Meta Can't Dodge $25M Fine For Wash. Election Ads

By Greg Lamm

Facebook parent company Meta must pay $25 million in fines for repeatedly running afoul of Washington state's political advertising transparency law, a state appellate panel ruled Monday, finding the technology giant's free speech rights were not violated by being forced to comply with the law.

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Wash. Airport Deportation Ban Unconstitutional, 9th Circ. Says

By Greg Lamm

Ninth Circuit judges have determined that a Washington county's ban on deportation flights departing from a Seattle-area airport was an unconstitutional interference with federal government operations, as well as a breach of a World War II-era agreement.

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Monsanto PCB Jury Is Told Cancer Link Isn't Solid

By Cara Salvatore

A longtime Monsanto PCB expert told a Washington state court jury Monday that there is no solid evidence that the once-ubiquitous chemicals cause cancer in humans, saying "a cancer death here, a cancer death there" isn't conclusive.

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Trial Begins In Trader Joe's Vendor's Fight With Poultry Supplier

By Rachel Riley

Employees of a poultry producer cracked vulgar jokes about the quality of the meat while packaging raw chicken tainted with bone fragments, a Washington-state grocery store vendor told a federal jury on Monday, blaming the meatpacker for the demise of the Chili Lime Chicken Burgers previously made exclusively for Trader Joe's.

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Green Group Urges Justices To Save Wash. Port CWA Ruling

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

A Washington state environmental group is urging the U.S. Supreme Court not to disturb a Ninth Circuit ruling that protects its right to sue over pollution discharges under the citizen enforcement provision of the Clean Water Act.

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Heritage's $10M Generic Drugs Deal With AGs Gets 1st OK

By Ryan Harroff

A Connecticut federal judge gave his initial approval on Monday to Heritage Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s $10 million settlement agreement with state attorneys general to resolve allegations it took part in an anticompetitive, price-fixing scheme focused on generic drugs.

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Nvidia, Microsoft Accused Of Delay Game In AI Chip Fight

By Theresa Schliep

Nvidia and Microsoft have traded barbs with a startup over its bid to put a 2025 trial on the calendar in its patent infringement and antitrust suit against them, telling a Texas federal court that the startup is trying to "barrel through the case" and eliciting accusations that they're playing a delay game.

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9th Circ. Partially Upholds Block Of Idaho Abortion Travel Ban

By Mark Payne

A split Ninth Circuit panel on Monday upheld part of a lower court's temporary injunction to an Idaho law that criminalizes helping minors travel out of state to receive abortions without parental permission, finding the "recruiting" portion of the law is unconstitutional. 

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Ex-Palo Alto Engineer Fights Fraud Conviction At 9th Circ.

By Dorothy Atkins

A former Palo Alto Networks engineer urged the Ninth Circuit on Monday to overturn his securities fraud conviction and 18-month prison sentence, arguing that he didn't have a personal relationship with the tipper and so there isn't sufficient evidence to show he traded off of insider information.

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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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