Houston Attys Escape Defamation Suit Over Sex Assault Case

By Catherine Marfin

A Texas appeals court said a group of Houston attorneys could escape a defamation suit brought by a man accused of sexual assault by one of their clients, writing that he did "not even raise a scintilla of evidence" that the attorneys knew statements they made to the media about their client's case were false.

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SpaceX Anti-NLRB Crusade Advances As Judge Grants Block

By Braden Campbell

A Texas federal judge on Wednesday blocked a National Labor Relations Board suit accusing SpaceX of suppressing workers' rights while he weighs the rocket maker's claims that the prosecution is unconstitutional, according to a docket notice.

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Texas Panel Tosses Electrocution Suit Against Oil Well Owner

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas state appeals court found that an oil field station owner wasn't responsible for a contractor's electrocution at the station, ruling Tuesday that the owner didn't owe any duty to the contractor under any negligence theory because it didn't direct the contractor's work.

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NLRB Outburst Order Violated Due Process, 5th Circ. Says

By Beverly Banks

The National Labor Relations Board must reconsider its decision changing the analysis of whether worker outbursts are protected under federal labor law, the Fifth Circuit ruled, finding the board violated a company's due process rights by not hearing its arguments prior to the precedent shift.

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Texas Court Severs Constable Workers From OT Collective

By Emmy Freedman

A Texas federal court granted Harris County Sheriff's Department deputies' request to cut several employees from the constable's office from their proposed collective action accusing the department of shorting them on overtime pay, and rejected the county's argument that the case should largely be thrown out.

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Engineer Who Faced Export Charges Cops To Tax Counts

By Elliot Weld

A Chinese-born engineer has pled guilty to two counts of filing a false tax return related to allegations that he and his wife omitted gross income from their tax returns between 2015 and 2019, after Texas federal prosecutors initially charged the couple with export violations and fraud. 

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Energy Cos., States Seek Review Of Calif. Emissions Decision

By Tom Lotshaw

Industry groups and a coalition of states led by Ohio are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a D.C. Circuit ruling upholding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's approval of a waiver letting California set greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles and run a zero-emission vehicles program.

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Fla. Judge Will Issue Sanctions For Delay In Tesla Crash Suit

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida state judge said Wednesday he will issue sanctions over a failure by a biomechanics expert to timely produce data requested by Tesla in a suit over a Model S crash that killed two teenagers.

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5th Circ. Told 'Pay To Litigate' Rule Doesn't Bar Refund Suit

By Anna Scott Farrell

A couple arguing the IRS failed to apply their tax overpayments to deficiencies claimed by the agency asked the Fifth Circuit to reverse a lower court's dismissal of their suit on the grounds that they hadn't paid their bill, saying the decision effectively asks them to pay twice.

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Roku Wins Transfer Of Patent Suit From WDTX To Calif.

By Gina Kim

A Texas federal judge sent to California a case accusing Roku of infringing patents related to automatic content recognition technology for commercial advertising, finding on Wednesday that the ease of access to evidence, location of Roku's witnesses and Roku's headquarters in San Jose weigh in favor of a transfer.

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Top Banks Accused Of Infringing Authentication IP With Zelle

By Adam Lidgett

Intellectual property licensing outfit Factor2 Multimedia Systems has sued Bank of America, Capital One and others in Texas federal court for allegedly infringing authentication patents with Zelle and other money-transfer apparatuses.

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Intel Asks Del. Court To Affirm It Has License To VLSI Patents

By Adam Lidgett

Intel has launched a suit in Delaware federal court asking for an order that it already has a license to various VLSI patents, the latest in a sprawling legal fight between the two parties over microchips.

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Vidal Directs PTAB To Review Nerf 'GelFire' Toy Gun Patents

By Andrew Karpan

The director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has overturned Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions not to institute reviews of three patents covering Hasbro Inc.'s Nerf "GelFire" toy gun.

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Sheppard Mullin Adds Winston & Strawn Real Estate Duo

By Lynn LaRowe

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP has strengthened its real estate, energy, land use and environmental practice with two partners in Houston who joined from Winston & Strawn LLP.

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Series

Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.

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FLSA Conditional Certification Is Alive And Well In 4th Circ.

A North Carolina federal court's recent decision in Johnson v. PHP emphasized continued preference by courts in the Fourth Circuit for a two-step conditional certification process for Fair Labor Standards Act collective actions, rejecting views from other circuits and affording plaintiffs a less burdensome path, say Joshua Adams and Damón Gray at Jackson Lewis.

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Faegre Drinker Confirms Operational, Administrative Layoffs

By Aebra Coe

A spokesperson for Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP confirmed to Law360 Pulse on Wednesday that the firm laid off "less than 5%" of its total operations and administrative staff earlier this year.

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Ocasio-Cortez Seeks Impeachment Of Justices Thomas, Alito

By Katie Buehler

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez filed articles of impeachment against U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito on Wednesday following a year of revelations about their repeated failures to disclose the acceptance of luxury travel and gifts, refusals to recuse in certain cases and other purported ethics violations.

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Analysis

Judge Newman Faces More Hurdles In Bid To End Suspension

By Ryan Davis

With the dismissal of Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's lawsuit against her colleagues over her suspension, experts say she faces significant challenges in securing a different outcome on appeal or persuading the court's other judges to let her hear cases again.

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Senate OKs Two DC Judge Noms As 8 Seats Remain Unfilled

By Jared Foretek

The U.S. Senate confirmed two nominees to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on Wednesday, as lawmakers try to pick up the pace in filling the local court's persistent vacancies.

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Calif. Pick Defends Articles On Biological Sex, Judge Diversity

By Courtney Bublé

A state judge nominated to serve on the U.S. Northern District of California bench fended off questions from Republicans about articles she wrote in recent years regarding biological sex and diversity in the judiciary.

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Ex-Kasowitz IP Pro Says Firm Gave Him Boot, Withheld Pay

By Bonnie Eslinger

Former Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP partner Jay Deshmukh filed a lawsuit in New York state court against his former firm Tuesday, saying the firm "deliberately" fired him weeks before his one-year anniversary so it could hold back more than half his annual pay.

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NY Judge Slams 'Whopping' Brief In Terror Suit As Dickensian

By Craig Clough

A New York federal magistrate judge lectured attorneys in a lawsuit alleging a Pakistani bank funded terrorism, saying a recent joint status letter exceeded the limit by 70 pages and the parties are turning the case into a modern Jarndyce v. Jarndyce from the Charles Dickens classic "Bleak House."

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Giuliani Urges DC Court Not To Disbar Him Over Trump Work

By Alison Knezevich

Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday urged the D.C. Court of Appeals to let him keep his law license, saying he did not commit misconduct in his work on former President Donald Trump's challenge to Pennsylvania's 2020 presidential election.

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Former McElroy Deutsch CFO Hits Ch. 11 Amid Theft Cases

By Jake Maher

McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter's former chief financial officer filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey this week as he awaits sentencing for embezzling over $1.5 million from the firm over a period of years via fraudulent bonuses.

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Archegos Founder Convicted Of $100B Fraud On Wall Street

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal jury on Wednesday convicted Archegos founder Bill Hwang of illegally injecting over $100 billion into Wall Street markets with lies to banks that ballooned stocks and his assets, before running his family-office hedge fund into the ground.

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Feds Say Guo Ran 'Fraud Empire' As Racketeering Trial Wraps

By Rachel Scharf

Manhattan federal prosecutors urged a jury on Wednesday to convict Chinese dissident Miles Guo for operating his political movement as a vast racketeering conspiracy that "brainwashed" supporters into spending more than $1 billion on scam investments.

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Atty Says Alaska Judge Reprimand Bolsters 4th Circ. Bias Suit

By Emily Sawicki

A former public defender awaiting a bench ruling on her sexual harassment claims against the federal judiciary said Wednesday that the judge deciding her case should note a recent ruling reprimanding an Alaska federal judge for his "sexualized relationship" with a clerk in which the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council determined that intent was irrelevant.

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