Yellow Corp. Layoff Notices Had Too Little Info, Judge Says

By Rick Archer

A Delaware bankruptcy judge has shot down some of trucking company Yellow Corp.'s defenses against claims it failed to give proper notice of more than 25,000 layoffs just before it entered Chapter 11, saying the notices it sent weren't informative enough.

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Car Dealerships Reach $20M Junk Fee Deal With FTC, Ill. AG

By Celeste Bott

A group of 10 car dealerships and their parent company have agreed to pay $20 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission and the state of Illinois alleging they systematically defrauded thousands of car buyers through illegal prize mailers, undisclosed junk fees and phony online reviews.

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DC Circ. Says Toxic Subtances Rule Threatens Trade Secrets

By Ali Sullivan

A D.C. Circuit panel on Friday threw out a facet of new Toxic Substances Control Act regulations that the judges said could lead to the unwanted disclosure of chemical manufacturers' trade secrets.

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Feature

Top Pa. Cases Of 2024: Elon Musk, Johnny Doc, Uber Drivers

By P.J. D'Annunzio

This year was a standout for high-profile legal battles in Pennsylvania, from a blockbuster verdict against Monsanto over its Roundup weedkiller to the Philadelphia district attorney's fight with Elon Musk over allegations that he tried to influence the 2024 presidential election with his million-dollar giveaway.

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Analysis

The Biggest Climate Change Rulings Of 2024: Year In Review

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez and Keith Goldberg

Federal courts delivered several rulings this year that are expected to significantly impact future climate change litigation and policy development, including Supreme Court decisions reshaping administrative law and D.C. Circuit findings on project development and automotive emissions controls. Here are the four biggest climate change decisions of 2024.

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TD Bank, Boeing And Medicare: Compliance Headlines In 2024

By Sarah Jarvis

Corporate compliance lessons were never far from the headlines in 2024, as regulatory challenges and headaches facing industries ranging from healthcare to aerospace played front and center, including TD Bank's historic $3.1 billion money laundering settlement that federal prosecutors billed as one for the risk-management textbooks.

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Analysis

A Look Back At 2024's Major Securities Litigation Moments

By Katryna Perera

The private securities litigation bar experienced a busy 2024, with meaningful and significant rulings in almost all of the nation's leading courts, and corporations, investors, government agencies and executives fighting over pay packages, disclosures, class certifications and mergers.

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Suits Over Fatal Connecticut Cessna Crash Shrink

By Brian Steele

The plaintiffs in several related lawsuits arising from a Cessna private plane crash in Connecticut that killed four people and injured others on the ground have dropped claims against a slew of defendants, leaving only the aircraft's manufacturer to face the pending litigation, court records show.

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Watchlist Flouts Justices' Major-Questions Ruling, Petition Says

By Tom Lotshaw

Four individuals backed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review the government's terrorist watchlist, saying a Fifth Circuit ruling affirming its legality eviscerated the justices' major questions doctrine.

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FTA Proposes Buy America Waiver For Electric Minibuses

By Daniel Wilson

The Federal Transit Administration has asked for public feedback on whether it should grant a temporary nonavailability waiver from domestic sourcing requirements for battery electric minibuses, saying it had received related requests from multiple transit operators.

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11th Circ. Won't Reconsider Nixing $440M Cuba Dock Claim

By Jonathan Capriel

The Eleventh Circuit said it won't take a second look at its decision upending a $440 million judgment against four cruise lines that were accused of participating in prohibited tourism in Cuba by way of utilizing a dock that once belonged to a U.S.-based company.

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6th Circ. To Group FedEx, Kellogg Pension Data Appeals

By Carolyn Muyskens

The Sixth Circuit on Thursday rejected a request to stay a case alleging FedEx Corp. uses outdated actuarial assumptions in calculating certain retirees' annuities, pending a similar appeal from Kellogg Co. retirees, saying it would instead group the cases together.

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Skadden To Help FedEx Deliver Freight Biz Separation Plan

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP-advised FedEx on Friday unveiled plans to spin off its FedEx Freight business into a separate, new publicly traded company, a move that comes after the company's board of directors evaluated the role FedEx Freight has in the transport giant's portfolio.

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NJ Atty Says RICO Case Only Alleges He Acted As Lawyer

By George Woolston

New Jersey attorney William Tambussi has slammed the Garden State's response to his bid to toss charges against him in the state's sweeping indictment against power broker George E. Norcross III, claiming it does not show how his routine legal work constitutes a crime.

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EPA Administrator Stepping Down At End Of December

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan on Friday announced that he's stepping down at the end of December, after a nearly four-year term that was punctuated by high-profile climate, water and chemical regulations and ambitious environmental justice initiatives.

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NLRB Likely To Fill Vacuum After NMB Jurisdiction Ruling

The National Mediation Board's recent ruling in Swissport Cargo Services LP abandoned decades of precedent by concluding the Railway Labor Act doesn’t apply to airline service providers, likely leading the National Labor Relations Board to assert its jurisdiction instead and potentially causing more operational disruptions and labor strife, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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Reviewing 2024's Crucial Patent Law Developments

As 2024 draws to a close, significant rulings and policies aimed at modernizing long-standing legal practices or addressing emerging challenges have reached patent law, says Michael Ellenberger at Rothwell Figg.

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Series

Fixing Up Cars Makes Me A Better Lawyer

From problem-solving to patience and adaptability to organization, the skills developed working under the hood of a car directly translate to being a more effective lawyer, says Christopher Mdeway at Kaufman Dolowich.

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MoFo, Irell Latest Firms To Unveil Competitive Bonuses

By Aebra Coe & Hailey Konnath

Morrison Foerster LLP and litigation boutique Irell & Manella LLP have joined a chorus of firms announcing associate bonuses that meet or exceed the BigLaw standard for associate bonuses this year, with MoFo offering up to $218,200 and Irell handing its lawyers as much as $175,000.

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Approach The Bench: What Judges Had To Say This Year

By Cara Bayles

Jurists weighed the benefits of partisan elections, praised innovations in telehearings and worried about the future of the profession in nearly a dozen interviews with Law360 this year.

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Gunster $8.5M Data Breach Deal Needs More Info, Judge Says

By Matt Perez

A Florida federal judge this week denied preliminary approval of an $8.5 million settlement in a data breach class action against Gunster and demanded more information on payouts, the plaintiffs' standing in the case and a historical breakdown of settlement rates.

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NJ Bar's Diversity Plan Isn't Biased, Panel Says

By Tracey Read

A New Jersey state appeals court reversed and remanded on Friday a lower court's ruling that found the state bar association's diversity practices to be an unlawful, discriminatory quota system.

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Analysis

How Lawyers May Sue The Trump Administration … Again

By Cara Bayles

During the last Trump administration, BigLaw firms challenged White House policies, focusing on immigration, environmental regulations and healthcare. This time around, attorneys could rely on old tools, and some new tactics, to stall the executive branch.

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Biden Exceeds Trump's Record On Judges By One

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Senate confirmed on Friday the last two judicial nominations from President Joe Biden, making his total of lifetime judicial appointments 235, just one over President Donald Trump's 234.

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High Court Bar's Future: Williams & Connolly's Sarah Harris

By Katie Buehler

Sarah M. Harris of Williams & Connolly LLP never planned on being a U.S. Supreme Court advocate, or even an appellate one. She stumbled upon that career path after realizing her initial goal of becoming a national security or government lawyer wasn't the right fit.

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Legislators Key To Court Fee Relief, Chief Justices Say

By Cara Salvatore

Two state high court chief justices and a top judicial administrator have told the National Center for State Courts that while they've been able to make significant progress in abolishing unfair court fines and fees, lawmakers have been vital in enacting these changes.

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No, Microsoft Isn't Driving DOJ's Google Antitrust Suit: Judge

By Bryan Koenig

A D.C. federal judge pushed back Friday on Google's efforts to paint Microsoft as the true plaintiff in the Justice Department's search monopolization lawsuit, casting doubt during a hearing that Google should get even more information about Microsoft's relationship with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

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Feature

Litigator On The Roof: The Acting, Singing Mass. Solicitor

By Chris Villani

The top appellate lawyer in the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General will be ringing in the new year by performing a comical cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, the latest show in a lengthy side career in music.

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Another Texas Judge Exits X's Advertising Boycott Suit

By Lauren Berg

The second Texas judge to oversee litigation filed by Elon Musk's X Corp. accusing the World Federation of Advertisers and others of conspiring to withhold advertising revenue from the company has recused himself from the case.

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Hagens Berman Settles Suit Over Effexor Deal Atty Fees

By Bryan Koenig

A pharmaceutical reseller's in-house counsel and founder moved Friday to drop a Mississippi federal court breach of contract suit accusing Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP of stiffing him on his share of a $13 million attorney fees award from an antitrust class settlement, citing a resolution to the dispute.

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Girardi's Mental Health To Be Evaluated At NC Federal Prison

By Craig Clough

A California federal judge said Friday she will order Tom Girardi to receive a psychiatric evaluation at a North Carolina federal correctional facility after she recently delayed his wire fraud sentencing to determine if he should be committed to a medical facility instead of prison due to his dementia diagnosis.

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Q&A

A Judge Reflects: West Wing Call, 'Alford Plea?' Early Exit

By Hayley Fowler

When Chief Judge Louis A. Bledsoe III of the North Carolina Business Court hangs up his robes for the last time on Dec. 31, he'll leave behind a white-hot docket of high-profile cases and a profusion of opinions that helped mold the court into a tribunal fit to rival Delaware's Court of Chancery.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Andrea Keckley

This week's Legal Lions leader comes from the public sector, as federal prosecutors secured a $650 million settlement from McKinsey & Co. to resolve a lawsuit over the consulting giant's role in Purdue Pharma's promotion of OxyContin.

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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 University of Southampton sue a drone-maker over the rights to an uncrewed aircraft patent, Importers Service Corp. and its subsidiary ISC Europe take action against a former director who allegedly owes the company over £1.1 million ($1.4 million), and DAC Beachcroft face a fraud claim by a "prolific litigant." 

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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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