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Massachusetts
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December 10, 2024
Mass. Chief Justice Says Courts Must Work To Improve Trust
In an era of declining public confidence in the justice system, Massachusetts' state courts are generally held in high regard for fairness and access, yet they still have work to do, the chief justice of the state's highest court told attorneys on Tuesday.
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December 10, 2024
Biz Owner In $2.8M Worker Tax Scheme Gets 18 Months
A construction company owner who failed to pay $2.8 million in employment taxes by falsely claiming his workers were subcontractors was sentenced to 18 months in prison Tuesday and ordered to pay full restitution, according to Massachusetts federal court documents.
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December 10, 2024
BioNTech, Pfizer Rival Wants Party Flip In COVID Vax IP Fight
German biotech company CureVac asked a Virginia federal judge to flip the positions of the litigants in its COVID-19 vaccine patent fight with rivals Pfizer and BioNTech, saying the case had morphed into an infringement suit involving 10 CureVac patents.
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December 10, 2024
Insurer QBE Settles Suit Over Failed $18M Wind Support Deal
Belgium-based insurer QBE Europe has settled a lawsuit accusing it of wasting available policy limits on pointless litigation rather than make a reasonable offer in a separate $18 million dispute over a failed wind support vessel deal, according to a Tuesday filing.
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December 10, 2024
Advent Says Chancery Rulings End Funeral Co. Suit
Private equity firm Advent International told a Boston federal judge that a heated fraud lawsuit tied to its sale of a Mexican funeral business must be dismissed due to rulings from a Delaware judge upholding agreements it entered with the buyer limiting claims related to the transaction.
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December 10, 2024
Eversource Charges 'Junk Fee' To Restore Service, Suit Says
Utility company Eversource's $102 charge to restore service after a shutoff for nonpayment is a "junk fee" that exploits customers who can least afford it, a proposed class action filed in Massachusetts says.
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December 10, 2024
NLRB Judge Protections Get Ax In Constitutional Challenge
A Washington, D.C., federal judge on Tuesday sided with a Massachusetts hospital in its challenge to National Labor Relations Board judges' job protections, saying the board's judges must be removable at will, but stopping short of holding that their protections are a basis for blocking cases they're currently hearing.
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December 09, 2024
1st Circ. Gives Salvadoran Another Shot At Asylum Bid
The First Circuit has ruled that an immigration judge and later the Board of Immigration Appeals may have erred in denying a Salvadoran man's bid for asylum by not fully considering the risk of torture and persecution he faced in his home country.
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December 09, 2024
Mass. Jury Returns $10.6M Verdict In Big Tobacco Case
A Massachusetts jury has hit tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds with a $10.6 million verdict after finding it was liable for causing the fatal lung cancer of a woman, who started smoking as a child, by misrepresenting the dangers of cigarettes.
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December 09, 2024
Former Law School IT Director Admits To Thefts
A former IT director for New England School of Law in Boston pled guilty Monday to using the school's Amazon account to purchase more than $80,000 worth of musical equipment and Apple products, state prosecutors announced.
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December 09, 2024
Anti-China Bias Tainted ADI Trade Secrets Case, 1st Circ. Told
A former Analog Devices Inc. microchip engineer convicted of pilfering valuable design schematics to launch a competing business has told the First Circuit the government singled him out for prosecution due to his Chinese ethnicity and investigators' hopes he would turn out to be a foreign spy.
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December 09, 2024
1st Circ. Lets Rhode Island Reinstate Truck Tolls
Rhode Island may reinstate a toll on tractor-trailers using highways and bridges in the Ocean State, but not a $40-per-day cap, the First Circuit has ruled.
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December 09, 2024
Skipping Diversity Suits Lets Error 'Metastasize,' Alito Says
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to review Boston's allegedly discriminatory COVID-19 pandemic-era admissions policy for three elite public schools, turning away the second case to challenge the use of race-neutral diversity initiatives in a decision Justice Samuel Alito claims ignores a "glaring constitutional error" and undermines the court's affirmative action decision.
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December 06, 2024
J&J Seeks New Talc Trial As Developer Seeks $30M More
As Johnson & Johnson seeks to toss the underlying verdict, a real estate developer and cancer patient who was awarded $15 million in compensation from a talc trial jury has asked a Connecticut state judge to award another $30 million to punish the company for allegedly putting "profits over people."
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December 06, 2024
Jaguars Seek DraftKings Records In Suit Against Embezzler
The Jacksonville Jaguars have asked a Massachusetts judge to let the team subpoena records from a DraftKings employee who handled the account of a former team executive who embezzled $22 million to support a gambling habit.
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December 06, 2024
Real Estate Recap: Valley National, Office Insights, Proptech
Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including Valley National Bank's $925 million loan portfolio sale, takeaways from office sector activity in 2024, and one BigLaw firm's strategic bet on proptech.
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December 06, 2024
New Balance Hit With Patent Suit Over Track Cleats
A Texas patent holder sued New Balance in Massachusetts federal court Friday, alleging that four models in New Balance's FuelCell SuperComp line of cleated running shoes are similar to its design for sneakers that include composite or laminate materials.
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December 06, 2024
Evenflo Nears Settlement In Booster Seat MDL
Baby product maker Evenflo said Friday that it has reached an agreement in principle to settle multidistrict litigation alleging it made deceptive statements about the safety of its Big Kid booster seats.
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December 06, 2024
1st Circ. Affirms Mass. Wind Energy Permits
A three-judge First Circuit panel rejected a pair of fishing industry challenges to environmental permits for the massive — and now paused — Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts.
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December 06, 2024
Philips Medical Monitoring Deal, $4.8M Fees Get Final OK
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Thursday gave the final OK on a $25 million settlement in medical monitoring claims in multidistrict litigation stemming from a recall of ventilator machines by Koninklijke Philips NV and American subsidiaries.
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December 06, 2024
Biz Owner In $2.8M Worker Tax Scheme Asks To Avoid Prison
A construction company owner who admitted skirting $2.8 million in employment taxes by claiming that his workers were subcontractors, including one who fell to his death on a job, asked a Massachusetts federal court Friday for a sentence of home confinement rather than prison.
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December 06, 2024
Husband Of Ex-Takeda Exec Convicted For $2M Invoice Fraud
A federal jury on Friday convicted a Massachusetts man of stealing millions from Takeda Pharmaceuticals through a fake invoice scam with his wife, a former vice president at the drug company.
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December 06, 2024
Boston City Councilor Indicted In Bonus Kickback Scheme
A Boston city councilor stole thousands of dollars in public funds through a bonus kickback scheme she orchestrated with a relative she hired to work in her office, federal prosecutors said Friday.
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December 05, 2024
IP Forecast: PTAB To Hear Pfizer Fight Over COVID-19 Patents
Pfizer heads to an administrative board at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office next week to argue Moderna should not have been issued patents covering "a basic idea" like using mRNA to fight the COVID-19 virus. Here's a spotlight on that case — plus all the other major intellectual property matters on deck in the coming week.
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December 05, 2024
Investors Sue Pegasystems In Corporate Espionage Case
Business software developer Pegasystems Inc. has been hit with allegations that it misled an asset management firm by concealing its use of illegal and unethical tactics to misappropriate competitor Appian Corp.'s trade secrets, which led to a since-overturned $2 billion Virginia state court judgment for unjust enrichment.
Expert Analysis
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FTC Focus: Exploring The Meaning Of Orange Book Letters
The Federal Trade Commission recently announced an expansion of its campaign to promote competition by targeting pharmaceutical manufacturers' improper Orange Book patent listings, but there is a question of whether and how this helps generic entrants, say Colin Kass and David Munkittrick at Proskauer.
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Perspectives
Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys
As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.
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Series
Playing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My deep and passionate involvement in playing, writing and producing music equipped me with skills — like creativity, improvisation and problem-solving — that contribute to the success of my legal career, says attorney Kenneth Greene.
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How Attys Can Avoid Pitfalls When Withdrawing From A Case
The Trump campaign's recent scuffle over its bid to replace its counsel in a pregnancy retaliation suit offers a chance to remind attorneys that many troubles inherent in withdrawing from a case can be mitigated or entirely avoided by communicating with clients openly and frequently, says Christopher Konneker at Orsinger Nelson.
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Using A Children's Book Approach In Firm Marketing Content
From “The Giving Tree” to “Where the Wild Things Are,” most children’s books are easy to remember because they use simple words and numbers to tell stories with a human impact — a formula law firms should emulate in their marketing content to stay front of mind for potential clients, says Seema Desai Maglio at The Found Word.
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The State Of Play In DEI And ESG 1 Year After Harvard Ruling
Almost a year after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, attorney general scrutiny of environmental, social and governance-related efforts indicates a potential path for corporate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to be targeted, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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What The FTC Report On AG Collabs Means For Cos.
The Federal Trade Commission's April report on working with state attorneys general shows collaboration can increase efficiency and consistency in how statutes are interpreted and enforced, which can minimize the likelihood of requests for inconsistent injunctive relief that can create operational problems for businesses, say attorneys at Kelley Drye.
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When Oral Settlements Reached In Mediation Are Enforceable
A recent decision by the New Jersey Appellate Division illustrates the difficulties that may arise in trying to enforce an oral settlement agreement reached in mediation, but adherence to certain practices can improve the likelihood that such an agreement will be binding, says Richard Mason at MasonADR.
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Series
Being An EMT Makes Me A Better Lawyer
While some of my experiences as an emergency medical technician have been unusually painful and searing, the skills I’ve learned — such as triage, empathy and preparedness — are just as useful in my work as a restructuring lawyer, says Marshall Huebner at Davis Polk.
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Questions Remain After Mass. Adverse Possession Case
A recent Massachusetts Land Court decision, concerning an adverse possession claim on a family company-owned property, leaves open questions about potential applicability to closely held corporations and other ownership types going forward, says Brad Hickey at DarrowEverett.
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Exploring An Alternative Model Of Litigation Finance
A new model of litigation finance, most aptly described as insurance-backed litigation funding, differs from traditional funding in two key ways, and the process of securing it involves three primary steps, say Bob Koneck, Christopher Le Neve Foster and Richard Butters at Atlantic Global Risk LLC.
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Cell Therapy Cos. Must Beware Limits Of Patent Safe Harbors
Though developers of gene and cell therapy products commonly assume that a legal safe harbor protects them from patent infringement suits, recent case law shows that not all preapproval uses of patented technology are necessarily protected, say Natasha Daughtrey and Joshua Weinger at Goodwin.
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Why Employers Shouldn't Overreact To Protest Activities
Recent decisions from the First Circuit in Kinzer v. Whole Foods and the National Labor Relations Board in Home Depot hold eye-opening takeaways about which employee conduct is protected as "protest activity" and make a case for fighting knee-jerk reactions that could result in costly legal proceedings, says Frank Shuster at Constangy.
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Series
Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.
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A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System
As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.