Trump Wants 'Immediate Dismissal' Of NY Hush Money Case

By Frank G. Runyeon

President-elect Donald Trump's legal team told the New York judge who presided over his hush money trial that his conviction should be thrown out due to his "overwhelming victory" at the polls, according to a filing released Wednesday.

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Trump Seeks Dismissal Of Central Park Five Defamation Suit

By P.J. D'Annunzio

President-elect Donald J. Trump has told a Pennsylvania federal judge that a lawsuit brought by the Central Park Five should be dismissed, calling their allegations that he defamed them with comments about their criminal case "meritless" and saying his statements are protected as public expression under the state's anti-SLAPP statute.

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DC Circ. Skeptical Of Texas AG's Bid To Revive X Probe

By Ali Sullivan

A D.C. Circuit panel seemed skeptical Wednesday of the Texas attorney general's claims that Media Matters lacks a valid claim to challenge the state enforcer's investigation into the media watchdog's reporting about the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, but one judge expressed uncertainty about the suit's readiness for judicial review.

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Girardi Pushes For New Trial Over Competency Claims

By Cara Salvatore

Counsel for Tom Girardi told a federal judge the disbarred attorney is plainly mentally incompetent and deserves a new trial over charges he defrauded clients of $15 million worth of settlement money.

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Ex-Fla. Official Says Litigation Privilege Bars Defamation Suit

By Carolina Bolado

A former Florida banking regulator fired because of sexual harassment allegations told the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday that a lawyer's defamation claims against him were barred by the litigation privilege because they are based entirely on claims made in a lawsuit.

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Ga. Judge Cuts Claims From Jail Book Policy Challenge

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia federal judge Tuesday dismissed several claims in a bookstore's lawsuit alleging a Georgia sheriff and jail commander imposed an unlawful policy of only allowing books into the county jail from authorized retailers, only keeping alive claims against the two men in their official capacities.

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MVP: Cravath's Wes Earnhardt

By James Boyle

Wes Earnhardt of Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP's litigation department has represented high-powered media companies such as Walt Disney and Starz Entertainment and successfully argued before the Supreme Court for extended copyright damages, earning him a spot as one of the 2024 Law360 Media & Entertainment MVPs.

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Davis Polk-Led Comcast To Spin Off NBCUniversal TV Assets

By Al Barbarino

Comcast Corp. said Wednesday it plans to spin off a suite of NBCUniversal cable television networks, including the USA Network, CNBC and MSNBC, along with additional digital assets, which generate a combined total $7 billion in annual revenues.  

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5 Charged For 'Scattered Spider' Phishing Hacks, Crypto Theft

By Rachel Scharf

California federal prosecutors unveiled a criminal case Wednesday accusing five alleged members of the "Scattered Spider" cybercrime group of using a phishing scheme to access the confidential data of media and technology companies and steal $11 million worth of cryptocurrency from digital wallets.

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Magnets Akin To Coins As Swallow Risk For Kids, Court Told

By Emily Field

The attorney representing hobbyist and industry groups for magnets told the Tenth Circuit on Wednesday that the dangers of a child swallowing a single magnet aren't any different from a child ingesting other small items like a dime, in an appeal over a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission rule.

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DOJ Urges Chrome, Android Sales In Google Case

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Department of Justice late Wednesday formally asked a Washington, D.C., federal judge to order a range of steps to end Google's monopolization of general search services and the text ads shown alongside search results, most notably by forcing the company to spin off the Chrome browser.

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Apple Says DOJ Case Has Too Much Speculation To Survive

By Bryan Koenig

Apple's attorneys pressed a New Jersey federal judge Wednesday to toss the U.S. Department of Justice's monopolization lawsuit, asserting in oral arguments that the government is simply trying to force them to work with rivals when attacking controls imposed on iPhone app developers.

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Bumble Brass Fumbled App Revamps, Investor Suit Says

By Emilie Ruscoe

Current and former brass of dating app Bumble's parent company face shareholder derivative claims that they projected overconfidence about revamping its app, then saw trading prices crater when Bumble lowered its 2024 growth projections amid the tinkering.

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'Rip And Replace' Woes Underscored By Senate Hearing

By Christopher Cole

A major industry group has again called on lawmakers to address the lack of funding needed to completely remove risky Chinese-made gear from U.S. telecommunications networks.

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Wash. Judge Questions Startup's Amazon Antitrust Claims

By Greg Lamm

A Washington federal judge on Wednesday suggested that antitrust claims might not survive in a startup's complaint against Amazon Web Services involving a dispute over higher-speed internet connections in the Middle East that allowed the startup to cater to its customer Epic Games.

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Ga. Judge Asks 'What's Tortious?' About Talking Bad Loans

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia federal judge appeared inclined Wednesday to hand an early win to a lender who seized two vintage cars from a reality TV personality after she missed her payments on a $300,000 loan, going so far as to suggest she might be better off finding an out-of-court solution to the dispute.

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Election Exit Poll On Native Voting Likely Wrong, Groups Say

By Crystal Owens

An exit poll of Native American voters in this year's presidential election is likely an inaccurate representation of Indigenous communities and perspectives, two nonprofit organizations say, with one group calling for more accurate reporting on issues affecting Indian Country.

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Atty With Tom Brady's Blockchain Co. Rejoins Loeb & Loeb

By Adrian Cruz

Loeb & Loeb LLP has rehired an experienced entertainment attorney who most recently was head of business operations for Tom Brady's blockchain startup Autograph as a partner in the firm's Los Angeles office, the firm announced Wednesday.

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BigLaw Begins Matching Milbank On Associate Bonuses

By Aebra Coe

Following the news Tuesday that Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP will pay associates year-end and special bonuses in line with those handed out by Milbank LLP this year, the firms' peers have begun to respond, with swift matches Wednesday by Paul Hastings LLP and McDermott Will & Emery LLP.

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DOJ Settles With Atty Who Reported Judge's Sexual Misconduct

By Lauren Berg

A former Alaska federal prosecutor who made allegations of sexual misconduct against then-U.S. District Judge Joshua Kindred has reached an undisclosed settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice resolving claims she suffered retaliation for speaking up, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said Wednesday.

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Foley Shouldn't Face Data Breach Claims, Calif. Panel Says

By Dorothy Atkins

A California appellate panel affirmed the dismissal of Accellion Inc.'s cross-complaint against law firm Foley & Lardner LLP in an insurance company's lawsuit claiming the software-maker should be held liable for a $1 million ransomware attack that targeted the law firm, finding that Accellion's cross-claims are untimely.

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Weil Litigation Leaders Jump To Paul Weiss In NY

By Tracey Read

The co-chair of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP's global litigation department and the co-head of Weil's patent litigation practice will soon be joining Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP in New York, the latter firm announced Wednesday.

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Akerman Opens In Charlotte With 2 Moore & Van Allen Hires

By Xiumei Dong

Akerman LLP announced Wednesday the firm opened its second North Carolina office in Charlotte and brought on two new partners from Moore & Van Allen PLLC, including the former head of its renewable energy project finance team and a tax law expert.

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Judiciary Touts Reforms In Handling Workplace Complaints

By Ryan Boysen

The federal judiciary is successfully reforming the controversial process that aims to protect its 30,000 employees from sexual harassment in the workplace, according to a new internal report released Wednesday, even as lawmakers have called for scrapping that process altogether and replacing it with a new one.

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Musk, Ramaswamy Say High Court Rulings OK Federal Cuts

By Lauren Berg

Billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, President-elect Donald Trump's picks to lead a newly created "Department of Government Efficiency," on Wednesday said two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings will give them the authority to cut off power to regulatory agencies and conduct massive federal layoffs.

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House Dem Proposes Vote Forcing Release Of Gaetz Report

By Hailey Konnath

U.S. Rep. Sean Casten on Wednesday introduced a resolution that would require the House of Representatives to vote on whether the House Ethics Committee must release its report on the allegations against former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a proposal unveiled the same day the ethics committee failed to reach a consensus.

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Fed. Judges Still Seek New Bench Seats Amid Dems' Loss

By Courtney Bublé

The Federal Judges Association is urging the House to pass the bipartisan bill that would expand the federal courts in order to meet rising caseloads, even as the Biden administration appears to be cooling on the idea it once supported.

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Calif. Judicial Nominee Asked About Race, Parenting Writings

By Courtney Bublé

A California judicial nominee's previous writing about the murder of George Floyd in 2020, which sparked a national reckoning on race, was the subject of debate during a Senate nomination hearing on Wednesday.

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Washington State, DC District Court Picks Secure Seats

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate on Wednesday voted 50-48 to confirm Washington Court of Appeals Judge Rebecca L. Pennell to the Eastern District of Washington and 50-49 to confirm Amir Ali, former president and executive director of the MacArthur Justice Center and co-director of the Criminal Justice Appellate Clinic at Harvard Law School, to the District of Columbia.

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