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Massachusetts
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April 02, 2024
Fanatics Exec To Take Stand In DraftKings Noncompete Suit
A Boston federal judge said Tuesday she expects a former DraftKings executive to testify later this month in a hearing to sort out competing narratives and allegations of corporate espionage related to his abrupt departure to work for rival sportsbook Fanatics.
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April 02, 2024
Boston Bomber Case Offers Clues For Trump Jury Selection
A recent ruling that may undo the Boston Marathon bomber's death sentence holds lessons for Donald Trump's upcoming trials, where attorneys will need to make prospective jurors comfortable enough to admit bias before they're picked — and potentially avoid years of appellate fights.
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April 02, 2024
Philly Uber Class Action Atty Heads To Lichten & Liss-Riordan
One of the attorneys representing a proposed class of Philadelphia Uber drivers in their wage suit against the company left the Steel City's Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti LLP for the new New Jersey office of Lichten & Liss-Riordan PC, his co-counsel in the ride-hailing case.
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April 01, 2024
SEC Wins $93M Judgment Against Commonwealth Financial
A Massachusetts federal judge has handed victory to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by ordering Commonwealth Financial Network to pay $93.2 million due to its "egregious" failure to disclose conflicts of interest to clients who could have used that information to invest in lower cost mutual funds.
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April 01, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Last week, Delaware's Court of Chancery saw a $42.5 million settlement, dismissal of two big suits with two more remanded back, and new cases from shareholders of Walt Disney, Donald Trump's Truth Social, Rivian Automotive and BarkBox.
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April 03, 2024
CORRECTED: Immigration Bond Cos. Owe $811M For Deceptive Practices
A Virginia federal judge ordered Libre by Nexus Inc., a bonding company, to fork over more than $811 million in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's suit alleging the company engages in predatory bonding practices targeting cash-strapped immigration detainees.
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April 01, 2024
MassMutual Escapes Ex-Worker's 401(k) Mismanagement Suit
A Massachusetts federal judge tossed a former MassMutual worker's suit claiming the life insurance and investment company mismanaged its workers' $4.1 billion retirement plan, ruling that her claims were either time-barred or lacked adequate details.
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April 01, 2024
DeSantis Ducks Mass. Suit Over Migrant Flights
A Massachusetts federal judge has released Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and most other defendants from a proposed class suit by a group of migrants who claim they were duped into boarding flights to Martha's Vineyard, ruling that the court lacked jurisdiction.
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April 01, 2024
Mass. Top Court At A Loss Over 7-Eleven Wage Case
The top court in Massachusetts on Monday appeared stumped by whether owners of 7-Eleven franchisees should be classified as employees under state law, with one justice calling the issue "almost incomprehensible."
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April 01, 2024
One Set Of Amazon Buyers Can't Cancel Later Antitrust Case
Antitrust lawsuits against Amazon.com in New York and Washington federal court will remain separate after a New York federal judge refused Friday to let online shoppers in the earlier-filed Washington case intervene in — and junk — the other proposed class action filed two years later.
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April 01, 2024
Mass. Justices Puzzle Over Standard For Zoning Appeal Bond
Massachusetts' highest court on Monday grappled with whether developers in Boston must show that project opponents are acting in bad faith in order to obtain an appeal bond, as they now must do elsewhere in the state since a 2022 holding in a suburban affordable housing challenge.
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April 01, 2024
GE Vernova Spinoff Approved, Valued At $35.7B
General Electric Co. said its board has approved the previously announced spinoff of its electric power business GE Vernova, setting the new company up to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on April 2.
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April 01, 2024
High Court Won't Hear Mass. Residents' Tribal Land Dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition by a group of Massachusetts residents seeking to reverse a ruling that allowed the Department of the Interior to take 321 acres into trust for the development of a billion-dollar tribal hotel and casino.
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March 29, 2024
Petition Watch: Off-Label Ads, Retiree Discrimination & PPE
A Utah attorney has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether allegedly retaliatory IRS summonses can be quashed, and two former pharmaceutical executives are challenging the constitutionality of their convictions for marketing the off-label use of a drug. Here, Law360 looks at recently filed petitions that you might've missed.
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March 29, 2024
Winston & Strawn Looks To Settle Brief-Copying IP Suit
A Winston & Strawn LLP attorney on Friday told a Manhattan federal judge that the firm is angling to settle a copyright infringement suit that accuses its attorneys of copying a motion-to-dismiss filing by a boutique intellectual property firm "nearly verbatim," saying it isn't worth the cost to all involved.
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March 29, 2024
Mass. Tax Board Won't Lower Value Of Boston House
A Boston home was correctly assessed, the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board said in a decision published Friday, finding that an analysis of nearby homes failed to show it was overvalued.
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March 29, 2024
THL's $2.5B Deal To Buy Agiliti Sparks Chancery Suit
A shareholder of Agiliti, a medical equipment and services provider on the cusp of being acquired and taken private by Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, has sued the healthcare company in Delaware's Court of Chancery, seeking more information about the controlling private equity stockholder's $2.5 billion buyout bid.
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March 29, 2024
Convicted Energy Grant Fraudster Loses 1st Circ. Appeal
The First Circuit rejected the appeal of a Massachusetts man who was convicted of submitting fraudulent applications for federal grant money under the guise of needing it for energy projects, ruling that the verdict was backed by strong evidence.
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March 29, 2024
DraftKings Rips Former Exec's 'Lies' In Ongoing Fanatics Spat
Former DraftKings executive Michael Hermalyn lied in his opposition last week to its preliminary injunction request, just as he had during his departure to rival Fanatics and throughout a trade secrets and breach of contract suit against him, the company has told a Massachusetts federal court in defending its injunction request.
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March 29, 2024
Lawmakers Call For Robinson-Patman Act Revival
A group of lawmakers is urging the Federal Trade Commission to reinvigorate enforcement of the Robinson-Patman Act, a Roosevelt-era wholesale pricing statute that fell out of use in the 1970s, to help small businesses and stem the power of dominant grocery chains.
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March 29, 2024
Biotech Co. Inflated Gene Therapy Prospects, Investors Claim
Massachusetts-based biotechnology company Bluebird Bio Inc. misled investors by understating the safety concerns of a gene therapy for sickle cell, causing damages when stock prices dropped, according to a proposed class action suit filed Thursday in Massachusetts district court.
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March 29, 2024
Tenant Screener To Pay $2.2M Over Race Bias Claims
A tenant screening company has reached a settlement in Massachusetts federal court to end claims brought by a class of housing applicants who alleged its practices disproportionately exclude Black and Hispanic renters.
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March 29, 2024
Off The Bench: Ohtani Woes, Va. Ends Arena Plan, Pac-12 Deal
In this week’s Off The Bench, MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani tries to untangle himself from a gambling scandal, Virginia’s rejection sends two D.C. pro franchises back home, and the Pac-12 pays up to two schools that were left behind. If you were sidelined this week, Law360 will catch you up with the sports and betting stories that had our readers talking.
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March 28, 2024
Red Roof Inns Must Face Ohio Sex Trafficking Suits
Red Roof Inns Inc. can't escape nine lawsuits over its purported role in sex trafficking, an Ohio federal judge ruled Thursday, saying the anonymous victims met pleading standards to allege the hotel chain knowingly made money through their victimization.
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March 28, 2024
Pfizer Wants Moderna Vax IP Case Paused For PTAB Review
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE have asked a Massachusetts federal court to put on hold a COVID-19 vaccine patent case brought by rival biotechnology giant Moderna Inc. while they await a decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on the validity of two of the three patents at issue.
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
High Court's Ethics Statement Places Justices Above The Law
The U.S. Supreme Court justices' disappointing statement on the court's ethics principles and practices reveals that not only are they satisfied with a status quo in which they are bound by fewer ethics rules than other federal judges, but also that they've twisted the few rules that do apply to them, says David Janovsky at the Project on Government Oversight.
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Opinion
Time For Law Schools To Rethink Unsung Role Of Adjuncts
As law schools prepare for the fall 2023 semester, administrators should reevaluate the role of the underappreciated, indispensable adjunct, and consider 16 concrete actions to improve the adjuncts' teaching experience, overall happiness and feeling of belonging, say T. Markus Funk at Perkins Coie, Andrew Boutros at Dechert and Eugene Volokh at UCLA.
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History Supports 2nd Circ. View Of FAA Transport Exemption
In the circuit split over when transport workers are exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act, sparked by the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Southwest Airlines v. Saxon, the Second Circuit reached a more faithful interpretation — one supported by historical litigation and legislative context, though perhaps arrived at via the wrong route, say Joshua Wesneski and Crystal Weeks at Weil.
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Tips For In-House Legal Leaders In A Challenging Economy
Amid today's economic and geopolitical uncertainty, in-house legal teams are running lean and facing increased scrutiny and unique issues, but can step up and find innovative ways to manage outcomes and capitalize on good business opportunities, says Tim Parilla at LinkSquares.
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Beware Patchwork Of State NIL Laws For Student-Athletes
With each U.S. state at a different stage of engaging with name, image and likeness laws for collegiate and high school student-athletes, the NIL world is as much a minefield for attorneys as it is for the players themselves — and counsel must remain on red alert for any and all legislative changes, say Lauren Bernstein and Dan Lust at Moritt Hock.
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PFAS Coverage Litigation Strategy Lessons For Policyholders
While policyholders' efforts to recover insurance proceeds for PFAS-related costs are in the early stages, it appears from litigation so far that substantial coverage should be available for PFAS-related liabilities, including both defense costs and indemnity payments in connection with those liabilities, say Benedict Lenhart and Alexis Dyschkant at Covington.
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What Associates Need To Know Before Switching Law Firms
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
The days of staying at the same firm for the duration of one's career are mostly a thing of the past as lateral moves by lawyers are commonplace, but there are several obstacles that associates should consider before making a move, say attorneys at HWG.
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A Case For Sharing Mediation Statements With Counterparties
In light of a potential growing mediation trend of only submitting statements to the mediator, litigants should think critically about the pros and cons of exchanging statements with opposing parties as it could boost the chances of reaching a settlement, says Arthur Eidelhoch at Eidelhoch Mediation.
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Tackling Long-Tail Legacy Liability Risk: A Defendant's Toolkit
Johnson & Johnson was recently rebuffed in its efforts to employ the "Texas Two-Step," which is likely to affect this increasingly popular method to isolate and spin off large asbestos and talc liabilities, but companies have multiple options to reduce long-tail legacy liability risk, says Stephen Hoke at Hoke LLC.
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Preparing For Legal Scrutiny Of Data Retention Policies
Two recent cases involving Google and Meta should serve as a call to action for companies to ensure their data retention policies are updated and properly implemented to the degree of being able to withstand judicial scrutiny, especially as more data is generated by emerging technologies, say Jack Kallus and Labeed Choudhry at Kaufman Dolowich.
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Opinion
Attorneys Should Have An Ethical Duty To Advance DEI
National and state bar associations are encouraging attorneys to apply diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the legal profession and beyond, and these associations should take it one step further by formally recognizing ethical duties for attorneys to promote DEI, which could better the legal profession and society, says Elena Mitchell at Moore & Van Allen.
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Data-Driven Insights Are Key To Attracting Today's Clients
As law firm growth slows and competition for clients increases, modern firms must rely on robust data analytics to develop the sector-based expertise and industry insights that clients increasingly prioritize in relationships with counsel, says Lavinia Calvert at Intapp.
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Divergent Decisions Highlight Uncertainty Of IPR Estoppel
Two federal court decisions last month reached opposite conclusions regarding when defendants can rely on prior art to avoid discretionary denial of inter partes review challenges, creating confusion around the viability of Sotera stipulations, say Harper Batts and Li Guo at Sheppard Mullin.
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In Arbitration, Consider The Influence Of State Laws
A California appellate court's recent refusal, based in state law, to compel arbitration in Barraza v. Tesla illustrates the importance of understanding substantive and procedural differences between state arbitration law and the Federal Arbitration Act — and when those distinctions can alter case outcomes, says Richard Mason at MasonADR.
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Ghosting In BigLaw: Why Better Feedback Habits Are Needed
Not giving assignments or constructive criticism to junior associates can significantly affect their performance and hours, potentially leading them to leave the firm, but partners can prevent this by asking the right questions and creating a culture of feedback, says Rachel Patterson at Orrick.