A bipartisan coalition of states on Thursday announced a $7.4 billion settlement in principle with the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma Inc., representing the largest settlement to date with the family accused of contributing significantly to the opioid epidemic.
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SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 2025 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

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15 States Reach $7.4B Settlement With Sackler Family

By Spencer Brewer and Frank G. Runyeon

A bipartisan coalition of states on Thursday announced a $7.4 billion settlement in principle with the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma Inc., representing the largest settlement to date with the family accused of contributing significantly to the opioid epidemic.

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Atty Hit With TCPA Class Action Over Camp Lejeune Calls

By Jonathan Capriel

A North Carolina plaintiffs firm was hit with a proposed class action accusing it of making unsolicited calls to a number on the National Do Not Call Registry in an effort to secure a client in the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune toxic drinking water case — at least the fourth firm to face similar claims.

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Calif. Kids' Privacy Law Ignores 1st Amendment, Judge Says

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge appeared open Thursday to preliminarily blocking for the second time a landmark California law requiring tech giants to bolster privacy protections for children, telling the state's counsel that nothing shows the Legislature "cared one whit about the Constitution," and "now you're trying to reverse engineer it."

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Meta Wants Mass. Justices To Intervene In AG's Suit

By Julie Manganis

Meta Platforms has urged Massachusetts' highest court to take up its challenge to a pending lawsuit brought by the state attorney general's office, which accused the social media company of intentionally designing Instagram to be addictive to children and teenagers.

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CONSUMER GOODS

Fitbit To Pay $12M Fine For Ionic Smartwatch Burns

By Rae Ann Varona

Fitbit has agreed to pay a $12.25 million fine to resolve the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's allegations it failed to immediately report that its Ionic smartwatches were overheating and leaving some consumers with second- and third-degree burns, the consumer safety agency announced Thursday.

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TOBACCO

Marlboro Smoker Was Target Of Deception, Jury Hears

By Cara Salvatore

Philip Morris targeted a Massachusetts preteen as a "replacement" customer for others who were dying of lung disease, a Springfield jury heard Thursday, though the company's lawyer said the woman had free will and knew enough to stop smoking.

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Vape Maker Seeks Exit From Suit Over Delta-9 THC Levels

By Jonathan Capriel

An Illinois-based vape maker urged a federal judge to toss a lawsuit accusing it of fraudulently passing off illicit Delta-9 products as legal Delta-8 ones, saying the suit lacks fundamental details, such as which products were purchased and what laboratory tested them.

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TRANSPORTATION

NJ Town Loses Bid To Join NYC Congestion Pricing Suit

By Carla Baranauckas

A federal judge on Thursday rebuffed a bid from the mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey, to be heard in the ongoing litigation surrounding this month's implementation of the congestion pricing toll program in Manhattan.

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ENERGY

Suncor Says Enviro Groups' Suit Duplicates Gov't Enforcement

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

Suncor USA Inc. told a Colorado federal judge that environmentalists suing it for allegedly violating emissions standards have improperly tied their claims to events that are already resolved or are being investigated by federal and state governments.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Key Trends In PFAS Regulation And Litigation For 2025

The critical policy milestones for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances expected in 2025 will not only shape the trajectory of PFAS regulation, but also set key precedents for environmental accountability, potentially reshaping the corporate approach to these "forever chemicals" for decades to come, say attorneys at MG+M.

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Series

Coaching Little League Makes Me A Better Lawyer

While coaching poorly played Little League Baseball early in the morning doesn't sound like a good time, I love it — and the experience has taught me valuable lessons about imperfection, compassion and acceptance that have helped me grow as a person and as a lawyer, says Alex Barnett at DiCello Levitt.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Companies Risk White House Wrath By Keeping DEI Programs

By Sarah Jarvis

For companies pushing forward with their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives amid a torrent of attacks from President Donald Trump and his allies, there are myriad potential risks ahead — and murky questions about the legal parameters of Trump's anti-DEI agenda.

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Law Students Scramble As Federal Gov't Yanks Job Offers

By Alison Knezevich

Law students across the country are scrambling to figure out their next steps after a range of federal agencies yanked job and internship offers this week because of the new hiring freeze imposed by the Trump administration.

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Mass Tort Atty Files Ch. 11 Owing $202M To Litigation Funders

By Hilary Russ

A Houston plaintiffs attorney has filed for personal Chapter 11 protection with more than $202 million of litigation funding liabilities, according to his petition in the Southern District of Texas.

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Feud Heats Up Over Estate Of Wife Killed By Ex-BigLaw Atty

By Emily Johnson

The godson of a Georgia woman killed by her husband, former Fisher Phillips partner Claud "Tex" McIver, has said her cousins shouldn't get proceeds from a settlement of an underlying wrongful death suit, calling them "strangers" to her and claiming "the redistributive windfall" they're asking for "has no place in Georgia law."

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Boston Firm Says IT Vendor Holding Computers 'Hostage'

By Julie Manganis

Boston-based law firm Melick & Porter LLP says a company it hired to manage its information technology is now holding its computer network and data "hostage" by refusing to cooperate with the transition to a new vendor unless Melick pays it $380,000.

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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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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Phillips Black Inc., Ridley McGreevy & Winocur PC and King & Spalding LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court revived claims from a woman on death row in Oklahoma that prosecutors unfairly sex-shamed her and relied on gender-based stereotypes to convince a jury that she had killed her estranged husband for insurance money.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

A new Law360 Pulse survey shows that more than 90% of in-house counsel have no regrets about their decisions to join companies. In litigation stemming from Purdue Pharma's sales of OxyContin that fueled the opioid crisis, the Sackler family would lose control of Purdue and pay $6.5 billion in the latest proposed settlement. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.​

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

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen Axa Insurance and Admiral face a claim from a former lawyer recently exposed for personal injury fraud, the owner of Reading Football Club sue a prospective buyer and mobile network Lycamobile tackle action by Spanish network Yogio. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Adams & Reese

AkinMears

Altshuler Berzon

Bird & Bird

Brown Rudnick

Burges Salmon

Cheeley Law Group

Clement & Murphy

Clyde & Co

Cohen Milstein

Cooley LLP

Covington & Burling

Cravath Swaine

Davis Wright Tremaine

DeMayo Law Offices

DiCello Levitt

Eimer Stahl

Eversheds Sutherland

Fish & Richardson

Fisher & Phillips

Fox Rothschild

Freeman Mathis

Gaslowitz Frankel

Gibson Dunn

Gillam Smith

Gordon Arata

Hilgers Graben

Hogan Lovells

Howes Percival

Jones Day

Kanner & Whiteley

Kean Miller

Kemmer Law

King & Spalding

Kirkland & Ellis

Knobbe Martens

Latham & Watkins

Lipsitz Green

Liskow & Lewis

Lodders Solicitors

Manning Gross

Mayer Brown

Melick & Porter

Morrison Foerster

Nagel Rice

Outten & Golden

Paul Weiss

Phillips Black Inc

Quinn Emanuel

Reynolds Porter

Ridley McGreevy

Robin Frazer Clark PC

Sacks Weston

Selendy Gay

Shapiro Arato

Shook Hardy

Sidley Austin

Sive Paget

Skadden Arps

Smith Krivoshey

Stanley Reuter

Steptoe LLP

Sullivan & Cromwell

Susman Godfrey

Travers Smith

Troutman

Weinberg Roger

Wheeler Trigg

Williams Weese

WilmerHale

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AT&T Inc.

AlphaSense

AlphaSights Ltd.

Amazon.com Inc.

American Airlines Group Inc.

American Water Works Association

Apple Inc.

Armadillo Financial Partners LLC

BNP Paribas SA

British Broadcasting Corp.

Burford Capital LLC

Chevron Corp.

Compagnie Financière Tradition

Costco Wholesale Corp.

DHL International GmbH

EJF Capital LLC

Earthjustice

Entergy Corp.

Exxon Mobil Corp.

FCA US LLC

Fitbit Inc.

GLS Capital LLC

George Washington University

Google LLC

Instagram Inc.

Investments Ltd.

J.C. Penney Co. Inc.

Johnson & Johnson

Legal Conversion Center

LinkedIn Corp.

Macy's Inc.

McDonald's Corp.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. SA

Meta Platforms Inc.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority

National Association of Manufacturers

National Westminster Bank PLC

Omnicom Group Inc.

Paypal Holdings Inc.

Pinterest Inc.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co.

Purdue Pharma LP

Redwood Holdings LLC

Rocade LLC

Royal Mail Group PLC

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Sierra Club

Sonos Inc.

StubHub Inc.

Suncor Energy Inc.

The Interpublic Group of Cos. Inc.

The Procter & Gamble Co.

The State University of New York

Thryv Inc.

TikTok Inc.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Uber Technologies Inc.

Walmart Inc.

White Castle Management Co.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

California Attorney General's Office

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Companies House

Connecticut Attorney General's Office

Delaware Court of Chancery

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Executive Office of the President

Federal Bureau of Prisons

Federal Trade Commission

Financial Ombudsman Service

Georgia Court of Appeals

Georgia Supreme Court

Internal Revenue Service

Japan Patent Office

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

National Labor Relations Board

New York Attorney General's Office

Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs

Peace Corps

The Crown Prosecution Service

U.S. Air Force

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey

U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Labor

U.S. Department of Transportation

U.S. District & Bankruptcy Courts of Southern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court

UK High Court

United States District Court for the District of Colorado