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Cybersecurity & Privacy
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December 23, 2024
Attys Get A Third Of $1.3M Settlement With Legal Data Co.
A Kansas federal judge has awarded counsel one-third of a $1.3 million settlement in a class action against data and professional services company UnitedLex Corp. that allegedly exposed 200 gigabytes of sensitive information during a March 2023 data breach.
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December 23, 2024
House Report Says Gaetz Paid For Sex, Accepted Gifts
Former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz regularly paid women for sex, including with one 17-year-old girl, used illicit drugs and accepted a trip to the Bahamas in excess of permissible gift amounts, according to a report released Monday morning by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ethics.
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December 20, 2024
Israel's NSO Liable For Hacking WhatsApp, Judge Finds
Israeli spyware maker NSO Group is liable for hacking into 1,400 WhatsApp users' devices, a California federal judge ruled Friday when granting WhatsApp's bid for a partial summary judgment win, leaving damages as the only issue to be probed during trial.
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December 20, 2024
Another Texas Judge Exits X's Advertising Boycott Suit
The second Texas judge to oversee litigation filed by Elon Musk's X Corp. accusing the World Federation of Advertisers and others of conspiring to withhold advertising revenue from the company has recused himself from the case.
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December 20, 2024
Cable Org. Warns Members About FCC Robocall Enforcement
Voice service providers need to make sure their Robocall Mitigation Database filings meet existing requirements, because if they aren't, the Federal Communications Commission is ready to start delisting companies and blocking them from providing voice service.
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December 20, 2024
9th Circ. Orders Closer Security Review In Muslim Spying Suit
The Ninth Circuit on Friday partially revived a long-running putative class action over the FBI's alleged surveillance of Muslims in Southern California, saying more work needs to be done before determining whether the case is so tied to state secrets that it puts national security at risk.
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December 20, 2024
TikTok Divestment Deadline Must Be Extended, Senators Say
TikTok is set to be removed from app stores in the United States in less than a month, but two senators have urged President Joe Biden to kick the can down the road with an extension that would prevent "serious hardship" to both creators and users.
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December 20, 2024
NC Lawmaker Chosen To Lead House Communications Panel
Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., has been selected as the next chair of the House Energy and Commerce panel with telecom jurisdiction.
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December 20, 2024
The Telecom Developments That Defined 2024
The end of 2024 portends a sea change in telecom policy, as voters usher in a second Donald Trump term and with it a newly named GOP chief of the Federal Communications Commission who has pushed for a 180-degree turn at the agency.
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December 20, 2024
Utah Judge Pauses Challenge To Corporate Transparency Act
A Utah federal judge has stayed a case seeking to block the Corporate Transparency Act to see how the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump handles the law after a kindred case in Texas won a preliminary injunction on it.
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December 20, 2024
Gunster $8.5M Data Breach Deal Needs More Info, Judge Says
A Florida federal judge this week denied preliminary approval of an $8.5 million settlement in a data breach class action against Gunster and demanded more information on payouts, the plaintiffs' standing in the case and a historical breakdown of settlement rates.
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December 20, 2024
Feds Say Man Admitted To Role In Ransomware Group
Federal prosecutors have accused a dual Russian and Israeli national of being part of the LockBit ransomware group that extracted more than $500 million in ransom payments from victims worldwide, saying the man admitted as much during a prior arrest, according to a superseding criminal complaint in New Jersey unsealed Friday.
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December 20, 2024
Top Privacy & Cybersecurity Developments Of 2024
The state data privacy law patchwork continued to add new and varied pieces in 2024, while major hacks shook up the healthcare industry and other critical sectors, and the first U.S. laws setting guardrails for the use of artificial intelligence technologies emerged.
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December 20, 2024
Fuji Soft Founder, Bain Band Together On 'Not' Hostile Bid
Bain Capital and Fuji Soft's founder said Friday they are joining forces on a plan to snap up a 50.1% stake in the Japanese IT company and take it private, as a bidding war with Bain rival KKR kicks into high gear.
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December 20, 2024
CFPB Sues BofA, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Over Zelle Fraud
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo on Friday, alleging their customers have lost more than $870 million through a "massive scale" of fraud on the payment network Zelle while the banks turned a blind eye.
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December 19, 2024
Google Health Tracking Plaintiffs Fight To Keep Suit Alive
A California federal judge who was asked by Google to toss a proposed class action alleging that the tech giant illicitly scoops up users' personal data from healthcare providers' websites indicated during a Thursday hearing that he might grant the request while adding that he still has "a lot more thinking to do."
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December 19, 2024
X Corp. Fails To Toss Data Breach Suit
A California federal judge has refused to toss a twice-amended putative class action accusing X Corp. of failing to protect over 200 million users' personal information but tossed a breach of contract claim, saying users couldn't lean on the social media company's blog posts to allege X broke express security promises.
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December 19, 2024
Walgreens Must Face Uninjured Plaintiff's Receipt Class In Ill.
An Arizona consumer who wasn't harmed by her Walgreens receipt's alleged overdisclosure of debit card information has standing to sue the company in Illinois, even if her suit is brought under federal law, a split state appellate panel said Thursday.
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December 19, 2024
5th Circ. Finds No 230 Immunity In Salesforce Trafficking Suit
The Fifth Circuit on Thursday shut down Salesforce Inc.'s arguments that it was immune under the Communications Decency Act to claims that it benefited from sex trafficking that took place on Backpage.com, saying the plaintiffs' claims do not treat Salesforce as a publisher or speaker of third-party content.
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December 19, 2024
FCC Told No Way To Network-Level Scan Of Calls For AI
Consumer advocacy groups have come together to tell the Federal Communications Commission that they hate spam calls as much as anyone else, but they can't support a plan that would allow calls to be scanned for artificial intelligence at the network level.
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December 19, 2024
McKesson Urges Justices To Keep Hobbs Act's 'Exclusivity'
McKesson Corp. is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve circuit courts' "exclusive" jurisdiction for Federal Communications Commission orders, warning that regulatory consistency nationwide could be undermined if lower courts are allowed to step in.
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December 19, 2024
Top Gov't Contracts Policies Of 2024
Lawmakers and federal agencies have introduced several consequential policy moves affecting government contractors this year, including a long-pending cybersecurity rule for defense contractors and a clarification to an unintendedly harsh interpretation of a federal registration requirement.
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December 19, 2024
CMA Issues Guidance For New Digital Competition Rules
Britain's Competition and Markets Authority released guidance Thursday laying out how the agency intends to use its new powers to impose rules and obligations on large technology companies, ahead of the regime's launch next year.
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December 19, 2024
Tornado Cash Founder Says 5th Circ. Order Merits Dismissal
The founder of cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash renewed his bid to dismiss his money laundering and sanctions violation charges, saying a recent Fifth Circuit decision that found the company's smart contracts were not sanctionable property is fatal to the case.
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December 19, 2024
Atty Loses Bid To Exit Suits Over Unpaid Abuse Case Awards
A personal injury attorney cannot have an early exit from negligence suits filed by three former clients over settlement payments, a Connecticut state judge ruled Wednesday, finding that a decision in a related case initiated by one of the plaintiffs did not resolve the complaints against the attorney.
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
Agencies Should Reward Corporate Cyber Victim Cooperation
The increased regulatory scrutiny on corporate victims of cyberattacks — exemplified by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case against SolarWinds — should be replaced with a new model that provides adequate incentives for companies to come forward proactively and collaborate with law enforcement, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.
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What We Know From Early Cyberinsurance Rulings
Recent cyber disruption incidents, like the Crowdstrike outage and the CDK Global cyberattack this summer, highlight the necessity of understanding legal interpretations of cyberinsurance coverage — an area in which there has been little litigation thus far, say Peter Halprin and Rebecca Schwarz at Haynes Boone.
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5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond
As lawyers and recent law school graduates begin their Master of Laws coursework across the country, they should keep a few pointers in mind to get the most out of their programs and kick-start successful careers in their practice areas, says Kelley Miller at Reed Smith.
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Series
Being An Opera Singer Made Me A Better Lawyer
My journey from the stage to the courtroom has shown that the skills I honed as an opera singer – punctuality, memorization, creativity and more – have all played a vital role in my success as an attorney, says Gerard D'Emilio at GableGotwals.
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Until Congress Acts, EDNY 'Insider Betting' Case Is Premature
The Eastern District of New York’s novel wire fraud conspiracy indictment in U.S. v. Pham may have prematurely heralded a new era in federal gambling enforcement, but in the absence of an “insider betting” statute, sportsbooks — not prosecutors — should be responsible for enforcing their terms of use, says attorney Jonathan Savella.
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How Law Firms Can Avoid 'Collaboration Drag'
Law firm decision making can be stifled by “collaboration drag” — characterized by too many pointless meetings, too much peer feedback and too little dissent — but a few strategies can help stakeholders improve decision-making processes and build consensus, says Steve Groom at Miles Mediation.
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Election Outlook: A Precedent Primer On Content Moderation
With the 2024 election season now in full swing, online platforms will face difficult and politically sensitive decisions about content moderation, but U.S. Supreme Court decisions from last term offer much-needed certainty about their rights, say Jonathan Blavin and Helen White at Munger Tolles.
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What BIPA Reform Law Means For Biometrics Litigation
A recently signed Illinois law amending the Biometric Information Privacy Act limits defendants' liability exposure on a per-scan basis and clarifies that electronic signatures constitute a valid written release, establishing additional issues that courts will need to address in future BIPA litigation, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.
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6 Considerations To Determine If A Cyber Incident Is Material
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent guidance on material cybersecurity incidents covers a range of ransomware scenarios, from a company paying a sum and regaining operations to recovering payment via cyberinsurance, but makes it clear that no single factor determines whether a cybersecurity incident is material, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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Opinion
Litigation Funding Disclosure Key To Open, Impartial Process
Blanket investor and funding agreement disclosures should be required in all civil cases where the investor has a financial interest in the outcome in order to address issues ranging from potential conflicts of interest to national security concerns, says Bob Goodlatte, former U.S. House Representative for Virginia.
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Series
After Chevron: What To Expect In Consumer Protection At FTC
Although the Federal Trade Commission's bread-and-butter consumer protection law enforcement actions are unlikely to be affected, the Loper Bright decision may curb the FTC's bolder interpretations of the statutes it enforces, says Mary Engle at BBB National Programs.
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The Ethics of Using Generative AI In Environmental Law
The rapid emergence of generative artificial intelligence tools is challenging environmental lawyers, consultants and government agencies to determine when and how these tools can be responsibly, ethically and productively integrated into their practices to streamline research, predictive analytics and regulatory compliance, say Ahlia Bethea and Pamela Esterman at Sive Paget.
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RealPage Suit Shows Growing Algorithm, AI Pricing Scrutiny
The U.S. Department of Justice's suit against RealPage for helping fix rental rates, filed last week, demonstrates how the use of algorithmic and artificial intelligence tools to assist with pricing decisions is drawing increasing scrutiny and action across government agencies, and specifically at the Federal Trade Commission and the DOJ, say Andre Geverola and Leah Harrell at Arnold & Porter.
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What NFL Draft Picks Have In Common With Lateral Law Hires
Nearly half of law firm lateral hires leave within a few years — a failure rate that is strikingly similar to the performance of NFL quarterbacks drafted in the first round — in part because evaluators focus too heavily on quantifiable metrics and not enough on a prospect's character traits, says Howard Rosenberg at Baretz+Brunelle.