6th Circ. Questions If Kellogg 401(k) Claims Can Be Arbitrated

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Sixth Circuit panel on Thursday suggested the terms of Kellogg Co.'s retirement plan may bar a former accountant from bringing claims the plan was mismanaged, as the company tries to enforce an arbitration clause that arguably prevents planwide relief. 

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American Airlines Beats Hidden Fees Suit Over Product Sales

By Gina Kim

American Airlines defeated a proposed class action alleging it violated its conditions of carriage by failing to disclose that it gets fees for hawking Allianz Global travel assistance products to customers booking flights, after a Michigan federal judge said Thursday the plaintiff paid Allianz Global, not American Airlines, for the products.

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Florida Urges 11th Circ. To Allow Gender Law Despite Appeal

By David Minsky

Florida officials have urged the Eleventh Circuit to immediately allow enforcement of a law restricting gender-affirming treatment for transgender minors and adults despite an appeal, saying that a lower court wrongly determined the law was discriminatory and that patients will be harmed if "life-altering" medical procedures are not outlawed.

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Sunday Ticket Customers Slam NFL's Bid To Upend $4.7B Win

By Gina Kim

DirecTV Sunday Ticket subscribers opposed the NFL's effort to vacate a $4.7 billion antitrust verdict handed down by California federal jurors last month, arguing on Wednesday the league cannot second-guess the jury's findings and that the plaintiffs actually received far less than what they sought.

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Urgent Care Nurses Snag Collective Cert. In Wage Suit

By Irene Spezzamonte

Nurses claiming an urgent care chain owes them wages can move forward as a collective in their suit, an Illinois federal judge ruled, saying the worker who lodged the suit showed she was similarly situated as her colleagues.

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Chancery Awards $6M Stockholder Atty Fee In Moelis Suit

By Jeff Montgomery

A Delaware vice chancellor granted a $6 million fee request on Thursday from attorneys who won a Chancery Court strike-down of a stockholder agreement granting Moelis & Co. founder Ken Moelis expansive control over the global investment bank's decisions.

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Ocugen Execs Hit With Derivative Suit Over Shoddy Controls

By Sydney Price

The top brass at biopharmaceutical company Ocugen Inc. were hit with a derivative suit alleging the company's lack of effective internal financial controls caused it to be misvalued and allowed shareholders to approve proposals based on incomplete information.

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Air Transport Co. Sued In Del. Over Director Removal Rule

By Jeff Montgomery

Stockholders of air transport venture Blade Air Mobility Inc. have sued the company in Delaware's Court of Chancery for an order invalidating a Blade director election provision described as allowing "backdoor" board removal of incumbents without legal authority.

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Vermont Suit Accuses PBMs Of Price-Fixing

By Jared Foretek

Vermont's attorney general filed suit against pharmacy benefit managers Express Scripts and CVS Wednesday, accusing the companies of abusing their market power to drive up prescription costs for consumers and squeezing out price competition from small pharmacies.

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Workers Say Software Co. Can't Dodge 401(k) Fund Fight

By Patrick Hoff

Two former ServiceNow Inc. employees said Thursday that the cloud computing company shouldn't get to escape their suit alleging it kept underperforming investment options in its 401(k) plan for over a decade, telling a California federal court their complaint is specifically detailed enough to move forward.

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Ex-HP Worker Revamps 401(k) Forfeiture Funds Suit

By Emmy Freedman

A former HP employee retooled his lawsuit accusing the company of unlawfully using former workers' forfeited 401(k) funds to satisfy its own contributions, telling a California federal court the company was presented with a conflict of interest in deciding how to use the money.

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Au Pair Co. Can't Arbitrate Wage Claims, 1st Circ. Told

By Julie Manganis

A group of former au pairs who say they were underpaid for their work has urged the First Circuit to affirm that Cultural Care can't force them into arbitration in Switzerland, calling the agency's position a delay tactic with no merit.

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Urban Outfitters Freed From Class Claims Over 'Spy Pixels'

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Pennsylvania federal judge said an Arizona woman lacked standing to bring a class action against clothing retailer Urban Outfitters over its alleged use of "spy pixels" to track customer activity because she failed to show a violation of that state's recording laws.

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Avatar-Maker Draws Facial-Scan BIPA Suit

By Lauraann Wood

Avatar company Ready Player Me Inc. has been hit with proposed class claims that it creates Illinois users' digital characters by scanning, storing and using their facial data without first obtaining informed consent.

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Court Denies Bid To Halt NYC Crackdown On Illicit Pot Shops

By Sam Reisman

A New York federal judge on Thursday rejected a bid from 27 retailers to halt city officials' enforcement efforts aimed at closing stores that sell cannabis without a license, saying the shops were unlikely to prevail on claims their due process rights were violated.

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American Airlines Hit With Class Action Over Sales Strategy

By Spencer Brewer

An investor launched a proposed class action against American Airlines over the company's botched sales and distribution strategy, saying that American touted its strategy as driving revenue while hiding the fact that the strategy was "driving customers away" in a Texas federal court on Thursday.

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Chase Can't Arbitrate Returned-Check Suit, Customers Say

By MJ Koo

Chase Bank customers have urged a federal judge not to let the bank force them to arbitrate a complaint over fees charged on deposited checks that were returned, arguing that they never agreed to an arbitration clause and that the bank failed to prove their consent to arbitration.

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LPL Reaps Benefits From Forced Cash Sweep, Suit Says

By Sydney Price

LPL Financial was hit with a putative class suit by a customer who claims the broker-dealer automatically moves customers' uninvested cash into its cash sweep programs, primarily benefiting the firm at the expense of its clients.

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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: July Lessons

In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers cases touching on pre- and post-conviction detainment conditions, communications with class representatives, when the American Pipe tolling doctrine stops applying to modified classes, and more.

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2 Rulings Serve As Conversion Fee Warnings For Banks

A comparison of the different outcomes in Wright v. Capital One in a Virginia federal court, and in Guerrero v. Bank of America in a North Carolina federal court, highlights how banks must be careful in describing how currency exchange fees and charges are determined in their customer agreements, say attorneys at Weiner Brodsky.

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BCLP Seeks Merger Partner As Departures Continue

By Aebra Coe

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP's headcount has declined by more than 20% since the law firm's seminal combination, according to firm data, with a surge of lateral departures this spring and summer. Sources have told Law360 Pulse that firm leaders are currently seeking a merger partner.

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Several State Courts Impacted By Global Tech Outage

By Sarah Martinson

Several state courts have been impacted by a global Microsoft Windows outage Friday morning causing operational challenges and courthouse closures.

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DOJ Seeks Probe Of Conflicts In Ex-Fed. Judge's Cases

By Jack Karp

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked its internal watchdog to look into why federal prosecutors kept quiet about the fact that they allegedly knew now-resigned Alaska federal Judge Joshua Kindred had inappropriate relationships with several attorneys appearing before him, the DOJ confirmed to Law360 Friday.

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NASCAR Names New General Counsel Amid Shake-Up

By Sue Reisinger

NASCAR Holdings' has named a new general counsel and a new deputy general counsel and head of privacy to fill out the team of chief legal officer Amanda Oliver.

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Calif. Bar Backs Creating New Virtual Bar Exam To Cut Costs

By Hailey Konnath

The State Bar of California's Board of Trustees has signed off on plans to negotiate a potentially $8 million, five-year deal with Kaplan North America LLC to replace the Multistate Bar Exam with its own state exam that could be taken remotely, according to a statement issued Friday.

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Kavanaugh Murder-Attempt Suspect Set To Face Trial

By Rae Ann Varona

A man charged with attempting to kill U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has failed to reach a plea deal after nearly two years of negotiations, setting his case up for trial in Maryland federal court, federal prosecutors said Friday.

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2nd Circ. Upholds Ax Of Ex-Ropes & Gray Clerk's Bar Exam Suit

By Ryan Boysen

A former Ropes & Gray LLP attorney who was fired after twice failing the New York bar exam can't sue the state agency that administers the test for failing to accommodate her disabilities, the Second Circuit ruled Friday, finding the agency is protected by sovereign immunity.

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Apple Wants Litigation Funder To Explain Role In Patent Row

By Rose Krebs

Apple Inc. wants a Delaware federal judge to order litigation funder Omni Bridgeway LLC to turn over documents explaining its relationship with Finnish company MPH Technologies Oy and its financial interest in MPH's ongoing patent litigation against Apple in California.

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NYC Bar OKs Attys' Financial Stakes In Alternative Biz Entities

By Andrea Keckley

A new ethics committee report says a New York City lawyer may hold a financial interest in alternative business structures in jurisdictions that let them provide legal services, provided the lawyer is merely a financial investor, not practicing law through the entity.

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Judge Recuses As Tech Firm Slams Dow Chemical's Request

By Ryan Harroff

An Ohio federal judge has recused himself from a trade secrets case brought against Dow Chemical Co. after the technology firm that sued it showed the court a settlement offer without approval that would grant Dow Chemical's recusal motion, which the tech firm said was a "cavalier approach to a drastic remedy."

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Class Seeks $1.5B Settlement In Payday Loan Dispute

By Crystal Owens

A class of borrowers has urged a Virginia federal court to approve what would be the largest settlement ever obtained in a challenge to participants in the tribal lending industry, arguing that the agreement would give significant relief to hundreds of thousands in the form of debt cancellations and cash payments.

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Law Profs Throw Flag On NFL's 'Unconscionable' Arbitration

By David Steele

Allowing the NFL's arbitration system, with commissioner Roger Goodell as the arbitrator, to prevail in Brian Flores' discrimination dispute with the league is "unconscionable" and "egregious," a dozen law professors have told the Second Circuit in an amicus brief supporting the former Miami Dolphins head coach.

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Calif. Firm Beats Rival's Claims In 'Sweet Justice' TM Fight

By Rachel Rippetoe

A California federal court on Thursday nixed a personal injury firm's countersuit against its rival in a battle over the trademark use of the term "Sweet Justice," ruling that the firm's counterclaims are a "mirror-image" of the underlying suit.

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'Texit' Atty Sues State Rep., Judge Over Defamation Fees

By Catherine Marfin

A civil rights attorney who has represented the group behind the "Texit" movement filed a lawsuit against a state representative and court officials in a North Texas county, accusing the group of colluding to run up attorney fees against him in a defamation case connected to the pro-Texas-secession group.

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Colo. Federal Judges Point Out Recent High Turnover

By Daniel Ducassi

Colorado's chief federal judge on Friday observed "there has been a lot of turnover" on the bench in the district over the past several years, noting five out of the seven active district court judges were nominated by President Joe Biden. 

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Blanche Law PLLC and Continental PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a Florida federal judge tossed the criminal case against former President Donald Trump over his allegedly illegal retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

A kidney care company has asked a federal judge to throw out a former in-house counsel's lawsuit that claims she was fired for raising concerns about violations of federal anti-kickback statutes, and a study showed the world's most extensive public country-by-country tax reporting rules would require 51% of large U.S. multinational corporations to disclose tax arrangements. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen a libel clash between comedian Paul Currie and the Soho Theatre Company over allegations of anti-semitism, technology giant Huawei face a patents claim by Mediatek, Westfield Europe pursue action against Clearpay Finance for contract breaches and tour operating company Carnival hit chartered airline Maleth Aero for significant flight delays. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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