Buyer Class Of Surgical Robots Is Certified In Antitrust Fight

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge on Monday certified a class of thousands of hospitals alleging Intuitive Surgical monopolized the market for robotic surgical tools by blocking third-party repairs and tying services to robot purchases, finding the case raises common antitrust questions that can be resolved on a classwide basis.

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FTC Chair Flags Data Risks In 23andMe Bankruptcy

By Allison Grande

The Federal Trade Commission has added to the swell of privacy and security concerns surrounding the potential sale of sensitive consumer information swept up in the 23andMe bankruptcy, with the agency's Republican chair on Monday stressing the importance of data continuing to be protected in the way that users have been promised. 

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J&J Talc Spinoff's Ch. 11 Case Gets Tossed, Erasing $9B Deal

By Alex Wittenberg

A Texas bankruptcy judge rejected Johnson & Johnson's third attempt to use Chapter 11 to settle thousands of claims that its products caused cancer, dismissing J&J unit Red River Talc's Chapter 11 case on Monday and throwing out a roughly $9 billion bankruptcy deal over issues with the company's voting procedures and third-party releases.

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Texas Judge Deems Lab-Test Rule Outside FDA Authority

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Texas federal judge on Monday vacated a new U.S. Food and Drug Administration rule that would have brought lab-developed tests under its regulatory authority as "medical devices," finding that the move exceeded the agency's statutory authority and defied "common sense."

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DocGo Can't Nix Investor Suit Over 'Indisputably False' Claims

By Dorothy Atkins

A New York federal judge has trimmed a proposed class action alleging that mobile medical provider DocGo and its top brass misled stockholders before its $432 million migrant-services contract with New York City faced public scrutiny, but the judge found that claims stemming from the former CEO's "indisputably false" statements can proceed.

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Analysis

DOJ Seeking Steep Costs To Make Challengers Think Twice

By Jeff Overley

The U.S. Department of Justice is quickly implementing President Donald Trump's plan to seek huge sums of money from litigants whose cases impede his agenda but ultimately prove unsuccessful, court records show.

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Analysis

Nasdaq's Tighter IPO Rules Raise Bar For Small Companies

By Tom Zanki

Nasdaq is seeking to weed out volatile stocks by tightening listing standards for small companies conducting initial public offerings or uplistings, although lawyers caution that new rules could prompt capital-hungry companies to pursue other listing strategies, including reverse mergers.

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'Unprofessional' Pro Se Atty Can't Get 2nd Extortion Trial

By Elliot Weld

A medical malpractice attorney was denied a new trial by a Maryland federal judge who said prosecutors presented sufficient evidence that he tried to extort $25 million from the University of Maryland Medical System, and called out the lawyer for "inappropriate, unprofessional, and unbecoming" behavior while representing himself at trial.

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Cuomo Defeats Suit Over NY Nursing Home COVID-19 Deaths

By Rachel Scharf

A New York federal judge threw out on Monday a proposed class action blaming former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other Empire State officials for COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, saying the claims are legally deficient and "the court's sympathy for plaintiffs and their loved ones simply cannot supplant governing law."

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Apple Beats Suit From Actor Who Refused COVID Shot

By Hailey Konnath

A California appellate court held Friday that Apple Studios had the right to pull an offer for actor Brent Sexton after he refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19, ruling that a lower court should've thrown out the actor's suit.

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Justices Decline Chance To Clarify Medical Pot Protections

By Sam Reisman

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal arguing that congressional spending legislation bars federal prosecutors from bringing cases against state-compliant medical marijuana operations.

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Alcoa Retirees, Unions Win Block On Health Benefits Cutoff

By Beverly Banks

Aluminum producer Alcoa USA Corp. must provide lifetime healthcare benefits to a group of retirees who were represented by unions, an Indiana federal judge ruled, greenlighting an injunction that allows class members to retroactively seek payments for costs.

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US Steel Beats Fired Medical Pot Patient's Fed. ADA Fight

By Dorothy Atkins

A Pennsylvania federal judge on Friday granted U.S. Steel summary judgment on a medical cannabis patient's Americans with Disabilities Act claims in a lawsuit alleging the steel giant wrongfully fired him for his medical marijuana license and off-the-job marijuana use.

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EMS Workers Get Nothing In Wage Suit Against NC County

By Emmy Freedman

A North Carolina county violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by underpaying emergency medical services workers during certain pay periods, but the workers are not entitled to any extra money because they were overpaid at other times, a federal judge determined Monday.

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Doc Loses Redo On Claims Hospital Lies Fueled Murder Case

By Danielle Ferguson

A Michigan federal judge has dismissed a former Ohio physician's second attempt at suing the parent company of his ex-employer on allegations it fed prosecutors lies about his opioid prescribing practices that led to him being charged with 25 counts of murder, saying the lawsuit didn't fix the gaps left in the first case.

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Federal Worker Union Challenges Trump Order Gutting CBAs

By Rachel Scharf

The National Treasury Employees Union sued on Monday to block portions of President Donald Trump's recent executive order ending collective bargaining at a number of federal agencies where its members work, saying the directive amounts to unlawful "political retribution" for the union's legal advocacy against Trump's agenda.

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Pierson Ferdinand Adds Taylor English Health Pro In Atlanta

By Rose Krebs

Pierson Ferdinand LLP announced Monday that it has hired a former Taylor English Duma LLP partner who specializes in mergers and acquisitions and also has sleep medicine expertise to strengthen its healthcare practice.

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Ex-Blood Bank Atty Goes Back To Ballard Spahr In Phoenix

By Andrew Karpan

Ballard Spahr LLP has picked up a former in-house intellectual property lawyer from nonprofit blood bank Vitalant who had worked at the law firm a little over a decade ago.

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Firms Must Embrace Alternative Billing Models Or Fall Behind

As artificial intelligence tools eliminate inefficiencies and the Big Four accounting firms enter the legal market, law firms that pivot from the entrenched billable hour model to outcomes-based pricing will see a distinct competitive advantage, says attorney William Brewer.

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Trump EOs And Skadden Face Pushback At Law Schools

By Emma Cueto

President Donald Trump's executive orders targeting law firms, and one firm's attempt to avoid a directive, have each received pushback at top law schools, with more than 90 Harvard faculty members objecting to the measures' effect on the rule of law and Georgetown students blasting Skadden's deal with Trump as a second firm associate publicly resigned.

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US DOT Taps Quinn Emanuel To Probe FAA Diversity Hiring

By Linda Chiem

The U.S. Department of Transportation said Monday that it has hired Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP to investigate claims that the Federal Aviation Administration is continuing to prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion when hiring air traffic controllers in defiance of the Trump administration's sweeping anti-DEI policy.

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Ex-Sen. Sinema Joins Hogan Lovells' Regulatory Group

By Jack Rodgers

Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who made headlines by changing her party affiliation from Democrat to independent in 2022, will join Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C., as a senior adviser in its global regulatory and intellectual property practice groups, the firm announced Monday.

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Cleary Gains 5-Atty Latham Team Known For Big IP Wins

By Andrea Keckley

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP has welcomed a bi-coastal team of five intellectual property litigators from Latham & Watkins LLP, lauding their history leading "many of the most high-profile and complex patent and trade secrets cases of the last decade" in a statement Monday.

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Feds Seek 10 Years For Ex-Girardi CFO's 'Brazen' Crimes

By Elliot Weld

Los Angeles federal prosecutors said Girardi Keese's former head of accounting should spend 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to assisting Tom Girardi in siphoning clients' settlement funds and what the government called a "brazen" side fraud to steal from the firm's operating accounts.

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Ex-CFTC Enforcement Chief Joins Sidley As Partner

By Gina Kim

Ian McGinley, who served as the enforcement director for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has joined Sidley Austin as a partner at its New York office, where he will be handling regulatory enforcement and white-collar matters with a focus on commodities and securities laws, the firm said Monday.

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Eric Adams Urges Speedy Dismissal As NYC Primaries Loom

By Frank G. Runyeon

New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Monday urged a Manhattan federal judge to promptly throw out his bribery and corruption charges, pointing to an upcoming mayoral election filing deadline and the court's previous vows to rule quickly.

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Shook Hardy Practice Leader To Stand In As Chicago US Atty

By Lauraann Wood

One of Chicago firm Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP's government investigations and white-collar practice chairs is headed back to the U.S. attorney's office, this time as northern Illinois' next top prosecutor, after spending about a decade in private practice serving in leading white collar roles.

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Trump Admin Asks DC Circ. To Stay 'Lawless' CFPB Injunction

By Jon Hill

The Trump administration moved Monday to thwart a Washington, D.C., federal judge's preliminary injunction that bars it from stopping work and firing employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, asking the D.C. Circuit for an emergency stay.

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Faegre Drinker Fights Sanctions Bid In Trump IP Song Suit

By Rose Krebs

Conservative group Turning Point Action Inc. is urging a Georgia federal judge not to sanction its Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP counsel in a copyright suit filed by the estate of soul artist Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. over President Donald Trump playing his song "Hold On, I'm Comin'," disputing claims they submitted a "frivolous" dismissal bid.

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House To Vote On Bill To Curb Nationwide Injunctions

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. House of Representatives is one step closer to voting this week on a bill to curb nationwide injunctions, which Republicans are championing in the wake of federal judges ruling against many of the Trump administration's policies on immigration, government funding, the federal workforce and other areas.

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Law Firm's Blog Post Unwinds $43M Ill. Injury Retrial Verdict

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois appellate court wiped out a couple's $43 million jury verdict and ordered a third trial in their injury case Monday, saying the trial judge should have done a better job probing their attorney's highly improper blog and social media posts.

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Trump Names 3 US Atty Picks For Idaho, Iowa, South Dakota

By Lauren Berg

President Donald Trump on Monday announced his picks for three U.S. attorney positions, including two familiar faces returning to Idaho and South Dakota.

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