How They Won It

How Manatt Beat A Crypto Trader's 'Code As Law' Defense

By Aislinn Keely

After a crypto user exploited a software bug to create millions of dollars' worth of new tokens from a blockchain network, a Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP team defeated his claim to the tokens — and won an award worth millions — by showing that faulty code can't stand in for rule of law.

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CFTC Details Violation Materiality After Cooperation Guidance

By Sarah Jarvis

Divisions of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission have offered details on their materiality standards for assessing supervision and noncompliance issues, following February guidance on how much money regulated entities can expect to save for cooperating with agency investigations.

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Murdaugh's Banker Pleads Guilty To Fraud Ahead Of Retrial

By Cara Salvatore

A former bank CEO accused of helping ex-lawyer and convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh steal client money pled guilty Friday to fraud ahead of a retrial, months after his initial conviction was overturned based on jury irregularities.

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'Bizarre' Santos Posts Show He's Still 'Unrepentant,' Feds Say

By Elliot Weld

Prosecutors told a Brooklyn federal judge that former U.S. Rep. George Santos' social media activity shows that he's "unrepentant" for his admitted crimes, reiterating their request for a prison sentence of more than seven years.

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Ex-DOJ Atty Convicted In 1MDB Case Ordered Disbarred In NY

By Craig Clough

A New York appellate court ordered Wednesday that a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney be disbarred due to his felony conviction as part of a sprawling, billion-dollar fraud scandal connected to 1Malaysia Development Berhad and Fugees founder Pras Michél.

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Temple Prof. Claims Colleague Stole From 'Rapping' Business

By Matthew Santoni

A faculty member at Temple University with a side job doing speaking engagements as "The Rapping Professor" claims that his partner in the business mishandled funds, according to a lawsuit filed in Philadelphia state court.

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Block Execs Failed To Prevent 'Illicit Activities,' Suit Says

By Katryna Perera

A Block Inc. shareholder claims in a new suit that the fintech company's top brass, which includes former Twitter chief Jack Dorsey, failed to prevent illicit activities like money laundering, child sexual abuse and terrorism financing on its platform, causing damage to the company's reputation and investors as a result.

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Walgreens To Pay DOJ $300M Over Invalid Prescriptions

By Lauren Berg

Walgreens revealed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday that it will pay upward of $300 million to resolve U.S. Department of Justice allegations that it knowingly filed millions of prescriptions for opioids and other drugs that didn't have a legitimate medical purpose or weren't valid.

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Celsius Founder Asks For A Year And A Day For Crypto Fraud

By Dorothy Atkins

Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky urged a New York federal judge to reject the probation office's recommended 15-year prison sentence for lying that the fallen $25 billion crypto-lender's tokens were safe, arguing he's always had "genuinely good intentions" and should serve at most one year plus a day behind bars.

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Brief

DOJ To Move Ahead In SafeMoon Case Despite Crypto Memo

By Elliot Weld

Prosecutors told a federal judge in Brooklyn on Friday that they plan to proceed with an investor fraud case against the CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, having reviewed a Justice Department directive not to pursue certain charges related to digital assets.

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Suit Says Loyola Enabled Ex-Michigan Coach's Alleged Hack

By Celeste Bott

A former Loyola University Chicago athlete filed a proposed class action accusing an ex-University of Michigan football coach of orchestrating a years-long cyber sexual assault by hacking into university athletic databases and stealing intimate photos and medical data of over 150,000 students, and asserting that the university and its vendor enabled the breach.

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JPMorgan, BofA Face GOP Pressure Over Chinese Co.'s IPO

By Sarah Jarvis

The chair of a China-focused U.S. House committee has urged Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase & Co. not to underwrite a Hong Kong initial public offering of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. over concerns the Chinese electric car battery maker is affiliated with the Chinese military.

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Dog The Bounty Hunter Can't Bag Podcasters For Defamation

By Ryan Harroff

A Pennsylvania judge has dismissed a "sprawling behemoth" of a defamation case brought against two true crime podcasters by Dog the Bounty Hunter and the father of a missing Tennessee child whom the podcasters allegedly accused of being a pedophile, determining that the case was clearly a bid to muzzle participation in a topic of public interest.

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Feds Seek Up To 6 Years For Ex-Bank GC's $7.4M Theft

By Aaron Keller

A former general counsel for a Webster Bank predecessor should serve between 51 and 71 months behind bars and pay full restitution after admitting he spent eight years embezzling $7.4 million, federal prosecutors argue.

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Ex-CFO Says He's 'Extremely Remorseful' Of $44M Fraud

By Danielle Ferguson

The former chief financial officer of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy said he is "extremely remorseful" and "ashamed" of his decade-long scheme of defrauding the nonprofit of more than $44 million, asking the court to consider other factors beyond "sensationalism" when sentencing him this month.

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SC School District's Embezzlement Suit Sent To Arbitration

By Hope Patti

A South Carolina school district must arbitrate the arbitrability of its claims that its insurer conspired with its former chief financial officer to steal tens of millions of dollars from the district by issuing unnecessary and expensive insurance policies, a federal court ordered.

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Conn. Atty Convicted In Shooting Faces Suspension Bid

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut court should suspend longtime Cramer & Anderson LLP partner Robert L. Fisher Jr. from the practice of law on an interim basis after his conviction on a manslaughter charge for shooting an attacker, the state's attorney discipline authority has said in a filing.

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Insurance Exec Pleads Guilty In $134M ACA Plan Scheme

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida insurance executive pled guilty Friday for his part in a $134 million scheme to submit fraudulent applications to enroll customers in fully subsidized Affordable Care Act health insurance plans.

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Ga. Woman Seeks Lower Sentence In $156M FEMA Fraud Case

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia woman charged with taking $155 million in payments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency by fraudulently claiming she could supply self-heating meals to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria urged a federal court Thursday to sentence her to no more than 120 months in prison.

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Ex-Mass. Transit Worker Gets 6 Years For Fraud, Tax Evasion

By Asha Glover

A former assistant chief engineer for the Boston commuter rail system was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for crimes including failing to withhold and pay federal taxes on income from two illegal schemes, prosecutors said Friday.

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Philly Firm Leaders Form Employment, Civil Rights Boutique

By Rachel Rippetoe

Attorneys out of Philadelphia and New Jersey have merged their practices to start a new law firm focused on employment, criminal, civil rights and survivor's rights law, the partners announced earlier this week.

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Reviving A Dormant Criminal Statute In Antitrust Prosecution

The U.S. Department of Justice is poised to revive a dormant misdemeanor statute to resolve bid-rigging charges against a foreign national, providing important context to a recent effort to entice foreign defendants to take responsibility for pending charges or face the risk of extradition, say attorneys at Axinn.

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An Unrestrained, Bright-Eyed View Of Legal AI's Future

Todd Itami at Covington offers a bright-eyed, laughing-all-the-way, skydive look at what the legal industry could look like after an artificial intelligence revolution, which he believes may happen much sooner and more dramatically than we expect.

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WilmerHale, Feds Dispute Reach Of Trump Order Against Firm

By Jack Karp

WilmerHale and the U.S. Department of Justice traded salvos in the BigLaw firm's challenge to President Donald Trump's executive order targeting it, with the firm and the government offering "starkly different" versions of what's at stake in the dispute.

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Ex-Katten Partner Hits Firm With $67M Age Bias Suit

By Lauren Berg

A former Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP partner launched a $67 million discrimination lawsuit against his one-time firm in New York federal court, alleging he was pushed out of the aircraft-finance practice group, pressured to resign and then fired because of the firm CEO's "stereotyped views of lawyers in their 60s."

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Joel Katz, Music Law's Longtime Power Broker, Dies At 80

By Chart Riggall

Joel Katz, the powerful music industry lawyer who co-founded Greenberg Traurig LLP's media and entertainment practice and helped bring the firm to the Atlanta market, has died at the age of 80, Law360 confirmed Friday.

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Sunoco Accused Of Age Bias By Ex-Chief Counsel

By Gina Kim

A former chief counsel for Sunoco LP sued her ex-employer in Texas state court Wednesday, alleging she was denied promotional opportunities and later terminated due to her age, while also accusing the company of replacing attorneys older than 50 with significantly younger attorneys with less experience.

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Justices Temporarily Block Removals Under Wartime Law

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday ordered the Trump administration to halt removals of alleged Venezuelan gang members detained in Texas under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, pending further input from the court.

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High Court's Pause Of Removals Was 'Premature,' Alito Says

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision early Saturday morning to prohibit the Trump administration from using a 1798 wartime law to remove alleged Venezuelan gang members detained in northern Texas to an El Salvadoran prison was hasty and premature, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a dissent joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.

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Judge Nixes Feds' DQ Bid In Migrant Kids Legal Funding Case

By Ryan Boysen

A California federal judge has denied the Trump administration's bid to remove her from a lawsuit challenging funding cuts that prevent attorneys from representing child migrants, ruling her employment at one of the plaintiffs nearly seven years ago doesn't undermine her impartiality.

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PTAB Judge Heads To Boutique, Citing Return-To-Office Order

By Andrew Karpan

An outgoing Patent Trial and Appeal Board judge based in Austin, Texas, tells Law360 that President Donald Trump's return-to-office order was a "significant factor" in her decision to return to private practice, joining boutique patent firm Smith Baluch LLP as a partner.

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Judiciary Faces Security Risks Amid Spending Freeze

By Courtney Bublé

The federal judiciary is warning congressional appropriators that funding shortfalls could threaten courthouse security.

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Wis. Sens. Renew Bipartisan Judicial Nomination Commission

By Courtney Bublé

The Republican and Democratic senators from Wisconsin announced Friday they are renewing their bipartisan commission to recommend U.S. attorney and judicial nominees to the president.

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Up Next At High Court: Preventive HealthCare & LGBTQ Books

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in five cases this week, including disputes over the constitutionality of a task force that sets preventive healthcare coverage requirements, a school district's introduction of LGBTQ-themed storybooks and whether parties can establish standing based on harms affecting third parties. 

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Google and its chief legal officer have now lost two major antitrust cases to DOJ prosecutors after a federal judge ruled Thursday the search engine monopolized markets and servers related to display advertising. Meanwhile, a new study shows companies are disclosing their business risks, and how they are trying to mitigate those risks, amid changing tariffs and the uncertainty of the U.S.-China trade war. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Schlichter Bogard LLC and the University of Virginia School of Law Supreme Court Litigation Clinic lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court revived a class action from Cornell University workers who said their retirement plans were saddled with excessive fees.

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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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