Commercial Contracts

  • November 01, 2024

    USCIS Moves To Toss Regional Centers' EB-5 Guidance Fight

    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has urged a D.C. federal judge to toss a lawsuit alleging that it unlawfully changed the minimum investment period for foreign investors seeking green cards, saying it did not create a legislative rule but merely interpreted one.

  • November 01, 2024

    Manufacturer Says Atty Turned Tiff Into 'Slow Motion Disaster'

    A Colorado electronics manufacturer says a law firm turned a minor dispute into a "slow motion disaster," resulting in a $1 million bill that threatens to sink the business, filing a malpractice suit one day before seeking bankruptcy protections.

  • November 01, 2024

    Suit Calls School Lunch Pay Processors Junk Fee 'Bullies'

    Three parents filed a proposed class action in New Jersey federal court alleging consumer fraud against a major school lunch payment processor, saying it has misrepresented the purpose of the "junk fees" it charges for electronic transactions that are imposed on families mostly just for profit.

  • November 01, 2024

    4th Circ. Raises Arbitral Finality In Kuwaiti Contractor Case

    A Fourth Circuit panel appeared unlikely on Friday to disturb a ruling enforcing an approximately $8 million arbitral award against a Kuwaiti construction company based on an argument that the lower court wrongly interpreted a statutory deadline.

  • November 01, 2024

    Fired Exec's Claims Cut From Aerospace Trade Secrets Case

    An aerospace company's ex-president, who alleged defamation and unlawful termination in counterclaims against his former employer in a lawsuit accusing him of stealing its trade secrets to launch a rival business, saw all his claims get dismissed Friday in New Jersey federal court.

  • November 01, 2024

    Atty Suing Ex-Partner Asks Judges For 'Fairly Nominal' Bond

    An attorney suing his ex-CEO over the breakup of their law firm has asked a Connecticut Superior Court judge to clear up two orders from different jurists by explaining how much bond he'll be required to post, saying a "fairly nominal" bond would ensure he keeps the case on track.

  • November 01, 2024

    Hip-Hop Artist Madlib Says Biz Manager Is Holding IP Hostage

    Hip-hop producer Madlib has filed suit in California state court alleging his longtime business manager has engaged in "rank self-dealing" and is now holding the artist's music and intellectual property rights hostage.

  • November 01, 2024

    Health Data Co. Urges 4th Circ. To Keep Access Open

    Nursing home data analytics company Real Time Medical Systems urged the Fourth Circuit on Friday to keep in place an order that stops electronic medical records company PointClickCare from using unsolvable captcha prompts to block access to patient records.

  • November 01, 2024

    Treasury Expands Foreign Land Transaction Authority

    The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Friday that it has added 59 new military installations to the list of those over which it has jurisdiction to review any nearby real estate transactions involving foreign citizens.

  • November 01, 2024

    Taco Bell Franchisee Insurers Want Out Of BIPA Suit Coverage

    Two Nationwide units told an Illinois federal court they owe no coverage to two Taco Bell franchisees facing a proposed class action alleging that they violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, invoking three separate exclusions in the franchisees' commercial general liability and umbrella policies.

  • November 01, 2024

    Cross River Bank Drops Contract Suit Against Fintech Biz

    Cross River Bank on Friday voluntarily dropped its suit against First Data Merchant Services LLC over the payment processor's alleged attempt to "wriggle" its way out of a contract to save itself from paying nearly $4 million in commissions for the bank's referrals to customers, including Coinbase.

  • November 01, 2024

    Up Next At High Court: Fed Funds And Securities Risks

    The U.S. Supreme Court will return to the bench Monday for its November arguments session, which will start off with a debate over whether the Federal Communications Commission telecom subsidy program involves federal funds subject to the False Claims Act, and on Tuesday how Medicare funding should be calculated for hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income patients.

  • November 01, 2024

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

    This past week in London has seen two industry magnates take on the Gambling Commission, Ordinance Survey hit with a claim from a Swiss GPS maker, and China's largest oil company PetroChina face a claim from a Polish documentary maker. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • November 01, 2024

    Off The Bench: Horse Racing Ruling Halted, Fla. Betting Deal

    In this week's Off The Bench, supporters of the organization overseeing federal horse-racing laws got a helping hand from the U.S. Supreme Court, the feud between a Florida tribe and state casino interests ends in a truce, and the NBA wants the details of its disputed media rights deal kept out of the public eye.

  • November 01, 2024

    Up To $755M Added To AZ Scuttled-Drug Damage Claim In Del.

    A stockholder representative for former shareholders of biopharmaceutical company Syntimmune has proposed up to $755 million in additional damages after a Delaware vice chancellor found that an AstraZeneca PLC unit failed to reasonably pursue drug development milestones after acquiring Syntimmune in 2018.

  • October 31, 2024

    Sony Sues CBS Over Bad 'Wheel of Fortune,' 'Jeopardy!' Deals

    Sony Pictures accused CBS of violating their contract to distribute the popular syndicated game shows "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune" to domestic stations by instead executing unauthorized foreign licensing deals in New Zealand and Australia while failing to maximize advertising revenue, according to a complaint lodged Thursday in California state court.

  • October 31, 2024

    Ex-Citadel Reps Can't Escape Trade Secrets Suit

    A New York federal judge has greenlighted most claims in Citadel Securities' lawsuit accusing a Swiss cryptocurrency trading firm founded by two of its former employees of stealing its trade secrets, while tossing those asserted against the firm's French angel investor for lack of jurisdiction.

  • October 31, 2024

    Atty Can't Dodge All Claims In $14.6M Tribal RICO Suit

    An Oklahoma federal judge has partly denied a bid by a tribe's general counsel and his law firm to toss accused fraudsters' claims against them in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act lawsuit, finding he may have breached his fiduciary duty when serving both parties in the suit.

  • October 31, 2024

    Judge Suggests Condo Builder's $19M Jury Win Should Stand

    A Washington appeals court judge asked Thursday why a $19 million trial verdict in favor of Skanska USA Building Inc. should be overturned, saying determining the facts in the condo project construction dispute that led to the verdict seemed like something for the jury to answer.

  • October 31, 2024

    Feds: No 'Willfulness' Needed In Texas AG-Tied Investor Case

    Federal prosecutors asked a Texas federal judge to reject an attempt by an investor at the center of the failed impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to toss the fraud case, saying Wednesday that "willfulness" isn't needed for a conspiracy to commit wire fraud conviction.

  • October 31, 2024

    X Corp. Plays Discovery 'Games' To Shield Musk, Judge Told

    Left-leaning watchdog Media Matters for America fired another broadside at X Corp. Wednesday in an ongoing discovery battle between the parties, telling a Texas federal judge that the social media company continues to "play games about discovery" to shield Elon Musk and keep unfavorable evidence from the defendants.

  • October 31, 2024

    Scott + Scott Sues Robins Kaplan For $5M In Swipe Deal Fees

    Scott + Scott Attorneys at Law LLP alleged in a New York state court lawsuit that Robins Kaplan LLP, its co-counsel in antitrust litigation over Visa Inc. and Mastercard's interchange fees, is withholding $5 million in promised payouts from the case's $5.6 billion settlement.

  • October 31, 2024

    9th Circ. Won't Revive 'Ghost Cattle' Contract Fight With Tyson

    The Ninth Circuit said Thursday a rancher who admitted to invoicing Tyson Foods Inc. for nonexistent cattle cannot sue the meat company for allegedly using his name and photograph in marketing materials without giving him a cut of the profits, rejecting the rancher's argument that Tyson had agreed orally to the deal.

  • October 31, 2024

    Jury Awards Synopsys $550K In IP Suit Against Software Rival

    A California federal jury has awarded software company Synopsys Inc. nearly $550,000 in damages after its competitor, Real Intent Inc., was found to have breached contractual agreements by copying certain commands from Synopsys' software — but the defendants' counsel considers the damages award a victory.

  • October 31, 2024

    Dallas Judge Kicks 2022 Energy Case Out Of Biz Court

    A Dallas business court judge sent a multimillion-dollar energy dispute back to state district court this week, marking the first time a Texas Business Court judge has weighed in on whether cases in existence before the court's opening could be litigated in the new venue.

Expert Analysis

  • Empathy In Mediation Offers A Soft Landing For Disputes

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    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.

  • Series

    Being An Artist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My work as an artist has highlighted how using creativity and precision together — qualities that are equally essential in both art and law — not only improves outcomes, but also leads to more innovative and thoughtful work, says Sarah La Pearl at Segal McCambridge.

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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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.

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