Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Health
-
January 01, 2025
5 Policy Changes Benefits Attys Should Watch For In 2025
With President-elect Donald Trump poised to return to the White House, experts are bracing for potential changes including shifts from the U.S. Department of Labor on who qualifies as a regulated fiduciary under benefits law to whether retirement plans can consider environmental and social factors when picking investments. Here, Law360 looks at five employee benefits policy issues to keep an eye on in the new year.
-
January 01, 2025
Cannabis And Hemp Lawsuits To Watch In 2025
A California litigator alleging the unconstitutionality of multiple state and local cannabis licensure programs is pushing his actions through the federal circuit courts, hemp industry stakeholders are alleging that states have overstepped their authority with policies meant to rein in intoxicating products, and a coalition of marijuana companies' challenge to the federal ban on prohibition had its day in federal appellate court.
-
January 01, 2025
Cannabis Advocates Hone Their Policy Goals For 2025
With Republicans set to control the legislative and executive branches, cannabis advocates predict that federal cannabis reforms in 2025 are still achievable, but note they will likely be more incremental than holistic, with an emphasis on public safety and states' rights.
-
January 01, 2025
Pa. Legislation To Watch: Noncompetes, Funding Solutions
A new Pennsylvania law restricting noncompete agreements for certain healthcare workers has left some employment law attorneys with questions, while perennial public transit funding issues signal that revenue-generating regulations could appear on next year's legislative agenda.
-
January 01, 2025
Pa. Cases To Watch In 2025: Climate Change And Skill Games
President-elect Donald Trump's impending return to the White House casts a new light on certain pending cases in Pennsylvania courts with federal implications, such as a suburban Philadelphia county's climate change claims against oil companies that contend the suits are preempted and the U.S. Department of Justice's entrance into monopoly allegations against University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
-
January 01, 2025
NC Cases To Watch In 2025: NASCAR Fight, Healthcare Rows
NASCAR is fighting antitrust claims in North Carolina even after removing a controversial exclusivity clause from its race team contracts, and the Tar Heel State's medical industry could see massive shake-ups from a challenge to a healthcare competition law and alleged impropriety in a major hospital system acquisition.
-
January 01, 2025
Connecticut Cases To Watch In 2025: Ethics, Mergers & Actors
A suit over McCarter & English LLP's municipal loan advice and a Yale-owned heath network's legal battle over a beleaguered acquisition deal are just two multimillion-dollar cases that will keep Connecticut courts busy next year.
-
December 23, 2024
HHS Can't Enforce Abortion Privacy Rule Against Texas Doctor
A Texas federal judge has granted a Lone Star State doctor a reprieve from a new U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rule that aims to protect the privacy of abortion providers and patients, saying that the rule likely exceeds the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's statutory authority.
-
December 23, 2024
EEOC, Ala. Medical Center Get OK For Deal In ADA Suit
An Alabama medical center will shell out $60,000 to end a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit claiming the organization showed an employee the exit door after requesting to switch departments following a back injury she sustained at work.
-
December 23, 2024
Thompson Coburn Data Breach Plaintiffs Aim To Consolidate
Plaintiffs seeking restitution from Thompson Coburn LLP over a data breach filled a motion Friday to consolidate the group's eight proposed class actions, as well as appoint three attorneys to interim class counsel over the potential master case.
-
December 20, 2024
TD Bank, Boeing And Medicare: Compliance Headlines In 2024
Corporate compliance lessons were never far from the headlines in 2024, as regulatory challenges and headaches facing industries ranging from healthcare to aerospace played front and center, including TD Bank's historic $3.1 billion money laundering settlement that federal prosecutors billed as one for the risk-management textbooks.
-
December 20, 2024
Proskauer Beats DQ Bid In NJ Hospital Antitrust Fight
A New Jersey federal judge refused to disqualify Proskauer Rose LLP from defending healthcare network RWJBarnabas Health Inc. in an antitrust lawsuit brought by competitor CarePoint Health Management Associates LLC, saying the present case wasn't substantially related to work the law firm previously did for CarePoint.
-
December 20, 2024
Sens. Aim To Protect Generics With Skinny Labels In New Bill
A bipartisan group of senators from Colorado, Arkansas, Vermont and Maine have introduced a bill that would shield generic-drug and biosimilar manufacturers from infringement liability when using approved "skinny labels."
-
December 20, 2024
Independent Health Inks $98M Deal For Medicare Overcharges
Independent Health Association Inc. has agreed to pay up to $98 million to resolve a decade-old False Claims Act whistleblower suit alleging it knowingly submitted invalid diagnosis codes for Medicare Advantage Plan enrollees to boost payments that the insurer received from Medicare, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.
-
December 20, 2024
South Korean Needle Operation Secures Patent Win At ITC
The U.S. subsidiary of a South Korean dermatologist's needle business has convinced a judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission that several rivals in the marketplace for selling microneedles to plastic surgeons are infringing patents.
-
December 20, 2024
3rd Circ. Denies Challenge To Pa. Autism Settlement
A Third Circuit panel on Friday rejected claims a settlement requiring around-the-clock care for a woman with autism is too impractical to be enforced, reversing a lower-court decision and handing a victory to the Pennsylvania woman's family.
-
December 20, 2024
Hagens Berman Settles Suit Over Effexor Deal Atty Fees
A pharmaceutical reseller's in-house counsel and founder moved Friday to drop a Mississippi federal court breach of contract suit accusing Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP of stiffing him on his share of a $13 million attorney fees award from an antitrust class settlement, citing a resolution to the dispute.
-
December 20, 2024
Insurer Gets Out Of Ga. Sperm Bank's Bad Seed Claims
A Georgia federal judge said Allied World Surplus Lines Insurance Co. has no duty to defend a sperm bank that has been sued in Canada and the United States for allegedly selling semen from a donor with genetic abnormalities.
-
December 20, 2024
Court Opens Window For Patient To Pierce COVID Immunity
A Michigan appellate court said Wednesday medical malpractice claims from a patient seeking help for pandemic-related stress were barred because her hospital admittance and alleged injuries had a connection to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the court directed a lower court to consider letting the patient plead a gross negligence exception to the state's pandemic response immunity.
-
December 20, 2024
Medical Records Co. Wants Rival's Antitrust Suit Tossed
Epic Systems Corp. told a New York federal court that an antitrust case lodged by Particle Health Inc. is really just payback for revealing concerns that Particle allowed its customers to inappropriately access personal medical records.
-
December 20, 2024
Top Government Contracts Of 2024: Year In Review
This year, the U.S. General Services Administration made dozens of awards for two massive, uncapped governmentwide deals, while the U.S. Department of Energy awarded more than $70 billion both for making nuclear weapons and cleaning up their legacy. Here, Law360 looks at seven of the biggest government contracts awarded in 2024.
-
December 20, 2024
Mich. Doc Accused Of Selling Property To Duck $35M Judgment
A Michigan doctor fraudulently sold property and sent money to his family members to avoid paying a $35 million forfeiture and $5.2 million restitution related to his healthcare fraud convictions, federal prosecutors alleged Friday.
-
December 20, 2024
The Most Significant Trade Secrets Cases Of 2024
Insulet Corp. became the latest company to notch a colossal trade secrets award, and a new presidential administration has attorneys wondering what will become of the Federal Trade Commission's pending proposal to ban employee noncompete agreements. Here's a look at trade secrets cases that defined 2024 and what to expect from the FTC in the coming year.
-
December 20, 2024
Top Product Liability Cases Of 2024
Some of the top cases for product liability for 2024 include an Ohio Supreme Court ruling on opioids and public nuisance, baby formula trials and an appellate decision in Fosamax litigation.
-
December 20, 2024
Trulieve Wants Quick Win Over Insurer In Wrongful Death Suit
Trulieve said it's entitled to a default win against one of the two insurance providers it claims are supposed to indemnify it against a cannabis worker's wrongful death suit, saying the provider failed to respond to its litigation.
Expert Analysis
-
11th Circ. Kickback Ruling May Widen Hearsay Exception
In a $400 million fraud case, U.S. v. Holland, the Eleventh Circuit recently held that a conspiracy need not have an unlawful object to introduce co-conspirator statements under federal evidence rules, potentially broadening the application of the so-called co-conspirator hearsay exception, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.
-
8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney
A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.
-
Navigating Complex Regulatory Terrain Amid State AG Races
This year's 10 attorney general elections could usher in a wave of new enforcement priorities and regulatory uncertainty, but companies can stay ahead of the shifts by building strong relationships with AG offices, participating in industry coalitions and more, say Ketan Bhirud and Dustin McDaniel at Cozen O’Connor.
-
Sublimit And Policy Interpretation Lessons From Amtrak Case
The recently settled dispute between Amtrak and its insurers over sublimit coverage illustrates that parties with unclear manuscript policies may wish to avoid litigation in favor of settlement — as the New York federal court declined to decide the case by applying prior term interpretations, says Laura Maletta at Chartwell Law.
-
Opinion
This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process
In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
-
Navigating HHS' New Reproductive Healthcare Privacy Rule
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new final rule regarding protections for the privacy of reproductive health information will require regulated entities to grapple with difficult questions about whether to comply with state law requirements or federal privacy prohibitions, says Christine Chasse at Spencer Fane.
-
Mental Health Parity Rules: Tips For Plans And Issuers
Following federal agencies' release of final mental health parity rules, plan sponsors and health insurance issuers should develop protocols for preparing compliant nonquantitative treatment limitation comparative analyses, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
-
Series
Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers
Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.
-
Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys
Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.
-
Opinion
FTC's Report Criticizing Drug Middlemen Is Flawed
The Federal Trade Commission's July report, which claims that pharmacy benefit managers are inflating drug costs, does not offer a credible analysis of PBMs, and its methodology lacks rigor, says Jay Ezrielev at Elevecon.
-
Series
Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.
-
Plan Sponsors Must Prep For New Mental Health, Drug Rules
To comply with newly published health insurance rules requiring parity between access to mental health and substance use services compared to medical and surgical services, employers with self-insured plans will need to update third-party administrator agreements and collect data, among other compliance steps, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.
-
Navigating The Complexities Of Cyber Incident Reporting
When it comes to cybersecurity incident response plans, the uptick in the number and targets of legal and regulatory actions emphasizes the necessity for businesses to document the facts underlying the assumptions, complexities and obstacles of their decisions during the incident response, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
-
Takeaways From Novo Nordisk's Fight For Market Exclusivity
Generic competitors’ challenge to Novo Nordisk’s patents in hopes of capturing a portion of the rapidly expanding Type 2 diabetes and obesity treatment market highlights the role of abbreviated new drug application litigation, inter partes review and multidistrict litigation in patent defense, says Pedram Sameni at Patexia.
-
Secret Service Failures Offer Lessons For Private Sector GCs
The Secret Service’s problematic response to two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump this summer provides a crash course for general counsel on how not to handle crisis communications, says Keith Nahigian at Nahigian Strategies.