Judge Fumes As Live Nation Antitrust Trial Remains In Limbo

By Stewart Bishop

The status of Live Nation Entertainment's antitrust trial and proposed settlement over federal and state government claims of anticompetitive conduct remained up in the air Tuesday amid pushback by several states, while the Manhattan federal judge overseeing the case upbraided the parties for keeping him out of the loop about negotiations.

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Rapper Was Wary Years Before Firing Ex-Manager, Jury Hears

By Lauraann Wood

Chance the Rapper testified Tuesday that he has honored the oral payment arrangement he reached with his former manager but should have terminated their relationship closer to learning that manager tried to cut himself into a business opportunity from which he knew he wouldn't be paid.

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Sippy Cup Patent Verdict Boosted To $6M

By Elliot Weld

An Illinois federal judge awarded $2 million in prejudgment interest to Munchkin Inc. in a case where it had already secured a $3.9 million verdict over infringement of a patent and a design patent for spill-proof cups, but declined to grant its request to boost the award for what Munchkin said was intentional infringement.

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AFSCME Sues Trump Admin Over $600M Health Funding Cuts

By Katherine Smith

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is seeking to block a federal government directive to cancel more than $600 million in public health grants administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, alleging that the directive was issued to target Democratic-led states.

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Juul Says Court Wrongly Revived Wholesaler's Pricing Suit

By Matthew Perlman

Juul Labs and a wholesaler are asking an Illinois federal court to reconsider its revival of a price discrimination case brought by a rival wholesaler over e-cigarette sales, saying the decision was procedurally improper and wrong on the law.

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Judge Nixed Over MAGA Op-Ed Seeks Reinstatement

By Emily Sawicki

A retired Illinois state trial court judge pursuing First Amendment claims against the state Supreme Court after his right-wing opinion column resulted in his removal from a temporary judgeship has moved for immediate reinstatement to the Cook County Circuit Court.

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Justices Advised To Keep Law Clear In 'Skinny Label' Case

By Ryan Davis

Several intellectual property groups have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to use a case involving "skinny labels" on generic drugs to set clear guidelines on what constitutes induced patent infringement, saying the outcome has implications beyond pharmaceuticals.

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Feds Urge End To IRS Wind, Solar Safe Harbor Fight

By Keith Goldberg

The Trump administration has told a D.C. federal judge there's no basis to sustain a lawsuit challenging an IRS notice eliminating a safe harbor test that wind and solar projects could use to qualify for clean energy tax credits.

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Ill. Tax Preparer Gets 10 Years For $14M PPP Loan Fraud

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge's decision to impose a 10-year prison sentence on a man for his role in a $14 million fraud scheme where he took kickbacks for preparing false applications for pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program loans drew surprised outbursts in the courtroom Tuesday from both the defendant and his attorney.

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Salesforce Wins Stay Of Backpage Trafficking Cases In Illinois

By Gina Kim

An Illinois federal judge Tuesday temporarily put on hold litigation accusing Salesforce of benefiting from sex trafficking through advertisements uploaded on Backpage.com after finding that related criminal proceedings against Backpage's founder and former executives must first be resolved.

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Insurers Can't Resume Investor Fight In $220M Coverage Row

By Emily Lever

A Texas appellate court Tuesday rejected two insurance companies' bid to stop a group of shareholders of now-bankrupt Cobalt International Energy from pursuing claims on behalf of thousands of other investors, stymieing the carriers' attempts to curtail a fight over coverage of a $220 million securities settlement.

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Grill Co. Failed To Warn Of Brush Risk, Class Action Says

By Zak Kostro

Grill maker Weber failed to warn U.S. consumers that metal bristles could detach from its grill brushes and cause internal injuries, according to a proposed class action in Illinois federal court that follows a recall of more than 3 million brushes.

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7th Circ. Scraps Mass Counterfeit Suit Based On Screenshots

By Ivan Moreno

A Seventh Circuit panel has vacated a default judgment against a group of online vendors accused of selling counterfeit soap products, finding that the district court wrongly relied on checkout-page screen grabs rather than evidence of actual Illinois sales to assert jurisdiction in the case.

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Morgan Lewis Adds 2 Data Center Pros From Perkins Coie

By Madison Arnold

Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP announced Tuesday that it added two new partners to its national real estate platform from Perkins Coie LLP.

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Ill. Swipe Fee Ruling Sets Stage For A High-Stakes Appeal

In Illinois Bankers Association v. Raoul, an Illinois federal court upheld the state's ban on credit and debit card swipe fees on tax and tip payments, while permanently enjoining the statute's data usage limitation, but an imminent appeal could significantly influence the trajectory of state-level payments regulation, say attorneys at Latham.

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Military Attys In DOJ 'Erodes Democratic Norms,' Ex-JAGs Say

By Lauren Berg

Nearly a dozen former military lawyers raised the alarm about the Trump administration appointing judge advocate officers to U.S. attorneys' offices, urging a Minnesota federal judge Tuesday to bar an Army lawyer from prosecuting a case that accuses a civilian of assaulting federal immigration enforcement agents.

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DOJ Official Faces Ethics Case Over Georgetown DEI Letters

By Alison Knezevich

U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin has been hit with disciplinary charges in the nation's capital over threatening letters he sent to Georgetown University Law Center last year while he was interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.

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Dems Confront Roberts At Wide-Ranging Judiciary Gathering

By Jeff Overley

The federal judiciary's top administrator voiced "serious and urgent concerns" Tuesday regarding threats of retribution against judges, a warning that coincided with a judicial gathering where Democrats discussed security fears and controversial U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

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Prosecutor Resigns, Judge Shows Slide Deck On AI Errors

By Abigail Harrison

A federal prosecutor told a North Carolina federal court Tuesday that he was separating from the office after admitting in open court to using artificial intelligence to help draft a response brief, which he called "the worst decision I've ever made in my 30-year career."

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Calif. Atty Gets Over 11 Years For Solar $1B Ponzi Scheme

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge has sentenced a corporate attorney to 11 years and five months behind bars after he pled guilty to nearly two dozen charges for his role in DC Solar's $912 million Ponzi scheme, which duped major investors including Berkshire Hathaway, Progressive and SunTrust Equipment Finance & Leasing.

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Ex-Moses & Singer Partner Admits Tax Crimes, Will Pay $2.8M

By Aaron Keller

A former Moses & Singer LLP partner admitted to practice in New York and North Carolina courts has pled guilty to three counts of failing to file personal income tax returns and will pay $2.8 million in restitution, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut announced Monday.

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Judiciary Approves Supreme Court Public Defender Office

By Katie Buehler

The federal judiciary approved a new office Tuesday aimed at improving the quality of representation for indigent defendants with cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. 

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DOJ Unveils Superseding Policy For Corporate Criminal Cases

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday released its first-ever, department-wide, corporate enforcement policy for criminal matters, outlining how it will decline to prosecute companies that voluntarily disclose misconduct, cooperate with investigators and remediate wrongdoing.

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DLA Piper Can't Rep Itself At Bias Trial, Fired Atty Says

By Pete Brush

DLA Piper should not be permitted to represent itself at trial in a pregnancy discrimination case brought by a senior associate who was fired in 2022, lawyers for the plaintiff told a Manhattan federal judge.

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Wisconsin Judges Decline To Extend Interim US Atty's Term

By Courtney Bublé

A majority of judges in the Eastern District of Wisconsin have declined to extend the tenure of interim U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel, according to an announcement Tuesday.

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J&J Opposes Beasley Allen Reinstatement Bid In NJ Talc Fight

By Emily Sawicki

Johnson & Johnson is urging the New Jersey Supreme Court to not take the "extraordinary step" of intervening in an appellate panel ruling that disqualified Beasley Allen from representing hundreds of women in product liability litigation against the pharmaceutical giant after the Georgia-based firm "knowingly collaborated" with a former Johnson & Johnson outside counsel.

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