Commercial Contracts

  • February 14, 2025

    Carnegie Mellon Inks $4.8M Pandemic Tuition, Fees Settlement

    Carnegie Mellon University will pay $4.8 million to settle claims that it should have refunded tuition and fees to students whose classes were moved online at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a proposed class action settlement submitted to a Pittsburgh federal court for preliminary approval Friday.

  • February 14, 2025

    Uber Starts Antitrust Food Fight With DoorDash

    DoorDash Inc. has devised an unlawful scheme to stifle competition with its main rival, Uber Eats, by forcing restaurants to exclusively work with DoorDash to manage their in-house deliveries, which hikes costs for restaurants and customers, Uber Technologies Inc. alleges in a lawsuit filed Friday in Golden State court.

  • February 14, 2025

    Joy Dish Soap Deal Caused $12M Loss, Manufacturer Claims

    Alleging $12 million in losses, Michigan-based manufacturer N.V. Labs Inc., which does business as the Reforma Group, has sued Connecticut private equity firm Piney Lake Capital Management LP on allegations it dirtied a deal to produce Joy dish soap through a subsidiary after buying the brand from Procter & Gamble.

  • February 14, 2025

    'Not For Sale': OpenAI Rebuffs Musk's $97.4B Takeover Bid

    The board of directors for OpenAI voted unanimously on Friday to reject a $97.4 billion offer from Elon Musk and a consortium of investors to buy the artificial intelligence platform, with the board chair saying in a statement, "OpenAI is not for sale."

  • February 14, 2025

    Judge Partly Certifies Ex-Detainee Class In Debit Card Fee Suit

    A Washington federal judge has partially certified a class of former detainees suing the Central Bank of Kansas City, alleging the bank charged them debit card fees to regain access to their money after they were released.

  • February 14, 2025

    Trump Aims To End Limits On President's Power To Fire

    President Donald Trump has his sights set on taking down a 90-year-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling that protects certain government officials from being fired, a U.S. Department of Justice letter confirms, and he plans to leverage his prior legal victories to deliver the precedent's death knell and expand presidential power.

  • February 14, 2025

    Supreme Court Asked To Rule On Fee Award After TM Mistrial

    A cosmetics distributor that was sued for trademark infringement and lost has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether attorney fees and costs awarded to the prevailing party should have been trimmed to account for a default judgment that was reversed and a mistrial attributed to the plaintiff's counsel.

  • February 14, 2025

    NHL, CHL Ask Court to Toss Junior Players' Antitrust Lawsuit

    The National Hockey League has asked a Washington federal court to toss an antitrust lawsuit challenging a rule that dictates where junior athletes can play, arguing that most enforcement of the rule took place in Canada.

  • February 14, 2025

    Judge Says Class Waited Too Long For Home Depot Fee Suit

    A Georgia federal judge has granted Home Depot an early win over a proposed class action alleging overcharges on tool rentals, ruling that the plaintiffs waived their claims by failing to provide written notice of disputed charges within the contract's 25-day deadline.

  • February 14, 2025

    Houston Energy Co. Stiffed For Cleanup Costs, Court Told

    A Houston energy company refused to decommission a toppled oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico and then failed to pay up when another party got stuck with the cleanup duty, an oil company has told a Texas federal court.

  • February 14, 2025

    Farm Asks Judge To 'Please' Add $5M Interest To $32M Verdict

    A cannabis farm is asking a Michigan federal judge to "please, please" award $5 million in prejudgment interest on a $31.8 million verdict reached last month in a contract dispute with Curaleaf units, saying the companies have refused to cooperate in post-judgment talks to resolve the issue.

  • February 14, 2025

    Calif. Insurance Chief Backs Wildfire Mitigation, Recovery Bills

    California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced his support Friday for a slew of bills aimed at addressing wildfire mitigation and recovery, including measures to maximize insurance claim payouts and stabilize the state's insurer of last resort.

  • February 14, 2025

    'New Facts' Improper In Penny Stock Action, 2nd Circ. Told

    A Connecticut federal judge violated controlling case law and the constitutional rights of a penny stock CEO when imposing a judgment in a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission enforcement action, defense counsel told the Second Circuit, arguing that the SEC admitted post-trial that it could not find any victims of the allegedly false public statements at issue.

  • February 14, 2025

    Ben & Jerry's Says Owner Unilever Banned Anti-Trump Posts

    Ben & Jerry's told a New York federal judge overseeing its litigation accusing parent company Unilever of breaching an agreement allowing the ice cream company to take political stances that Unilever has now banned it "from issuing any posts criticizing President Trump" pending further review.

  • February 14, 2025

    Insurer Goes After Another In $3.5M Sewer Damage Suit

    A subcontractor's insurer lodged a third-party complaint against a Liberty Mutual unit in Colorado federal court, accusing it of reaching a "collusive" $730,000 consent agreement in an underlying sewer rupture dispute and arguing that the unit should've paid its full $2 million limit instead.

  • February 14, 2025

    Pashman Stein Gets Arbitration Award Against Atty Confirmed

    Pashman Stein Walder Hayden PC on Friday won confirmation for an $88,000 award against an intellectual property attorney and former client it sued over unpaid legal fees in New Jersey state court.

  • February 14, 2025

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen Spice Girls star Mel B's ex-husband bring a defamation claim against the publisher of The Sun, a hotel sue a former director convicted of embezzling its funds for breach of fiduciary duty, and comedian Russell Brand face a sexual abuse claim. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • February 13, 2025

    Mental Health Group Says Ga. Analyst Lied About Work

    Cheerful Therapy LLC filed suit against Georgia-based Anelyst Accounting LLC and Nicholas Hawkins in federal court, alleging they solicited it to pay for the creation of a mental health group practice with the intent of secretly transferring the group to a new limited liability company in which Cheerful had no rights or interest.

  • February 13, 2025

    Oil & Gas Co.'s Antitrust Suit Baseless, Insurers Say

    Insurers who hold surety bonds in an oil company and have been accused of colluding with other bondholders to demand additional collateral have urged a Texas federal court to dismiss the antitrust allegations against them, saying the dispute is contractual only.

  • February 13, 2025

    NC Biz Court Bulletin: Defaulted Notes, EB-5 Investor Fraud

    The North Carolina Business Court has been handed in the first half of February a receivership case involving a defaulted $17.5 million promissory note, a fraud suit by Chinese EB-5 investors and a request to depose the chief legal officer of Smithfield Foods Inc.

  • February 13, 2025

    Atty Can Keep Fees In Foreclosure Row, Mich. Panel Rules

    A trial court shouldn't have ordered an attorney to refund fees for representing a condominium association in its failed attempt to foreclose on unit owners because the attorney was not a party to the action or accused of conversion, a Michigan appellate panel found Wednesday.

  • February 13, 2025

    Buyer Seeks $3.5M Price Cut Over Bungled Conn. Mill Cleanup

    A property developer has asked a Connecticut Superior Court judge to lower the purchase price of a polluted industrial site in Branford from $6 million to $2.5 million, saying the seller failed to develop legitimate remediation plans and breached a settlement agreement that ended prior litigation.

  • February 13, 2025

    Insurers Say Adjuster Must Cover $66M Suit Over Boat Death

    Insurers told a North Carolina federal court that a company they contracted with failed to perform its agreed-upon adjustment duties on claims related to a 2021 fatal Florida boat accident and didn't pay legal fees when a more than $66 million suit erupted over the incident.

  • February 13, 2025

    Sidley Adds White & Case Litigators In Chicago

    Sidley Austin LLP has grown its litigation offerings in Chicago with the addition of two former White & Case LLP partners, one of whom served as the leader of that firm's Windy City office.

  • February 13, 2025

    Musk's $97B OpenAI Bid Dubbed A 'Stunt' Amid Other Rumors

    After a Wall Street Journal report on Monday revealed that a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk was offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, rumors began to swirl regarding the true intentions behind the billionaire's bid.

Expert Analysis

  • Reading Tea Leaves In Fed. Circ. Deep Dive On Review Scope

    Author Photo

    Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer investigates why a recent Federal Circuit opinion spent six pages explaining its unsurprising conclusion on proper scope of review — that no deference need be afforded to the trial court in a case dismissed for failure to state a claim.

  • How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources

    Author Photo

    Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • NC Ruling Takes Practical Approach To Duty-To-Defend Costs

    Author Photo

    In Murphy-Brown v. Ace American Insurance, a case of first impression, the North Carolina Business Court adopted the commonsense rationale of many state courts in holding that policyholders' defense costs should be deemed presumtively reasonable when a insurer breaches its duty to defend, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

  • How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment

    Author Photo

    Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.

  • Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity

    Author Photo

    Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.

  • Testing The Waters As New Texas Biz Court Ends 2nd Month

    Author Photo

    Despite an uptick in filings in the Texas Business Court's initial months of operation, the docket remains fairly light amid an apparent wait-and-see approach from some potential litigants, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • How DOJ's Visa Debit Monopolization Suit May Unfold

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Department of Justice's recently filed Section 2 monopolization suit against Visa offers several scenarios for a vigorous case and is likely to reveal some of the challenges faced by antitrust plaintiffs following the U.S. Supreme Court's split 2018 American Express decision, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules

    Author Photo

    The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.

  • The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO

    Author Photo

    The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.

  • There's No Crying In Property Valuation Baseball Arbitration

    Author Photo

    The World Series is the perfect time to consider how the form of arbitration used for settling MLB salary disputes — in which each side offers competing valuations to an arbitrator, who must select one — is often ideal for resolving property valuation disputes, say Sean O’Donnell at Herrick Feinstein and Mark Dunec at FTI Consulting.

  • Navigating Fla.'s Shorter Construction Defect Claim Window

    Author Photo

    In light of recent legislation reducing the amount of time Florida homeowners have to bring construction defect claims, homeowners should be sure to understand their rights and responsibilities regarding maintenance, repairs and inspections set forth in developer-drafted documents, say Brian Tannenbaum and Nicholas Vargo at Ball Janik.

  • Why Diversity Jurisdiction Poses Investment Fund Hurdles

    Author Photo

    Federal courts' continued application of the exacting rules of diversity jurisdiction presents particular challenges for investment funds, and in the absence of any near-term reform, those who manage such funds should take action to avoid diversity jurisdiction pitfalls, say attorneys at Sher Tremonte.

  • Webuild Ruling Complicates Arb. Award Enforcement In US

    Author Photo

    A Delaware federal court's recent decision in Sociedad Concesionaria Metropolitana de Salud v. Webuild, if read literally, could undercut the United States' image as a proarbitration jurisdiction by complicating creditors' efforts to enforce awards against property in this country, says Jeff Newton at Omni Bridgeway.

  • Series

    Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    The practice of patent law and beekeeping are not typically associated, but taking care of honeybees has enriched my legal practice by highlighting the importance of hands-on experience, continuous learning, mentorship and more, says David Longo at Oblon McClelland.

  • Opinion

    Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits

    Author Photo

    With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Commercial Contracts archive.
Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!