Appellate

February 10, 2025
Conn. Judge Flags 'Extraordinary' Error In $10.4M Fraud Suit

A Connecticut appellate judge expressed surprise Monday that for more than five years, two teams of seasoned litigators failed to notice an error on the docket of a securities fraud lawsuit before the mistake led to a judge — and not a jury — hearing the case and issuing a $10.4 million award to investment banking firm FIH LLC.
February 10, 2025
Experts Sound Alarm After Musk, Vance Float Ignoring Judges

Attorneys and constitutional experts say the warning lights "are blinking red" after Vice President JD Vance and Trump confidante Elon Musk took to social media to attack the independence of the judiciary over the weekend.
February 10, 2025
BCLP Received Improper OK To Challenge Ga. Fee Ruling

A Georgia state appeals court said Monday that it improperly gave Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP the green light to appeal a trial court ruling ordering the firm to return more than $125,000 in connection to a dispute between an Atlanta attorney and an airport travel spa operator.
February 10, 2025
Mass. Justices May Greenlight Ex-Court Atty's Firing Case

Massachusetts' highest court on Monday hinted that it will allow a former ghostwriter for the state's intermediate appellate court to continue pursuing his wrongful firing claims against a former supervisor, but not necessarily against two higher-ups, in a challenge to the extent of common-law immunity for public officials.
February 10, 2025
Appellate Group Of The Year: Gupta Wessler

Gupta Wessler LLP had one of the most impactful years in its 12-year history in 2024, representing transportation workers, victims of sexual assault by Uber drivers and homebuyers, as well as taking home two unanimous wins in the U.S. Supreme Court against Bank of America and preparing to argue for another in 2025, landing the firm a spot among the 2024 Law360 Appellate Groups of the Year.
February 10, 2025
Goldstein Rearrested After Feds Say He Hid Millions In Crypto

U.S. Supreme Court lawyer and SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein was arrested again Monday following his earlier release on criminal tax evasion charges, after prosecutors alleged that he secretly made millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency transactions in recent days and was a serious risk to flee.
February 10, 2025
2nd Circ. Backs UBS In Retaliation Case That Justices Revived

A split Second Circuit panel sided Monday with UBS in a whistleblower case that a fired worker managed to get the U.S. Supreme Court to revive, ruling that the jury instructions that preceded the worker's trial court win were too unclear to let his victory stand.
February 10, 2025
9th Circ. Tosses Slack Investor Suit After High Court Battle

The Ninth Circuit on Monday released Slack Technologies Inc. from an investor dispute that was previously ruled on by the U.S. Supreme Court, with the circuit court going a step further than the high court in ruling that none of the suing investors' claims were salvageable due to the unique way that Slack went public.
February 07, 2025
2nd Circ. Orders In-House Counsel Docs In Grand Jury Case

The Second Circuit on Friday ruled that an in-house attorney for a publicly traded company under federal investigation in New York must turn over communications as part of a grand jury investigation under the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege.
February 07, 2025
NC Judge Knocked By Fed. Circ. For Rushing Patent Trial

A Federal Circuit panel on Friday stripped a patent case over respiratory treatment devices away from a North Carolina federal judge, with the appeals court reversing a noninfringement verdict that came out of a jury trial he oversaw and finding that it was at least the second time the judge "did not intend to manage a fair trial."
February 07, 2025
Rocket Mortgagors Say New Judge Tilted 4th Circ. Decision

Borrowers who accused Rocket Mortgage of inflating their home values have asked the full Fourth Circuit to reconsider a panel ruling that reversed their class certification, arguing that the panel only reversed course from its previous ruling because a federal judge, sitting by designation, joined the panel the second time around.
February 07, 2025
Feds Defend Corporate Transparency Act In 5th And 4th Circuits

The U.S. government defended the Corporate Transparency Act in the Fifth and Fourth Circuits on Friday, urging the former to reverse a Texas federal judge's nationwide injunction on the law and the latter to affirm a Virginia federal judge's rejection of a bid to block the law's enforcement.
February 07, 2025
DOJ Tells DC Circ. Not To Delay Google Search Fix For Apple

The U.S. Department of Justice and state enforcers told the D.C. Circuit Friday that the remedies phase of the search monopolization case against Google is too important to wait while Apple appeals a ruling denying its last minute bid to intervene in the case.
February 07, 2025
9th Circ. Judge Doubts Justices' FLSA Test Fits Cracker Barrel

A Ninth Circuit judge was skeptical Friday of Cracker Barrel's bid to upend an order granting servers collective status based on the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling that Fair Labor Standards Act exemptions don't warrant heightened evidence standards, telling counsel the justices' conclusion "doesn't seem like a tight fit" for this case.
February 07, 2025
Justices Urged To Take On PTAB Atty Fee Fight

A company fighting for attorney fees at the Federal Circuit after successfully challenging a patent's validity before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to take on a similar case addressing eligibility for fees in board proceedings pursued against "exceptional" infringement plaintiffs.
February 07, 2025
Fed. Circ. Pushes Back At Doctors Who Vouched For Newman

The Federal Circuit judges considering Judge Pauline Newman's request to end her suspension said Friday that they had retained doctors who have expressed "significant concerns" that there are errors and oversights in reports from physicians who deemed the 97-year-old judge fit to serve.
February 07, 2025
FERC Says Trump Orders Support DC Circ. Rehearing Bid

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has told the D.C. Circuit that President Donald Trump's revocation of two environmental executive orders dating back decades shows that the appeals court's vacatur of two FERC reauthorizations of liquefied natural gas projects was unjustified.
February 07, 2025
5th Circ. Pauses Suit Over CFPB's Small Biz Lending Rules

The Fifth Circuit on Friday paused a case challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new small business minority data rule after the bureau's counsel was unable to argue its case following a directive ordering the agency to stop much of its work to "promote consistency with the goals of the administration."
February 07, 2025
Fla. Atty Couple Can't Escape Verdict Over Abandoning House

A Florida state appeals court has reinstated the original verdict against an attorney husband and wife team for breaching a lease agreement on a rental house and leaving it in disrepair, ruling that a reasonable jury could find that the landlord performed his expressly authorized duties to preserve the property.
February 07, 2025
Fed. Circ. Backs Ventria Cell Culture Patent Win At ITC

In a precedential decision, the Federal Circuit said Friday that the U.S. International Trade Commission's domestic industry requirements have no "threshold dollar value" and that "small market segments" operated by biotech developer Ventria Bioscience can qualify, upholding the ITC's finding that a Chinese maker of vaccine ingredients infringed Ventria's cell culture patent.
February 07, 2025
Fed. Circ. Considers Some Testing For Avadel Sleep Drug

Judges on the Federal Circuit seemed open to modifying a district court's injunction barring specialty drugmaker Avadel Pharmaceuticals from marketing its on-market narcolepsy drug for use in treating another sleep disorder Friday.
February 07, 2025
5th Circ. Upholds High School's Win In Gym Fire Suit

The Fifth Circuit on Thursday upheld a Louisiana high school's win in its suit claiming that a flooring company caused a gym fire, holding that the high school has a right of action for property damage to the gymnasium.
February 07, 2025
9th Circ. Backs Ex-Bank Auditor's $1.5M Retaliation Suit Win

The Ninth Circuit upheld a $1.5 million jury verdict in favor of a former bank auditor who claimed he was fired for flagging evidence of wrongdoing, finding evidence suggesting he was treated differently from other workers was enough to back up the jurors' decision.
February 07, 2025
Del.'s Quiet Ambition To Tweak Chancery, Stem Feared DExit

Anxious over claims that stockholder-tilted decisions by Delaware's Court of Chancery will trigger more companies to follow Tesla, SpaceX, Meta and Dropbox to other states, Delaware policymakers are taking a hard look at the venerable business court's processes, hoping to slow a feared rush to DExit.
February 07, 2025
Meta's $725M Deal Downplays Potential Liability, 9th Circ. Told

A group of objectors urged the Ninth Circuit on Friday to vacate Meta Platform Inc.'s $725 million settlement resolving privacy claims over the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal, arguing the trial judge failed to fully consider the minimum $250 billion statutory damages award that could have been awarded if class counsel won at trial.

Expert Analysis

Fed. Circ. Patent Decisions In 2024: An Empirical Review

Despite an ever-increasing backlog of argument-ready cases, the Federal Circuit issued fewer decisions in 2024 than in previous years, and the decisions' overall friendliness toward patent owners and applicants was low, says Dan Bagatell at Perkins Coie.
Series

Exercising On My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer

While I originally came to the Peloton bike for exercise, one cycling instructor’s teachings have come to serve as a road map for practicing law thoughtfully and mindfully, which has opened opportunities for growth and change in my career, says Andrea Kirshenbaum at Littler.
5 Drug And Device Developments That Shaped 2024

The last year saw significant legal developments affecting drug and device manufacturers, with landmark decisions and regulatory changes that require vigilance and agility from the industry, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.
Lessons From United's Axed Win In Firing Over Online Pics

In Wawrzenski v. United Airlines, a California state appeals court revived a flight attendant’s suit over her termination for linking photos of herself in uniform to her OnlyFans account, providing a cautionary tale for employers navigating the complexities of workplace policy enforcement in the digital age, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.
Reviewing The High Court's Approach To Free Speech Online

As the U.S. Supreme Court began addressing the interplay between the First Amendment and online social media platforms, its three opinions from last term show the justices adopting a nuanced approach that recognizes that private citizens, public employees and online platforms all have First Amendment rights, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
Series

In The CFPB Playbook: A Sprint To The Finish Line

The fourth quarter of 2024 was an impressive demonstration of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's ability to regulate, enforce and supervise, even on borrowed time following the election results, and we should expect the current bureau to run nonstop until Jan. 20, say attorneys at Covington.
Mich. Ruling Offers View On 'Occurrence' Coverage Definition

As demonstrated by a Michigan state court in its recent decision finding per-wound insurance coverage for a school shooting, the amount of coverage available under occurrence-based policies often depends on how courts interpret "occurrence," say attorneys at Hunton.
Rejoinder Strategy After Allergan Double-Patenting Case

A closer look at last year's Allergan v. MSN case at the Federal Circuit highlights the importance of rejoinder during patent prosecution in view of the risks associated with obviousness-type double patenting based on later-filed applications in the same patent family, say attorneys at BCLP.
What FARA Enforcement In 2024 Reveals For The Year Ahead

A number of developments, from indictments to legislation, shaped the Foreign Agents Registration Act enforcement landscape last year, and following the U.S. Department of Justice's recently released long-awaited proposed amendments to the law, 2025 shows no signs of slowing down, says Tessa Capeloto at Wiley.
Exploring Venue Strategy For Trump-Era Regulatory Litigation

Litigation will likely play a prominent role in shaping policy outcomes during the second Trump administration, and stakeholders have several tools at their disposal to steer regulatory litigation toward more favorable venues, say attorneys at Covington.
Lessons Learned From 2024's Top FMLA Decisions

Last year's major litigation related to the Family and Medical Leave Act underscores why it is critical for employers to understand the basics of when leave and accommodations are required, say attorneys at Dechert.
5th Circ.'s Nasdaq Ruling Another Piece In DEI Policy Puzzle

The Fifth Circuit's recent en banc opinion vacating Nasdaq's board diversity listing rule wades into the hotly debated topic of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at a time when many public companies are navigating the attention that DEI commitments are drawing from activists and shareholders, say attorneys at Debevoise.
Lessons Learned From 2024's Top ADA Decisions

Last year's major litigation related to the Americans with Disabilities Act highlights that when dealing with accommodation requests, employers must communicate clearly, appreciate context and remain flexible in addressing needs, say attorneys at Dechert.
Series

Playing Esports Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Competing in a global esports tournament at Wimbledon last year not only fulfilled my childhood dream, but also sharpened skills that are essential to my day job, including strategic thinking, confidence and networking, says AJ Schuyler at Jackson Lewis.
The 6 Most Significant FCRA Litigation Developments Of 2024

From a key sovereign immunity decision at the U.S. Supreme Court to a ruling on creditworthiness out of the Seventh Circuit, several important Fair Credit Reporting Act cases wound their way through the courts in 2024, each offering takeaways for both plaintiffs and defendants, say attorneys at Shipkevich.