SEC Chair Gensler To Step Down When Trump Takes Office

By Jessica Corso

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said Thursday that he will be leaving the agency on Jan. 20, clearing the way for new leadership under an incoming Trump administration that is expected to dismantle Gensler's climate disclosure regulation and open the SEC's door to more crypto-friendly policies.

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DOJ Urges Chrome, Android Sales In Google Case

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Department of Justice late Wednesday formally asked a Washington, D.C., federal judge to order a range of steps to end Google's monopolization of general search services and the text ads shown alongside search results, most notably by forcing the company to spin off the Chrome browser.

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Analysis

DOJ Search Fixes Would Remake Google, Break Off Chrome

By Bryan Koenig

To give rival search engines a fighting chance against Google's illegal monopoly and its massive data and structural advantages, the Justice Department asked a D.C. federal judge Wednesday for sweeping changes that would divest the Chrome browser, open up Android devices and guarantee access to underlying search data.

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Trump Selects Ex-Fla. AG Pam Bondi As New AG Pick

By Lauren Berg

President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has selected Pam Bondi, a former attorney general of Florida, as his new pick for U.S. attorney general, just hours after former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration amid allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use.

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Gaetz Ends AG Bid, Citing 'Distraction' To Trump Transition

By Phillip Bantz

Former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration Thursday as President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general amid allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use.

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Senate Approves Honeywell GC For Arizona Judge Seat

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 82-12 on Thursday to confirm Sharad H. Desai, a vice president and general counsel for Honeywell International, for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.

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Citibank Says Bankers Took Info On Its Atty Clients To Rival

By Hailey Konnath

Citibank NA on Wednesday accused two of its former bankers of jumping ship to instead work for competitor Bank of Montreal — and with confidential information regarding Citibank law firm and attorney clients, according to a suit filed in California federal court.

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EPA Floats New Draft Framework On Cumulative Impacts

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday further fleshed out exactly what it means when it tells its employees to consider the "cumulative impacts" of pollution on particular communities.

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New SEC 'Dealer' Rule Tossed In Win For Hedge Funds, Crypto

By Jessica Corso & Aislinn Keely

A Texas federal judge on Thursday overturned a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule that expanded the definition of "dealer" to include proprietary trading firms, some hedge funds and crypto firms, saying the agency overstepped its authority when it adopted the rule.

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CFPB Wraps Rule To Pull Big Payment Apps Into Supervision

By Jon Hill

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Thursday that it has finalized a measure to bring providers of major digital payment apps under its supervisory umbrella, expanding the reach of its oversight deeper into the technology sector and drawing fresh calls to reverse course.

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SEC Denied Civil Penalties Over Pot Pill Exec's 'Inexperience'

By Sydney Price

The SEC will score $86,000 in disgorgement and interest from a former executive of C3 International Inc. for falsely claiming the company's cannabis pill was projected to generate millions of dollars in revenue, but the court found the defendant's conduct did not warrant the civil penalty the agency requested.

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Dentons Atty Owed No Duty In $54M Currency Deal, Jury Says

By David Minsky

A Florida state court jury found Thursday that a former Dentons US LLP attorney didn't intentionally make a false statement or commit malpractice in a failed $54 million dollars-to-bolivares currency swap in which a Venezuelan lawyer lost millions of dollars.

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Ex-Google Engineer Ordered To Stop Posting Pixel Secrets

By Lauren Berg

A former Google engineer must immediately cease publishing confidential company information and remove social media posts that reveal Pixel device trade secrets, a Texas federal judge ruled Wednesday, after the tech giant sought an emergency restraining order on allegations its former employee is continuing to "maliciously" leak internal files.

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NY Hospital GC Accuses State Of Mishandling Medicaid Funds

By Sue Reisinger

The general counsel of Nassau University Medical Center, who is also serving as interim president and CEO, is leading the Long Island hospital into a legal battle with the state of New York over $1 billion in federal Medicaid funds.

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Boehringer Trial Over Zantac's Cancer Link Ends In Mistrial

By Dorothy Atkins

A California state judge declared a mistrial Thursday, ending a monthslong trial over product liability claims by a bladder cancer survivor who alleges Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. failed to disclose cancer risks associated with the company's Zantac heartburn medication, according to the plaintiff's counsel.

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Dorsey's Fintech Co. Beats Investor's Cash App Suit, For Now

By Lauren Berg

Jack Dorsey's Block Inc. convinced a California federal judge Wednesday to toss a securities lawsuit alleging the company painted a rosier-than-reality picture of its Cash App and failed to explain why former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers resigned from its board, but the investor will get a chance to rework the complaint.

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Social Media MDL Judge Rips State Attys Defying Orders

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal magistrate judge overseeing discovery in multidistrict litigation over social media platforms' allegedly addictive designs on Thursday ordered states to provide the names and state bar numbers of agency counsel who have refused to comply with discovery orders, threatening sanctions and asking, "What happened to the rule of law?"

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Unions, ACLU Throw Weight Behind EEOC Bostock Guidance

By Patrick Hoff

The AFL-CIO, SEIU, American Civil Liberties Union, and several business groups and nonprofits have urged a Texas federal court not to scrap U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidance interpreting the U.S. Supreme Court's Bostock decision, arguing the guidelines provide critical advice on preventing workplace harassment.

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'Where Were You?': Judge Irked By Feds In $2B Fraud Case 

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina magistrate judge said Thursday he was "appalled" by a system that left a convicted insurance mogul unable to communicate with his attorneys while he sat in a county jail for nearly a week following his guilty plea to a $2 billion fraud and money laundering scheme.

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Tempur Gave UK Co. 'Total Autonomy' Post-Merger, CEO Says

By Catherine Marfin

The CEO of a United Kingdom-based mattress company acquired by Tempur Sealy in 2021 told a Houston federal judge Thursday that his new parent company has provided him "total autonomy" since the acquisition.

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IBM Told Execs 'Discriminate Or Lose Your Job,' Worker Says

By Carolyn Muyskens

IBM rewarded executives for meeting diversity goals and threatened them with punishment for failing to do so, essentially telling them to "discriminate or lose your job," a white male consultant who was terminated alleged in a suit filed in Michigan federal court on Wednesday.

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Legal Fee Suit Widens Paragon Tech Control Fight In Del.

By Jeff Montgomery

A running feud at the top of publicly traded investment company Paragon Technologies Inc. widened Thursday with a former CEO's filing of a Delaware Court of Chancery suit for company-paid legal fees prompted by the ex-CEO's ouster, a board investigation and other recent developments.

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Snap Moves To Toss New Mexico's Child 'Sextortion' Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

Snap Inc. has moved to toss New Mexico's lawsuit accusing it of enabling child sexual exploitation on its instant messaging app, Snapchat, telling a New Mexico state court that the state's attorney general lodged a "sensationalist" lawsuit rife with patently false allegations.

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Ex-Gibson Dunn Disputes Pro To Move Into In-House Role

By Ashish Sareen

Marsh McLennan has hired a dispute resolution partner from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP in London as a general counsel for two of its consulting businesses, the firm said Thursday.

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Crypto Cos. Add New Play In Their Offense Against SEC

Consensys and Crypto.com have adopted a novel strategy of preempting U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement actions by moving to crypto-friendly Texas and filing declaratory lawsuits challenging the SEC's jurisdiction to regulate crypto-assets — an aggressive approach that may pay off, say attorneys at Herrick Feinstein.

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Recent Listeria Outbreaks Hold Key Compliance Lessons

Listeria outbreaks in ready-to-eat foods from Boar's Head and other companies, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Food and Drug Administration responses to these outbreaks, should be closely evaluated from an overall compliance and risk management perspective by food manufacturers, retailers and industry investors, say attorneys at Kirkland.

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3 Ways To Train Junior Lawyers In 30 Minutes Or Less

Today’s junior lawyers are experiencing a skills gap due to pandemic-era disruptions, but firms can help bring them up to speed by offering high-impact skill building content in bite-sized, interactive training sessions, say Stacey Schwartz at Katten, Diane Costigan at Winston & Strawn and Lauren Tierney at Freshfields.

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Advising Employers As AI Meets DEI And Discrimination

Though companies can use artificial intelligence tools to develop more diverse and inclusive workforces, counsel should also prepare employers for how AI can stymie these efforts, provoke discrimination claims and complicate resulting litigation, says Emily Schifter at Troutman Pepper.

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How They Won It

How A Purple Jacket Led To A Murder Exoneration And $13M

By Julie Manganis

To win compensation under a Massachusetts state law, lawyers for Michael J. Sullivan, who spent 26 years in prison, were required to prove he was innocent of the 1986 crime for which he was convicted. A couple of lucky breaks helped.

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Interview

High Court Bar's Future: Sullivan & Cromwell's Morgan Ratner

By Jeff Overley

Morgan L. Ratner has emerged as a leader of the U.S. Supreme Court bar's next generation, and she attributes her ascent to brilliant mentors, a laid-back argument style, an aversion to overconfidence and a firm commitment to clear principles in every case — even if that means reluctantly telling the chief justice, as she once did, that a hypothetical cat stuck in a tree shouldn't be saved.

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Trump Sentencing Halted To Weigh President-Elect's Immunity

By Frank G. Runyeon

The New York state judge who oversaw Donald Trump's hush money trial officially canceled his Nov. 26 sentencing date Friday to weigh the impact of his new status as president-elect, pushing briefing into December.

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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen cash-strapped Thurrock Borough Council bring a £40 million ($50 million) negligence claim against 23 other local authorities over its solar investments from a not-for-profit local government body, AstraZeneca sue a fire safety company following a blaze at its Cambridge headquarters last year, and a director who was convicted in 2016 for corporate manslaughter face action by Manolete Partners. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Bonus Spotlight

Top Firms Big And Small Join In On Milbank Bonuses

By Aebra Coe

The latest law firms to follow Milbank LLP on 2024 associate bonuses late Thursday and into Friday run the gamut from global giant to boutique, according to firm memos shared with Law360 Pulse and media reports.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Andrea Keckley

Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum LLP, King & Spalding LLP, Holland & Knight LLP and Barnes & Thornburg LLP lead this week's list of Law360 legal lions for beating a Pennsylvania state court lawsuit brought against Bayer AG unit Monsanto by a woman who said she got cancer by using the weed killer Roundup.

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Squire Patton Lawyer Dies In Laos Amid Poisoning Reports

By Ashish Sareen

A junior lawyer at Squire Patton Boggs LLP has died in Laos, the law firm confirmed Friday, amid reports in the media that she was the victim of a suspected mass poisoning incident.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Google's chief legal officer has blasted a U.S. Department of Justice proposal to force it to sell its Chrome browser, saying a sale would "break" a range of Google products and be a threat to U.S. tech leadership in the world. And in a close but surprising outcome, California voters have turned down a minimum wage hike for workers.

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Gaetz, Greene Face Atty Fees Bid For $550,000 In Calif. Suit

By Madison Arnold

Progressive groups including the NAACP are seeking more than $550,000 in attorney fees and costs from U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and former Rep. Matt Gaetz after escaping their lawsuit alleging that the organizations conspired to pressure city officials in California to cancel the politicians' rallies.

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Analysis

Bondi Vowed Trump Payback. Ex-Colleagues Aren't Worried.

By Phillip Bantz, Chris Villani and Carolina Bolado

U.S. attorney general nominee Pam Bondi is an outspoken ally of President-elect Donald Trump and vowed during the campaign that his "prosecutors will be prosecuted," but people who've worked with her say she's well qualified to serve as the nation's top cop and downplayed concerns that she would politicize the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Brief

Navajo Co. Dismisses Case Alleging Paralegal Took Docs

By Thy Vo

A natural resources company owned by the Navajo Nation has dismissed a lawsuit against a paralegal it accused of failing to turn in her computer for removal of its privileged documents, after the paralegal said she had already arranged to surrender her device before the lawsuit was even filed.

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Senior Dem Asks Schumer For Votes On Circuit Court Picks

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Friday pushed back against a deal Democrats and Republicans cut earlier this week that obligates Democrats to forgo votes on four appellate picks.

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