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Massachusetts
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December 10, 2024
Mass. Chief Justice Says Courts Must Work To Improve Trust
In an era of declining public confidence in the justice system, Massachusetts' state courts are generally held in high regard for fairness and access, yet they still have work to do, the chief justice of the state's highest court told attorneys on Tuesday.
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December 10, 2024
Biz Owner In $2.8M Worker Tax Scheme Gets 18 Months
A construction company owner who failed to pay $2.8 million in employment taxes by falsely claiming his workers were subcontractors was sentenced to 18 months in prison Tuesday and ordered to pay full restitution, according to Massachusetts federal court documents.
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December 10, 2024
BioNTech, Pfizer Rival Wants Party Flip In COVID Vax IP Fight
German biotech company CureVac asked a Virginia federal judge to flip the positions of the litigants in its COVID-19 vaccine patent fight with rivals Pfizer and BioNTech, saying the case had morphed into an infringement suit involving 10 CureVac patents.
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December 10, 2024
Insurer QBE Settles Suit Over Failed $18M Wind Support Deal
Belgium-based insurer QBE Europe has settled a lawsuit accusing it of wasting available policy limits on pointless litigation rather than make a reasonable offer in a separate $18 million dispute over a failed wind support vessel deal, according to a Tuesday filing.
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December 10, 2024
Advent Says Chancery Rulings End Funeral Co. Suit
Private equity firm Advent International told a Boston federal judge that a heated fraud lawsuit tied to its sale of a Mexican funeral business must be dismissed due to rulings from a Delaware judge upholding agreements it entered with the buyer limiting claims related to the transaction.
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December 10, 2024
Eversource Charges 'Junk Fee' To Restore Service, Suit Says
Utility company Eversource's $102 charge to restore service after a shutoff for nonpayment is a "junk fee" that exploits customers who can least afford it, a proposed class action filed in Massachusetts says.
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December 10, 2024
NLRB Judge Protections Get Ax In Constitutional Challenge
A Washington, D.C., federal judge on Tuesday sided with a Massachusetts hospital in its challenge to National Labor Relations Board judges' job protections, saying the board's judges must be removable at will, but stopping short of holding that their protections are a basis for blocking cases they're currently hearing.
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December 09, 2024
1st Circ. Gives Salvadoran Another Shot At Asylum Bid
The First Circuit has ruled that an immigration judge and later the Board of Immigration Appeals may have erred in denying a Salvadoran man's bid for asylum by not fully considering the risk of torture and persecution he faced in his home country.
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December 09, 2024
Mass. Jury Returns $10.6M Verdict In Big Tobacco Case
A Massachusetts jury has hit tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds with a $10.6 million verdict after finding it was liable for causing the fatal lung cancer of a woman, who started smoking as a child, by misrepresenting the dangers of cigarettes.
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December 09, 2024
Former Law School IT Director Admits To Thefts
A former IT director for New England School of Law in Boston pled guilty Monday to using the school's Amazon account to purchase more than $80,000 worth of musical equipment and Apple products, state prosecutors announced.
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December 09, 2024
Anti-China Bias Tainted ADI Trade Secrets Case, 1st Circ. Told
A former Analog Devices Inc. microchip engineer convicted of pilfering valuable design schematics to launch a competing business has told the First Circuit the government singled him out for prosecution due to his Chinese ethnicity and investigators' hopes he would turn out to be a foreign spy.
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December 09, 2024
1st Circ. Lets Rhode Island Reinstate Truck Tolls
Rhode Island may reinstate a toll on tractor-trailers using highways and bridges in the Ocean State, but not a $40-per-day cap, the First Circuit has ruled.
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December 09, 2024
Skipping Diversity Suits Lets Error 'Metastasize,' Alito Says
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to review Boston's allegedly discriminatory COVID-19 pandemic-era admissions policy for three elite public schools, turning away the second case to challenge the use of race-neutral diversity initiatives in a decision Justice Samuel Alito claims ignores a "glaring constitutional error" and undermines the court's affirmative action decision.
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December 06, 2024
J&J Seeks New Talc Trial As Developer Seeks $30M More
As Johnson & Johnson seeks to toss the underlying verdict, a real estate developer and cancer patient who was awarded $15 million in compensation from a talc trial jury has asked a Connecticut state judge to award another $30 million to punish the company for allegedly putting "profits over people."
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December 06, 2024
Jaguars Seek DraftKings Records In Suit Against Embezzler
The Jacksonville Jaguars have asked a Massachusetts judge to let the team subpoena records from a DraftKings employee who handled the account of a former team executive who embezzled $22 million to support a gambling habit.
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December 06, 2024
Real Estate Recap: Valley National, Office Insights, Proptech
Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including Valley National Bank's $925 million loan portfolio sale, takeaways from office sector activity in 2024, and one BigLaw firm's strategic bet on proptech.
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December 06, 2024
New Balance Hit With Patent Suit Over Track Cleats
A Texas patent holder sued New Balance in Massachusetts federal court Friday, alleging that four models in New Balance's FuelCell SuperComp line of cleated running shoes are similar to its design for sneakers that include composite or laminate materials.
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December 06, 2024
Evenflo Nears Settlement In Booster Seat MDL
Baby product maker Evenflo said Friday that it has reached an agreement in principle to settle multidistrict litigation alleging it made deceptive statements about the safety of its Big Kid booster seats.
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December 06, 2024
1st Circ. Affirms Mass. Wind Energy Permits
A three-judge First Circuit panel rejected a pair of fishing industry challenges to environmental permits for the massive — and now paused — Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts.
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December 06, 2024
Philips Medical Monitoring Deal, $4.8M Fees Get Final OK
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Thursday gave the final OK on a $25 million settlement in medical monitoring claims in multidistrict litigation stemming from a recall of ventilator machines by Koninklijke Philips NV and American subsidiaries.
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December 06, 2024
Biz Owner In $2.8M Worker Tax Scheme Asks To Avoid Prison
A construction company owner who admitted skirting $2.8 million in employment taxes by claiming that his workers were subcontractors, including one who fell to his death on a job, asked a Massachusetts federal court Friday for a sentence of home confinement rather than prison.
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December 06, 2024
Husband Of Ex-Takeda Exec Convicted For $2M Invoice Fraud
A federal jury on Friday convicted a Massachusetts man of stealing millions from Takeda Pharmaceuticals through a fake invoice scam with his wife, a former vice president at the drug company.
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December 06, 2024
Boston City Councilor Indicted In Bonus Kickback Scheme
A Boston city councilor stole thousands of dollars in public funds through a bonus kickback scheme she orchestrated with a relative she hired to work in her office, federal prosecutors said Friday.
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December 05, 2024
IP Forecast: PTAB To Hear Pfizer Fight Over COVID-19 Patents
Pfizer heads to an administrative board at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office next week to argue Moderna should not have been issued patents covering "a basic idea" like using mRNA to fight the COVID-19 virus. Here's a spotlight on that case — plus all the other major intellectual property matters on deck in the coming week.
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December 05, 2024
Investors Sue Pegasystems In Corporate Espionage Case
Business software developer Pegasystems Inc. has been hit with allegations that it misled an asset management firm by concealing its use of illegal and unethical tactics to misappropriate competitor Appian Corp.'s trade secrets, which led to a since-overturned $2 billion Virginia state court judgment for unjust enrichment.
Expert Analysis
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How Firms Can Ensure Associate Gender Parity Lasts
Among associates, women now outnumber men for the first time, but progress toward gender equality at the top of the legal profession remains glacially slow, and firms must implement time-tested solutions to ensure associates’ gender parity lasts throughout their careers, say Kelly Culhane and Nicole Joseph at Culhane Meadows.
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Regulatory Trends Offer 4 Lessons For Debt Relief Providers
A string of enforcement actions, including a New York lawsuit filed last month by seven states and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, underscore the regulatory scrutiny that debt relief and credit repair companies face and offer important lessons on telemarketing and deceptive practices compliance, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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7 Common Myths About Lateral Partner Moves
As lateral recruiting remains a key factor for law firm growth, partners considering a lateral move should be aware of a few commonly held myths — some of which contain a kernel of truth, and some of which are flat out wrong, says Dave Maurer at Major Lindsey.
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2 Emerging Defenses For Website Tracking Class Actions
Putative class actions premised on state wiretapping statutes that bar website activity tracking continue to be on the rise, but they are increasingly being dismissed on two procedural grounds, says Sheri Pan at ZwillGen.
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Series
Cheering In The NFL Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Balancing my time between a BigLaw career and my role as an NFL cheerleader has taught me that pursuing your passions outside of work is not a distraction, but rather an opportunity to harness important skills that can positively affect how you approach work and view success in your career, says Rachel Schuster at Sheppard Mullin.
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6 Pointers For Attys To Build Trust, Credibility On Social Media
In an era of information overload, attorneys can use social media strategically — from making infographics to leveraging targeted advertising — to cut through the noise and establish a reputation among current and potential clients, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.
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5 Lessons For SaaS Companies After Blackbaud Data Breach
Looking at the enforcement actions that software-as-a-service provider Blackbaud resolved with state attorneys general, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission in the past year can help SaaS companies manage these increasingly common forms of data breaches, say attorneys at Orrick.
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A Refresher On Witness Testimony In 3 Key Settings
The recent controversy over congressional testimony from university presidents about antisemitism on campus serves as a reminder to attorneys about what to emphasize and avoid when preparing witnesses to testify before Congress, and how this venue differs from grand jury and trial proceedings, say Jack Sharman and Tyler Yarbrough at Lightfoot Franklin.
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A Post-Mortem Analysis Of Stroock's Demise
After the dissolution of 147-year-old firm Stroock late last year shook up the legal world, a post-mortem analysis of the data reveals a long list of warning signs preceding the firm’s collapse — and provides some insight into how other firms might avoid the same disastrous fate, says Craig Savitzky at Leopard Solutions.
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Series
Coaching High School Wrestling Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Coaching my son’s high school wrestling team has been great fun, but it’s also demonstrated how a legal career can benefit from certain experiences, such as embracing the unknown, studying the rules and engaging with new people, says Richard Davis at Maynard Nexsen.
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Debt Collector Compliance Takeaways From An FDCPA Appeal
A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau amicus brief last month in an ongoing First Circuit appeal focusing on an interpretation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act can serve as a reminder for debt collectors to understand how their technologies, like bankruptcy scrubs and letter logic, can prevent litigation, says Justin Bradley at Womble Bond.
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SG's Office Is Case Study To Help Close Legal Gender Gap
As women continue to be underrepresented in the upper echelons of the legal profession, law firms could learn from the example set by the Office of the Solicitor General, where culture and workplace policies have helped foster greater gender equality, say attorneys at Ocean Tomo.
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Googling Prospective Jurors Is Usually A Fool's Errand
Though a Massachusetts federal court recently barred Google from Googling potential jurors in a patent infringement case, the company need not worry about missing evidence of bias, because internet research of jury pools usually doesn’t yield the most valuable information — voir dire and questionnaires do, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.
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Skirting Anti-Kickback Causation Standard Amid Circuit Split
Amid the federal circuit court split over the causation standard applicable to False Claims Act cases involving Anti-Kickback Statute violations, which the First Circuit will soon consider in U.S. v. Regeneron, litigators aiming to circumvent the heightened standard should contemplate certain strategies, say Matthew Modafferi and Terence Park at Frier Levitt.
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Reimagining Law Firm Culture To Break The Cycle Of Burnout
While attorney burnout remains a perennial issue in the legal profession, shifting post-pandemic expectations mean that law firms must adapt their office cultures to retain talent, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.