'Pull The Plug': Broadband Program Wasteful, GOP Sen. Says

By Christopher Cole

The government's $42.5 billion program to deploy broadband to underserved locations throughout the U.S. should be stopped because it's wasting money hand over fist, according to a Republican senator.

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Gov't Owned Broadband Often Fails, Report Says

By Christopher Cole

A new report from an industry-backed think tank skewers government-owned broadband networks for purportedly relying on public resources to survive but operating inefficiently and competing unfairly against private internet service providers.

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Fed. Circ. Affirms PTAB's Ax Of Telecom Patent Claims

By Andrew Karpan

Federal Circuit judges decided Monday to keep intact three patent board decisions that had knocked out claims in a patent issued to Dutch mobile telecom developer Koninklijke KPN NV that covered a way of regulating access to a telecommunications network.

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Shipping Industry Braces For Waves Of New Trump Tariffs

By Alex Lawson

After a holiday weekend marked by a fresh round of tariff threats from President-elect Donald Trump, the shipping and logistics industry is beginning to feel the heat, warning companies to prepare for massive upheaval if Trump follows through.

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Brief

FCC Chair Makes Last-Ditch Plea For 'Rip And Replace'

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission's chief called on key lawmakers to act soon to fund a program for securing telecom network equipment that faces a $3.08 billion shortage.

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Apple Accused Of Gagging Workers, Spying On Their IPhones

By Lauren Berg

A manager at Apple claims the tech giant is stomping on employees' rights by forbidding discussion of coworkers' compensation and encouraging the use of personal iPhones at work so that it can snoop on workers, according to a lawsuit lodged Monday in California state court.

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JPMorgan, Tesla Agree To End $162M Suit Over Musk Tweet

By Gina Kim

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Tesla told a New York federal judge on Monday the parties have agreed to voluntarily end JPMorgan's suit alleging Tesla owes it $162 million over expired stock warrants after Tesla CEO Elon Musk mulled taking the company private in an August 2018 tweet.

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Insurer Says Telecom Co. Can't Ax Marshall Fire Coverage Suit

By Jennifer Mandato

Liberty Mutual urged a Colorado federal court to allow it to proceed with a lawsuit against a Lumen Technologies subsidiary over coverage for underlying litigation linking the 2021 Marshall Fire to an unmoored telecommunications line, arguing that the insurer had clear standing to bring the suit.

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Government Mole Faces Tough Cross From Madigan's Atty

By Celeste Bott

An attorney for former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan got his chance Monday to question the ex-Chicago alderman who recorded his client while cooperating with the government, pushing him to admit that Madigan never explicitly conditioned his support on legal business for his law firm or told the alderman to vote against developers who didn't hire him for tax work.

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McDonalds Can't Nix $10B Bias Suit Despite 'Close Call'

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge has refused to hand a summary judgment win to either party in Byron Allen's $10 billion lawsuit alleging that McDonald's Corp. discriminates against Black-owned media companies, finding that the discrimination allegations are a "close call" involving factual disputes that must be decided at trial.

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ByteDance Says Ex-Worker Can't Avoid Counterclaims

By Adam Lidgett

TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, says a former engineer shouldn't be able to dodge its counterclaims in a dispute stemming from his termination, arguing that just because he wants to drop his allegations doesn't mean those counterclaims are moot.

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How Boards And Officers Should Prep For New Trump Admin

In anticipation of President-elect Donald Trump's proposed tariffs and mass deportation campaign, company officers and board members should pursue proactive, comprehensive contingency planning to not only advance the best interests of the companies they serve, but to also properly exercise their fiduciary duty of care, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.

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Implementing Human Rights Due Diligence

The Bureau of Industry and Security’s recent removal of a Canadian surveillance provider from its export blacklist, after just eight months, illustrates the importance of integrating human rights due diligence into the vetting process by asking a few targeted questions, say attorneys at Cravath.

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Bonus Spotlight

Wilkinson Stekloff Exceeds BigLaw's Year-End Bonuses

By Anna Sanders

Associates at trial boutique Wilkinson Stekloff will receive year-end bonuses as much as $57,500 higher than those given across BigLaw on top of special bonuses matching those offered by other firms, founding partners said Tuesday.

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Coinbase Says It Won't Use Firms That Hire Crypto Enforcers

By Aislinn Keely

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase made clear that it won't work with law firms that employ former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorneys who led the charge on crypto enforcement suits, singling out Milbank LLP for its hiring of ex-SEC enforcement director Gurbir Grewal.

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BigLaw's China Exodus Continues With Paul Weiss Closure

By Aebra Coe

Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP will close its Beijing office at the end of the year, a spokesperson confirmed to Law360 Pulse Tuesday, ending the firm's physical presence in mainland China after more than 40 years amid a wider exodus of U.S. law firms from the country.

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Approach The Bench: Judge Tunheim Advises Other Jurists

For more than a decade, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim has counseled judges from other countries on quandaries jurists face internationally, from artificial intelligence to court administration to judicial independence.

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Lockheed Martin Taps Carrier CLO And DOJ Veteran As GC

By Gina Kim

Lockheed Martin has hired Carrier Corp.'s chief legal officer and U.S. Department of Justice veteran Kevin O'Connor as its new general counsel to succeed Maryanne Lavan, who is retiring after more than 30 years at the aerospace giant.

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Exelon Promotes Ex-FERC Commissioner To Top Legal Role

By Daniel Connolly

Utility company Exelon Corp. announced Tuesday that a former Reed Smith LLP partner and former member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been named its next chief legal officer, and also said it's also expanding the top legal role.

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Brief

It's Not Your Imagination, SDNY Attys: PACER Really Is Slow

By Pete Brush

Recent mid-morning slowdowns of the federal courts database known as PACER in the Southern District of New York are caused by a profusion of data miners that ply their trade around the same time each day, a district official confirmed Tuesday.

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Microsoft Asks FTC Watchdog To Look Into Leaked Probe

By Lauren Berg

A Microsoft deputy general counsel on Tuesday asked the Federal Trade Commission's inspector general to look into whether commission management improperly told a news outlet that the FTC had opened a broad antitrust investigation of the tech giant.

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Senate Confirms Ex-Public Defender For Mass. Federal Court

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 47-45 Monday night to confirm Brian Murphy, a former public defender, as a U.S. district court judge for the District of Massachusetts.

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New Judges Include One Who Aided Puerto Rico Bondholders

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed two federal judges for Pennsylvania and one for the District of Columbia, who came under scrutiny during her confirmation hearing for her work at Jones Day.

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Analysis

Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action

By Jeff Overley

December's appellate forecast calls for a squall of showdowns in a tiny time period before the holidays, including arguments involving recent U.S. Supreme Court cases, Big Tech's patents and popular purveyors of health food. In addition, winds of change are swirling around the White House's litigation posture and judicial nominations, and we'll quiz you on the latter in this edition of Wheeling & Appealing.

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Trump Argues Immunity Extends To Local Prosecutions

By Frank G. Runyeon

President-elect Donald Trump told the New York state judge presiding over his hush money case that the criminal charges and guilty verdict should be thrown out, arguing in an expansive motion released Tuesday that allowing a local prosecution to proceed would upset the republic's balance of power.

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Judge Mulls Whether DA Willis Must Comply With Subpoenas

By Kelcey Caulder

A Fulton County judge on Tuesday considered whether a Georgia state Senate committee can force Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to testify or turn over records as part of its investigation into her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump.

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Tech Giants Seek Firm's Communications With Elusive Client

By Ryan Boysen

Apple and Amazon want Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP to turn over texts and emails with a client who disappeared from a putative class action against the tech giants, to determine whether the plaintiff consented to the case continuing in his absence.

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2nd Recount Underway In North Carolina Supreme Court Race

By Hayley Fowler

Election officials in North Carolina will embark on a second recount of votes in a close race for a state Supreme Court seat, at the behest of a Republican Court of Appeals judge hoping to unseat his Democratic opponent. 

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