A District of Columbia federal judge denied Sierra Leone's bid to escape a lawsuit alleging it owes Jenner & Block LLP $8 million in fees, saying the nation's arguments that it is immune from the litigation is belied by a contract term that specifically gave U.S. courts jurisdiction over disputes.
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Sierra Leone Must Face Jenner & Block's $8M Fee Suit

By Elliot Weld

A District of Columbia federal judge denied Sierra Leone's bid to escape a lawsuit alleging it owes Jenner & Block LLP $8 million in fees, saying the nation's arguments that it is immune from the litigation is belied by a contract term that specifically gave U.S. courts jurisdiction over disputes.

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Chiles Brings Fight For Bronze Medal To Swiss Supreme Court

By Caroline Simson

U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles is fighting to overturn a ruling stripping her of her Olympic bronze medal, arguing in her latest briefing to a Swiss court that prominent arbitrator Hamid Gharavi had a "blatant conflict of interest" and should not have been involved in the case.

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La. Judge Returns $22M Hurricane Ida Claim To State Court

By Elliot Weld

A Louisiana federal judge has sent a $22 million insurance dispute over oil drilling equipment damaged by Hurricane Ida back to state court, citing an invalid arbitration clause between the parties.

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

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen Axa Insurance and Admiral face a claim from a former lawyer recently exposed for personal injury fraud, the owner of Reading Football Club sue a prospective buyer and mobile network Lycamobile tackle action by Spanish network Yogio. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Boies Schiller Int'l Arbitration Pro Joins Baker Botts In Texas

By Christine DeRosa

A veteran international arbitration pro has jumped from Boies Schiller Flexner LLP to Baker Botts LLP in Texas.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Mentorship Resolutions For The New Year

Attorneys tend to focus on personal achievements or career milestones when they set yearly goals, but one important area often gets overlooked in this process — mentoring relationships, which are some of the most effective tools for professional growth, say Kelly Galligan at Rutan & Tucker and Andra Greene at Phillips ADR.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Analysis

Companies Risk White House Wrath By Keeping DEI Programs

By Sarah Jarvis

For companies pushing forward with their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives amid a torrent of attacks from President Donald Trump and his allies, there are myriad potential risks ahead — and murky questions about the legal parameters of Trump's anti-DEI agenda.

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Law Students Scramble As Federal Gov't Yanks Job Offers

By Alison Knezevich

Law students across the country are scrambling to figure out their next steps after a range of federal agencies yanked job and internship offers this week because of the new hiring freeze imposed by the Trump administration.

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Baker Botts Partners Join Boutique Litigation Firm In DC

By Phillip Bantz

A pair of powerhouse litigators from Baker Botts LLP who scored a nearly billion-dollar verdict in a complex securities fraud case have stepped away from BigLaw to join Washington, D.C.-based boutique litigation firm Bourelly George & Brodey PLLC, launched less than a year ago.

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Mass Tort Atty Files Ch. 11 Owing $202M To Litigation Funders

By Hilary Russ

A Houston plaintiffs attorney has filed for personal Chapter 11 protection with more than $202 million of litigation funding liabilities, according to his petition in the Southern District of Texas.

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Feud Heats Up Over Estate Of Wife Killed By Ex-BigLaw Atty

By Emily Johnson

The godson of a Georgia woman killed by her husband, former Fisher Phillips partner Claud "Tex" McIver, has said her cousins shouldn't get proceeds from a settlement of an underlying wrongful death suit, calling them "strangers" to her and claiming "the redistributive windfall" they're asking for "has no place in Georgia law."

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Boston Firm Says IT Vendor Holding Computers 'Hostage'

By Julie Manganis

Boston-based law firm Melick & Porter LLP says a company it hired to manage its information technology is now holding its computer network and data "hostage" by refusing to cooperate with the transition to a new vendor unless Melick pays it $380,000.

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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.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Phillips Black Inc., Ridley McGreevy & Winocur PC and King & Spalding LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court revived claims from a woman on death row in Oklahoma that prosecutors unfairly sex-shamed her and relied on gender-based stereotypes to convince a jury that she had killed her estranged husband for insurance money.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

A new Law360 Pulse survey shows that more than 90% of in-house counsel have no regrets about their decisions to join companies. In litigation stemming from Purdue Pharma's sales of OxyContin that fueled the opioid crisis, the Sackler family would lose control of Purdue and pay $6.5 billion in the latest proposed settlement. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.​

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Adams & Reese

AkinMears

Altshuler Berzon

Baker Botts

Bird & Bird

Boies Schiller

Brown Rudnick

Burges Salmon

Cheeley Law Group

Clement & Murphy

Clyde & Co

Cohen Milstein

Cohen Seglias

Covington & Burling

Cozen O'Connor

Cravath Swaine

Derains & Gharavi

Eimer Stahl

Eversheds Sutherland

Fish & Richardson

Fisher & Phillips

Fishman Haygood

Freeman Mathis

Freshfields

Gaslowitz Frankel

Gibson Dunn

Gillam Smith

Gordon Arata

Hall Maines

Hilgers Graben

Hogan Lovells

Homburger AG

Howes Percival

Jenner & Block

Jones Day

Kean Miller

Kellerhals Carrard

Kemmer Law

King & Spalding

Kirkland & Ellis

Knobbe Martens

Latham & Watkins

Lipsitz Green

Liskow & Lewis

Lodders Solicitors

Mayer Brown

Melick & Porter

Milberg Coleman

Morrison Foerster

Outten & Golden

Paul Weiss

Phillips ADR Enterprises

Phillips Black Inc

Quinn Emanuel

Reed Smith

Reynolds Porter

Ridley McGreevy

Robin Frazer Clark PC

Rutan & Tucker

Sacks Weston

Schellenberg Wittmer

Selendy Gay

Shapiro Arato

Sidley Austin

Skadden Arps

Stanley Reuter

Steptoe LLP

Sullivan & Cromwell

Susman Godfrey

Travers Smith

Troutman

Weinberg Roger

WilmerHale

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AT&T Inc.

AlphaSense

AlphaSights Ltd.

Amazon.com Inc.

American Airlines Group Inc.

American International Group Inc.

American Society of International Law

Apple Inc.

Armadillo Financial Partners LLC

BNP Paribas SA

British Broadcasting Corp.

Brooklyn Law School

Burford Capital LLC

Chevron Corp.

Compagnie Financière Tradition

Costco Wholesale Corp.

Court of Arbitration for Sport

Cox Operating LLC

DHL International GmbH

EJF Capital LLC

Entergy Corp.

Exxon Mobil Corp.

FCA US LLC

GLS Capital LLC

George Washington University

Hudson Insurance Group

International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes

Investments Ltd.

J.C. Penney Co. Inc.

Johnson & Johnson

Liberty Media Corp.

LinkedIn Corp.

Macy's Inc.

McDonald's Corp.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. SA

Meta Platforms Inc.

NFL Enterprises LLC

National Westminster Bank PLC

Omnicom Group Inc.

Pinterest Inc.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co.

Purdue Pharma LP

Redwood Holdings LLC

Rocade LLC

Royal Mail Group PLC

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Sonos Inc.

The Interpublic Group of Cos. Inc.

The State University of New York

Thryv Inc.

TikTok Inc.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

USA Gymnastics

University of Toledo

Vivendi SA

Walmart Inc.

White Castle Management Co.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Companies House

Delaware Court of Chancery

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Executive Office of the President

Federal Bureau of Prisons

Federal Trade Commission

Financial Ombudsman Service

Georgia Court of Appeals

Georgia Supreme Court

Internal Revenue Service

International Chamber of Commerce

Japan Patent Office

National Labor Relations Board

Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs

Peace Corps

The Crown Prosecution Service

U.S. Air Force

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Labor

U.S. District & Bankruptcy Courts of Southern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court

UK High Court