'I Don't Recall' — And How To Respond
Jurors often react negatively to a witness who responds “I don’t remember” because they tend to hold erroneous beliefs about the nature of human memory, but attorneys can adopt a few strategies to mitigate the impact of these biases, say Steve Wood and Ava Hernández at Courtroom Sciences.
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Series
Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge at Robinson Bradshaw.
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5th Circ. Venue-Transfer Cases Highlight Mandamus Limits
Three ongoing cases filed within the Fifth Circuit highlight an odd procedural wrinkle that may let district courts defy an appellate writ: orders granting transfer to out-of-circuit districts, but parties opposing intercircuit transfer can work around this hurdle to effective appellate review, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.
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A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence
The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.
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PTAB Rulings Shed Light On Quantum Computing Patents
Recent Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions on enablement rejections against quantum computing patent claims provide patent practitioners with valuable guidance on best practices for avoiding and overcoming enablement, say Fred Qiu and Alex Nie at Sheppard Mullin.
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To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef
To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?
Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.
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Fed. Circ. Rulings Crystallize Polymorph Patent 'Obviousness'
A comparison of two recent Federal Circuit obviousness challenge decisions regarding polymorph patents provides helpful insight into the assessment of screening arguments, particularly the issue of reasonable expectation of success, say Michael Green and John Molenda at Steptoe.
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DC Circ. Ruling Heightens HHS Contract Pharmacy Challenges
The D.C. Circuit's recent ruling that the Section 340B program does not bar manufacturers from restricting deliveries of discounted drugs to contract pharmacies represents a second strike against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' current contract pharmacy policy and raises the stakes surrounding an upcoming Seventh Circuit ruling on the same issue, say attorneys at Foley Hoag.
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Series
In The CFPB Playbook: Regulatory Aims Get High Court Assist
Newly emboldened after the U.S. Supreme Court last month found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding is constitutional, the bureau has likely experienced a psychic boost, allowing its already robust enforcement agenda to continue expanding, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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3 Infringement Defenses To Consider 10 Years Post-Nautilus
In the 10 years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s influential Nautilus ruling, the spirit of the “amenable to construction” test that the opinion rejected persists with many patent litigators and judges, so patent infringement defense counsel should always consider several key arguments, says John Vandenberg at Klarquist Sparkman.
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NY Ruling Paves A Court Payment Shortcut For More Creditors
A recent New York state appeals court ruling expands access to an expedited statutory procedure for court enforcement of promissory notes or unconditional guaranties, allowing more creditors to minimize the risk of potentially challenging litigation on threshold issues, says Alexander Levi at Friedman Kaplan.