Business of Law

May 20, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

Delaware was full of drama last week, as proposed changes to the state's corporate law statutes raised eyebrows and a professor's friend-of-the-court brief sparked a very unfriendly public exchange. Delaware's court of equity banged the gavel on pipeline and social media disputes, and shareholders filed new suits alleging insider trading, vote bungling, unfair stock buybacks and merger shenanigans. In case you missed any of it, here's the recap of all the top news last week from Delaware's Chancery Court.
May 20, 2024
Girardi Wants To Probe Jurors' 'Real Housewives' Exposure

Public defenders for Tom Girardi want to ask prospective jurors in his upcoming fraud trial whether they have seen his wife's reality television show and news reporting about his law firm's massive scandal, according to a recent motion in Los Angeles federal court.
May 20, 2024
McElroy Deutsch Says Ex-Exec's Guilt Boosts Home Claim

McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP doubled down on its attempt to seize the home of two former firm executives following a guilty plea on criminal embezzlement charges earlier this month by one of them, the firm's former chief financial officer.
May 20, 2024
Menendez Texts With Wife A Legislative Promise, Judge Says

Emoji-laden texts between Sen. Robert Menendez and his wife about an arms sale constitute a legislative promise, a Manhattan federal judge reiterated Monday, as the government seeks to prove the power couple had a corrupt agreement with a New Jersey businessman.
May 20, 2024
Pa. Federal District Judge Gene Pratter Dead At 75

U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter, who joined the bench in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2004 and presided over several landmark cases, died Friday at the age of 75, according to a statement from the court.
May 19, 2024
Solicitor General Says No High Court Case Is 'Hopeless'

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told lawyers Saturday that despite the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority, she has never thought a case she's overseen for the Biden administration was "entirely hopeless," and that there's always room to shape the court's opinion.
May 17, 2024
In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.
May 17, 2024
Jenner & Block Sued For Firing Worker Over Vax Refusal

A former Jenner & Block LLP employee filed a discrimination suit against the law firm on May 17, claiming she was fired after the firm refused to provide a religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate despite her belief that taking the vaccine would make her complicit in abortion.
May 17, 2024
Calif.'s Top Judge Launches Task Force To Probe AI Uses

California Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero has created a new task force to look into how generative artificial intelligence could benefit the court system and its users, while also evaluating its potential risks, the court announced Friday.
May 17, 2024
How A $3K Pro Se Claim Led To A 9-0 High Court Decision

A milestone victory at the U.S. Supreme Court for $3,000 in wages started with a Pentagon worker’s principled commitment to his employer — a dedication that ironically led to a decadelong fight against his own bosses. Stuart R. Harrow and his attorneys speak to Law360 about how a seemingly low-stakes conflict turned into a high-profile case with reverberations for hundreds of federal employees.
May 17, 2024
Dozens Of Pro Bono Attys Back 3rd Circ. Nominee Mangi

Forty-nine pro bono partners, counsel and chairs from major law firms and organizations wrote to Senate leadership on Friday with concerns that the staunch opposition against Third Circuit nominee Adeel Mangi over his pro bono work will have a chilling effect on future attorneys seeking judgeships, according to a letter shared with Law360.
May 17, 2024
Trump Hush Money Judge Warned For Biden Donation

The judge presiding over Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial was quietly cautioned after making a political campaign contribution to President Joe Biden and a Democratic group, disposing of an ethics investigation into the donation, it was confirmed Friday.
May 17, 2024
Alito Flag Report Fuels Ethics Debate, But Likely No Recusal

Responses to a report that an upside-down American flag flew outside U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's home following the 2020 presidential election broke along partisan lines Friday, with conservatives decrying it as a smear campaign and liberals calling for his recusal from pending election-related cases and for general court ethics reform.
May 17, 2024
Menendez Bribery Trial: 5 Things To Know About Week 1

Explosive opening statements, closed-door jury questioning and an FBI agent's recount of the moment he found a treasure trove of gold bars and cash highlighted the first week of trial in the government's second corruption case against U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.
May 17, 2024
Ga. Judge In 2020 Election Cases To Take Senior Status

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones of the Northern District of Georgia, who has presided over high-profile cases involving the 2020 election, voting rights and abortion, will take senior status on Jan. 1, 2025, according to an update Friday.
May 17, 2024
Man Admits To Threatening Judge Over 'Don't Say Gay' Ruling

A retired teacher from Pensacola, Florida, has pled guilty to threatening to harm a federal judge in five voicemails he left after the jurist ruled against a challenge to Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law, federal prosecutors announced.
May 17, 2024
Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

Haynes and Boone LLP and Lubin & Enoch PC lead this week's edition of Law360's Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously determined that federal courts do not have discretion to toss a case once it's decided that the claims belong in arbitration.
May 17, 2024
GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

The SEC adopted cybersecurity rules to require investment advisers and broker-dealers to put procedures in place for detecting data breaches and for notifying customers when their personal information may have been compromised, and lawyers said SPACs won't get sought-after relief from a new 1% tax on stock buybacks under a recent Treasury Department proposal. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.
May 17, 2024
1st Circ. Rejects Ex-Immigration Judges' Bid For Asylum Redo

The First Circuit's full bench refused to reopen a Salvadoran woman's case seeking asylum, despite former immigration judges weighing in to say that the judge who denied her asylum didn't follow a legal requirement to ensure her record was complete.
May 17, 2024
Ex-Baltimore State's Atty Says 20-Month Sentence Too Harsh

Former Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby has asked a federal judge to cut down prosecutors' requested 20-month prison sentence after she was convicted of abusing a COVID-19-era program to obtain money from a retirement fund and conning a lender to obtain a vacation home, arguing the proposal "stray[s] from the reality of this case."
May 17, 2024
Trump's Potential Witness Could Be Defense 'Dynamite'

As Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan nears its end, experts say criminal defense attorney Robert Costello, who once advised the former president's ex-fixer and key prosecution witness Michael Cohen, has surfaced as a potentially bombshell witness for the defense.
May 17, 2024
UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

This past week in London has seen a wave of claims filed against Verity Trustees Ltd., Harley-Davidson hit retailer Next with an intellectual property claim, Turkish e-commerce entrepreneur Demet Mutlu sue her ex-husband and Trendyol co-founder Evren Üçok and the Solicitors Regulation Authority file a claim against the former boss of collapsed law firm Axiom. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.
May 17, 2024
'We Feel It': NJ Ranks 2nd In Ch. 11 Cases, Chief Judge Says

New Jersey federal courts saw the second most Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings in the nation over the last year, Chief U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb of the District of New Jersey said on Friday.
May 17, 2024
NJ Courts Chief Warns Plan To Pick Appeals Bench A 'Mistake'

Chief Justice Stuart Rabner of the New Jersey Supreme Court on Friday defended how the state judiciary assigns appeals court judges, criticizing a proposal to move the power to appoint appellate judges from the chief justice to the state Senate and the governor's office.
May 17, 2024
AG Garland Held In Contempt By House Committees

Two House committees voted late Thursday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for not turning over audio recordings of the president and his ghostwriter speaking with special counsel Robert Hur for his investigation into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents.

Expert Analysis

The Most-Read IP Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

IP Law360 guest experts dug into sanctions on Russia, Elizabeth Holmes' trade secret defense, and other key topics including non-fungible tokens, patent examiner classification and inventor testimony in a busy 2022.
Artificial Intelligence: The Top Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

This has been a hugely transformative year for artificial intelligence, with rapid advancements in AI capabilities raising a variety of novel legal questions that Law360 Expert Analysis writers explored, including copyright conundrums, murky legal rights and the troubling possibility of deepfake evidence.
Perspectives

The Most-Read Access To Justice Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

Law360 guest experts weighed in on a broad slate of emerging access to justice issues last year, ranging from evidence of ineffective counsel to opportunities for nonlawyers to provide legal help and the presumption of innocence.
ESG: The Top Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

This year, as many companies embraced environmental, social and corporate governance strategies, Law360 Expert Analysis discussions revolved around increasing scrutiny from investors, regulators and state attorneys general, and the influx of anti-ESG bills and litigation.
The Metaverse: The Top Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

As the metaverse became a popular destination to explore new business opportunities this year, it raised regulatory questions, with Law360 guest experts discussing risk assessments and compliance procedures across various industries, and NFT issues related to intellectual property, privacy and securities law.
The Most-Read Employment Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

This year, issues related to noncompetes, no-poach enforcement and abortion access were among the most popular employment law topics in Law360's Expert Analysis section.
Trial Tips: The Top Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

Law360 guest experts offered commentary on the high-profile trials of 2022 and highlighted best practices for attorneys, such as key principles for sound closing arguments that win over jurors, strategies to help witnesses stay focused, and how to recognize the most common cognitive distortions that can cripple witnesses' testimony.
The Most-Read Securities Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

Ongoing regulatory uncertainty for cryptocurrencies created fertile ground for litigation and enforcement this year, with Law360 Expert Analysis writers discussing a flurry of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission actions that fulfilled the agency's promises of a clampdown.
What 3 Legal Industry Trends From 2022 Mean For Next Year

Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey & Africa looks back on the year in legal recruiting, including practice areas that saw the most movement, which regions seemed most ripe for new office openings and who was promoted to partner, and makes some look-ahead predictions for 2023.
Learning From This Year's Legal Industry Discrimination Suits

To limit the risk of lawsuits and make the workplace a more welcoming environment for female attorneys, it is important to reflect on lawyers' recent discrimination and sexual harassment claims against law firms and public employers, says Hope Comisky at Griesing Law.
Roundup

The Future Of Legal Ops

Legal operations professionals discuss the most important demands facing corporate legal departments today, and how companies are changing or are expected to change in order to adapt.
Series

The Future Of Legal Ops: AI Has Important Role To Play

Though the debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT has prompted some fears about negative impact on lawyers, artificial intelligence technology can be a powerful tool for legal operations professionals if used effectively to augment their work, say Justin Ben-Asher and Gwendolyn Renigar at Steptoe, and Elizabeth Matthews at TotalEnergies.
4 Proactive Strategies For 'Rocket Docket' Discovery In SDNY

With more than half of Southern District of New York judges now allowing four or fewer months for fact discovery, civil litigators in this aspiring "rocket docket" jurisdiction should prioritize case management methods that make the most of this compressed timeline, say Jaclyn Grodin and Nicholas Cutaia at Goulston & Storrs.
Opinion

Law Schools Must Prep Students To Tackle Gun Violence

Given that Gen Z — the so-called mass shooting generation — is now of law school age, it's time for schools to invest more in courses, clinics and other resources to prepare their students to enter the growing field of gun violence prevention litigation, says Kaivan Shroff at Everytown for Gun Safety.
How In-House Attys Can Manage Cyber Risks Of Mass Layoffs

As mass layoffs expose employers to greater cyber threats, in-house attorneys should include cybersecurity considerations in their preparation for and management of the employee separation process, including in separation agreements and exit interviews, says Foster Sayers at Pramata.