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Texas
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December 16, 2024
Texas Courts Eye 'Living Wage' Hikes For Support Staff
Court support and clerk's office personnel in Texas should receive pay at levels that at least amount to a living wage in their counties to fight attrition, the Texas Judicial Council heard, and a novel "time study" is needed to determine each jurisdiction's staffing needs.
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December 16, 2024
Justices Preserve Calif. Vehicle Emissions Autonomy
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to allow California to set its own greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles, a power red states had challenged as unconstitutional.
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December 13, 2024
Real Estate Recap: New Mapping, Terrorism, What We Learned
Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including a new state-by-state mapping tool for real estate practitioners, one BigLaw attorney's view of terrorism liability safeguards for commercial real estate, and takeaways from the multifamily and life sciences sectors in 2024.
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December 13, 2024
Texas Panel Prods Harrison County About Tank Leakage
A Texas appeals court judge on Friday questioned whether Harrison County is seizing on a legal ambiguity to avoid required testing of underground storage tanks, saying its loose interpretation of the word "year" in a state law "doesn't sound like a very good idea."
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December 13, 2024
5th Circ. Revives Challenge To Dallas Flood Project
A Texas federal judge jumped the gun dismissing two Dallas property owners' claims that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has failed to fully analyze the potential impacts of a flood control project in the city, a Fifth Circuit panel said Friday.
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December 13, 2024
Del. Chancellor Positions Musk Pay Fight For Likely Appeal
Delaware's chancellor positioned for likely appeals late Friday final pieces of a landmark six-year battle over Tesla Inc.'s attempt to award CEO Elon Musk a more than $55 billion, 10-year pay package, in a trio of orders that also directed the company to pay in cash or post sufficient bond for a $345 million stockholder attorney fee.
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December 13, 2024
New Evidence Allows Doctor's Questioning In Zeta DQ Bid
Transocean's attorneys will now have the chance to question a doctor at the center of a rival law firm's disqualification bid, after a Houston judge told the parties Friday that she received evidence from the crew member plaintiffs that "significantly changes" the issue.
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December 13, 2024
DOL Board Says Agency Can Revoke Prior H-2B Registrations
The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals has affirmed a U.S. Department of Labor officer's decision to deny a Texas fabrication company's request to temporarily hire dozens of foreign metalworkers and to revoke its previously approved registration number for the H-2B visa program.
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December 13, 2024
Texas AG Sues NY Doctor Over Telehealth Abortion Script
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a New York doctor who founded the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine in the Lone Star State Friday, accusing the physician of violating Texas state abortion laws by providing abortion-inducing prescription drugs to a Texas resident via telehealth.
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December 13, 2024
After 36 Years, Texas Chief Justice Reflects On 'End Of An Era'
Chief Justice Nathan L. Hecht is unsure what his life will look like in a month, but he knows that hanging up his robe after 36 years on the Texas Supreme Court isn't goodbye.
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December 13, 2024
4 Firms Rep On Rent-A-Center Owner's $460M Brigit Deal
Rent-A-Center owner Upbound Group Inc. has agreed to acquire financial technology company Brigit for up to $460 million, with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and Mayer Brown LLP guiding Upbound and Cooley LLP and Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP representing Brigit.
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December 12, 2024
BakerHostetler Can't Ditch RICO Claims In Bankruptcy Fight
A Texas bankruptcy judge Wednesday trimmed fraud and legal malpractice claims alleging BakerHostetler aided a $100 million insurance fraud scheme, but he refused to throw out civil racketeering claims, finding that the allegations are "well-pleaded," and he must assume, for now, that they're true.
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December 12, 2024
Judge Says Pay Owed After Texas Co. Benched H-1B Worker
A Department of Labor judge said a Houston engineering company owes a former H-1B worker nearly $57,000 in wages since it "benched" the worker without pay for months after a third-party contract collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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December 12, 2024
Incora's Opt-Outs Not Like Class Actions, US Trustee Says
The U.S. Trustee's Office on Thursday objected to the third-party releases in the Chapter 11 plan from aircraft parts supplier Incora, arguing in a Texas bankruptcy court that the opt-out mechanism for the releases is not comparable to class action procedures.
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December 12, 2024
Coke Zero Sweetener Co. Asks Justices To Hear Patent Feud
The company that developed the artificial sweetener used in Coke Zero wants to keep patents that were filed at the patent office after the drinks went on sale, telling the U.S. Supreme Court that Federal Circuit judges who thought otherwise were prioritizing their "own decisions over Congress's judgment."
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December 12, 2024
Calif. Judge Kills Software Patent Suit Under Alice
A California federal judge on Thursday threw out a patent infringement lawsuit by a bankrupt startup against one of Salesforce's brands, saying the claims in the patents didn't pass muster under the test laid out in the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice decision.
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December 12, 2024
Bitcoin Investor Gets 2 Years For Tax Fraud In Landmark Case
An investor who concealed millions of dollars he earned in bitcoin and became the first person criminally charged for failing to report gains from the sale of cryptocurrency by filing false returns was sentenced to two years in federal prison Thursday.
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December 12, 2024
Texas AG Targets Instagram, Reddit Over Youth Data Security
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday that his office is looking into minors' privacy and safety policies of more than a dozen tech companies, including Character.AI, Reddit and Instagram, as part of his long-running campaign to stop companies from selling minors' personal information without permission from their parents.
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December 12, 2024
Insurer Must Defend Texas Oilfield Against Burned Worker
An insurer must continue to defend an oilfield services company in a suit brought by a severely burned worker seeking over $1 million for his injuries, a Texas federal court ruled, finding nothing in his short complaint triggered exclusions.
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December 12, 2024
6th Circ. Appears Divided On Telecom Breach Reporting Rule
A Sixth Circuit panel seemed split over the Federal Communications Commission's tightened telecommunications data breach rules, with one judge defending the commission as taking necessary steps to safeguard consumers from a "true" danger and another claiming that the rule seemed to run afoul of lawmakers' wishes.
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December 12, 2024
Nvidia Should Go First In Patent Suit, Microsoft Tells Albright
Microsoft says Nvidia should be the first to face patent infringement claims from a Texas startup that initiated a legal fight targeting microchips used to power Microsoft's generative artificial intelligence models, saying the chipmaker is the "only source" of the products at issue in the lawsuit.
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December 12, 2024
Albright Confirms Move To Austin, Pending 5th Circ. Sign-Off
U.S. District Judge Alan Albright is in the process of moving from the Western District of Texas' Waco division to Austin, and he's just awaiting a vote from the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council, he confirmed Thursday.
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December 12, 2024
Mazzant To Take Over As EDTX Chief From Gilstrap In March
The Eastern District of Texas will have a new chief judge next year, with U.S. District Court Judge Amos L. Mazzant slated to take over U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap's role as the top jurist overseeing the nation's busiest patent docket.
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December 12, 2024
Treasury Seeks To Pause Anti-Laundering Law Injunction
The U.S. Treasury Department asked a Texas federal judge to pause his nationwide preliminary injunction of the Corporate Transparency Act pending an appeal of his recent decision that found Congress likely overstepped its constitutional authority when it wrote the anti-money laundering law.
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December 12, 2024
JUDGES Act Passes House But Biden Veto Looms
The House voted 236-173 on Thursday to pass a bill to add more judgeships, which tees it up for a likely veto by the president, as many Democrats have soured on the measure after Donald Trump's victory at the polls.
Expert Analysis
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Series
Being A Navy Reservist Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Serving this country in uniform has not only been one of the greatest honors of my life, but it has also provided me with opportunities to broaden my legal acumen and interpersonal skills in ways that have indelibly contributed to my civilian practice, says Phillip Smith at Weinberg Wheeler.
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Navigating DOJ's Patchwork Whistleblower Regime
In the past few months, the U.S. Department of Justice and several individual U.S. attorney’s offices have issued different pilot programs aimed at incentivizing individuals to blow the whistle on misconduct, but this piecemeal approach may create confusion and suboptimal outcomes, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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So You Want To Move Your Law Practice To Canada, Eh?
Google searches for how to move to Canada have surged in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, and if you’re an attorney considering a move to the Great White North, you’ll need to understand how the practice of law differs across the border, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.
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Notable Q3 Updates In Insurance Class Actions
Total loss valuation cases and labor depreciation cases dominated the past quarter of insurance class actions, with courts continuing to reject challenges to condition adjustments in the former, and a pro-insured trend persisting in the latter, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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Promoting Diversity In The Selection Of ADR Neutrals
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Choosing neutrals from diverse backgrounds is an important step in promoting inclusion in the legal profession, and it can enhance the legitimacy and public perception of alternative dispute resolution proceedings, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Series
Playing Ultimate Makes Us Better Lawyers
In addition to being fun, ultimate Frisbee has improved our legal careers by emphasizing the importance of professionalism, teamwork, perseverance, enthusiasm and vulnerability, say Arunabha Bhoumik and Adam Bernstein at Regeneron.
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Considering Chevron's End Through A State Tax Lens
States took the lead in encouraging Chevron's demise, turning away from Chevron-type deference in state tax administration ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision, a trend likely to accelerate as courts take a more active role in interpreting tax laws, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.
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E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Metadata
Several recent rulings reflect the competing considerations that arise when parties dispute the form of production for electronically stored information, underscoring that counsel must carefully consider how to produce and request reasonably usable data, say attorneys at Sidley.
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The 3rd-Party Bankruptcy Release Landscape After Purdue
In its Purdue Pharma ruling prohibiting nonconsensual third-party releases, the U.S. Supreme Court did not comment on criteria to render a third-party release consensual, opening a debate in the bankruptcy courts on the permissibility of opt-out versus opt-in releases, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Comparing Antitrust Outlooks Amid Google Remedy Review
As the U.S. Justice Department mulls potential structural remedies after winning its recent case against Google, increased global scrutiny of Big Tech leaves ex post and ex ante antitrust approaches ripe for evaluation, say Nishant Chadha at the Indian School of Business and Manisha Goel at Pomona College.
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Title VII Compliance Lessons From Raytheon Age Bias Suit
A Texas federal court’s recent refusal to dismiss age discrimination claims from a former Raytheon employee, terminated after he admitted to acts that Raytheon says violated its harassment policy, nonetheless illustrates strategies employers can use to protect themselves when facing competing Title VII workplace obligations, say attorneys at Segal McCambridge.
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Election Could Bring Change In Weather For Offshore Wind
Under another Trump administration, the offshore wind sector would encounter substantial headwinds, as Trump's policy track record emphasizes fossil fuel dominance and environmental rollbacks, while a Harris victory would likely further entrench the pro-renewable energy stance taken by the Biden administration, say attorneys at Jones Walker.
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Striking A Balance Between AI Use And Attorney Well-Being
As the legal industry increasingly adopts generative artificial intelligence tools to boost efficiency, leaders must note the hidden costs of increased productivity, and work to protect attorneys’ well-being while unlocking AI’s full potential, says Ed Sohn at Factor.
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Insurance Industry Impacts If DOL Fiduciary Rule Is Revived
If implemented following an ongoing appeal at the Fifth Circuit, the U.S. Department of Labor’s rule expanding the Employee Retirement Income Security Act's definition of "fiduciary" could chill insurance agents’ and brokers' ability to sell annuities, and lead to an increase in breach of fiduciary duty lawsuits, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.
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Empathy In Mediation Offers A Soft Landing For Disputes
Experiencing a crash-landing on a recent flight underscored to me how much difference empathy makes in times of crisis or stress, including during mediation, says Eydith Kaufman at Alternative Resolution Centers.