Alito-Trump Phone Call Sparks Unanswered Calls For Recusal

By Katie Buehler

Democratic lawmakers' calls for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to recuse from considering Donald Trump's bid to stay sentencing in his New York hush money case due to a phone call the pair had shortly before the emergency application was filed went unaddressed Thursday.

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Top Oversight Dem Seeks Report On Trump Classified Docs

By Emily Sawicki

The top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Thursday asked the U.S. Department of Justice for a look at the special counsel report on former President Donald Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents, days after a federal court blocked its publication.

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CFPB Bars Ex-Agency Attys From Revived Innovation Policies

By Sarah Jarvis

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has said it will not consider applications for its rebooted no-action letter and compliance sandbox policies when those applications are submitted by financial service companies represented by former bureau attorneys as outside counsel.

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Law Firm Cleared, Murdaugh Pal Liable In Insurance Trial

By Cara Salvatore

A federal jury in South Carolina has found that a lawyer tied to Alex Murdaugh owes insurer Nautilus over $1 million for a role in an insurance fraud that was perpetrated when Murdaugh's housekeeper died, while a law firm was cleared of liability.

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Arkansas Justices At Odds Over Chief's Bid To Revive Firings

By Lynn LaRowe

Members of the Arkansas Supreme Court are at an impasse over the chief justice's attempt to fire 10 state court employees after her fellow justices blocked the move, with her issuing an order to vacate their ruling and them saying her order is a mere dissent with no effect.

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Supreme Court Declines To Halt Trump's NY Sentencing

By Frank G. Runyeon

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday denied Donald Trump's request to halt New York criminal proceedings in his hush money case, clearing the way for a state judge to sentence the president-elect on Friday, days before he takes the oath of office.

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Suspended Atty Seeks To Avoid Prison Over Payroll Tax Fraud

By Anna Scott Farrell

A suspended Ohio attorney who managed his wife's dental practice and admitted causing a $750,000 tax loss by failing to pay over employment taxes asked a federal court Thursday to spare him a prison sentence, saying he is not the "greedy liar" depicted by federal prosecutors.

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Alec Baldwin Sues New Mexico Prosecutors For Rust Charges

By Hailey Konnath

Actor-producer Alec Baldwin on Thursday accused the Santa Fe, New Mexico, district attorney, two special prosecutors and other local officials of mishandling evidence, defaming him and maliciously abusing the judicial process in their unsuccessful pursuit of charges against him in the wake of the fatal shooting on the "Rust" set.

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Atty Survives Ex-Young Conaway Coworker's Assault Claim

By Adrian Cruz

A Pennsylvania federal judge said Thursday that a former Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP attorney's assault claim against a onetime colleague at the firm is unviable because substantial proof exists to show that the actions in question were done to defend another person.

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NJ Firm Accused Of Malpractice Hid Facts, Insurer Says

By Elizabeth Daley

An insurer has told a New Jersey federal court that a law firm it insured had no coverage for malpractice allegations because it knew its attorney was accused of bilking a man's heirs out of estate assets years before the firm was sued for wrongdoing, but never told the insurer.

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Judge Nixes Bid To Depose SEC Counsel In $73M Fraud Case

By George Woolston

A New Jersey federal magistrate judge has denied a credit reporting agency's bid to depose four U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorneys and to compel the production of their witness interview notes in a civil enforcement action over an alleged $73 million fraud, ruling the information sought is protected by the work-product doctrine.

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Ex-Knick Wants MSG Sanctioned Over Lost Emails

By Elliot Weld

Former New York Knicks player Charles Oakley informed a Manhattan federal judge he intends to seek sanctions over a set of lost emails involving a group of Madison Square Garden employees that he alleges assaulted him when he was ejected as a spectator from a 2017 game.

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Tribe's Atty Looks To Ax Remaining Claims In $14.6M Suit

By Joyce Hanson

An attorney who has represented the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma as general counsel has asked a federal judge in a $14.6 million racketeering and breach of contract dispute against a computer management company to toss the case or pause it pending a circuit court appeal.

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Pharma Co. Says Ex-CEO's Bias Allegations Come Up Short

By Caroline Simson

Canadian biopharmaceutical company FSD Pharma Inc. is urging the Third Circuit to affirm the enforcement of a $2 million arbitral award against its ex-CEO, arguing Wednesday that the former executive's allegations of bias against the arbitrator have already been rejected.

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E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Custodian Selection

Several recent rulings make clear that the proportionality of additional proposed custodians will depend on whether the custodians have unique relevant documents, and producing parties should consider whether information already in the record will show that they have relevant documents that otherwise might not be produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

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As Lawyers Face Wildfire Losses In LA, Firms Step Up To Help

By Jake Maher

Amid the tragedy of losing their homes to the wildfires engulfing Los Angeles, attorneys have found hope in the support of their firms and colleagues.

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US Legal Sector Sheds 1,200 Jobs In December

By Xiumei Dong

After three months of steady recovery, the U.S. legal sector's job growth reversed course in December, with a loss of 1,200 positions, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday.

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Bonus Spotlight

Goodwin Procter Extends Bonus Season With Milbank Match

By Tracey Read

The 2024 bonus season has trickled into January, with Goodwin Procter LLP announcing it will give associates year-end and special bonuses matching those given by other BigLaw firms, Law360 Pulse confirmed Friday.

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Former SDNY US Atty Williams Returns To Paul Weiss

By Anna Sanders

Damian Williams is rejoining Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP after four years as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York under President Joe Biden, the firm announced Friday.

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Trump Avoids Jail As Judge Points To Presidential Status

By Frank Runyeon and Stewart Bishop

A New York state judge on Friday spared President-elect Donald Trump any incarceration for his 34-count felony hush money conviction, citing the changed legal landscape, which affords the chief executive with "extraordinary legal protections."

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Feds Want 16 Mos. For Oath Keepers' Atty In Jan. 6 Case

By Lauren Berg

A former attorney for the far-right Oath Keepers group should be sentenced to 16 months in prison for her participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, prosecutors have told a D.C. federal judge, saying her conduct and lack of remorse warrants a significant sentence.

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Justices Seem Inclined To Uphold TikTok Sale-Or-Ban Law

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court seemed likely Friday to uphold a law requiring TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company over national security concerns or face a nationwide ban, despite some justices expressing concern over the law's impact on the free speech rights of Americans who use the wildly popular social media platform.

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Sen. Durbin Questions Trump AG Nominee's Lobbying

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, pressed federal agencies Friday to provide information on President-elect Donald Trump's attorney general nominee's past role as a foreign lobbyist ahead of her confirmation hearings next week due to concerns about possible conflicts of interest.

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Smith Appeals Injunction On Release Of Trump Report

By Carolina Bolado

Special counsel Jack Smith has notified the Eleventh Circuit that he is appealing a temporary injunction blocking the release of his final report on his investigations into President-elect Donald Trump for election meddling and retention of classified documents.

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Ga. Law Firm Latest To Fight Corporate Transparency Act

By David Hansen

A federal law designed to combat money laundering violates the U.S. Constitution by forcing lawyers to disregard attorney-client privilege, a Georgia lawyer told a federal court, joining a chorus seeking legal action to stop the law.

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Wright Must Detail $108M Damages Claim Against Accusers

By Aebra Coe

Joshua Wright, a former commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, must reappear for a deposition to answer previously unanswered questions posed by two women he's suing for defamation on the details of his $108 million damages claim against them, a Virginia judge ruled Friday.

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New York To Administer NCBE's NextGen Bar Exam In 2028

By Matt Perez

New York's highest court has announced the jurisdiction will adopt the Next Generation bar exam developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners beginning July 2028.

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Litigation Funder Forms New Biz To Oversee Group Claims

By Tabitha Burbidge

Litigation funder Asertis confirmed Friday it has joined forces with law firm KP Law PC to create a one-stop shop for managing legal claims through a unique platform that offers funding, litigating and insuring services.

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Colorado Conduct Panel Dings Judges For Disclosure Lapses

By Greg Lamm

A Colorado judicial commission on Friday criticized 48 judges for failing to file state-mandated personal financial disclosure reports in 2023, saying the lapses "cast a shadow" over the state's judiciary but did not warrant public discipline because no judges were dishonest or improperly secretive.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Sive Paget & Riesel PC and Kaplan Martin LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions after the Third Circuit denied an emergency motion for an injunction to halt New York City's highly litigated congestion pricing toll program.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

A new report from a national group declares that general counsel and their corporate boards face five key dilemmas in 2025, thanks to the nation's chaotic and rapidly changing times. And in sports broadcasting, Disney and two other media companies have settled Fubo's lawsuit against their joint streaming venture, which they agreed to end.

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

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen legal services group RBG Holdings face a winding-up petition from founder Ian Rosenblatt amid soured talks about the group's leadership, J.P. Morgan file a fresh claim against WeRealize, retailer Asda face an intellectual property claim over a specific type of mandarin and financier Nathaniel Rothschild sue German entrepreneur Lars Windhorst and his investment vehicle Tennor International. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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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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