Generic-Drug Cos. Get State AGs' Trial Order Flipped

By Matthew Perlman

A Connecticut federal court has sided with the generic-drug makers accused of price-fixing by state-level enforcers and will allow a narrower case involving 15 drugs to move ahead prior to a much broader case involving more than 100 medications.

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FDA Declaration May Restart Compounders' Shortage Suit

By Dan McKay

Federal regulators pulled Eli Lilly's lucrative weight-loss and diabetes drug off the national shortage list Thursday and gave compounding pharmacists two months to stop making copycat versions of the injectable medication, a move with the potential to reignite a Texas legal clash.

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PhRMA Wins Bid To Halt W.Va. Drug Discount Expansion Law

By Hannah Albarazi

The country's biggest pharmaceutical lobbying group has won preliminary injunctions against a West Virginia law that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America claims unconstitutionally expands a federal drug discount program, with a federal judge finding that the law threatens to create a situation where "the fox guards the henhouse."

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Google Health Tracking Plaintiffs Fight To Keep Suit Alive

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge who was asked by Google to toss a proposed class action alleging that the tech giant illicitly scoops up users' personal data from healthcare providers' websites indicated during a Thursday hearing that he might grant the request while adding that he still has "a lot more thinking to do."

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Analysis

Top Privacy & Cybersecurity Developments Of 2024

By Allison Grande

The state data privacy law patchwork continued to add new and varied pieces in 2024, while major hacks shook up the healthcare industry and other critical sectors, and the first U.S. laws setting guardrails for the use of artificial intelligence technologies emerged.

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Analysis

Top Gov't Contracts Cases Of 2024

By Daniel Wilson

Courts and the U.S. Government Accountability Office have made several high-profile, consequential decisions for government contractors this year, addressing the constitutionality of the False Claims Act's whistleblower provisions and the limits of the president's authority over federal procurement.

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Bill Aimed At IHS Recruitment, Retention Heads To House

By Crystal Owens

A bill designed to make it easier for the Indian Health Service to recruit and retain medical workers is headed for the U.S. House of Representatives for consideration after easily passing the U.S. Senate this week.

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GAO Says Army Can Stop Solicitation After Multiple Protests

By Daniel Wilson

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has rejected a protest over the U.S. Army's decision to cancel a medical instructor support deal, saying the Army reasonably found it had to address changed circumstances after a string of related protests.

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9 Charged In $20M Medicaid Fraud Linked To Philly Pharmacy

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Nine people associated with a South Philadelphia pharmacy have been charged with an alleged five-year scheme to defraud Medicare and Medicaid out of $20 million by submitting false claims for prescription reimbursement of expensive medications like HIV drugs, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office said Thursday.

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Addiction Group Pays $2M In Mass. AG False Billing Probe

By Brian Dowling

An addiction treatment physician group with offices across western Massachusetts will pay $2 million to settle allegations that it overcharged for visits and billed for tests that were not medically necessary, the state's attorney general said Thursday.

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FTC Says PBMs Can't Get Preliminary Block In Insulin Case

By Bryan Koenig

The Federal Trade Commission urged a Missouri federal judge Thursday not to temporarily block its in-house case accusing pharmacy benefits managers of artificially inflating insulin prices through unfair rebate schemes, arguing Congress clearly empowered such in-house adjudications and the officials who handle them.

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McKesson Urges Justices To Keep Hobbs Act's 'Exclusivity'

By Ali Sullivan

McKesson Corp. is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve circuit courts' "exclusive" jurisdiction for Federal Communications Commission orders, warning that regulatory consistency nationwide could be undermined if lower courts are allowed to step in.

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Michigan's Biggest Decisions Of 2024

By Carolyn Muyskens

This year, the Michigan Supreme Court instituted sweeping changes to the state's wage and paid leave laws, took some damages off the table for wrongful death plaintiffs, and recognized third-party retaliation claims.

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5th Circ. Urged To Deny Tax Break For Doc's Captive Insurance

By Anna Scott Farrell

A physician who owns a network of urgent care clinics was correctly denied tax deductions along with his wife for over $1 million in premiums they paid to insurance companies they owned, the government told the Fifth Circuit, saying the captive arrangements didn't qualify as insurance for tax purposes.

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Chicago Hospital Network Strikes Deal In 401(k) Fee Suit

By Grace Elletson

A Chicago-area hospital system has agreed to settle a former worker's proposed class action claiming it failed to secure lower recordkeeping fees for its $1.8 billion retirement plan even when its peers were able to land better deals.

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Philips CPAP Suits Against SoClean Tossed From MDLs

By Mike Curley

A Pennsylvania federal judge has tossed two complaints from Philips RS North America against SoClean Inc. from multidistrict litigation stemming from a CPAP machine recall, saying one would disrupt the wrap-up of the MDL surrounding Philips' products, while the other should not have been filed directly into the SoClean MDL.

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NY Court Affirms $3.1M Verdict Over ER Patient's Stroke

By Y. Peter Kang

A New York appellate panel has upheld a jury's $3.16 million verdict in a suit accusing an emergency room doctor and a Long Island hospital of failing to prevent a man's debilitating stroke, saying the jury's verdict was not excessive and was supported by sufficient evidence.

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Why Letters Of Protection Are Discoverable In Texas PI Suits

Recent Texas Supreme Court opinions and key provisions of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure make letters of protection, in which plaintiff attorneys promise payment to healthcare providers based on jury awards, discoverable — good news for defendants fighting exorbitant damage claims in personal injury cases, says Nathan Vrazel at Munsch Hardt.

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Data Privacy Landscape After Mass. Justices' Wiretap Ruling

In Vita v. New England Baptist Hospital, Massachusetts’ highest court recently ruled that the state’s wiretap law doesn’t prohibit all tracking of website user activity, but major financial and reputational risks remain for businesses that aren't transparent about customer’s web data, says Seth Berman at Nutter.

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Making The Pitch To Grow Your Company's Legal Team

In a compressed economy, convincing the C-suite to invest in additional legal talent can be a herculean task, but a convincing pitch — supported by metrics and cost analyses — may help in-house counsel justify the growth of their team, say Elizabeth Smith and Roger Garceau at Major Lindsey.

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MoFo, Irell Latest Firms To Unveil Competitive Bonuses

By Aebra Coe & Hailey Konnath

Morrison Foerster LLP and litigation boutique Irell & Manella LLP have joined a chorus of firms announcing associate bonuses that meet or exceed the BigLaw standard for associate bonuses this year, with MoFo offering up to $218,200 and Irell handing its lawyers as much as $175,000.

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Podcast

Approach The Bench: What Judges Had To Say This Year

By Cara Bayles

Jurists weighed the benefits of partisan elections, praised innovations in telehearings and worried about the future of the profession in nearly a dozen interviews with Law360 this year.

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Gunster $8.5M Data Breach Deal Needs More Info, Judge Says

By Matt Perez

A Florida federal judge this week denied preliminary approval of an $8.5 million settlement in a data breach class action against Gunster and demanded more information on payouts, the plaintiffs' standing in the case and a historical breakdown of settlement rates.

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NJ Bar's Diversity Plan Isn't Biased, Panel Says

By Tracey Read

A New Jersey state appeals court reversed and remanded on Friday a lower court's ruling that found the state bar association's diversity practices to be an unlawful, discriminatory quota system.

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If Gov't Shuts Down, Judiciary Will Be Funded Until Jan. 10

By Courtney Bublé

If there is a government shutdown, the federal judiciary would be funded at least until Jan. 10, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said Friday.

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Analysis

How Lawyers May Sue The Trump Administration … Again

By Cara Bayles

During the last Trump administration, BigLaw firms challenged White House policies, focusing on immigration, environmental regulations and healthcare. This time around, attorneys could rely on old tools, and some new tactics, to stall the executive branch.

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Biden Exceeds Trump's Record On Judges By One

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Senate confirmed on Friday the last two judicial nominations from President Joe Biden, making his total of lifetime judicial appointments 235, just one over President Donald Trump's 234.

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High Court Bar's Future: Williams & Connolly's Sarah Harris

By Katie Buehler

Sarah M. Harris of Williams & Connolly LLP never planned on being a U.S. Supreme Court advocate, or even an appellate one. She stumbled upon that career path after realizing her initial goal of becoming a national security or government lawyer wasn't the right fit.

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No, Microsoft Isn't Driving DOJ's Google Antitrust Suit: Judge

By Bryan Koenig

A D.C. federal judge pushed back Friday on Google's efforts to paint Microsoft as the true plaintiff in the Justice Department's search monopolization lawsuit, casting doubt during a hearing that Google should get even more information about Microsoft's relationship with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

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Feature

Litigator On The Roof: The Acting, Singing Mass. Solicitor

By Chris Villani

The top appellate lawyer in the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General will be ringing in the new year by performing a comical cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, the latest show in a lengthy side career in music.

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Hagens Berman Settles Suit Over Effexor Deal Atty Fees

By Bryan Koenig

A pharmaceutical reseller's in-house counsel and founder moved Friday to drop a Mississippi federal court breach of contract suit accusing Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP of stiffing him on his share of a $13 million attorney fees award from an antitrust class settlement, citing a resolution to the dispute.

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Q&A

A Judge Reflects: West Wing Call, 'Alford Plea?' Early Exit

By Hayley Fowler

When Chief Judge Louis A. Bledsoe III of the North Carolina Business Court hangs up his robes for the last time on Dec. 31, he'll leave behind a white-hot docket of high-profile cases and a profusion of opinions that helped mold the court into a tribunal fit to rival Delaware's Court of Chancery.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Andrea Keckley

This week's Legal Lions leader comes from the public sector, as federal prosecutors secured a $650 million settlement from McKinsey & Co. to resolve a lawsuit over the consulting giant's role in Purdue Pharma's promotion of OxyContin.

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

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen the University of Southampton sue a drone-maker over the rights to an uncrewed aircraft patent, Importers Service Corp. and its subsidiary ISC Europe take action against a former director who allegedly owes the company over £1.1 million ($1.4 million), and DAC Beachcroft face a fraud claim by a "prolific litigant." 

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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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