Florida Bar Rescinds Claim Agency Is Investigating Halligan

By Jack Karp

The Florida Bar said Friday that it is not investigating controversial former interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan, walking back a previous assertion it had made in a letter to a nonprofit that it was probing Halligan's actions.

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Investors Accuse Alston & Bird Of Aiding $328M Crypto Fraud

By David Minsky

Several investors have brought a Florida federal proposed class action alleging legal malpractice against Alston & Bird LLP, accusing the law firm of drafting joint venture agreements that were used to aid a $328 million cryptocurrency scam. 

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Trump Media Can't Block Financial Testimony In WaPo Suit

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal court denied President Donald Trump's social media company's bid to prevent The Washington Post from asking Trump Media corporate representatives about the company's financial information, finding it is relevant in the $2.78 billion defamation suit against the newspaper.

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Fla. Panel Blocks Athlete's Extra Year Of College Basketball

By David Minsky

A Florida appellate panel on Friday blocked a lower court's temporary injunction giving an extra year of eligibility for a college basketball player, ruling in a split opinion that the order's findings weren't sufficient to grant an "extraordinary remedy." 

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Fla. Man Will Be Resentenced Under First Step, 11th Circ. Says

By Carolina Bolado

The Eleventh Circuit on Thursday ordered a Florida man convicted of a string of armed robberies to be resentenced under the First Step Act, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that allows for some retroactive application of the 2018 criminal justice reform law.

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Roundup

Real Estate Recap: Big Data, C-PACE, Mamdani's Planners

By Real Estate Authority Staff

Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including a look at the evolution of big data in real estate transactions, C-PACE financing growth according to Nuveen's head counsel, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's recent picks to lead the city's planning department.

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Miami Developer Accused Of $85M Fraud Scheme, DOJ Says

By Anna Scott Farrell

Federal prosecutors have accused a Miami real estate developer of leading an $85 million investment fraud scheme and failing to pay both his personal income taxes and payroll taxes for his employees, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.

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SEC Ordered To Release Info On Text Messaging Sweeps

By Jessica Corso

A Florida federal judge has harshly criticized the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's litigation tactics as an "acute embarrassment" to the agency as he ordered it to turn over information about the penalties imposed on financial institutions whose employees discussed business information on their personal devices.

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CBD Processor Says Hemp Co. Owes $8.7M In Pay Dispute

By Mike Curley

A CBD oil processing company is suing cannabinoid company Arvida Labs LLC in Washington federal court, saying Arvida owes more than $8.7 million for crude CBD oil and biomass that it hasn't purchased despite the companies' agreement.

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Duke Energy Settles Monopoly Suit On Eve Of Jury Trial

By Hayley Fowler

Duke Energy has settled a Florida-based power provider's monopoly suit on the eve of a jury trial in North Carolina, just two months after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a Fourth Circuit ruling that revived the antitrust claims, according to a notice filed Friday.

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Character AI Case Highlights Agentic AI Liability Questions

The recently settled litigation against Character Technologies Inc. provides an early case study for exploring salient legal issues related to agentic artificial intelligence, such as tort liability, strict liability, statutory liability and contractual liability, says Samuel Mitchells at Smith Gambrell.

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DOJ Forges Ahead With Law Firm EO Appeals At DC Circ.

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday moved ahead with filing appeals at the D.C. Circuit to defend executive orders issued by President Donald Trump targeting four law firms, just three days after the agency backtracked on its decision to drop the fight.

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Legal Jobs Up 19th Straight Month In 'Goldilocks' Economy

By Tracey Read

The legal sector continued its lengthy upward streak in February, with 2,600 more people employed in lawyer, paralegal and other law-related professional roles last month than in January, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Ex-Girardi Keese Atty Pleads Guilty For Role In Client Scandal

By Dorothy Atkins

Former Girardi Keese attorney Keith Griffin pled guilty to criminal contempt in Illinois federal court on Thursday for his role in the firm's failure to pay millions ​in client settlement funds to relatives of victims killed in the crash of Lion Air Flight 610.

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Louisiana Atty Sanctioned Over AI Hallucinations In Filing

By Matt Perez

A Louisiana attorney was fined $1,000 Thursday for his use of artificial intelligence in drafting an error-riddled brief, while three co-counsel were spared penalty.

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Constantine Cannon Defends Handling Of Sutter $75M Fee

By Dorothy Atkins

Constantine Cannon LLP pushed back against Schneider Wallace Cottrell Kim LLP's allegations it unfairly reduced Schneider Wallace's share of a $75.4 million fee award in Sutter Health's $228.5 million antitrust deal, arguing in California federal court that the firm "sat on the sidelines" for most of the decadelong fight and isn't entitled to a bigger cut.

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NJ Talc Suit Will Proceed Amid Beasley Allen DQ Appeal

By Emily Sawicki

The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to stay multicounty litigation over Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder brought by hundreds of women who allege their ovarian cancer was linked to the product, while Beasley Allen appeals its removal as plaintiff's counsel over a firm partner's collaboration with the pharmaceutical giant's former outside counsel.

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Courts Aren't Ignoring Justices' TPS Orders, Ex-Judges Say

By Ganesh Setty

Over 175 former federal and state judges have slammed the Trump administration's claim that lower courts "flouted" interim orders from the U.S. Supreme Court in litigation involving the administration's revocation of foreign nationals' temporary protected status, saying they weren't binding.

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Dems Again Push For Independent Immigration Courts

By Courtney Bublé

Democrats have again introduced a bill that would shift the immigration courts from the executive branch to an independent judiciary, following concerns that the Trump administration has "weaponized" the system.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen British American Tobacco sued by more than 100 investors, the government bring a claim against a COVID-19 supplier of personal protective equipment, Annington Funding sue its new corporate trustees on the Financial List, and Piers Morgan hit with a defamation claim from a pro-Israel barrister he interviewed on his YouTube channel. 

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Anthropic, the developer of Claude AI, says it will take the Pentagon to court over being designated a national security risk because it wants to impose ethical guardrails on Claude's use. And the Mideast war is making in-house legal teams across the country work long hours to protect employees trapped by the violence and to keep businesses running despite broken supply chains. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Winston & Strawn LLP, Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo PC, Stanford's Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and attorney Olivia Gabriel lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that New Jersey cannot shield its public transit system from personal injury lawsuits by out-of-state plaintiffs under sovereign immunity.

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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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