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Massachusetts
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April 17, 2024
Contractor Blamed For $4.4M Damage To Wind Turbine
A Massachusetts company under contract to maintain wind turbines at a wastewater treatment facility in Boston Harbor failed to property shut down one of them after a mechanical problem, leading to further "catastrophic" damage that will cost nearly $4.4 million to address, according to a lawsuit filed in state court.
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April 17, 2024
Ex-Pharma Exec's Contempt Plea Rejected By Judge
A Massachusetts federal judge on Wednesday rejected a former pharmaceutical executive's agreement to plead guilty to contempt for using an alias to get around a consent judgment in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fraud case, saying both the former executive and the government knew he'd view the sentence as too low.
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April 17, 2024
American Urges 1st Circ. To Reject 'Radical' JetBlue Ruling
American Airlines has told the First Circuit that a judge's "radical vision of the antitrust laws" that blocked its Northeast Alliance joint venture with JetBlue shouldn't stand, arguing that federal enforcers are relying on misleading claims and outdated precedent to prop up the lower court's mistaken conclusion.
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April 17, 2024
Waste Co. Strikes Deal To End 401(k) Mismanagement Suit
A waste management company reached an agreement to end a former worker's proposed class action claiming it breached federal benefits law by stacking its $813 million retirement plan with needlessly expensive funds, according to a filing in Massachusetts federal court.
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April 16, 2024
Vineyard Wind Urges 1st Circ. To Uphold Project Approval
Developers of an offshore wind energy project near Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, on Tuesday urged the First Circuit not to revive a fishing group's legal challenge to the endeavor, arguing the environmental review process was solid.
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April 16, 2024
Winston & Strawn Settles Brief-Plagiarizing Allegations
A Tuesday filing indicated that Winston & Strawn LLP has managed to settle copyright infringement allegations coming from a boutique intellectual property firm that went to a federal court in Manhattan to accuse the BigLaw firm of copying a motion-to-dismiss filing "nearly verbatim."
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April 16, 2024
Buttigieg, State AGs To Probe Consumer Airline Complaints
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday announced a new partnership with Colorado and over a dozen other states to investigate consumer complaints about air travel, vowing to hold airlines and ticket agents accountable for excessive flight cancellations and unfair business practices.
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April 16, 2024
DraftKings Workers Say Ex-Boss Tried To Lure Them To Rival
Two DraftKings higher-ups testified Tuesday that their former boss had tried to lure them to join rival sportsbook Fanatics with multimillion-dollar compensation offers, contradicting their former supervisor's claim that he never attempted to get his top lieutenants to help him set up a new office for Fanatics in Los Angeles.
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April 16, 2024
Boston Judge Wary Of Ordering Bias Probe For City Contracts
A Massachusetts federal judge on Tuesday questioned whether she has the authority to order the U.S. Department of Justice to look into alleged racism in the city of Boston's system of awarding contracts, and whether members of several advocacy groups even have standing to make the request.
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April 16, 2024
Excess Carriers Say Property Co. Not Covered In Antitrust Suit
Two excess insurers said they don't owe coverage to a property management company for underlying litigation alleging a price-fixing conspiracy involving software company RealPage Inc., telling a Massachusetts federal court that a professional services exclusion in the primary policy bars coverage.
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April 15, 2024
Dems Grill Chamber Over 'Outrageous' CFPB Card Fee Suit
Two top Democratic senators are calling on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to explain why it sued to block the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee rule, a case they say is "outrageous" and puts the interests of big banks over the group's rank and file.
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April 15, 2024
Harvard Says Antisemitism Case Not 'Legally Appropriate'
Harvard University has said a lawsuit seeking to force it to submit to court-ordered monitoring and other conditions following allegations of antisemitism on campus "is neither an effective nor legally appropriate vehicle" to address the issue.
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April 15, 2024
Bond Co. Asks For Life-Saving Pause On $811M Fine
Immigration bonding company Libre by Nexus Inc. has begged a Virginia federal court for more time to pay an $811 million judgment for predatory bonding practices, saying it would collapse if forced to pay before it can execute its transfer to a new owner.
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April 15, 2024
Senators Demand Info On CFTC Chats With Bankman-Fried
Two U.S. senators have asked the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's chair to detail all of his communications and meetings with convicted FTX fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.
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April 15, 2024
Justices Won't Nix FDA Labeling Preemption For State Claims
The Supreme Court on Monday let stand lower court findings that the unique authority of the federal Food and Drug Administration preempted and, therefore, justified dismissing a proposed class action that alleged a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary broke Massachusetts law by misbranding Lactaid drug products as dietary supplements.
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April 15, 2024
Bomb Dog Trainer Links Cancer To Job In Benefits Denial Suit
A Massachusetts state police trooper says he was diagnosed with cancer after being exposed to hazardous materials while training an explosives-detection dog at Logan Airport, according to a suit seeking line of duty injury benefits.
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April 15, 2024
1st Circ. Reopens Fired Whole Foods Worker's BLM Mask Suit
The First Circuit reinstated a lawsuit accusing Whole Foods of unlawfully disciplining and then firing an employee who wore a Black Lives Matter mask at work, overturning the Amazon-owned supermarket chain's pretrial win.
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April 12, 2024
Moderna, Pfizer COVID Vax IP Suit Paused Amid PTAB Review
A Massachusetts federal judge on Friday agreed to pause Moderna Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine patent infringement suit against Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech until the Patent Trial and Appeal Board weighs in on a pair of patents, issuing a stay despite objections from Moderna.
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April 12, 2024
Crypto-Friendly Atty Reveals Backers In Bid To Unseat Warren
The cryptocurrency-boosting attorney running in Massachusetts to unseat crypto critic Sen. Elizabeth Warren has garnered the support of notable digital asset industry leaders, according to his quarterly report to the Federal Election Commission.
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April 12, 2024
Jury Says 3D Printing Firm Owes $17.3M For Infringing Patent
A Delaware federal jury has ruled that 3D printing company Markforged infringed one of two claims in a patent owned by smaller competitor Continuous Composites over a machine for 3D printing, putting it on the hook for more than $17.3 million.
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April 12, 2024
Fraudster Gets 2 Years For African Sports Ponzi Scheme
A federal judge has sentenced a Massachusetts fraudster to 27 months in prison and ordered him to pay more than $625,000 in restitution for a Ponzi scheme involving African youth sports, according to a Thursday statement.
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April 12, 2024
Boston Marathon Hit With Bias Suit By Black Running Group
A Black-led running group filed a federal discrimination suit to bar the Boston Marathon and a suburb along the storied 26.2-mile race route from racially profiling and harassing its members, following an intense confrontation with police at last year's event.
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April 12, 2024
Off The Bench: Ohtani 'Victim' In Theft, Arbitration Nod To NFL
In this week's Off The Bench, Shohei Ohtani looks to get off the hook on sports-betting allegations while his former interpreter faces charges, the NFL wins a critical court victory in the Brian Flores lawsuit, and troubled WWE founder Vince McMahon cuts even more financial ties with the company.
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April 12, 2024
Zoll Says 'Cookie-Cutter' Hack Claims Don't Show Harm
Zoll Medical Corp. is asking a Boston federal judge to toss a proposed class action brought by medical device customers whose personal information was released during a ransomware attack last year and an earlier data breach in 2019, arguing the consumers weren't actually injured.
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April 12, 2024
Construction Co. Owner Cops To Causing IRS $2.8M Tax Loss
A Massachusetts construction company owner pled guilty to running an "off-the-books" cash payroll scheme that cost the federal government $2.8 million in tax losses, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Expert Analysis
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Perspectives
Mallory Gives Plaintiffs A Better Shot At Justice
Critics of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern claim it opens the door to litigation tourism, but the ruling simply gives plaintiffs more options — enabling them to seek justice against major corporations in the best possible court, say Rayna Kessler and Ethan Seidenberg at Robins Kaplan.
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What's Next For Enviro Justice After Affirmative Action Ban?
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision striking down affirmative action measures in university admissions raises questions about the future of the Biden administration's environmental justice initiatives — but EJ advocates may still have reasons for cautious optimism, say J. Michael Showalter and Robert Middleton at ArentFox Schiff.
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Strategies For Conducting More Effective Plea Negotiations
The sentencing of “Varsity Blues” scandal architect Rick Singer earlier this year provides a helpful case study on the plea bargain process, spotlighting three key negotiation concepts and seven tactics for defense attorneys, say lawyers at Riley Safer.
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Courts Can Overturn Deficient State Regulations, Too
While suits challenging federal regulations have become commonplace, such cases against state agencies are virtually nonexistent, but many states have provisions that allow litigants to bring suit for regulations with inadequate cost-benefit analyses, says Reeve Bull at the Virginia Office of Regulatory Management.
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How Construction Industry Can Help Mitigate Wildfire Impact
The recent uptick of wildfires across North America has resulted in renewed calls for construction job site changes and increased management of sites in order to mitigate the risk of outbreaks and workers' exposure to hazardous air quality, say Josephine Bahn and Jeffery Mullen at Cozen O'Connor.
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Tales From The Trenches Of Remote Depositions
As practitioners continue to conduct depositions remotely in the post-pandemic world, these virtual environments are rife with opportunities for improper behavior such as witness coaching, scripted testimony and a general lack of civility — but there are methods to prevent and combat these behaviors, say Jennifer Gibbs and Bennett Moss at Zelle.
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Minn. Noncompete Ban May Add To Nat'l Venue Choice Tangle
With federal courts already split on which laws govern choice-of-venue clauses in noncompete agreements, the new Minnesota statute that bans noncompetes and empowers workers to void any employment contract that requires out-of-state adjudication will complicate compliance for multistate employers, says Sarah Tishler at Beck Reed.
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3 Ways Courts Approach Patent Eligibility At Trial And After
Sorin Zaharia and Mark Liang at O’Melveny analyze all 36 district court cases where patent eligibility under Section 101 was decided at trial or post-trial after Alice, specifically focusing on how different districts address step two of the Alice inquiry, as well as the impact of each approach on the outcome.
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Employer Drug-Testing Policies Must Evolve With State Law
As multistate employers face ongoing challenges in drafting consistent marijuana testing policies due to the evolving patchwork of state laws, they should note some emerging patterns among local and state statutes to ensure compliance in different jurisdictions, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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Level Up Lawyers' Business Development With Gamification
With employee engagement at a 10-year low in the U.S., there are several gamification techniques marketing and business development teams at law firms can use to make generating new clients and matters more appealing to lawyers, says Heather McCullough at Society 54.
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Mallory Ruling Leaves Personal Jurisdiction Deeply Unsettled
In Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway, a closely divided U.S. Supreme Court recently rolled back key aspects of its 2017 opinion in Daimler AG v. Bauman that limited personal jurisdiction, leaving as many questions for businesses as it answers, say John Cerreta and James Rotondo at Day Pitney.
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Challenging Gov't Use Of Nontraditional White Collar Tools
As the government prosecutes white collar cases with an ever-increasing reliance on nontraditional tools — including wiretaps, cooperating witnesses and racketeering charges — defense attorneys must understand how to mount effective defenses against such tools, say Glenn MacKinlay and Dean Elwell at McCarter & English.
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5 Ways Firms Can Rethink Office Design In A Hybrid World
As workplaces across the country adapt to flexible work, law firms must prioritize individuality, amenities and technology in office design, says Kristin Cerutti at Nelson Worldwide.
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Opinion
Bar Score Is Best Hiring Metric Post-Affirmative Action
After the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling striking down affirmative action admissions policies, law firms looking to foster diversity in hiring should view an applicant's Multistate Bar Examination score as the best metric of legal ability — over law school name or GPA, says attorney Alice Griffin.
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Ghosting In BigLaw: How To Come Back From Lack Of Feedback
Junior associates can feel powerless when senior colleagues cut off contact instead of providing useful feedback, but young attorneys can get back on track by focusing on practical professional development and reexamining their career priorities, says Rachel Patterson at Orrick.