Court Tosses Constitutional Challenge To Pot Prohibition

By Sam Reisman

A Massachusetts federal judge on Monday granted the U.S. Department of Justice's bid to dismiss a constitutional challenge to federal marijuana prohibition, delivering a blow to an effort brought by a group of cannabis companies represented by litigator David Boies.

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Feds Say Ex-Magellan Officer's Atty May Have Conflict

By Julie Manganis

A Donnelly Conroy & Gelhaar LLP attorney's prior representation of co-defendants in a pending fraud case against former executives of medical device company Magellan Diagnostics may have created a disqualifying conflict of interest, lawyers for the government told a Massachusetts federal judge.

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Analysis

What To Know: The High Court's Ruling On Social Media Regs

By Hannah Albarazi

Rather than settling a circuit split over state laws curbing content moderation on the largest social media platforms, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday remanded the cases — a decision many attorneys and First Amendment experts are viewing as a win for free speech online.

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Social Media Laws Need More Analysis, Justices Say

By Ali Sullivan and Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday returned to the lower courts challenges to Florida and Texas laws prohibiting social media platforms from removing content or users based on viewpoint, saying that the Fifth and Eleventh circuits did not conduct the proper analysis on the facial First Amendment challenges to the laws.

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Pegasystems Investors Sue After $2B Trade Secrets Verdict

By Julie Manganis

A pair of Pegasystems Inc. stockholders are seeking to hold its CEO and other officers liable for lost value following a $2 billion judgment against the company in a trade secrets case, according to a shareholder derivative complaint filed in Massachusetts state court.

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EPA Inks Deal To Take Action On States' Haze Plans

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to take action on plan revisions submitted by more than 30 states aimed at curbing haze-forming air pollution, resolving environmental groups' claims the agency has unlawfully delayed approving or denying the various plan revisions.

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Brief

AbbVie Hit With Age, Gender Bias Suit By Former Salesman

By Julie Manganis

AbbVie Inc. fired a regional sales director as a pretext to avoid paying him for stock options and because of retaliatory complaints by two women who had received poor performance reviews, according to a suit filed in Massachusetts state court.

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GM Says No Warranty Breach Over Alleged Parking Defect

By Danielle Ferguson

General Motors LLC has asked a Michigan federal judge to toss a proposed class action alleging it sold vehicles that can't detect when they're in park, forcing drivers to resort to "gimmicks" to shut them off, saying drivers haven't shown the alleged defect is dangerous or that GM knew about it when it sold the vehicles.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Leslie A. Pappas

Two multimillion-dollar settlement approvals, a $25 million fee-shifting demand, and a biotech merger spoiled by murder: This was just the beginning of the drama last week in the nation's preeminent court of equity. Shareholders in satellite companies filed new cases, a cannabis company headed toward trial, and there were new developments in old disputes involving Tesla and Truth Social.

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Opinion

Atty Well-Being Efforts Ignore Root Causes Of The Problem

The legal industry is engaged in a critical conversation about lawyers' mental health, but current attorney well-being programs primarily focus on helping lawyers cope with the stress of excessive workloads, instead of examining whether this work culture is even fundamentally compatible with lawyer well-being, says Jonathan Baum at Avenir Guild.

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Trump's NY Sentencing Pushed To Sept. After Immunity Ruling

By Frank G. Runyeon

A New York judge on Tuesday delayed Donald Trump's criminal sentencing from July 11 until Sept. 18 to give prosecutors and the former president's attorneys time to argue over whether the U.S. Supreme Court's immunity decision vacates his conviction.

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Giuliani Disbarred In New York Over Election Falsehoods

By Alex Wittenberg

A New York appellate court Tuesday barred Rudolph Giuliani from practicing law in New York, citing ample evidence that the former New York City mayor made repeated false statements about the 2020 presidential election.

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Bond-Rigging Suit Revived Over Judge's Wife's Stock Conflict

By Katryna Perera

The Second Circuit on Tuesday revived a proposed class action accusing big banks of rigging corporate bonds, ruling that the New York federal judge who previously dismissed the suit should have recused himself due to his wife's ownership of Bank of America stock.

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Ex-Bankruptcy Judge Will Be Deposed Over Atty Romance

By Ryan Boysen

The former Texas bankruptcy judge whose secret relationship with a Jackson Walker LLP attorney ignited a major judicial ethics scandal has agreed to sit for a seven-hour deposition to answer questions about the episode.

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Ex-Senior Apple Atty To Pay SEC $1.1M For Insider Trading

By Gina Kim

Apple's former director of corporate law must pay $1.1 million to securities regulators stemming from criminal insider trading charges to which he pled guilty in 2022, a New Jersey federal judge said Tuesday, finding that his "egregious" violations warrant the penalty since "his very job" was to ensure compliance with securities laws.

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Northwestern Hires 'Mediocre' Minorities Over Men, Suit Says

By Lauren Berg

Northwestern University's law school favors hiring women and minority faculty candidates with "mediocre and undistinguished records" over better-credentialed white men, a conservative group claims in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Chicago federal court, a year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in higher education admissions.

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Armstrong Teasdale Pulls Back From SLC As 7 Join Dentons

By Andrea Keckley

Armstrong Teasdale LLP told Law360 Pulse on Tuesday that it plans to redirect resources from Salt Lake City, saying it is "not the right time for us to be there" after a Dentons member firm announced the day prior that it had hired seven of Armstrong Teasdale's Utah-based litigators.

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After Fischer, Judge Releases Atty Convicted In Jan. 6 Riot

By Brandon Lowrey

A D.C. federal judge ordered the release of a Georgia attorney imprisoned for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, saying his pending appeal would likely result in his freedom after the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed an obstruction of Congress law used to convict him and others involved in the assault.

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YSL Judge Shares Transcript Of Secret Witness Meeting

By Kelcey Caulder

The transcript of a secret meeting involving Fulton County prosecutors, a key state's witness and the judge overseeing the Young Slime Life case was released Monday, shortly after it was announced that proceedings in the case would be paused until an outside judge reviews motions for the judge's recusal.

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Pa. Clerk Named After Departures Spur 'Judicial Emergency'

By James Boyle

Dauphin County, Pennsylvania's president judge has selected an interim clerk of courts to take over the office's duties following last week's sudden resignation of the elected clerk and the Supreme Court's declaration of a judicial emergency.

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Depo Gets Dad Ousted From Sesame Place Race Bias Case

By Matthew Santoni

The father of a child who was allegedly snubbed by costumed performers at a Pennsylvania theme park has been removed from consolidated race bias litigation after plaintiffs' counsel said the father had lied during a deposition, with a Pennsylvania federal judge on Tuesday granting a bid by other families to sever their case from his.

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Dentons Says Ex-Client Can't Escape $4.7M Fee Suit In Texas

By Emily Johnson

International law firm Dentons Europe CS LLP urged a Texas federal court Tuesday to keep alive its suit accusing a Houston-area crisis response business of failing to pay more than $4.7 million in legal fees and said the correct venue was Texas, not England, as the business has argued.

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DLA Piper Tells Judge Fired Associate Got Proper Discovery

By Pete Brush

Counsel for DLA Piper LLP told a Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday the firm has provided responsive information to a former associate who claims she was unlawfully fired while pregnant, adding it is confident her termination was lawful.

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