Feature

Exxon Cements Texas As Delaware's Emerging Rival

By Spencer Brewer

Last year, Vinson & Elkins partner Katherine Frank fielded about one call a week from companies thinking about redomiciling in Texas. Speaking to Law360 the day after ExxonMobil announced its plan to reincorporate in the Lone Star State due to its business-forward courts and policies, Frank said the callers fell into three categories.

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Analysis

Trump Cybercrime Order Creates New Compliance To-Do List

By Phillip Bantz

President Donald Trump's recent executive order calling for a coalition of government agencies to combat cybercrime is far more forceful than efforts under prior administrations, according to white collar lawyers, who tentatively applaud the proposal while warning it could raise new compliance risks.

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Analysis

Bayer Sees 'Light At The End Of The Tunnel' In Roundup Suits

By Chris Villani

After more than a decade and tens of thousands of cases, a recent settlement announcement and a high-stakes high court hearing may finally give the makers of the weedkiller Roundup an off-ramp in seemingly never-ending litigation.

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Meta, Google Rest In Bellwether Social Media Harm Trial

By Craig Clough

Meta Platforms and Google rested their defense Wednesday in a landmark California bellwether trial accusing their social media platforms of harming children, with the cases-in-chief ending in a somewhat anticlimactic manner as jurors were shown videotaped depositions after weeks of dramatic live testimony and attorney theatrics.

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Comcast, Peacock Escape Irish Co.'s Patent Suit, For Now

By Lauren Berg

A Delaware federal judge on Wednesday dismissed an Irish technology company's lawsuit alleging Comcast and its subsidiaries, NBCUniversal and Peacock TV, offer video streaming and network monitoring services that infringe four of its patents, saying the complaint does not adequately allege infringement, but gave the plaintiff an opportunity to rework the suit.

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Judge Eyes Halkbank's No-Fine Deal To Nix Sanctions Case

By Stewart Bishop

A Manhattan federal judge Wednesday let prosecutors and Turkey's Halkbank move forward with a no-fine deal that will likely resolve criminal charges alleging the state-backed lender conspired to launder billions of dollars in sanctioned Iranian oil proceeds.

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Intel Caved To Feds' 'Extortionary' Stock Demand, Suit Says

By Lauren Berg

Intel Corp.'s board gave the federal government $11 billion worth of stock in response to the Trump administration's "extortionary threats," according to a newly unsealed lawsuit brought by a shareholder who says the board lacked authority to issue the U.S. Department of Commerce a 9.9% company stake.

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NHK Wants Seagate Antitrust Case Paused For High Court Bid

By Matthew Perlman

NHK Spring is asking the Ninth Circuit to pause an antitrust case from Seagate Technologies over the alleged fixing of hard drive component prices while the Japanese manufacturer petitions the U.S. Supreme Court for review.

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3M Dodges Workers' Suit Over Retirement Fund Roster

By Patrick Hoff

3M escaped a proposed class action claiming it failed to remove underperforming investment options from its $12 billion employee retirement plans, with a Minnesota federal judge saying workers needed to do more to show that better-performing funds were comparable.

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Theory Nixed But Not Claims Against Triumph In Pork Case

By Bryan Koenig

A Minnesota federal judge refused to rethink forcing Triumph Foods to face trial alongside other pork producers accused of price-fixing, concluding that even though one key theory was "inadequately pled," there remains enough of a dispute on another theory to go to a jury.  

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Del. High Court Upholds Pioneer Win In $60B Exxon Deal Fight

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday affirmed a lower court ruling denying a union pension fund's request for additional internal communications related to the roughly $60 billion merger between Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and ExxonMobil Corp., concluding that the Delaware Chancery Court correctly rejected the stockholder's bid to obtain more emails and text messages from the company's former chief executive.

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Industrial Machinery Co. Gets Contempt Finding Overturned

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia trial judge went too far by holding a crushing and screening equipment maker in contempt for breaching a court order and ordering it to pay attorney fees in a distribution agreement dispute, a state appeals court ruled.

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Ex-Trump Media Exec Says Deposition Should Be Shortened

By Abigail Harrison

Counsel for a source in a 2023 Washington Post article that described securities fraud within Truth Social's parent company implored a North Carolina federal court to shave hours off the source's deposition Wednesday, less than two days before it's scheduled.

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OpenAI Wants 'Parallel' ChatGPT Murder-Suicide Suit Tossed

By Y. Peter Kang

OpenAI has asked a California federal judge to dismiss a suit alleging ChatGPT encouraged a man to murder his mother and then commit suicide, saying the case filed by the perpetrator's estate largely mirrors a "parallel" state court action lodged earlier by the mother's estate.

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Investor Says JPMorgan Enabled $328M Crypto Scam

By Carolina Bolado

A proposed class suit filed Tuesday in California federal court accuses JPMorgan Chase Bank NA of enabling a $328 million cryptocurrency scam at Florida-based Goliath Ventures Inc.

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Calif. City Must Pay Dow, PPG $6.5M Over Hidden Reports

By Bonnie Eslinger

A San Francisco judge on Wednesday ordered a California city to pay more than $6.5 million in sanctions for destroying and concealing reports in litigation against Dow Chemical and PPG Industries over dry cleaning chemicals that allegedly contaminated city sites, calling the withheld discovery an "explosive development."

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Investor Urges Revival Of Armistice Insider Trading Claims

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Supreme Court has heard arguments over whether a hedge fund that traded tens of millions of dollars' worth of stock can face insider trading liability under state law after its board designee allegedly received confidential company information, with an Aytu BioPharma shareholder urging the court to revive claims against healthcare investor Armistice Capital.

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Spencer Fane Hires Transactions, Banking Partners In D.C.

By Jack Rodgers

Spencer Fane LLP has hired two attorneys in Washington, D.C., who focus their practices on consumer financial matters, financial services and compliance-related issues, the firm announced Tuesday.

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Clifford Chance Names New Houston Office Leader

By Lynn LaRowe

Following the departure of Clifford Chance LLP's Houston office managing partner last month, the firm has selected a replacement from within its corporate bench, a partner who has been with the Magic Circle firm since it opened in Texas nearly three years ago.

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Arnold & Porter Corporate Atty Rejoins Reed Smith In Miami

By Emily Johnson

A former Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP partner has returned to Reed Smith LLP in its Miami office, strengthening the firm's global corporate group with experience assisting clients in India.

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Ex-Senior Atty For Int'l Finance Corp. Joins Hunton

By Jack Rodgers

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP has hired a former senior counsel from International Finance Corp., who spent 12 years there and who worked as the global legal lead for the institution's asset management company.

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Del. Coinbase Outcome May Have Been Different In Texas

The Delaware Court of Chancery's recent decision in Grabski v. Andreessen, finding that a member of the Coinbase special litigation committee was not independent, provides guidance for Delaware boards regarding the formation, composition and operation of SLCs, while offering a counterpoint to the procedures available to Texas-incorporated companies, says John Lawrence at Baker Botts.

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AG Watch: Ohio Targets DEI Policies

As Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost seeks to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in both public education institutions and private companies, Ohio entities must carefully navigate this constantly evolving, highly contentious topic to avoid litigation while also not forfeiting their core principles, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

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Why The NCUA's Stablecoin Moment Matters

The National Credit Union Administration, a historically conservative federal agency, recently proposed a detailed stablecoin licensing framework, confirming that the proposition of building a regulatory architecture within the banking industry has moved well past "whether" and firmly into "how," says Stephen Aschettino at Fox Rothschild.

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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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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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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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