Musk Banker Tells Jury Twitter Held Up Takeover Deal

By Bonnie Eslinger

An ex-Morgan Stanley banker who advised Elon Musk on his $44 billion Twitter acquisition testified Thursday in a trial seeking billions for investors claiming Musk tanked the social media company's stock to disrupt the takeover, saying Twitter was the one that obstructed the deal.

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DC Circ. Spends Hours Debating 'Same' Generic Label Reqs

By Nadia Dreid

The D.C. Circuit spent more than three hours Thursday going round with Vanda Pharmaceuticals and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about whether the label for a generic sleep-wake disorder medication is "the same" as the branded one because it doesn't include Braille.

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Court Told To Keep Holtec Suit Alleging Fraud Scheme Paused

By George Woolston

Defendants urged a New Jersey state court to reject Holtec International's bid to lift a stay holding it back from pursuing fraud claims against its former general counsel and others for allegedly embezzling more than $700,000 from the company, arguing that keeping the suit on pause will serve judicial efficiency.

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Social Media 'Lions' Hunted Plaintiff Like Gazelle, Jury Told

By Craig Clough

The plaintiff's attorney in a bellwether trial accusing Meta Platforms Inc. and Google LLC of harming children's mental health encouraged a California jury during closing arguments Thursday not to buy the defendants' focus on his client's difficult childhood, saying it only weakened her to their social media "addiction machine" like a vulnerable gazelle being hunted by lions.

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Ex-Judge Testifies About Alleged Forgeries In Amazon Case

By Kelcey Caulder

The former chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia testified Thursday about the alleged forging of court documents, signatures and court stamps in a criminal case against a woman accused of defrauding Amazon out of $9.4 million through fraudulent invoices. 

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UiPath Execs Hid Risks, Ditched $394M+ In Stock, Suit Alleges

By Jarek Rutz

A UiPath Inc. shareholder has filed a derivative lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court accusing the company's top executives and directors of misleading investors about slowing growth and intensifying competition in the robotic process automation market while insiders sold hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of stock.

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Analysis

IP Notebook: TM Use At High Court, Popeye, Kurt Cobain

By Ivan Moreno

This edition of emerging copyright and trademark cases and trends looks at an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court that questions the definition of trademark "use in commerce" under the Lanham Act and a battle over the use of "Popeye" as a trademark.

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Brief

Democrats Vow To Oversee DOJ's Reported Binance Inquiry

By Sarah Jarvis

Three Democratic U.S. senators said Thursday that they will oversee a reported investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into potential Iran sanctions violations carried out on the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

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Conn. AG Says $2.4B Eversource Sale Burdens Taxpayers

By Aaron Keller

Connecticut Attorney General William M. Tong has asked the state's Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to tank the proposed $2.4 billion sale of Eversource subsidiary Aquarion Co. to a new water authority created by the state Legislature, saying a recent court decision did not force PURA to approve the transaction.

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Meta To Face Sanctions Bid Over Addiction MDL Privilege Log

By Dorothy Atkins

School district plaintiffs and attorneys general have told a California federal judge they plan to seek sanctions against Meta Platforms Inc. in the social media addiction multidistrict litigation for the tech giant's "extremely belated production" of over 73,841 documents downgraded off privilege logs, months after fact discovery closed.

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Epilepsy Drugmaker's Statements Insulated From Stock Suit

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Pennsylvania federal judge has trimmed a shareholder class action against Marinus Pharmaceuticals alleging it misled investors about the probability of success of an epilepsy drug, ruling that certain statements made by company leadership were immunized by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.

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Del. Chancery Rejects Fraud Claims In $313.5M Fertilizer Deal

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court has ruled that a group of investors failed to prove that executives and a private equity sponsor behind agricultural technology company Verdesian Life Sciences LLC defrauded them into investing in a 2014 acquisition, holding after trial that the claims were both time-barred and unsupported.

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Chancery Dissolves Litigation Funder Amid Partner Deadlock

By Ryan Boysen

A hedge fund manager can wind down the litigation funding operation he ran with a Florida-based personal injury attorney, the Delaware Chancery Court has ruled, finding that a falling out between the two partners did not involve any wrongdoing.

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Lack Of 'Wages Due' Vexes Pa. Justices In Damages Bid

By Matthew Santoni

Members of Pennsylvania's Supreme Court on Thursday seemed to doubt the ability of a debt collection firm's former CEO to sue his employer solely for punitive damages over bonuses the company eventually paid, albeit belatedly, pointing to state law that says claims can be made for "wages due" in the present tense.

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DOJ Wants Morgan Stanley, DOL Opinion Dispute Tossed

By Katryna Perera

The U.S. government has moved to dismiss a suit from former Morgan Stanley financial advisers challenging a U.S. Department of Labor advisory opinion that said the bank's deferred compensation plans likely aren't covered by federal benefits law, with the advisers responding by saying the agency's finding is hurting them because the bank is using it in arbitration proceedings.

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Colo. Law Firm Alleges Personal Injury Firm Owes It $120K

By Rachel Konieczny

A Fort Collins, Colorado, trial law firm alleged in state court that a Denver personal injury firm has not paid it $120,000 in fees the trial firm says it is owed for legal work it performed for the PI firm.

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PayPal Execs Hit With Derivative Suit Over 2027 Forecast

By Sydney Price

PayPal executives and directors were hit with a shareholder's derivative suit accusing them of damaging the company with comments about the strong growth trajectory for its branded checkout segment that the investor said turned out to be untrue.

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Cogent CEO's Stock Pledges Spark Derivative Suit

By Emilie Ruscoe

The CEO and board members of internet service provider Cogent Communications Holdings Inc. face shareholder derivative claims the CEO improperly collateralized his commercial real estate portfolio with his stake in the company, causing trading prices to plummet when he was forced to sell off those shares amid financial distress.

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IRS Allows 15% Of KFC Parent's Domestic Production Claim

By Molly Moses

The IRS and the parent of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell agreed that the company's total deductions for domestic production activities during 2013-2015 were $1.6 million — roughly 15% of the $10.7 million the company had claimed as deductions for the three years.

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FDIC Owns SVB Insurance Claims, Court Told

By Abigail Harrison

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as receiver for Silicon Valley Bank after its historic collapse in early 2023, is entitled to recover on what could be tens of millions of dollars in financial institution bond proceeds, the FDIC's counsel told a North Carolina federal court Thursday.

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Sidley Adds Cooley Corporate And Securities Pro In San Diego

By James Mills

Sidley Austin LLP continues expanding its California team, bringing in another Cooley LLP lawyer — this one a corporate and securities expert — as a partner in its San Diego office.

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Series

Podcasting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Podcasting has changed how I ask questions and connect with people, sharpening my ability to listen without interrupting or prejudging, and bringing me closer to what law is meant to be: a human profession grounded in understanding, judgment and trust, says Donna DiMaggio Berger at Becker.

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4th Circ. Scolds Atty Suspected Of Using AI In Race Bias Suit

By Patrick Hoff

The Fourth Circuit has reprimanded an attorney suspected of using generative artificial intelligence to draft briefs in a race discrimination lawsuit against Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., warning that courts need to grapple with the technology as it "may soon become the norm."

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Democrats Seek Review Of Bondi's Role In Brother's Cases

By Alison Knezevich

Two Democratic lawmakers have asked the U.S. Department of Justice's inspector general to review whether Attorney General Pam Bondi "adequately recused herself" from cases involving clients represented by her brother Brad Bondi, who is a partner at Paul Hastings LLP.

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Sinema Says Tryst With Ex-Guard Not In NC Court's Reach

By Abigail Harrison

Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, now a Hogan Lovells attorney, told a North Carolina federal court Thursday that a lawsuit alleging her cross-country affair with a former member of her security detail ended a 14-year marriage must be dismissed because the trysts occurred outside state borders.

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Judge Newman Takes Suspension Battle To Supreme Court

By Ryan Davis

Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman brought her fight against a suspension imposed on her by her colleagues to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, arguing that a lower court wrongly held that her challenges to the order are not subject to judicial review.

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Calif. Bar Says Internal Docs Bolster Claims Against Exam Co.

By Emily Sawicki

The State Bar of California has bulked up its breach of contract and fraud suit against the administrator of its "disastrous" February 2025 bar exam, filing an amended complaint in light of information it says it learned from internal communications unearthed amid discovery.

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Holyoak's US Attorney Nomination Advances

By Courtney Bublé

The nomination of Melissa Holyoak, former commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, to be U.S. attorney for the District of Utah was sent to the full Senate on Thursday.

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CFTC Takes 1st Steps Toward Prediction Market Regulations

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission opened the door Thursday to promised prediction market regulation, calling for public feedback on what such rules might look like while laying out the staff's view on the current rules that the platforms should follow in order to offer betting on sports and other events.

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