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Illinois
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June 18, 2024
Blue States And Enviro Groups Back DOE Furnace Rule
Several blue states and environmental and consumer groups have thrown their support behind the U.S. Department of Energy's tighter energy efficiency standards for furnaces and water heaters, telling the D.C. Circuit that challenges to the new rules are meritless.
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June 18, 2024
Chicago Cubs Will Pay $1.2 Million To End TCPA Suit
An Illinois federal judge granted final approval Monday to a $1.2 million settlement that resolves litigation accusing the Chicago Cubs of sending persistent marketing text messages that violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
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June 18, 2024
BDO's $2.25M Deal Ending 401(k) Suit Gets Final OK
An Illinois federal judge on Monday gave his final sign-off to a $2.25 million settlement accounting firm BDO agreed to pay to resolve a suit alleging the company failed to verify that retirement plan funds in an employee 401(k) were evaluated properly.
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June 17, 2024
BNSF's $75M BIPA Deal With Truckers Nears Final OK
A $75 million biometric privacy settlement between BNSF Railway Co. and a class of truck drivers who challenged the railroad's gate-access practices neared final approval Monday, resolving litigation that had been pending in Illinois' state and federal courts.
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June 17, 2024
9th Circ. Says Facebook 'Face Signatures' Not Subject To BIPA
The Ninth Circuit sided with Meta Platforms on Monday by declining to revive an Illinois resident's proposed class action accusing Facebook of breaking the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act, ruling that the "face signature" at issue isn't protected by the law because it cannot be used to identify someone.
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June 17, 2024
DOJ Wants 15 Years For Outcome CEO's $1B Fraud
Federal prosecutors said former Outcome Health CEO Rishi Shah should serve 15 years in prison while Outcome's co-founder and ex-financial chief each serve 10 years following their convictions for running a $1 billion fraud that affected lenders, investors and clients.
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June 17, 2024
Amazon Fired Worker For Flagging Sex Harassment, Suit Says
A former Amazon employee who described himself as "not heterosexual" filed a suit in Illinois federal court claiming the company allowed a co-worker to use homophobic slurs and harass him, then fired him after he complained.
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June 17, 2024
Justices To Decide If False Claims Act Applies To E-Rate
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review whether reimbursement requests made to the Federal Communications Commission's E-rate program for schools and libraries are "claims" under the False Claims Act.
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June 14, 2024
Novel Ill. Swipe Fee Law Sparks New Banks V. Retailers Battle
Illinois lawmakers have passed first-of-their-kind restrictions on swipe fees that represent a major, multimillion-dollar victory for retailers, but they could also set up a legal clash with bankers, who warn that the state risks turning into a national payments pariah.
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June 14, 2024
Amazon Slams Co.'s Bid For $180M Interest On $525M IP Win
Amazon urged an Illinois federal judge Thursday to reject software company Kove IO Inc.'s demand for $180 million in interest and fees on top of a $525 million infringement verdict relating to cloud data storage patents, arguing Kove delayed bringing its case for years since it sought to start a business venture with Amazon.
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June 14, 2024
Real Estate Recap: Special Servicers, 'Dirty' Money, Alt Energy
Catch up on this week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including recent litigation targeting special servicers, a 700% increase in brownfield funding, and one BigLaw real estate leader's take on alternative energy as interest rates hold steady.
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June 14, 2024
X Dodges Porn Filter BIPA Suit For Now
An Illinois federal judge has thrown out a proposed class action accusing X Corp. of violating the state's biometric privacy law through its use of software to police pornographic images, saying the lead plaintiff failed to allege that the tool can be used to identify specific individuals.
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June 14, 2024
Feds Lob New Charges Over $430M Dark Web Market
Two owners of an online marketplace known as Empire Market were hit Thursday with additional charges alleging that over a period of years they allowed users worldwide to buy and sell $430 million worth of illegal goods and services.
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June 14, 2024
Burford Bound To Sysco And Pilgrim's Unsigned Chicken Deal
An Illinois federal judge on Friday rejected a Burford subsidiary's bid to block a global protein price-fixing settlement that Pilgrim's Pride and Sysco memorialized through email but never signed on paper, saying it's clear the parties reached a material agreement.
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June 14, 2024
McDermott Says Financial Firm Owes $800K In Atty Fees
McDermott Will & Emery LLP says it is owed more than $800,000 in legal fees for representing a financial firm's employee in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and a lawsuit by his former employer.
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June 13, 2024
Tribal Casino Tells 7th Circ. Ill. City Rigged Proposal Votes
A proposed tribal casino has asked the Seventh Circuit to undo a lower court ruling that found Waukegan, Ill., did not intentionally discriminate against it when the city chose three other competitors to operate casinos, saying the city ran a rigged review process.
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June 13, 2024
Cooley-Led Diagnostics Firm Tempus AI Raises $411M IPO
Artificial intelligence-powered diagnostics company Tempus AI inc. priced a $410.7 million initial public offering Thursday at the top of its range, represented by Cooley LLP and underwriters counsel Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.
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June 13, 2024
Clearview AI Makes 'Unique' BIPA Deal Tied To Future Value
Plaintiffs in multidistrict litigation targeting Clearview AI's allegedly unlawful practice of "scraping" internet photos to collect biometric facial data told an Illinois federal judge on Wednesday they have struck a "unique" deal giving the class a stake in the company's future growth.
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June 13, 2024
Monsanto Can't Plead Ignorance On PCB Pollution, Cities Say
Chicago suburbs looking to hold Monsanto and related businesses accountable for their financial share of reducing pollutants in water that flows into Lake Michigan urged an Illinois state court to keep their case alive, arguing the companies should have known about the dangers of the chemicals in products.
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June 13, 2024
Feds' Forfeiture Error Won't Tank Outcome Execs' Conviction
Outcome Health executives can't wipe out their $1 billion fraud convictions or receive a new trial despite arguing that improperly frozen assets prevented them from hiring their chosen lawyers, an Illinois federal judge said Wednesday, ruling that they waived their challenge to the forfeiture by waiting too long.
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June 13, 2024
Bond Denial Upheld For Army Construction Project
An Illinois federal judge affirmed an arbitration award relieving two insurers of covering a $1.8 million bond issued to a subcontractor retained for a U.S. Army construction project, upholding the arbitrator's finding that the status of the project wasn't accurately represented at the time of bond procurement.
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June 12, 2024
Hytera Tried 'End Run' Around Court's Power, Motorola Says
Hytera Communications should not be able to get around an antisuit injunction that forced it to end Chinese litigation addressing mobile radio trade secrets, Motorola Solutions told the Seventh Circuit on Tuesday, arguing that Hytera must be stopped from doing an "end run" around the American case against it.
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June 12, 2024
ZoomInfo's $30M Privacy Deal Gets Initial Green Light
An Illinois federal judge on Wednesday granted preliminary approval to a proposed settlement in which ZoomInfo will shell out roughly $30 million to resolve claims it used people's names and identities, without their consent, to advertise paid access to its full database.
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June 12, 2024
Something Fishy With Conagra's '100% Whole Fish,' Suit Says
Customers alleged in Illinois federal court Tuesday that Conagra misled them by marketing its popular Van de Kamp's and Mrs. Paul's frozen fish products as "100% whole fish," despite artificially adding weight to those fish with an industrial filler and extra water.
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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.
Expert Analysis
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AI In Performance Management: Mitigating Employer Risk
Companies are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence tools in performance management, exposing organizations to significant risks, which they can manage through employee training, bias assessments, and comprehensive policies and procedures related to the new technology, say Gregory Brown and Cindy Huang at Jackson Lewis.
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Series
Riding My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Using the Peloton platform for cycling, running, rowing and more taught me that fostering a mind-body connection will not only benefit you physically and emotionally, but also inspire stamina, focus, discipline and empathy in your legal career, says Christopher Ward at Polsinelli.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: March Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses four notable circuit court decisions on topics from consumer fraud to employment — and provides key takeaways for counsel on issues including coercive communications with putative class members and Article III standing at the class certification stage.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.
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What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks
Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.
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11th Circ. FMLA Ruling Deepens Divide Over Causation
The Eleventh Circuit's recent ruling in Lapham v. Walgreen distinguishes the circuit as the loudest advocate for the but-for causation standard for assessing Family and Medical Leave Act retaliation claims, though employers in other jurisdictions may encounter less favorable standards and the U.S. Supreme Court will likely have to address the circuit split eventually, say attorneys at Benesch.
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Golf Course Copyright Bill Implications Go Beyond The Green
A new federal bill, the BIRDIE Act, introduced in February would extend intellectual property protections to golf course designers but could undercut existing IP case law and raise broader questions about the scope of copyright protection for works that involve living elements or nonhuman authorship, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.
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BIPA's Statutory Exemptions Post-Healthcare Ruling
The Illinois Supreme Court's November opinion in Mosby v. Ingalls Memorial Hospital, which held that the Biometric Information Privacy Act's healthcare exemption also applies when information is collected from healthcare workers, is a major win for healthcare defendants that resolves an important question of statutory interpretation, say attorneys at Quinn Emanuel.
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Preempting Bottled Water Microplastics Fraud Claims
Food products like bottled water are increasingly likely to be targets of consumer fraud complaints due to alleged microplastics contamination — but depending on the labeling or advertising at issue, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act can provide a powerful preemption defense, say Tariq Naeem and Brenda Sweet at Tucker Ellis.
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Litigation Inspiration: A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment
As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.
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Series
Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
A lifetime of skiing has helped me develop important professional skills, and taught me that embracing challenges with a spirit of adventure can allow lawyers to push boundaries, expand their capabilities and ultimately excel in their careers, says Andrea Przybysz at Tucker Ellis.
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Disney Copyright Expiration Spurs Trademark Questions
While the recent expiration of Disney’s Steamboat Willie copyright is not likely to have an immediate impact, it could provide clarity on the extent to which trademark rights in character names and appearance affect what others can do with characters from works whose copyright has expired, says Bryan Wheelock at Harness IP.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC
The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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How Firms Can Ensure Associate Gender Parity Lasts
Among associates, women now outnumber men for the first time, but progress toward gender equality at the top of the legal profession remains glacially slow, and firms must implement time-tested solutions to ensure associates’ gender parity lasts throughout their careers, say Kelly Culhane and Nicole Joseph at Culhane Meadows.
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Regulatory Trends Offer 4 Lessons For Debt Relief Providers
A string of enforcement actions, including a New York lawsuit filed last month by seven states and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, underscore the regulatory scrutiny that debt relief and credit repair companies face and offer important lessons on telemarketing and deceptive practices compliance, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.