A federal judge on Wednesday shot down a former assistant public defender's renewed attempt to lay bare certain #MeToo complaints against her one-time employer as part of a long-running case casting a spotlight on the judiciary's internal complaint process for workplace misconduct.
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THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2025 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

#MeToo Claims Against Ex-Defender's Boss To Stay Sealed

By Hayley Fowler

A federal judge on Wednesday shot down a former assistant public defender's renewed attempt to lay bare certain #MeToo complaints against her one-time employer as part of a long-running case casting a spotlight on the judiciary's internal complaint process for workplace misconduct.

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Sheriff's Workers' Wage Suit Should Survive, Judge Says

By Emmy Freedman

A North Carolina federal judge recommended rejecting a sheriff's office's bid to escape detention center employees' wage and hour class action, saying a jury should decide whether the office's use of a fluctuating workweek payment model was appropriate.

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Insurer Asks NC Court To Revive Civil Rights Coverage Fight

By Elizabeth Daley

An insurer asked a North Carolina state appeals court to revive its case seeking to deny coverage to the state after stepbrothers who were wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl won an underlying civil rights suit against the state officers they blamed for their incarceration.

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CNN Fights Remand For Ex-NC Lt. Gov.'s Defamation Suit

By Ryan Harroff

CNN urged a North Carolina federal judge not to send a defamation suit brought against it and a former pornography store clerk by the Tar Heel State's former lieutenant governor back to state court, arguing the clerk was fraudulently added to the case to avoid diversity jurisdiction.

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LITIGATION

Judge Won't Toss Bulk Of Chrysler Minivan MDL Claims

By Carolina Bolado

A Michigan federal judge has declined to significantly pare back multidistrict litigation over a risk of spontaneous explosion in certain Chrysler plug-in hybrid minivans, denying Chrysler's bid to toss fraud and other claims.

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DEALS

Paul Weiss Guides Ares On $304M Form Technologies Buy

By Al Barbarino

Paul Weiss is guiding an Ares Management-led group on the $304 million purchase of a majority of Form Technologies Inc.'s common equity, in a transaction that allows Kirkland & Ellis LLP-advised Form to "substantially deleverage" its balance sheet, Form said Wednesday.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Predicting Where State AGs Will Direct Their Attention In 2025

In 2025, we expect state attorneys general will navigate a new presidential administration while continuing to further regulate and police financial services, artificial intelligence, junk fees and antitrust, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

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7 Employment Contracts Issues Facing DOL Scrutiny

A growing trend of U.S. Department of Labor enforcement against employment practices that limit workers' rights and avoid legal responsibility shines a light on seven unique contractual provisions that violate federal labor laws, and face agressive litigation from the labor solicitor, says Thomas Starks at Freeman Mathis.

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5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2025

Lawyers and their clients must be prepared to navigate an evolving litigation funding market in 2025, made more complicated by a new administration and the increasing overall cost of litigation, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

The 2025 In-House Counsel Satisfaction Survey

Law360 Pulse asked in-house counsel about their jobs, workplace and career prospects. Find out how satisfied corporate lawyers are with their schedules, hours, work-life balance, opportunities for advancement and more.

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BigLaw Firms Report Record Lobbying Revenues For 2024

By Alison Knezevich

Several BigLaw firms pulled in record federal lobbying revenues in 2024, and now the change at the White House and in Congress has lobbyists gearing up for another busy year.

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Chutkan Says Trump's Pardon Can't 'Whitewash' Jan. 6 Terror

By Lauren Berg

President Donald Trump's pardon of defendants accused of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol "cannot whitewash the blood, feces and terror that the mob left in its wake," U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan wrote Wednesday in an order dismissing one such case.

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Ex-Solicitor General Prelogar Joins Harvard Law

By Katie Buehler and Jeff Overley

Former U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar, acclaimed for her oral advocacy in the U.S. Supreme Court's biggest cases during the Biden administration, has temporarily joined Harvard Law School, where she will teach a class called "Changing Paradigms in the Supreme Court," Law360 confirmed Wednesday.

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DOJ Aims To Prosecute Local Officials Who Impede Removals

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Department of Justice instructed its staff to investigate and take enforcement actions against state and local officials who interfere with the Trump administration's plans to deport unlawfully present immigrants, according to an internal agency memo.

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Kirkland Adds 5 Skadden Attys As Firm Plans Philly Launch

By James Boyle

National law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP has announced plans for a new Philadelphia office to be helmed by a civil litigator who is one of five attorneys moving their practices to the firm from Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.

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Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds Slam Baldoni Atty's 'Media Blitz'

By Rachel Scharf

Counsel for celebrity couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds told a New York federal judge that Justin Baldoni's attorney from Liner Freedman Taitelman & Cooley LLP has violated ethical rules with an "all-out media blitz" during their thorny litigation over the movie "It Ends With Us."

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Kentucky, New Mexico Federal Judges To Take Senior Status

By Lynn LaRowe

Chief U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky and U.S. District Judge James O. Browning of the District of New Mexico announced this week that they are taking senior status over roughly the next year.

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Case Removal Rules Aimed At Fairness, Ex-Atty Tells 5th Circ.

By Catherine Marfin

Several Fifth Circuit judges seemed keen Wednesday to clarify what activity in state court would bar litigants from removing their cases to federal court, as the full appeals court reconsidered a remand order for a Houston firm's poaching suit.

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Committee's Trump Probe Subpoenas Are Moot, Willis Says

By Emily Johnson

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has urged a Georgia state court to quash a bid to enforce subpoenas from a state Senate committee investigating her handling of the prosecution of President Donald Trump, arguing the subpoenas are moot because "the old special committee no longer exists."

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Abraham Watkins

Akin Gump

Alston & Bird

Armbrust & Brown

Barrack Rodos

Binnall Law Group

Brownstein Hyatt

Casey Gerry

Cheshire Parker

Cooley LLP

Cotchett Pitre

Covington & Burling

Cranfill Sumner

Davis Wright Tremaine

Dechert LLP

Dentons

Envisage Law

Fitzgerald Hanna

Freeman Mathis

Gibbons Law Group PLLC

Greenebaum Doll & McDonald PLLC

Hagens Berman

Hogan Lovells

Holland & Knight

K&L Gates

Kellogg Hansen

Kirkland & Ellis

Klein Thomas

Latham & Watkins

Liner Freedman

Manatt Phelps

Martin Disiere

Meister Seelig & Fein

Moore & Van Allen

O'Melveny & Myers

Paul Weiss

Quinn Emanuel

Robbins Alloy

Skadden Arps

Squire Patton

The Miller Law Firm PC (Rochester, MI)

Troutman

Weil Gotshal

Williams & Connolly

Willkie Farr

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

A.P. Moller-Maersk

Amazon.com Inc.

Ares Management Corp.

Bimbo Bakeries USA Inc.

Cable News Network Inc.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport

FCA US LLC

GLS Capital LLC

Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Johnson & Johnson

Lexington Insurance Co.

Liberty Mutual Insurance Group

National Association of Attorneys General

National Collegiate Athletic Association

Omni Bridgeway Ltd.

Onex Corporation

Stellantis NV

The New York Times Co.

TikTok Inc.

University of Virginia

Vanity Fair

Westfleet Advisors LLC

Wolters Kluwer

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Dallas County, Texas

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Judicial Center

Federal Trade Commission

Internal Revenue Service

Judicial Conference of the United States

National Economic Council

North Carolina Department of Justice

North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Oregon Attorney General's Office

Superior Court of Fulton County

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Coast Guard

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

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 District of New Mexico

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

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

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

United States District Court for the District of Vermont

United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana

United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio

Washington Attorney General's Office