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June 12, 2024
School Says Declaration Bares Quinn Emanuel Lies In IP Feud
Columbia University has told the Federal Circuit that a declaration from a former Norton Lifelock Inc. computer scientist shows that the company's former lawyers at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP are lying about his refusal to testify in the school's decade-long $600 million patent case in Virginia federal court.
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June 12, 2024
Internet Co. Hit With $4M Default Judgment Over Tower Bills
TPT SpeedConnect has been slapped with a nearly $4 million judgment after it stopped footing the bill on some 60 of its license agreements, which allowed the internet service provider to keep its telecom equipment installed on others' towers in exchange for rent.
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June 12, 2024
House IP Panel Eyes Transparency For Litigation Funders
A congressional committee on Wednesday began discussing whether to require more transparency of third-party litigation funding agreements to stem what lawmakers say are abusive patent lawsuits and national security concerns if hostile foreign governments meddle with cases anonymously.
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June 12, 2024
Microsoft, OpenAI Call Papers' Suit A 'Copycat' Of NYT's Case
OpenAI and Microsoft Corp. have asked a New York federal court to toss the bulk of a copyright complaint from eight newspapers that accuses the companies of stealing their content to develop versions of ChatGPT, contending the lawsuit is modeled after one from The New York Times and saying the allegations mischaracterize the technology.
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June 12, 2024
Wash. Urges 9th Circ. To Toss Pot Licensure Challenge
Washington's cannabis authority has asked the Ninth Circuit to reject an effort by an out-of-state retailer to block the state's social equity program from awarding retail licenses, arguing that a motion for preliminary injunction is moot now that the trial court has tossed the entire lawsuit with prejudice.
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June 12, 2024
Yale Hospital OK With Merging Suits Over Stalled $435M Sale
Yale New Haven Hospital has consented to combining two dueling lawsuits over its stalled $435 million deal to buy three Connecticut facilities operated by California-based Prospect Medical Holdings Inc., agreeing that judicial efficiency and economy is best served by consolidating both entities' claims into one proceeding.
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June 12, 2024
Wells Fargo Accused Of Mismanaging Forfeited 401(k) Funds
A former Wells Fargo employee hit the San Francisco-based bank with a proposed class action in California federal court Tuesday, alleging Wells Fargo and its fiduciaries violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by using forfeited retirement funds to reduce its own contributions to other workers' 401(k)s.
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June 12, 2024
SEIU Unit On Hook For $6M In HCA Healthcare Strike Dispute
An arbitrator has found a Service Employees International Union affiliate liable for more than $6 million in damages for replacement worker costs from a strike, a California hospital said Wednesday, while a union representative told Law360 that the decision is "outrageous and unprecedented."
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June 12, 2024
CalPERS Opposes $5B Atty Fee In Musk Pay Fight
The nation's largest public pension fund lined up Wednesday against a proposed $5 billion-plus fee for stockholder attorneys whose Delaware Court of Chancery suit blocked Tesla CEO Elon Musk's one-time $56 billion compensation plan, one day ahead of a Tesla shareholder vote to resurrect the pay deal.
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June 12, 2024
Fired SpaceX Workers Say Musk Runs Co. 'In The Dark Ages'
Eight former SpaceX employees on Wednesday became the latest to sue the company and CEO Elon Musk alleging a hostile and abusive workplace that demeans women and LGBTQ+ people, saying in California state court they were unlawfully fired when they objected to his conduct.
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June 12, 2024
Ex-Navy Employee Pleads Guilty To Contract Bribery Scheme
Former U.S. Navy civilian official James Soriano has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Navy contractors to help steer hundreds of millions of dollars in deals to the companies, after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors.
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June 12, 2024
Okta, Investors Reach $60M Deal In Cyberattack Coverup Suit
Okta Inc. investors have asked a California federal judge to give the first OK to a $60 million settlement reached in a suit alleging the software company misled the certified class about a 2022 cyberattack.
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June 12, 2024
QuantumScape Shareholders Seek Initial OK For $47.5M Deal
Investors of QuantumScape have asked a California federal judge to give the first green light to a $47.5 million settlement to end their class action suit, which alleged published articles revealed the company made false statements about the quality of its batteries and the tests it used to measure performance.
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June 12, 2024
9th Circ. Questions Arbitration Carveout For AmEx Workers
A Ninth Circuit panel seemed inclined Wednesday to force four white former American Express employees to arbitrate their proposed class action claims alleging race bias.
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June 12, 2024
Feds Strike Deal Ending $7M FBAR Penalty Cases
The U.S. government agreed to settle a pair of foreign bank account reporting cases in which it had sought a total of $7 million from a former insurance broker and his wife's estate, according to a court order filed Wednesday in California federal court.
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June 12, 2024
CIT Judge Orders 'Comfy' Tariff Case To Trial
A dispute over whether a baggy, fleece-lined wearable is legally a blanket or clothing is headed to trial after oral arguments Wednesday in the U.S. Court of International Trade failed to resolve questions stemming from a precedential decision on Santa Claus suits.
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June 12, 2024
'Natural' Toothpaste Brand Loaded With PFAS, Moms Say
Natural toothpaste company RiseWell LLC falsely advertised its kids toothpaste as "natural" and "safe to swallow," two mothers alleged Tuesday in a proposed class action, saying a U.S. Department of Defense-certified laboratory test found 750 times more "forever chemicals" in the toothpaste than researchers found in heavily tainted kale.
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June 12, 2024
32 AGs Urge Justices Take Up Okla. PBM Law Fight
Thirty-two attorneys general urged the U.S. Supreme Court to take up Oklahoma's petition for review of a Tenth Circuit decision holding that federal law preempted portions of a state law regulating pharmacy benefit managers, arguing the justices needed to intervene to resolve a circuit split.
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June 12, 2024
Money Fight Between Trustee, Law Firm Goes To Mediation
A money conflict between a Chapter 11 bankruptcy trustee and an outside law firm is going to mediation, the parties announced in a court filing this week. It's the latest move in the saga of Litigation Practice Group, the failed California debt relief law firm that was secretly run by a disbarred lawyer.
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June 12, 2024
FBI Told OneTaste Witness To Delete Evidence, Ex-Execs Say
Two former executives of sexual wellness company OneTaste Inc. said they uncovered "shocking" evidence that an FBI agent told a former employee of the business and key government witness to delete an old email account, allegedly destroying exculpatory evidence in a forced-labor conspiracy case.
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June 12, 2024
Magistrate Endorses Axing OT Suit But Allowing 2nd Chance
A federal magistrate judge advised tossing an unpaid overtime lawsuit against a California cold storage company that specializes in packing agricultural goods, but said the worker should have an opportunity to flesh out their claims.
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June 12, 2024
Biden Names Prosecutors, Judge For 3 District Courts
President Joe Biden announced nominees Wednesday for district courts in Minnesota, California and Pennsylvania.
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June 11, 2024
Musk Drops Suit Against OpenAI On Eve Of Dismissal Hearing
Elon Musk on Tuesday voluntarily dismissed his suit accusing former business partner and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman of betraying his promises to run the artificial intelligence operation as a nonprofit, a move that comes the day before a hearing was set on OpenAI's dismissal bid.
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June 11, 2024
Amplitude Execs Face Suit Over Post-IPO Share Inflation
Current and former insiders of business software maker Amplitude were hit with a shareholder derivative suit claiming they profited from misrepresentations they made about the likelihood of the company sustaining its revenue growth following its initial public offering.
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June 11, 2024
UC Berkeley Slams 'Ripped-From-Headlines' Antisemitism Suit
The University of California, Berkeley and its law school asked a California federal court to throw out a suit alleging they tolerated antisemitism on campus, arguing that the latest version of the complaint includes "ripped-from-the-headlines" claims stemming from incidents that are still being investigated and addressed.
Expert Analysis
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Preparing For A New Wave Of Litigation Under Silicosis Rules
After the Division of Occupational Safety and Health of California issued an emergency temporary standard to combat noncompliance with assessments of workers' exposure to particles of crystalline silica, companies that manufacture, distribute or sell silica-containing products will need aggressive case-specific discovery to navigate a new wave of litigation, say attorneys at Dechert.
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Reimagining Law Firm Culture To Break The Cycle Of Burnout
While attorney burnout remains a perennial issue in the legal profession, shifting post-pandemic expectations mean that law firms must adapt their office cultures to retain talent, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.
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A Key Tool For Calif. Policyholders With Nonadmitted Insurers
As insurers increasingly flee California and residents of the Golden State are forced to insure their properties with nonadmitted insurers, it is crucial to understand the Unauthorized Insurers Process Act, a critical but underutilized tool for policyholders, say Keith Meyer and Kya Coletta at Reed Smith.
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Opinion
Gilead Ruling Signals That Innovating Can Lead To Liability
A California appeals court's ruling last month in Gilead Life Sciences v. Superior Court of San Francisco that a drug manufacturer can be held liable for delaying the introduction of an improved version of its medication raises concerns about the chilling effects that expansive product liability claims may have on innovation, says Gary Myers at the University of Missouri School of Law.
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Vagueness In Calif. Climate Law Makes Compliance Tricky
California's recently enacted Voluntary Carbon Market Disclosures Act requires companies making claims of carbon neutrality, or significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions, to disclose information supporting those claims — but vague and conflicting language in the statute poses multiple problems for businesses, say John Rousakis and Chris Bowman at O'Melveny.
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Grant Compliance Takeaways From Ga. Tech's FCA Settlement
Georgia Tech’s recent False Claims Act settlement over its failure to detect compliance shortcomings in a grant program was unique in that it involved a voluntary repayment of funds prior to the resolution, offering a few key lessons for universities receiving research funding from the government, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.
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Series
Competing In Dressage Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My lifelong participation in the sport of dressage — often called ballet on horses — has proven that several skills developed through training and competition are transferable to legal work, especially the ability to harness focus, persistence and versatility when negotiating a deal, says Stephanie Coco at V&E.
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Potential Defendant Strategies Amid Calif. Privacy Questions
Although the current case law surrounding the California Consumer Privacy Act is in its infancy, courts have begun addressing important issues related to the notice-and-cure provisions of the statute, and these decisions show defendant-businesses would be wise to assert their notice rights early and repeatedly, say Viola Trebicka and Dan Humphrey at Quinn Emanuel.
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Deferral Pointers For Employers After $700M Ohtani Deal
Darren Goodman and Christine Osvald-Mruz at Lowenstein Sandler examine the legal consequences of Shohei Ohtani's $700 million, 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers — a high-profile example of nonqualified deferred compensation — and offer lessons for employers of all sizes interested in similar deals.
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High Court Case Could Reshape Local Development Fees
If last month's oral arguments are any indication of how the U.S. Supreme Court will rule in Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, it's unlikely the justices will hold that the essential nexus and rough proportionality tests under the cases of Nollan, Dolan and Koontz apply to legislative exactions, but a sweeping decision would still be the natural progression in the line of cases giving property owners takings claims, says Phillip Babich at Reed Smith.
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Employer Lessons From Nixed Calif. Arbitration Agreement
A California state appeals court’s recent decision to throw out an otherwise valid arbitration agreement, where an employee claimed a confusing electronic signature system led her to agree to unfair terms, should alert employers to scrutinize any waivers or signing procedures that may appear to unconscionably favor the company, say Guillermo Tello and Monique Eginli at Clark Hill.
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How Poor Governance, Weak Contracts Harm Cannabis Cos.
Decades into cannabis decriminalization and legalization, many companies in the industry still operate on a handshake basis or fail to keep even minimally required records, which can have devastating effects and lead to costly, business-killing litigation, says Griffen Thorne at Harris Bricken.
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EEO-1 Ruling May Affect Other Gov't Agency Disclosures
By tightly construing a rarely litigated but frequently asserted term, a California federal court’s ruling that the Freedom of Information Act does not exempt reports to the U.S. Department of Labor on workplace demographics could expand the range of government contractor information susceptible to public disclosure, says John Zabriskie at Foley & Lardner.
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What Retailers Should Note In Calif. Web Tracking Suits
As retailers face a deluge of class actions alleging the use of conventional web analytic tools violate wiretapping and eavesdropping provisions of the California Invasion of Privacy Act, uncovering the path toward a narrow interpretation of the law will largely depend on how these cases proceed, say Matthew Pearson and Kareem Salem at BakerHostetler.
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Copyright Lessons Following Ruling In Artist AI Suit
The recent California district court ruling in Andersen v. Stability AI — that artists needed to specify how the training of artificial intelligence tools violated their copyrights — shows that lawyers on either side of generative AI matters must carefully navigate copyright issues including temporary copying and data sourcing, says Carlos Araya at Magnolia Abogados.