The Federal Communications Commission heard from interest groups and companies around two dozen times in January, on issues ranging from consumer consent to receive telemarketing calls to UScellular's contested $4.4 billion plan to sell its wireless operations to T-Mobile.
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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2025 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

Analysis

​​​​​​​Top Groups Lobbying The FCC

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission heard from interest groups and companies around two dozen times in January, on issues ranging from consumer consent to receive telemarketing calls to UScellular's contested $4.4 billion plan to sell its wireless operations to T-Mobile.

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Carr Names Project 2025 Co-Author As FCC General Counsel

By Christopher Cole

A Michigan State University law professor and onetime Jones Day litigator known for his involvement in Project 2025 and criticism of Big Tech will serve as the Federal Communications Commission's top lawyer.

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Leave Power Limits Alone In CBRS Airwaves, FCC Told

By Nadia Dreid

The Federal Communications Commission is looking at overhauling the Citizens Broadband Radio Service, but a coalition of band users have come together to urge the agency to reject proposals to allow high power use in the midband spectrum.

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Will NFL Let Kendrick Call Drake A Pedophile At Super Bowl?

By Rachel Scharf

As Kendrick Lamar prepares to take the stage for this Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show, lawyers for the National Football League and Fox Sports must decide whether to censor the lyrics of his viral hit "Not Like Us" while rival rapper Drake wages a defamation war over the song's suggestion that he's a "certified pedophile."

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2025 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2025 editorial advisory boards.

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POLICY & REGULATION

FTC GOP Focusing On Merger 'Friction,' AI, 'Censorship'

By Bryan Koenig

Federal Trade Commission Republicans are beginning to signal their Trump-era policies, including a friendlier approach to mergers with fewer challenges based on "weak or factually unsupported theories," a more hands-off take on artificial intelligence, and a heavy emphasis on combating alleged online censorship of conservatives.

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House Bill Aims To Ban DeepSeek On Gov't Devices

By Allison Grande

A pair of U.S. House lawmakers on Thursday rolled out bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the installation of Chinese company DeepSeek's chatbot app on government-issued devices, citing "alarming" national security threats similar to those that have propelled efforts to ban video app TikTok nationwide.

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Brief

Stay On Right Side Of Payola Rules, FCC Warns Stations

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission is warning radio broadcasters not to accept freebies from music artists in exchange for boosted airtime.

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Brief

FCC Says No To Ohio Group's Bid For Low Power FM Station

By Nadia Dreid

An Ohio church has come out on top in its battle to be awarded the rights to launch a low power FM station in its neck of the woods after the group it was up against was accused of knowingly listing a manager's dead grandmother on a license renewal application.

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LITIGATION

Texas' Google Ad Tech Trial Delayed From March To August

By Jared Foretek

A Texas federal judge has pushed back the trial date for a group of Texas-led states' antitrust suit against Google over its digital advertising business, moving the scheduled start from March to August.

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Earthlink Investors' Attys Score $28M In Merger Suit

By Nadia Dreid

The attorneys who helped Earthlink investors score an $85 million settlement with the company after they said they were tricked into approving a $1.1 billion merger with a failing telecommunications company will be walking away with almost $28 million for their trouble.

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Allstate Collected, Sold Driver Data, Suit Alleges

By Celeste Bott

Allstate unlawfully collected the driving data of at least 45 million policyholders through software integrated in third-party mobile apps, using information about their driving behavior as a basis for denying coverage, hiking up auto insurance premiums, or dropping them from coverage altogether, according to a proposed class action filed in Illinois federal court Wednesday.

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PEOPLE

EIP Grows US Team With 2 Pranger Law Attys

By Andrea Keckley

Global intellectual property firm EIP said Wednesday it has hired two attorneys from Pranger Law PC, including the head of its patent prosecution team.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Critical Steps For Navigating Intensified OFAC Enforcement

The largely overlooked SkyGeek settlement from the end of 2024 heralds the arrival of the Office of Foreign Assets Control's long anticipated enhanced enforcement posture and clearly demonstrates the sanctions-compliance benefits of immediately responding to blocked payments, says Jeremy Paner at Hughes Hubbard.

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Perspectives

DC Circ. Cellphone Ruling Upends Law Enforcement Protocol

The D.C. Circuit’s recent U.S. v. Brown decision, holding that forcibly requiring a defendant to unlock his cellphone with his fingerprint violated the Fifth Amendment, has significant implications for law enforcement, and may provide an opportunity for defense lawyers to suppress electronic evidence, says Sarah Sulkowski at Gelber & Santillo.

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AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex

Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

BigLaw Firms Saw Double-Digit Profit Growth In 2024

By Aebra Coe

Last year was "one of the strongest years on record" for U.S. law firm financial results, according to Citi Global Wealth at Work Law Firm Group head Gretta Rusanow, with a survey by the bank of mostly large law firms showing a 16.6% increase in profits and a 12.3% increase in revenue over 2023.

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Legal Sector Gains 900 Jobs In January Amid Data Revisions

By Xiumei Dong

The U.S. legal sector started the year with a modest boost, adding 900 jobs in January, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday following the agency's annual employment data revision that also lifted earlier job figures from the past year. 

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Dentons US Names Capital Markets Leader Managing Partner

By Anna Sanders

Dentons tapped capital markets partner and regulatory team leader John Holahan to serve as U.S. managing partner, the firm announced Friday.

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Injury Attys In Hot Water Over Possible AI-Hallucinated Cites

By Lauren Berg

Morgan & Morgan PA and the Goody Law Group on Friday withdrew pretrial motions in a personal injury lawsuit against Walmart over an allegedly defective hoverboard after a Florida federal court ordered the firms to explain why the filings contained what appears to be case law hallucinated by generative artificial intelligence.

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Plaintiffs Lawyers Swarm Los Angeles Post-Fires

By Brandon Lowrey

A deadly wildfire may be among the first covered by a new state fund that reimburses at-fault utility companies. This could mean billions of dollars for plaintiffs lawyers, and, if past fires are any indication, frustration and confusion for some victims.

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4th Circ. Says LeClairRyan Founder May Duck Tax Liability

By Jack Karp

Defunct law firm LeClairRyan PLLC's operating agreement did not bar founder Gary LeClair from jumping ship from the firm in time to potentially dodge massive tax bills tied to the firm's collapse, the Fourth Circuit ruled on Friday.

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Goldstein's Pro Se Filing Irks Feds Amid Murky Atty Situation

By Elliot Weld

Prosecutors have asked a Maryland federal judge to strike a pro se motion from Tom Goldstein in his tax evasion case, saying the U.S. Supreme Court attorney and SCOTUSblog publisher shouldn't be allowed to personally make arguments to the court when he is represented by several experienced lawyers.

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2nd Circ. Orders In-House Counsel Docs in Grand Jury Case

By Parker Quinlan

The Second Circuit on Friday ruled that an in-house attorney for a publicly traded company under federal investigation in New York must turn over communications as part of a grand jury investigation under the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege.

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Analysis

Del.'s Quiet Ambition To Tweak Chancery, Stem Feared DExit

By Jeff Montgomery

Anxious over claims that stockholder-tilted decisions by Delaware's Court of Chancery will trigger more companies to follow Tesla, SpaceX, Meta and Dropbox to other states, Delaware policymakers are taking a hard look at the venerable business court's processes, hoping to slow a feared rush to DExit.

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DC Prosecutor Axed Jan. 6 Case Against Client, Group Says

By Lauren Berg

A legal group filed a bar complaint in Missouri Thursday against President Donald Trump's top prosecutor in Washington, D.C., saying the attorney violated rules of professional conduct when, in his new government role, he moved to dismiss charges related to the U.S. Capitol attack against his own client.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Aebra Coe and Kevin Penton

Lawyers from Latham & Watkins LLP and Proskauer Rose LLP kick off this week's Law360 Legal Lions, with a jury decision ending a $500 million antitrust lawsuit against their clients, U.S. Soccer and Major League Soccer.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

General counsel will be scrutinizing their companies' DEI policies after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the U.S. Department of Justice to probe and penalize illegal diversity policies in the private and public sectors. Outside the DOJ, legal professionals, including in-house attorneys, reported high job satisfaction in a recent survey, likely leading to lower turnover. 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 Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen Investec Bank PLC sue two diamond tycoons, London florist Nikki Tibbles file a claim against an "imitator company," a direct descendant of the Cartier family launch a claim, and a Coronation Street actor hit footballer Joe Bunney with a defamation claim. 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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Promo that reads 2024 Practice Groups of the Year Promo that reads Law360 Pulse In-House Counsel Satisfaction Survey

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AT&T Inc.

AccuWeather Inc.

Amazon.com Inc.

American Airlines Group Inc.

American Bar Association

American Federation of Government Employees

American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees

Amgen Inc.

Apple Inc.

Argo Group International Holdings Ltd.

Arity LLC

Atos SE

Barclays PLC

Bibby Financial Services Ltd.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

ByteDance Ltd.

CBS Corp.

California Earthquake Authority

Canon Inc.

Cartier SA

China Mobile Ltd.

Consumer Action

Consumer Federation of America

Credit Suisse Group AG

Democracy Forward Foundation

EarthLink Inc.

Electronic Privacy Information Center

Exxon Mobil Corp.

Fordham University

Fox Corp.

Globant SA

Google LLC

Hatch Henderson Fivel LLC

Horizon Therapeutics PLC

Howden Broking Group Ltd.

IDEX Corp.

Instagram Inc.

Investec PLC

Jetson Electric Bikes LLC

LexisNexis Legal & Professional

LinkedIn Corp.

Lockheed Martin Corp.

London Stock Exchange Group PLC

Longford Capital Management LP

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

MGA Entertainment Inc.

Major League Soccer LLC

Major Lindsey & Africa LLC

McKinsey & Co. Inc.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. SA

Meta Platforms Inc.

Michigan State University

Moelis & Co.

NFL Enterprises LLC

NICE Ltd.

NICE inContact

National Association of Government Employees

National Consumer Law Center Inc.

Netflix Inc.

Neurocrine Biosciences Inc.

New York Law School

PG&E Corp.

Palantir Technologies Inc.

Pershing Square Capital Management LP

Public Citizen Inc.

Purdue Pharma LP

RELX PLC

Robert Half Inc.

Rutter's Holdings Inc.

Southern California Edison Co.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

Spectrum Management Holding Co.

State Bar of California

Station Casinos LLC

T-Mobile US Inc.

TUI AG

Tempur Sealy International Inc.

Tesla Inc.

The Allstate Corp.

The Florida Bar

The PNC Financial Services Group Inc.

TikTok Inc.

Toyota Motor Corp.

TripAdvisor Inc.

Twitter Inc.

United Policyholders

United States Cellular Corp.

UnitedLex Corp.

Universal Music Group NV

University of Virginia

Verizon Communications Inc.

Walmart Inc.

Wells Fargo & Co.

Windstream Holdings Inc.

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Addleshaw Goddard

Bernstein Litowitz

Bird & Bird

Bivonas Law LLP

Bryan Cave

Cahill Gordon

Carney Bates

Carpmaels & Ransford

Cleary Gottlieb

Clyde & Co

Continental PLLC

Cotchett Pitre

Covington & Burling

Crowley Fleck

DLA Piper

Dentons

Fieldfisher

Fox Williams

Freshfields

Gelber & Santillo

Gentry Locke

Gibbs & Bruns

Gibson Dunn

Goody Law Group

Guerra LLP

Guttman Buschner

Herbert Smith Freehills

Hicks Johnson

Hill Dickinson

Holland & Knight

Hueston Hennigan

Hughes Hubbard

Irwin Mitchell

Jassy Vick

Johnson Fistel

Jones Day

Keller Postman

Keoghs LLP

King Holmes Paterno & Soriano

Kirkland & Ellis

Kressin Meador

Lanier Law Firm

Latham & Watkins

Lauro & Singer

Lerch Early

Lewis Silkin

McCoy Leavitt

Michael Best & Friedrich LLP

Milberg Coleman

Morgan & Morgan

Morgan Lewis

Morvillo Abramowitz

Munger Tolles

Murphy Anderson PLLC

Nixon Peabody

Norton Rose

Orrick Herrington

Paul Weiss

Penningtons Manches

Pranger Law

Proskauer Rose

Quinn Emanuel

RBG Legal Services Ltd.

RWK Goodman

Reed Smith

Reynolds Porter

Robbins Geller

Ropes & Gray

Sheppard Mullin

Sidley Austin

Simmons & Simmons

Skadden Arps

Stevens & Bolton

Tavenner & Beran PLC

Theodora Oringher

Umberg & Zipser

Walker Morris LLP

Willenken LLP

WilmerHale

Withersworldwide

Wright Lindsey

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Trade Commission

Information Commissioner's Office

National Labor Relations Board

National Telecommunications and Information Administration

Office of Foreign Assets Control

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

U.S. Army

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland

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

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

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

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Labor

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas

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

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

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

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 Wyoming