15 States Reach $7.4B Settlement With Sackler Family

By Spencer Brewer and Frank G. Runyeon

A bipartisan coalition of states on Thursday announced a $7.4 billion settlement in principle with the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma Inc., representing the largest settlement to date with the family accused of contributing significantly to the opioid epidemic.

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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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Trump Forms Crypto Working Group To Create Fed. Framework

By Aislinn Keely

President Donald Trump took another step towards fulfilling his campaign promises to the cryptocurrency industry on Thursday with an executive order that directs regulators to get to work establishing a federal framework for digital assets and prohibits the creation of a central bank digital currency.

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SEC Rescinds Controversial Crypto Accounting Guidance

By Aislinn Keely

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rolled back its controversial cryptocurrency accounting guidance known as SAB 121 Thursday evening, hot on the heels of newly appointed acting Chairman Mark Uyeda's commitment to shifting the regulator toward setting clear guidelines for digital assets.

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Dems Cite 'Unprecedented Concerns' With Trump Memecoins

By Hailey Konnath

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Jake Auchincloss have urged federal regulators to address "unprecedented concerns" associated with the recent launch of so-called memecoins associated with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, citing threats of consumer ripoffs, corruption and foreign influence.

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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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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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AT&T, Dish Owe FCC $20.6M In Unverified Subsidy Payments

By Nadia Dreid

AT&T and Dish Network will have to repay the Federal Communications Commission the more than $20 million it took in early pandemic broadband subsidy funds because they failed to verify that the people they used those funds for were eligible for the program.

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Fitbit To Pay $12M Fine For Ionic Smartwatch Burns

By Rae Ann Varona

Fitbit has agreed to pay a $12.25 million fine to resolve the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's allegations it failed to immediately report that its Ionic smartwatches were overheating and leaving some consumers with second- and third-degree burns, the consumer safety agency announced Thursday.

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Calif. Kids' Privacy Law Ignores 1st Amendment, Judge Says

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge appeared open Thursday to preliminarily blocking for the second time a landmark California law requiring tech giants to bolster privacy protections for children, telling the state's counsel that nothing shows the Legislature "cared one whit about the Constitution," and "now you're trying to reverse engineer it."

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Meta Wants Mass. Justices To Intervene In AG's Suit

By Julie Manganis

Meta Platforms has urged Massachusetts' highest court to take up its challenge to a pending lawsuit brought by the state attorney general's office, which accused the social media company of intentionally designing Instagram to be addictive to children and teenagers.

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House Bill Filed To Renew FCC Auctions, Spectrum Pipeline

By Christopher Cole

A Republican lawmaker introduced a bill Thursday that would give the Federal Communications Commission authority to auction the airwaves and direct the government to turn over at least 2,500 megahertz for private sector or shared use in the next five years.

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Conn. Lawmakers Target Healthcare After Hospital's Ch. 11

By Aaron Keller

In the lead-up to and aftermath of California hospital operator Prospect Medical Holdings Inc.'s $1 billion bankruptcy, Connecticut lawmakers are considering new regulatory powers, promising and penning oversight bills for hospitals owned by private equity firms and real estate trusts while seeking to stabilize the state's healthcare markets.

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NY Regulator Steps Up Overdraft Fee Fight In CFPB's Wake

By Jon Hill

New York's Department of Financial Services has proposed new limits on overdraft and insufficient funds fees for banks that it regulates, positioning the state to pick up where the Biden administration left off with efforts to curb so-called junk fees.

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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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PayPal To Pay $2M To NY Regulator In Cybersecurity Deal

By Katryna Perera

PayPal agreed on Thursday to pay a $2 million fine to the New York State Department of Financial Services to resolve allegations that it failed to use qualified personnel to manage key cybersecurity functions and failed to provide proper training to address cybersecurity risks, resulting in sensitive customer information being vulnerable to hackers.

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4th Circ. Unwinds Rocket Mortgage Borrowers' Class Cert.

By Lauren Berg

A split Fourth Circuit on Thursday reversed the class certification of borrowers who accused Rocket Mortgage of inflating their home values, finding that not all potential class members could prove they were injured under the U.S. Supreme Court's heightened pleading standard in TransUnion.

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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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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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NJ Town Loses Bid To Join NYC Congestion Pricing Suit

By Carla Baranauckas

A federal judge on Thursday rebuffed a bid from the mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey, to be heard in the ongoing litigation surrounding this month's implementation of the congestion pricing toll program in Manhattan.

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Conn. High Court Snapshot: Atty's Bonus, Burn Verdict

By Brian Steele

In its next term starting Monday, the Connecticut Supreme Court will hear an appeal from an acupuncturist who doesn't want to share liability for a judgment paid to a burn victim, and consider whether to reverse a seven-figure verdict for a private equity management firm's founder, who claims other members improperly cut him out.

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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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Vape Maker Seeks Exit From Suit Over Delta-9 THC Levels

By Jonathan Capriel

An Illinois-based vape maker urged a federal judge to toss a lawsuit accusing it of fraudulently passing off illicit Delta-9 products as legal Delta-8 ones, saying the suit lacks fundamental details, such as which products were purchased and what laboratory tested them.

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McKinsey Not Covered For Over 260 Opioid Suits, Chubb Says

By Hope Patti

A group of Chubb insurers said they have no duty to defend or indemnify McKinsey & Co. in more than 260 suits accusing the management consulting firm of contributing to the opioid epidemic, telling a Delaware state court that the underlying suits do not seek damage "because of" bodily injury.

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Atty Hit With TCPA Class Action Over Camp Lejeune Calls

By Jonathan Capriel

A North Carolina plaintiffs firm was hit with a proposed class action accusing it of making unsolicited calls to a number on the National Do Not Call Registry in an effort to secure a client in the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune toxic drinking water case — at least the fourth firm to face similar claims.

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DraftKings Sued Again Over Alleged 'Deceptive' Promotions

By David Steele

DraftKings lures new bettors with unethical and fraudulent practices, such as "risk-free" bets, newcomer bonuses and deposit matches, that make it "the present face of competition in the obscenely profitable, and formerly illegal, industry," according to a proposed class action in New York federal court.

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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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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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