Dentons Atty Owed No Duty In $54M Currency Deal, Jury Says

By David Minsky

A Florida state court jury found Thursday that a former Dentons US LLP attorney didn't intentionally make a false statement or commit malpractice in a failed $54 million dollars-to-bolivares currency swap in which a Venezuelan lawyer lost millions of dollars.

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Stanford AI Prof Accused Of Filing AI-Generated Expert Brief

By Hailey Konnath

A Stanford University professor who studies artificial intelligence and disinformation "ironically" likely used AI to prepare an expert opinion lodged in support of the Minnesota attorney general in a suit challenging a state law on deepfakes, according to the plaintiffs, who said the opinion "cites a study that does not exist."

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Tax Firm Must Disclose Case Info In Malpractice Suit

By Anna Scott Farrell

A tax firm being sued for malpractice and unfair trade practices by former clients can't hide behind a state bar association rule to avoid producing discovery documents it claims are privileged, a Wisconsin federal court ruled Thursday.

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House Dems Tell Gorsuch To Recuse Over NEPA Case Conflict

By Katie Buehler

A group of House Democrats has called for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch to recuse himself from a dispute over federal environmental review requirements, arguing the court's decision could directly benefit a Colorado billionaire and former client who campaigned for the justice's first judicial appointment.

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NJ Courts Eye Tech Education And Competence For Attys

By Matt Perez

The New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday published and sought public comment on two proposed requirements related to emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

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Analysis

Experts Cool On 'Chill' Defense In NJ RICO Case

By George Woolston

Former prosecutors and academics are doubtful two of New Jersey's most politically connected attorneys can convince a judge that the racketeering case against them will have a chilling effect on lawyering, given that prosecutors only have to show they knew the end game of the notorious Democratic power broker they're accused of helping.

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Texas AG Pushes For Preservation Of Jack Smith, DOJ Docs

By Catherine Marfin

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton urged a federal court Thursday to enter an order requiring the U.S. Department of Justice to preserve records connected to special counsel Jack Smith, accusing the agency of remaining "evasive" of Paxton's bid for records related to President-elect Donald Trump's hush money case.

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4th Circ. Tells Judge To Try Again After 'Vindictive' Sentence

By Emily Sawicki

A federal judge has been given a third chance to impose a proper sentence on a man who pled guilty to a drug-trafficking conspiracy charge, with the Fourth Circuit finding the judge erred when, after the defendant successfully appealed his initial sentence, he handed down an even harsher one.

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Key Informant Who Recorded Madigan Takes The Stand

By Celeste Bott

A former Chicago alderman who prosecutors have deemed one of their "most significant cooperators in the last several decades" took the stand Thursday afternoon and began what is expected to be multiple days of testimony in the racketeering trial of ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, whom he secretly recorded while working with the government.

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Ye's Cos. Sanctioned For Blowing Off Discovery In Bias Suit

By Rachel Scharf

A Los Angeles judge sanctioned two of Ye's companies Thursday after they "simply ignored" discovery requests in a former employee's lawsuit alleging widespread racism, antisemitism and homophobia on the part of the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.

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Defamation Suit Against Ga. Election Chief Likely To Proceed

By Chart Riggall

A federal judge said Thursday that she was likely to allow a Texas attorney to continue with her defamation suit against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger over comments that suggested she presented "doctored" evidence to state senators in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

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Pa. Enviro Hearing Board Can Sanction Atty, Court Affirms

By Matthew Santoni

Pennsylvania's Environmental Hearing Board was within its power to issue its first-ever sanctions against an attorney for trying to delay an appeal with false claims that the state Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were looking to talk to Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. over her case, a state appellate court ruled Thursday.

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Paxton Sanctions Bid Unwarranted, Immigration Org. Says

By Elliot Weld

A Texas immigrant rights nonprofit asked a federal judge to deny a bid by state Attorney General Ken Paxton to sanction it, saying it never resisted a civil investigation or misled the court as Paxton's office claims.

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Suit Against Mortgage Co. Axed Despite Atty's Bad Faith Claim

By Lynn LaRowe

A Texas state court judge has dismissed for good an attorney's lawsuit against the mortgage company she formerly worked for in-house, despite a dispute over whether the matter should have ended with or without prejudice.

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Brief

Ex-Connecticut Town Officials Appeal Toss Of Defamation Claims

By Ryan Harroff

 A group of former officials from Newington, Connecticut, including its onetime town attorney, have appealed a state judge's decision to throw out all of their claims against the town and nearly all against tax assessors they had accused of defaming them with a false ethics complaint.

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When Investigating An Adversary, Be Wary Of Forged Records

Warnings against the use of investigators who tout their ability to find an adversary’s private documents generally emphasize the risk of illegal activity and attorney discipline, but a string of recent cases shows an additional danger — investigators might be fabricating records altogether, says Brian Asher at Asher Research.

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3 Ways To Train Junior Lawyers In 30 Minutes Or Less

Today’s junior lawyers are experiencing a skills gap due to pandemic-era disruptions, but firms can help bring them up to speed by offering high-impact skill building content in bite-sized, interactive training sessions, say Stacey Schwartz at Katten, Diane Costigan at Winston & Strawn and Lauren Tierney at Freshfields.

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How They Won It

How A Purple Jacket Led To A Murder Exoneration And $13M

By Julie Manganis

To win compensation under a Massachusetts state law, lawyers for Michael J. Sullivan, who spent 26 years in prison, were required to prove he was innocent of the 1986 crime for which he was convicted. A couple of lucky breaks helped.

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Interview

High Court Bar's Future: Sullivan & Cromwell's Morgan Ratner

By Jeff Overley

Morgan L. Ratner has emerged as a leader of the U.S. Supreme Court bar's next generation, and she attributes her ascent to brilliant mentors, a laid-back argument style, an aversion to overconfidence and a firm commitment to clear principles in every case — even if that means reluctantly telling the chief justice, as she once did, that a hypothetical cat stuck in a tree shouldn't be saved.

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Trump Sentencing Halted To Weigh President-Elect's Immunity

By Frank G. Runyeon

The New York state judge who oversaw Donald Trump's hush money trial officially canceled his Nov. 26 sentencing date Friday to weigh the impact of his new status as president-elect, pushing briefing into December.

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

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen cash-strapped Thurrock Borough Council bring a £40 million ($50 million) negligence claim against 23 other local authorities over its solar investments from a not-for-profit local government body, AstraZeneca sue a fire safety company following a blaze at its Cambridge headquarters last year, and a director who was convicted in 2016 for corporate manslaughter face action by Manolete Partners. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Bonus Spotlight

Top Firms Big And Small Join In On Milbank Bonuses

By Aebra Coe

The latest law firms to follow Milbank LLP on 2024 associate bonuses late Thursday and into Friday run the gamut from global giant to boutique, according to firm memos shared with Law360 Pulse and media reports.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Andrea Keckley

Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum LLP, King & Spalding LLP, Holland & Knight LLP and Barnes & Thornburg LLP lead this week's list of Law360 legal lions for beating a Pennsylvania state court lawsuit brought against Bayer AG unit Monsanto by a woman who said she got cancer by using the weed killer Roundup.

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Squire Patton Lawyer Dies In Laos Amid Poisoning Reports

By Ashish Sareen

A junior lawyer at Squire Patton Boggs LLP has died in Laos, the law firm confirmed Friday, amid reports in the media that she was the victim of a suspected mass poisoning incident.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Google's chief legal officer has blasted a U.S. Department of Justice proposal to force it to sell its Chrome browser, saying a sale would "break" a range of Google products and be a threat to U.S. tech leadership in the world. And in a close but surprising outcome, California voters have turned down a minimum wage hike for workers.

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Gaetz, Greene Face Atty Fees Bid For $550,000 In Calif. Suit

By Madison Arnold

Progressive groups including the NAACP are seeking more than $550,000 in attorney fees and costs from U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and former Rep. Matt Gaetz after escaping their lawsuit alleging that the organizations conspired to pressure city officials in California to cancel the politicians' rallies.

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Analysis

Bondi Vowed Trump Payback. Ex-Colleagues Aren't Worried.

By Phillip Bantz, Chris Villani and Carolina Bolado

U.S. attorney general nominee Pam Bondi is an outspoken ally of President-elect Donald Trump and vowed during the campaign that his "prosecutors will be prosecuted," but people who've worked with her say she's well qualified to serve as the nation's top cop and downplayed concerns that she would politicize the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Brief

Navajo Co. Dismisses Case Alleging Paralegal Took Docs

By Thy Vo

A natural resources company owned by the Navajo Nation has dismissed a lawsuit against a paralegal it accused of failing to turn in her computer for removal of its privileged documents, after the paralegal said she had already arranged to surrender her device before the lawsuit was even filed.

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Senior Dem Asks Schumer For Votes On Circuit Court Picks

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Friday pushed back against a deal Democrats and Republicans cut earlier this week that obligates Democrats to forgo votes on four appellate picks.

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