FTC Chair's 1st Act: Ending 'Scourge' Of DEI

By Bryan Koenig

Andrew N. Ferguson made his first public act as the Federal Trade Commission's new Republican chairman Wednesday by ordering the end of all agency diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and declaring that the "scourge" of DEI is over at the FTC.

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Turkey Buyers Get Classes Certified For Antitrust Claims

By Matthew Perlman

An Illinois federal court certified two classes of buyers in a case accusing the country's largest turkey processors of working together to reduce supply and increase prices after refusing to exclude analysis from the buyers' experts.

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Intuitive Judge Walks Back 'Inappropriate' Witness Instruction

By Bonnie Eslinger

Counsel for Intuitive Surgical objected Thursday to a California federal judge's "inappropriate instruction" to a witness testifying in a trial over allegations it abused its market power by blocking hospitals from using a refurbished part for its surgery robot, prompting the judge to walk back the direction.

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Judge Inclined To OK Visa, Mastercard $197.5M ATM Fee Deal

By Ali Sullivan

A D.C. federal judge seemed poised Thursday to give final blessing to a $197.5 million settlement resolving class action claims that Visa and Mastercard conspired with major banks to fix ATM access fees, but the judge said he needed more time to reflect on attorney fees.

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Hillrom Rival Must Turn Over Antitrust Litigation Funding Docs

By Gianna Ferrarin

An Illinois federal court has ordered hospital-bed maker Linet to produce certain litigation funding documents in its antitrust suit accusing competitor Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. of trying to monopolize the U.S. market, ruling the documents are relevant to the statute of limitations in the case.

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Brief

Khan Leaving The Federal Trade Commission By Jan. 31

By Bryan Koenig

Federal Trade Commission member Lina M. Khan has said she'll leave the agency by the end of the month, stepping down after President Donald Trump's inauguration enshrined her demotion from chair to line commissioner.

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Ex-Amazon Exec Will Oversee Google, Apple Probe In UK

By Nadia Dreid

The U.K.'s competition enforcer said Thursday it will be looking into how Google and Apple's "mobile ecosystems" have been affecting competition for both consumers and businesses, an announcement that comes just days after the watchdog booted its leader for a former Amazon head honcho.

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Litigation-Funder Sues Merricks Over Mastercard Settlement

By William Janes

A representative of more than 45 million U.K. consumers in a class action against Mastercard is being sued by his litigation-funder over his decision to reach a settlement in the £10 billion ($12.3 billion) case for £200 million.

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NCAA, Student-Athlete Near Deal To End W. Va. Transfer Suit

By Elaine Briseño

A West Virginia federal court has ordered an additional two-week pause in an antitrust lawsuit by an NBA hopeful who accused the NCAA of contract interference as the parties seek to finalize a settlement.

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Wash. Justices Back Workers' View On Moonlighting Law

By Rachel Riley

Washington's highest court clarified on Thursday that the state's moonlighting protections shield low-wage workers from noncompete terms that would outright ban them working for any competitor in any capacity, concluding that employers must narrowly tailor such restrictions to be line with employees' common-law duty of loyalty.

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GoodRx, PBMs Sued Over Alleged Generics Price-Fix Scheme

By Gina Kim

GoodRx and pharmacy benefit managers, including CVS Caremark and Express Scripts, formed a "cartel" to execute a price-fixing scheme by sharing pricing information and agreeing not to outbid each other for reimbursement rates paid to pharmacies for generic drugs, alleges a proposed class action filed Wednesday in California federal court.

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GOP AGs, Groups Back 11th Circ. Noncompete Ban Challenge

By Bryan Koenig

A group of Republican state attorneys general filed one of a half-dozen amicus briefs Wednesday urging the Eleventh Circuit not to revive the Federal Trade Commission's ban on employment noncompete agreements, arguing the already-endangered rule exceeded FTC authority and threatens legitimate safeguards for corporate secrets.

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Nvidia Wants AI Antitrust Suit Sent To California

By Ali Sullivan

Nvidia Corp. is asking a Texas federal judge to transfer to California an antitrust and patent infringement lawsuit accusing it, Microsoft and a patent risk management company of colluding to suppress the price of key technology used in powering artificial intelligence.

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HP Says Ill. Ink Antitrust Claims Fall 'Woefully Short'

By Lauraann Wood

HP urged an Illinois federal judge on Thursday to toss out customers' lawsuit accusing it of anticompetitively blocking them from using third-party ink cartridges in their machines, arguing that they haven't come close to showing how it tied customers' printer purchases to the alleged restriction.

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Jump Trading Says Ex-Worker Stole IP For Blockchain Startup

By Sydney Price

High-frequency trading firm and blockchain technology developer Jump Trading has filed a complaint seeking a preliminary injunction against a former software developer it claims is using Jump Trading's intellectual property to launch a competing project.

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Federal Agencies Must Order Full Return To Office By Friday

By Irene Spezzamonte

Federal agencies will order employees to return to the office by Friday at 5 p.m. to end the "national embarrassment" that remote work policies have fueled, the Office of Personnel Management said, following President Donald Trump's executive order.

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Baker Botts Adds DOJ Atty Who Led Airline Merger Challenge

By Jack Rodgers

The former U.S. Department of Justice antitrust attorney who led the agency's successful challenge to a proposed merger between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines has joined Baker Botts LLP as a partner in the firm's Washington, D.C., office.

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Algorithm Price-Fixing Ruling May Lower Antitrust Claims Bar

A Washington federal court's refusal to dismiss Duffy v. Yardi Systems, an antitrust case over rent prices allegedly inflated by revenue management software, creates an apparent split in the lower courts over how to assess such claims, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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Series

Coaching Little League Makes Me A Better Lawyer

While coaching poorly played Little League Baseball early in the morning doesn't sound like a good time, I love it — and the experience has taught me valuable lessons about imperfection, compassion and acceptance that have helped me grow as a person and as a lawyer, says Alex Barnett at DiCello Levitt.

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Analysis

Companies Risk White House Wrath By Keeping DEI Programs

By Sarah Jarvis

For companies pushing forward with their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives amid a torrent of attacks from President Donald Trump and his allies, there are myriad potential risks ahead — and murky questions about the legal parameters of Trump's anti-DEI agenda.

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Law Students Scramble As Federal Gov't Yanks Job Offers

By Alison Knezevich

Law students across the country are scrambling to figure out their next steps after a range of federal agencies yanked job and internship offers this week because of the new hiring freeze imposed by the Trump administration.

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Mass Tort Atty Files Ch. 11 Owing $202M To Litigation Funders

By Hilary Russ

A Houston plaintiffs attorney has filed for personal Chapter 11 protection with more than $202 million of litigation funding liabilities, according to his petition in the Southern District of Texas.

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Feud Heats Up Over Estate Of Wife Killed By Ex-BigLaw Atty

By Emily Johnson

The godson of a Georgia woman killed by her husband, former Fisher Phillips partner Claud "Tex" McIver, has said her cousins shouldn't get proceeds from a settlement of an underlying wrongful death suit, calling them "strangers" to her and claiming "the redistributive windfall" they're asking for "has no place in Georgia law."

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Boston Firm Says IT Vendor Holding Computers 'Hostage'

By Julie Manganis

Boston-based law firm Melick & Porter LLP says a company it hired to manage its information technology is now holding its computer network and data "hostage" by refusing to cooperate with the transition to a new vendor unless Melick pays it $380,000.

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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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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Phillips Black Inc., Ridley McGreevy & Winocur PC and King & Spalding LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court revived claims from a woman on death row in Oklahoma that prosecutors unfairly sex-shamed her and relied on gender-based stereotypes to convince a jury that she had killed her estranged husband for insurance money.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

A new Law360 Pulse survey shows that more than 90% of in-house counsel have no regrets about their decisions to join companies. In litigation stemming from Purdue Pharma's sales of OxyContin that fueled the opioid crisis, the Sackler family would lose control of Purdue and pay $6.5 billion in the latest proposed settlement. These are some of 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 Axa Insurance and Admiral face a claim from a former lawyer recently exposed for personal injury fraud, the owner of Reading Football Club sue a prospective buyer and mobile network Lycamobile tackle action by Spanish network Yogio. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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