Megan Thee Stallion Sues Over Trial Lies, Deepfake Porn

By Rachel Scharf

Hip-hop artist Megan Thee Stallion sued a social media personality in Florida federal court for allegedly acting as a paid surrogate of her convicted shooter, fellow rapper Tory Lanez, to spread lies about the trial and for promoting an AI-generated pornographic video that appears to depict her.

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Exxon Entitled To Interest Deduction On Qatar Deal

By Natalie Olivo

Exxon Mobil is entitled to an interest expense deduction on payments to Qatar under a natural gas deal, a Texas federal judge ruled, rejecting the U.S. government's classification of an underlying transaction as a royalty rather than a loan.

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Madigan Ally Set Up Work For Speaker's Fired Aide, Jury Told

By Celeste Bott

An ex-lobbyist on trial alongside former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan made arrangements for a political operative that Madigan fired to receive monthly payments while he was unemployed, suggesting he enter into contracts with loyal lobbyists and write up reports on legislators "in case the IRS checks this out," a federal jury heard Thursday.

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Young Thug Takes Plea Deal In YSL RICO Trial

By Kelcey Caulder

Grammy-winning Atlanta rapper Young Thug agreed to change his plea to guilty Thursday in his long-running racketeering conspiracy case, which has become the longest-running criminal trial in Georgia history.

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Judge 'Duped' By BigLaw Attys Urged To Preserve Sanctions

By Bonnie Eslinger

Guardant Health urged a California federal judge Thursday to reject a request from Natera's Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP attorneys to lessen sanctions barring clinical trial evidence in Guardant's false advertising case, noting the court said it had been "duped" by false and misleading statements from Natera's expert and counsel.

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Combs 'Grasping At Straws' In Leak & Gag Motions, Feds Say

By Frank G. Runyeon

Manhattan federal prosecutors rejected Sean "Diddy" Combs' arguments that his sexual assault accusers should be forbidden from speaking out and that the government had leaked grand jury secrets, saying his motions lack evidence or any proper legal basis.

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Abbott, Mead Cleared In Baby Formula Trial

By Cara Salvatore

A St. Louis jury cleared Abbott Laboratories and Mead Johnson of liability Thursday in the companies' first joint trial over claims their baby formula causes a serious gut condition in preterm infants.

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1st Amendment Protects 'Nevermind' Album Art, Judge Told

By Hannah Albarazi

The First Amendment protects Nirvana's 1991 "Nevermind" album art, the Recording Industry Association of America has told a California federal court in an amicus brief, warning that allowing child pornography claims by the man featured naked as a baby in the artwork threatens to broadly chill artistic expression.

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The 2024 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard

Check out the Law360 Pulse Leaderboard to see which firms made the list of leaders in all-around excellence this year.

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Firms' Hiring Strategies Are Evolving In Fight For Top Spot

By Xiumei Dong

Competition for top talent among elite law firms shows no signs of slowing down, even amid economic uncertainty, with financially strong firms deploying aggressive strategies to attract and retain skilled professionals to solidify their market position.

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Centripetal's $151.5M Patent Award Slashed To $113.6M

By Adam Lidgett

A Virginia federal judge has ruled that cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks didn't infringe one of the patents in a case where a jury awarded rival Centripetal $151.5 million, reducing that amount to $113.6 million.

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Jury Awards Synopsys $550K In IP Suit Against Software Rival

By Ivan Moreno

A California federal jury has awarded software company Synopsys Inc. nearly $550,000 in damages after its competitor, Real Intent Inc., was found to have breached contractual agreements by copying certain commands from Synopsys' software — but the defendants' counsel considers the damages award a victory.

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IP Forecast: Another Apple Watch Trial Kicks Off In California

By Andrew Karpan

Apple and Masimo will face off next week in their long-running feud over whether the tech giant misappropriated Masimo's trade secrets for some of the health-monitoring features used in newer versions of the Apple Watch. 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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Fla. Jury Finds 'Undead' NFT Developer Scammed Investors

By Craig Clough

A Florida federal jury on Wednesday found a nonfungible token developer guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering for his role in a cryptocurrency scam prosecutors have said bilked investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

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Ex-Goldman Exec Says 1MDB Judge Thwarted His Defense

By Stewart Bishop

Former Goldman Sachs executive Roger Ng on Thursday told the Second Circuit that his trial defense over the massive $6.5 billion 1MDB scheme was marred by the wrongful exclusion of video evidence that supported his claim that $35 million he received in alleged kickbacks was actually investment proceeds.

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Defense Contractor, Ex-Exec Hit With Bribery Charges

By Elliot Weld

Defense contractor Cask Technologies LLC and its former executive vice president have been charged in California federal court with bribing a former civilian official of the U.S. Navy in exchange for government contracts.

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3rd Circ Rejects Charter Co. Exec's Ineffective Counsel Claims

By Emily Sawicki

The co-founder and former executive of a now-defunct public air charter operator has lost a bid to escape a fraud conviction on the grounds her lawyers provided ineffective counsel in her criminal trial, with a unanimous Third Circuit panel determining the jury would not have been swayed by a different trial strategy.

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Conn. Judge OKs $10.4M Remedy For Securities Fraud Appeal

By Aaron Keller

A Connecticut state judge has approved a nearly $10.4 million prejudgment remedy application protecting investment banking firm FIH LLC while two principals of a beleaguered capital firm appeal a securities fraud judgment that resulted from a bench trial.

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Brief

Flint Water Case Paused For 'Advanced' Settlement Talks

By Danielle Ferguson

Days after a jury trial meant to decide whether a water firm failed to properly warn of the dangers of the city of Flint's water was delayed a second time, a Michigan federal judge paused two bellwether cases because of "advanced settlement negotiations" between individual plaintiffs and the firm.

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Rebar Giant's Economist Rips Rival's 'Narrow' Antitrust Market

By Dorothy Atkins

Commercial Metals Co.'s expert economist testified in a federal antitrust jury trial Thursday that Pacific Steel Group's theory of the rebar market is "too narrow" by only focusing on California, although he conceded under cross-examination that CMC sold most of its rebar within 500 miles of its since-shuttered California mill.

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Cyclist Awarded $16M In University Of Washington Crash Suit

By Mike Curley

A Washington state jury has awarded $16 million to a cyclist who sued the University of Washington over injuries he sustained in a bicycling accident on campus while swerving to avoid a speed bump.

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Consider The Impact Of Election Stress On Potential Jurors

For at least the next few months, potential jurors may be working through anger and distrust stemming from the presidential election, and trial attorneys will need to assess whether those jurors are able to leave their political concerns at the door, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.

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How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources

Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

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Legal Hiring Continued Upward Trajectory In October

By Aebra Coe

The U.S. legal sector logged its second month in a row of job number increases in October, following a four-month-long period of decline this spring and summer, according to preliminary figures released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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The Top In-House Hires Of October

By Sue Reisinger

Legal department hires and changes during the month of pumpkins and goblins included new roles for top attorneys with Nike, a high-profile appointment at Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. and a promotion to CEO for the general counsel at UnitedLex.

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Analysis

How 2024 Election Litigation May Look Different From 2020

By Jack Karp

Courts are fielding a flood of lawsuits over the 2024 presidential election, with more certainly to come, but those suits may have some significant differences from the ones that played out in 2020, according to experts.

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Analysis

What Happens To Ga. Election Case If Trump Wins?

By Kelcey Caulder

The fate of the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump is on the ballot this November, according to legal experts, who told Law360 that a Trump victory would likely mean any trial would have to wait until he completes his term in office.

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Analysis

Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action

By Jeff Overley

One circuit court will hold an oral argument for the history books, with dizzying logistics and stakes surpassing almost anything on the U.S. Supreme Court's calendar. Other circuit showdowns will delve into the high court's latest opinions and flesh out fascinating feuds involving big beer brands and emerging theories of "administrative state" overreach. All that and more is making November a month of exceptional appellate intrigue.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Aebra Coe

Kicking off this week's legal lions list are nine large law firms celebrating a big win in New York after a federal judge threw out a $14 billion complaint against their retailer and drugmaker clients in multidistrict litigation accusing them of making and selling ineffective over-the-counter decongestants.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Emily Sawicki

Philadelphia's district attorney sued Elon Musk over his $1 million daily giveaway to swing state voters who sign a pledge supporting the U.S. Constitution. And Meta told investors the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is considering an enforcement action over the social media giant's financial products and services advertisements.

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen two industry magnates take on the Gambling Commission, Ordinance Survey hit with a claim from a Swiss GPS maker, and China's largest oil company PetroChina face a claim from a Polish documentary maker. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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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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Chicago Judge Erred After Illness Sidelined Atty, Court Says

By Dorothy Atkins

An Illinois appeals court has scrapped a $480,000 judgment against a now-shuttered Chicago restaurant for unpaid rent following the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that a county judge erred by refusing to delay the trial even though the restaurant's counsel had a medical emergency, which left the restaurant without legal representation.

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