Roundup

Conn. High Court Snapshot: Utilities Fight Regulator's Orders

By Brian Steele

Connecticut Supreme Court justices will spend part of their upcoming term wading into battles between utility companies and the agency tasked with regulating them, which could shape state authority on issues from emergency response requirements to contract interpretation.

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Ex-Conn. Lawmaker Pleads Guilty In Audit Bribery Case

By Aaron Keller

Former Connecticut state lawmaker and currently suspended attorney Christopher Ziogas pled guilty during a hearing Wednesday to paying bribes to onetime state budget official Konstantinos Diamantis in an effort to shut down a state Medicaid audit of Ziogas' fiancee's optometry practice.

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Yale Healthcare Workers Lose COVID Vaccine Mandate Suit

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut federal judge has again thrown out a complaint brought by several current and former Yale New Haven Health Services Corp. workers, who alleged the healthcare system's COVID-19 vaccine mandate violated their constitutional rights, finding they "have failed to plausibly allege sufficient facts that YNHHS acted under color of state law."

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Yale Wins Discovery Pause In Student's AI Cheating Suit

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut federal judge has agreed to pause discovery while she considers Yale University's request to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a student who was accused of using artificial intelligence to cheat on a final exam.

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Oil Trader Says No Jail Needed After Co.'s $191M Bribery Fine

By Aaron Keller

A former Connecticut oil trader convicted of laundering money and paying bribes to an official at Brazilian oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA has sought a sentence of probation, citing the U.S. government's "significant rollback" of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement.

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AGs Urge Congress To Reject Trump's Ban On State AI Laws

By Rachel Riley

Attorneys general from 32 states are urging Congress to preserve their ability to pass laws regulating artificial intelligence, contending that the Trump administration's renewed proposal to insert a moratorium into a federal spending bill would leave states powerless in the face of AI-powered scams, harmful chatbot hallucinations and other emerging dangers.

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21 AGs Sue USDA Over SNAP Rollbacks For Permanent Residents

By Ben Adlin

Twenty states and the District of Columbia sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday over new agency guidance barring certain categories of permanent residents from receiving federal food assistance benefits.

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9 News Outlets Latest To Sue Microsoft, OpenAI For IP Theft

By Lauren Berg

The Virginian-Pilot, Los Angeles Daily News, Hartford Courant and six other regional news outlets joined a long list of authors and publishers who accuse Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI Inc. of willfully infringing their copyrighted works to train their generative text products.

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2nd Circ. Revives Bid For SSA Disability Benefits Over Anxiety

By Patrick Hoff

An administrative law judge must reconsider the Social Security Administration's denial of a former security guard's disability benefits, a split Second Circuit panel found, concluding that the judge needs to back up her determination that the worker's anxiety wouldn't impede his ability to keep a job.

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2nd Circ. Decision Offers Securities Fraud Pleading Insights

In Gimpel v. Hain Celestial, the Second Circuit’s recent finding that investor plaintiffs adequately alleged a food and personal care company made actionable misrepresentations and false statements presents a road map for evaluating securities fraud complaints that emphasizes statements made and scienter, rather than pure omissions, say attorneys at Nixon Peabody.

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3rd Circ. Says Habba Barred From Serving As Acting US Atty

By Carla Baranauckas

President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer cannot serve as acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, the Third Circuit ruled Monday in a precedential opinion holding that her appointment violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and undermined the constitutional safeguards of Senate confirmation.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court saw a slate of corporate law clashes this past week, from fast-moving injunction fights in consumer product and real estate markets to multibillion-dollar oversight claims against crypto executives and fresh battles over control for two sports teams.

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Clifford Chance Hires Another Day Pitney Energy Expert In DC

By Jack Rodgers

A little less than a year after joining Day Pitney LLP's energy practice, an attorney who moved there alongside a longtime colleague has followed him to a new firm once more, joining Clifford Chance's energy regulatory and markets practice as a counsel, the firm announced Monday.

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Calif. Ban On Fee-Sharing With 'Alternative' Firms Challenged

By Jack Karp

A new law barring California lawyers and firms from sharing fees with out-of-state law firms owned by nonlawyers is unconstitutional and will harm the state's mass tort lawyers and their clients, according to a lawsuit filed last week.

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What MDL Judges Can Get Done With A New Civil Rule

By Cara Salvatore

As the first federal procedure rule geared toward multidistrict litigation goes into effect, judges will have a new buffet of best practices to guide them, but little in the way of hand-tying mandates.

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4 Mass. Rulings You May Have Missed In November

By Julie Manganis

A judge dismissed a flurry of proposed class actions alleging retailers flouted a Massachusetts law requiring that job applications include a notice of the state's ban on lie detectors, while a personal injury law firm couldn't escape a former associate's suit over its unilateral decision to eliminate commissions for cases he brought to the firm, among notable state court decisions in November.

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Judge-Shopping Sanctions Order Must Stand, 11th Circ. Told

By Ryan Boysen

The Alabama federal judges who sanctioned a trio of civil rights attorneys for allegedly judge shopping are defending that outcome, telling the Eleventh Circuit the controversial process was above board and rejecting the "scheming" attorneys' claims that they simply wanted to ensure they received a randomly assigned judge.

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