Trials

  • November 12, 2024

    'Heat Machine' Maker's Trade Dress Win Clears 8th Circ.

    The Eighth Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a finding from a bench trial that cleared the Costco supplier behind the "Heat Machine" involved in "a complex intellectual property dispute" with the maker of the "HeatDish," a different machine that Costco also sells.

  • November 12, 2024

    Businessman Blames Dentons For Failed $54M Currency Swap

    A Venezuelan businessman involved in a $54 million bolivar-to-dollars currency swap told a Miami jury on Tuesday that a former Dentons US LLP attorney told him several times that he needed to deposit more bolivars to meet a threshold minimum in order to receive U.S. dollars, but those promises never materialized.

  • November 12, 2024

    Ex-ComEd Exec Asked If Madigan Hires Truly An 'Exchange'

    Defense attorneys got their chance Tuesday to grill an ex-Commonwealth Edison executive who testified the utility hired people who did little to no work at the behest of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, asking if it truly traded those jobs for Madigan's action on ComEd legislation or if the company was just building goodwill with a key decision-maker.

  • November 12, 2024

    Trump Ally Bannon Seeks Delay Of 'We Build The Wall' Trial

    Former Trump administration strategist Stephen Bannon on Tuesday sought to delay his criminal trial on New York state charges stemming from an alleged scheme to con donors seeking to fund a southern U.S. border wall, two weeks after he wrapped up his federal prison sentence for contempt of Congress.

  • November 12, 2024

    Penn State TM Jury Asked To Ponder Sponsorship Confusion

    A central Pennsylvania federal jury will have to weigh whether consumers are likely to be confused by a Seattle-based online retailer's use of historic logos and art associated with Pennsylvania State University, with opening arguments Tuesday promising dueling experts on consumer surveys and interpretations of trademark law.

  • November 12, 2024

    Fla. Man Guilty In $1M Cash-To-Bitcoin Laundering Scheme

    A Boston federal jury has convicted a Florida resident of helping launder drug proceeds and enabling transfers of funds from fraud victims to romance scammers by converting more than $1 million in cash to bitcoin through his unlicensed "no questions asked" money transfer business.

  • November 12, 2024

    Crime Of Inaction Leaves Justices Mulling Legal 'Absurdities'

    The U.S. Supreme Court grappled Tuesday with whether an alleged mobster can be guilty of a murder-for-hire scheme if he did not physically participate in the botched hit job, with one justice remarking that both parties' interpretations of a "violent" crime of inaction could produce absurd results.

  • November 12, 2024

    Palin, NYT Set For April Retrial In Defamation Case

    Sarah Palin's retrial against The New York Times over defamation claims will start April 14, a New York federal judge ruled Tuesday after calling the parties' requests for a July date "out of the question."

  • November 12, 2024

    Consultant In $213M 'Maya' Trial Says Atty Ducked Bill

    A trial consultant company that helped the attorney for the family of Maya Kowalski, the girl at the heart of the Netflix documentary "Take Care of Maya," win a $213 million judgment against Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital Inc. is now suing the Kowalskis' attorney for allegedly failing to pay his bill.

  • November 12, 2024

    Ex-Snell & Wilmer Group Head, DOJ Atty, Joins Saul Ewing

    The former co-chair of Snell & Wilmer LLP's white collar defense and investigations practice group, an ex-prosecutor known in part for securing the conviction of the surviving Boston Marathon bombing perpetrator, has joined Saul Ewing LLP, the firm announced Tuesday.

  • November 12, 2024

    Broker Calls 78-Month Sentence For Tax Scheme Unfair

    An insurance agent convicted of conspiracy and tax crimes in a multimillion-dollar tax avoidance scheme told a North Carolina federal court ahead of his sentencing, scheduled for Wednesday, that the 78-month prison sentence recommended by prosecutors is harsher than punishments for similar offenders.

  • November 12, 2024

    Jury Holds CACI Liable For $42M Over Abu Ghraib Torture

    A Virginia federal jury ruled Tuesday that defense contractor CACI must pay $42 million to former prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib military prison, finding it conspired in their torture by the U.S. military.

  • November 12, 2024

    Trump's NY Case Paused As DA Weighs Impact Of Election

    A New York state judge agreed to a joint motion to freeze the proceedings in Donald Trump's hush money case following his electoral victory last week, allowing the Manhattan district attorney time to brief the court on "appropriate steps going forward."

  • November 12, 2024

    Supreme Court Won't Revive Youth Climate Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will not undo the Ninth Circuit's order allowing the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by youth plaintiffs who accuse the federal government of endangering their futures with policies that exacerbate climate change.

  • November 12, 2024

    Justices Won't Take On Tossed Bid-Rigging Conviction

    The U.S. Supreme Court refused Tuesday to look at a Fourth Circuit decision that upended the bid-rigging conviction of a government contractor's former executive, rejecting U.S. Department of Justice concerns that the ruling could make it harder to prosecute when contractors have a subcontracting relationship.

  • November 08, 2024

    Combs Suggests $50M Bail As He Loses Bid For Gag Order

    Sean "Diddy" Combs on Friday again asked a New York federal court to release him ahead of his trial, suggesting an updated, "far more robust" $50 million bail package the same day the court rejected the hip-hop mogul's push for a gag order forbidding his sexual assault accusers from speaking out.

  • November 08, 2024

    8th Circ. Flips $12M Verdict Against Jagermeister's US Arm

    The Eighth Circuit has overturned a jury's verdict that Jägermeister's U.S. importer must pay a distributor $11.75 million after terminating their deal, saying Friday the jury was misinstructed and a new trial is required.

  • November 08, 2024

    Judiciary Advisers Back Development Of AI Evidence Rules

    The federal judiciary's advisory panel for evidentiary issues agreed Friday to develop rules aimed at strengthening scrutiny of testimony and materials derived from artificial intelligence systems, saying AI-generated information should meet the same reliability standards that apply to expert witnesses.

  • November 08, 2024

    Apple Didn't Hire Cercacor CTO To Steal Watch IP, Ex-VP Says

    A retired Apple executive defended the tech giant Friday in Masimo's trade secret suit over pulse oximetry technology, testifying in California federal court that Apple didn't hire a Masimo spinoff's chief technology office in order to obtain confidential information for the Apple Watch and never received any such information.

  • November 08, 2024

    1st Circ. Affirms Order Ending Jet Blue-American Partnership

    The First Circuit backed a lower court decision blocking a partnership between JetBlue and American Airlines that it found substantially diminished competition in the domestic air travel market, saying it found no error in the district judge's thorough review of the deal that could revive the venture.

  • November 08, 2024

    BCBS Hit With $12.7M Verdict In Worker's Vax Mandate Suit

    A Michigan federal jury on Friday awarded $12.69 million to a former Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan employee who said she was fired after her employer failed to accommodate her religious beliefs, which she said prevented her from getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

  • November 08, 2024

    Iowa Justices Scotch Record $97M Baby Brain Damage Award

    The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday wiped away the largest medical malpractice verdict in state history after finding that the $97 million award was invalid because the trial judge flubbed the admission of certain evidence regarding a vacuum baby delivery system in a suit over a newborn's permanent brain damage.

  • November 08, 2024

    Up Next At High Court: Self-Deportation Deadlines & Murder

    The U.S. Supreme Court will be closed Monday for Veterans Day, but the justices will return to the bench Tuesday to consider whether a 60-day deadline for immigrants to voluntarily leave the country has a grace period and what evidence is needed to allege securities fraud.

  • November 08, 2024

    Monsanto Judge Pushes Sanction 'Distraction' To After Trial

    A Washington state judge is pausing an order for eight of Monsanto's attorneys to personally pay a total of $20,000 for late disclosure of expert reports in a toxic tort lawsuit, saying he believes the issue will distract from the upcoming trial and the court can revisit the defense lawyers' reconsideration request after the jury returns a verdict.

  • November 08, 2024

    Apple's Cited Rulings Just Cement Old Precedent, Epic Says

    What Apple contends are new rulings from a California appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court are really just affirmations of existing precedent that change nothing about the injunction blocking the iPhone maker's rules against steering users to alternative payment systems, Epic Games has told a California federal judge.

Expert Analysis

  • It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers

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    Amid fierce competition for business, the transactional “trusted adviser” paradigm from which most firms operate is no longer sufficient — they should instead aim to become trusted partners with their most valuable clients, says Stuart Maister at Strategic Narrative.

  • 5 Credibility Lessons Trial Attys Can Learn From Harris' Run

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    In launching a late-stage campaign for president, Vice President Kamala Harris must seize upon fresh attention from voters to establish, or reestablish, credibility — a challenge that parallels and provides takeaways for trial attorneys, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.

  • Court Denial Of $335M UFC Deal Sets Bold Antitrust Precedent

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    A Nevada federal court’s recent refusal to accept a $335 million deal between Ultimate Fighting Championship and a group of former fighters to settle claims of anticompetitive conduct was a rare decision that risks the floodgates opening on established antitrust case law, says Mohit Pasricha at Lawrence Stephens.

  • How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations

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    Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.

  • 5 Ways To Confront Courtroom Technology Challenges

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    Recent cybersecurity incidents highlight the vulnerabilities of our reliance on digital infrastructure, meaning attorneys must be prepared to navigate technological obstacles inside the courtroom, including those related to data security, presentation hardware, video playback and more, says Adam Bloomberg at IMS Legal Strategies.

  • Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles

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    Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.

  • Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.

  • 5 Ways Life Sciences Cos. Can Manage Insider Trading Risk

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    In light of two high-profile insider trading jury decisions against life sciences executives this year, public companies in the sector should revise their policies to account for regulators' new and more expansive theories of liability, says Amy Walsh at Orrick.

  • Strategies To Defend Against Healthcare Nuclear Verdicts

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    The healthcare industry is increasingly the target of megaclaims, particularly those alleging medical malpractice, but attorneys representing providers can use a few tools to push back on flimsy litigation and reduce the likelihood of a nuclear verdict, says LaMar Jost at Wheeler Trigg.

  • 5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond

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    As lawyers and recent law school graduates begin their Master of Laws coursework across the country, they should keep a few pointers in mind to get the most out of their programs and kick-start successful careers in their practice areas, says Kelley Miller at Reed Smith.

  • Bayer Antitrust Case Hinged On Evolving Market Definition

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    Generic flea and tick medication manufacturer Tevra's evolving market definition played a key role in the development and outcome of its five-year antitrust litigation against Bayer Healthcare, highlighting challenges that litigants may face when a proposed definition is assessed at trial, say Amy Vegari and Colleen Anderson at Patterson Belknap.

  • When Trauma Colors Testimony: How To Help Witnesses

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    As stress-related mental health issues continue to rise, trial attorneys must become familiar with a few key trauma-informed strategies to help witnesses get back on track — leaning in to the counselor aspect of their vocations, say Ava Hernández and Steve Wood at Courtroom Sciences.

  • Series

    Being An Opera Singer Made Me A Better Lawyer

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    My journey from the stage to the courtroom has shown that the skills I honed as an opera singer – punctuality, memorization, creativity and more – have all played a vital role in my success as an attorney, says Gerard D'Emilio at GableGotwals.

  • Until Congress Acts, EDNY 'Insider Betting' Case Is Premature

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    The Eastern District of New York’s novel wire fraud conspiracy indictment in U.S. v. Pham may have prematurely heralded a new era in federal gambling enforcement, but in the absence of an “insider betting” statute, sportsbooks — not prosecutors — should be responsible for enforcing their terms of use, says attorney Jonathan Savella.

  • How Law Firms Can Avoid 'Collaboration Drag'

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    Law firm decision making can be stifled by “collaboration drag” — characterized by too many pointless meetings, too much peer feedback and too little dissent — but a few strategies can help stakeholders improve decision-making processes and build consensus, says Steve Groom at Miles Mediation.

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