J&J Talc Spinoff Wraps Two-Week Chapter 11 Trial

By Clara Geoghegan

A marathon Chapter 11 trial for Johnson & Johnson's talc liability unit wrapped up Friday, with attorneys defending the $10 billion plan against competing efforts to toss the Texas bankruptcy.

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Fla. Justices Say Atty Broke Rules With Nonviable Engle Suits

By Mike Curley

The Florida Supreme Court has found an attorney guilty of violating court rules by filing baseless Engle progeny suits and failing to properly communicate with his clients, and told a referee to determine the appropriate sanction.

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Up Next At High Court: Gun Violence Liability & Nuclear Waste

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will return to the bench Monday to consider Mexico's attempt to hold gun manufacturers and distributors liable for cartel-related gun violence and a nuclear waste site dispute that could determine who can challenge future agency actions.

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Frontier Communications Must Face Suit Over Woman's Death

By Aaron Keller

Frontier Communications of America Inc. must face a lawsuit by the estate of an elderly Connecticut woman who fell in her basement and could not call 911 because her phone lines were down, a Putnam trial court judge has ruled.

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Sterilization Plant Head 'Shocked' By EPA Cancer Risk Report

By Thy Vo

The former manager of a Colorado medical sterilization plant testified Friday that he was "shocked" by a 2018 Environmental Protection Agency report that identified the area around the facility as having an increased cancer risk, telling a jury that no regulatory agency until that point had informed him a sterilization chemical might be a risk to the community.

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Litigant Funding Co. Has No Claim To NFL Concussion Deal

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A special master overseeing the NFL's concussion settlement fund told a Pennsylvania federal court in a filing made public Friday that a company that funds litigants' healthcare expenses was correctly denied money from the fund because the rights assigned to it by former players' doctors counted as "prohibited assignments," not the liens the company claimed they were.

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Ga. Can Cap Wrongful Death Damages, US Chamber Says

By Chart Riggall

The U.S. and Georgia chambers of Commerce have urged the Supreme Court of Georgia to find that its 2010 decision striking down a $350,000 cap on noneconomic medical malpractice damages as unconstitutional should not prevent the court from allowing a similar cap in wrongful death claims.

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Calif. Justices Revive Yacht Club Worker's Injury Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

The California Supreme Court has revived a suit brought by a yacht club maintenance worker seeking to hold his employer liable for his workplace injuries under federal maritime law, saying the law preempts California's workers' compensation statute.

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Galaxy Gas Hides A Dangerous Buzz, Class Action Says

By Chart Riggall

Galaxy Gas, the maker of a popular line of flavored nitrous oxide dispensers, was hit with a putative class action Friday accusing the company of pushing a commonly abused, addictive, dangerous, and perfectly legal recreational drug under the guise of a "culinary tool."

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Ex-Iranian Intel Official Accused Of Torture In Fla. Suit

By David Minsky

A former top Iranian intelligence official was accused of human rights abuses in a Florida federal lawsuit brought by three California men, alleging he played a major role in maintaining the deposed shah's repressive regime through the arrest, mass torture and imprisonment of perceived political dissidents.

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Ex-USF Ballplayers In Uphill Battle For Sex Harassment Cert.

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal magistrate judge said Friday she is unlikely to certify a class of potentially hundreds of ex-University of San Francisco baseball players in a case alleging that former coaches created a sexually abusive environment, but agreed to hold her decision to review additional information on the claims.

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Off The Bench

Off The Bench: Trans Ban Recusal Bid, Wemby Spat, Fox Suit

By Alex Lawson

In this week's Off The Bench, a Colorado federal judge won't recuse himself from a case centering on a transgender athlete over his pronoun use, the sale of a high-profile Victor Wembanyama jersey will go forward despite feverish litigation and a sprawling harassment suit against Fox Sports is shuffled from federal to state court.

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11th Circ. Asked To Revive Defect Claims In Tesla Crash Suit

By Carolina Bolado

The father of a teenager killed in a Tesla crash asked the Eleventh Circuit on Friday to revive his battery defect claims against the electric car maker, arguing that the lower court should have allowed them to go to a jury.

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Insurer Says No Coverage For Lil Baby Video Shooting Suit

By Hope Patti

An insurer said it has no duty to defend or indemnify a security contractor accused of failing to provide adequate services after a shooting broke out during the filming of a music video for rapper Lil Baby, telling a Georgia federal court a number of exclusions bar coverage.

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Liberty Says Travelers Must Cover Builder In NYU Injury Suit

By Hope Patti

Travelers insurers must provide additional insured coverage to a construction company in an underlying personal injury suit by a New York University engineer, a Liberty Mutual unit told a Connecticut federal court, saying a subcontract agreement required the other carriers to cover the company on a primary and noncontributory basis.

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DA Eyes Type Of Weinstein Evidence That Sank 1st Verdict

By Cara Salvatore

Manhattan prosecutors preparing to retry Harvey Weinstein want a jury to hear about alleged sexual assaults by the jailed Hollywood mogul that are not part of his indictment — the same kind of testimony that doomed his original conviction on appeal.

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Roc Nation Aims To Get Out Of Buzbee Conspiracy Suit

By Ryan Boysen

Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter's company Roc Nation has asked a Texas federal court to let it exit a lawsuit that claims Roc Nation conspired to "finance" malpractice suits against attorney Tony Buzbee in retaliation for an abortive lawsuit Buzbee filed accusing the rap star of rape.

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Michigan Justices Spurn Live Nation Campers' Death Case

By Carolyn Muyskens

Concert promoter Live Nation cemented its escape from allegations that lax oversight of a music festival campground led to three festival attendees dying of carbon monoxide poisoning, as Michigan's highest court rejected the families' appeal Friday.

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Analysis

Presidents v. Courts: Lincoln, Trump & Judicial Power Limits

By Jeff Overley

Amid fears of President Donald Trump disobeying judges with impunity, debate has focused on famous instances of officials defying the U.S. Supreme Court. But some of the clearest insights into America's handling of White House disregard for courts exist in relatively obscure cases from the Civil War era, when unprecedented presidential actions provoked extraordinary responses from the judiciary — and underscored the limits of its powers.

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NYC Bar Slams Trump's Order On Covington Attys

By Emily Sawicki

The New York City Bar Association has joined the chorus of legal groups decrying President Donald Trump's order suspending security clearances held by Covington & Burling LLP attorneys representing former special counsel Jack Smith, calling it an "improper use of government power."

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Ex-Commerce Official To Chair Gibson Dunn Sanctions Group

By James Mills

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP is creating a new sanctions and export enforcement practice group and bringing in a former U.S. Commerce Department official as a partner in its Washington, D.C. office to lead it.

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Ex-White House Cyber Pro Joins Sidley As DC Privacy Partner

By Tracey Read

The former chief of staff at the White House Office of the National Cyber Director has returned to the private sector as a Sidley Austin LLP privacy and cybersecurity practice partner in Washington, the firm said Thursday.

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WH Appeals After Watchdog Chief Is Permanently Reinstalled

By Ali Sullivan

A D.C. federal judge ruled Saturday that President Donald Trump's firing of the head of the Office of Special Counsel was illegal, finding that the federal employment watchdog can only be ousted for cause.

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Dems Claim DOJ Atty's 'Quid Pro Quo' Violated Ethics Rules

By Dorothy Atkins

Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee senior members lodged ethics complaints against acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, accusing the recently appointed Bove of violating ethics rules by allegedly pushing prosecutors to drop criminal bribery charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams in a "quid pro quo" deal with President Donald Trump.

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Group Blasts Judge's Call For Women In Contraception MDL

By Carolina Bolado

A judicial organization dedicated to fighting "leftist lawfare" filed a complaint Thursday against the Florida federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation over the hormonal contraceptive drug Depo-Provera, claiming that her comments about women needing to be represented in the MDL leadership show an impermissible bias.

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GOP Rep. Reintroduces The JUDGES Act

By Courtney Bublé

The chair of the House Judiciary Committee's courts panel has reintroduced a bill to create 66 new and temporary federal judgeships, which former President Joe Biden vetoed at the end of last year.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

While many companies are removing diversity language from their public websites, a new survey shows that about half of its respondents do not plan on changing their DEI programs. And the general counsel for the new Tiger Woods/Rory McIlroy golf league talked about his love of the sport and the legal work involved in the new venture.

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

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen the billionaire Zakay brothers, founders of Topland Group, become embroiled in a legal dispute with each other, Unilever sue three major perfume companies over alleged illegal price-fixing, and the publisher of Vogue magazine file an intellectual property suit against Cornucopia Events. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP and Kontnik Cohen LLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court held that cases dismissed voluntarily can later be eligible for special judicial relief and reopening, even if a statute of limitations would typically block the lawsuit.

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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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