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July 11, 2024
Ex-BP Legal Head Joins HF Sinclair As General Counsel
HF Sinclair Corp. this week named the former head of legal at BP PLC its new general counsel, about four months after the energy company's most recent top law department leader resigned to pursue another opportunity.
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July 11, 2024
BP Deadline Denial Could Impact Mass Torts, 5th Circ. Told
A man suffering from a chronic health condition stemming from his work cleaning up Mississippi beaches after the Deepwater Horizon spill told the Fifth Circuit that a Louisiana judge's failure to yield to third-party discovery agreements could potentially impact a litany of mass litigation if upheld.
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July 11, 2024
Communications Co. Says Death Suit Skirted Probate Court
Frontier Communications of America Inc. told a Connecticut state court that it must dismiss a wrongful death case brought against it after an elderly woman fell in her basement and could not call 911 because her phone lines were down, arguing her estate skipped a vital step before filing suit.
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July 10, 2024
Texas Panel Tosses Electrocution Suit Against Oil Well Owner
A Texas state appeals court found that an oil field station owner wasn't responsible for a contractor's electrocution at the station, ruling Tuesday that the owner didn't owe any duty to the contractor under any negligence theory because it didn't direct the contractor's work.
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July 10, 2024
Roku Wins Transfer Of Patent Suit From WDTX To Calif.
A Texas federal judge sent to California a case accusing Roku of infringing patents related to automatic content recognition technology for commercial advertising, finding on Wednesday that the ease of access to evidence, location of Roku's witnesses and Roku's headquarters in San Jose weigh in favor of a transfer.
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July 10, 2024
Houston Attys Escape Defamation Suit Over Sex Assault Case
A Texas appeals court said a group of Houston attorneys could escape a defamation suit brought by a man accused of sexual assault by one of their clients, writing that he did "not even raise a scintilla of evidence" that the attorneys knew statements they made to the media about their client's case were false.
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July 10, 2024
Top Banks Accused Of Infringing Authentication IP With Zelle
Intellectual property licensing outfit Factor2 Multimedia Systems has sued Bank of America, Capital One and others in Texas federal court for allegedly infringing authentication patents with Zelle and other money-transfer apparatuses.
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July 10, 2024
Energy Cos., States Seek Review Of Calif. Emissions Decision
Industry groups and a coalition of states led by Ohio are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a D.C. Circuit ruling upholding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's approval of a waiver letting California set greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles and run a zero-emission vehicles program.
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July 10, 2024
SpaceX Anti-NLRB Crusade Advances As Judge Grants Block
A Texas federal judge on Wednesday blocked a National Labor Relations Board suit accusing SpaceX of suppressing workers' rights while he weighs the rocket maker's claims that the prosecution is unconstitutional, according to a docket notice.
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July 10, 2024
Fla. Judge Will Issue Sanctions For Delay In Tesla Crash Suit
A Florida state judge said Wednesday he will issue sanctions over a failure by a biomechanics expert to timely produce data requested by Tesla in a suit over a Model S crash that killed two teenagers.
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July 10, 2024
Vidal Directs PTAB To Review Nerf 'GelFire' Toy Gun Patents
The director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has overturned Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions not to institute reviews of three patents covering Hasbro Inc.'s Nerf "GelFire" toy gun.
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July 10, 2024
Engineer Who Faced Export Charges Cops To Tax Counts
A Chinese-born engineer has pled guilty to two counts of filing a false tax return related to allegations that he and his wife omitted gross income from their tax returns between 2015 and 2019, after Texas federal prosecutors initially charged the couple with export violations and fraud.
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July 10, 2024
Texas Court Severs Constable Workers From OT Collective
A Texas federal court granted Harris County Sheriff's Department deputies' request to cut several employees from the constable's office from their proposed collective action accusing the department of shorting them on overtime pay, and rejected the county's argument that the case should largely be thrown out.
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July 10, 2024
Intel Asks Del. Court To Affirm It Has License To VLSI Patents
Intel has launched a suit in Delaware federal court asking for an order that it already has a license to various VLSI patents, the latest in a sprawling legal fight between the two parties over microchips.
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July 10, 2024
Pa. Judge Skeptical Of Pausing FTC's Noncompete Ban
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Wednesday seemed hesitant to grant a tree services company's request to halt the Federal Trade Commission's recent ban on noncompete agreements, as attorneys for the company struggled to point to concrete harms it would suffer if the ban were to take effect as scheduled.
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July 10, 2024
NLRB Outburst Order Violated Due Process, 5th Circ. Says
The National Labor Relations Board must reconsider its decision changing the analysis of whether worker outbursts are protected under federal labor law, the Fifth Circuit ruled, finding the board violated a company's due process rights by not hearing its arguments prior to the precedent shift.
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July 10, 2024
Sheppard Mullin Adds Winston & Strawn Real Estate Duo
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP has strengthened its real estate, energy, land use and environmental practice with two partners in Houston who joined from Winston & Strawn LLP.
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July 10, 2024
5th Circ. Told 'Pay To Litigate' Rule Doesn't Bar Refund Suit
A couple arguing the IRS failed to apply their tax overpayments to deficiencies claimed by the agency asked the Fifth Circuit to reverse a lower court's dismissal of their suit on the grounds that they hadn't paid their bill, saying the decision effectively asks them to pay twice.
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July 09, 2024
With Chevron's End, LGBTQ+ Healthcare Regs Face New Risk
The end of Chevron deference is already disrupting regulation meant to protect LGBTQ+ access to healthcare, with three federal judges blocking enforcement of a Biden administration rule prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity in healthcare.
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July 09, 2024
Chase Bank Reaches Deal In Data Security Patent Suit
JPMorgan Chase Bank NA indicated Tuesday that it has settled a lawsuit in Texas federal court over data security patents developed by a former Israeli air defense officer who worked on technological solutions for "survivability capabilities against systemic failures."
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July 09, 2024
Private Funds Say 5th Circ. Ruling Sinks SEC's AI, Cyber Bids
Several trade groups for the private fund industry urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday to withdraw rule proposals on artificial intelligence and investment adviser outsourcing and cybersecurity risk management, in light of a Fifth Circuit ruling that dealt a blow to the agency's private fund oversight.
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July 09, 2024
Healthcare Cases To Watch: A 2024 Midyear Report
Courts across the U.S. this year will oversee key cases to the healthcare industry, from multidistrict litigation over the Change Healthcare hack to a challenge of a state gender-affirming care ban at the Supreme Court. Here are the healthcare cases to watch in the second half of 2024.
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July 09, 2024
CFPB Moves To Unfreeze Credit Card Late Fee Rule In Texas
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has asked a Texas federal judge to formally dissolve a preliminary injunction that has been blocking the agency's $8 credit card late fee rule from taking effect, arguing that the justification of the injunction — the CFPB's allegedly unconstitutional funding structure — no longer holds.
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July 09, 2024
Texas County Made Sloppy Electioneering Rule, 5th Circ. Told
An attorney representing conservative activists in North Texas told the Fifth Circuit on Tuesday that electioneering rules in Palo Pinto County were not content-neutral because they specifically targeted political speech, urging the court to hand them a win because of the "sloppiness" of the newly crafted regulations.
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July 09, 2024
5th Circ. Presses SEC On Whistleblower Award Calculation
The Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case accusing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of shortchanging two whistleblowers who uncovered the largest fraud in Texas history, with one judge pressing the agency's attorney over how much money it was able to collect after the fraudster declared bankruptcy.
Expert Analysis
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5 Trends To Watch In Property And Casualty Class Actions
In 2023, class action decisions have altered the landscape for five major types of claims affecting property and casualty insurers — total loss vehicle valuation, labor depreciation, other structural loss estimating theories, total loss vehicle tax and regulatory fees, and New Mexico's uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage sale requirements, say Mark Johnson and Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler.
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Series
Children's Book Writing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Becoming a children's book author has opened doors to incredible new experiences of which I barely dared to dream, but the process has also changed my life by serving as a reminder that strong writing, networking and public speaking skills are hugely beneficial to a legal career, says Shaunna Bailey at Sheppard Mullin.
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Parsing 2023's Energy Markets Enforcement
A review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's and Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recently released fiscal year 2023 enforcement reports highlight the significant energy market enforcement activities, litigation pursued and settlements reached by both agencies, as well as their respective strategic goals and focus areas, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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FDA's Recent Litigation Records Are Strong, But Imperfect
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has notched its share of litigation wins in recent years thanks to a number of key advantages, but the FDA has been less successful in certain highly visible arenas, Jonathan Berman and Colleen Heisey at Jones Day.
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ESG Investing Caught In Culture War Crosshairs In 2023
As 2023 draws to a close, ESG investing remains a raging battleground in the U.S. culture wars, as illustrated by the array of legislative efforts across the country aimed variously at restricting or promoting the use of ESG investing — but it remains to be seen what practical impact, if any, these laws will have, say Amy Roy and Robert Skinner at Ropes & Gray.
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Lessons From DOJ's Wave Of Labor Market Prosecutions
Attorneys at Patterson Belknap consider lessons learned and future meaningful challenges following the U.S. Department of Justice's first six criminal antitrust cases targeting employee no-poach and wage-fixing agreements, in which just one case resulted in a guilty plea.
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How Clients May Use AI To Monitor Attorneys
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Artificial intelligence tools will increasingly enable clients to monitor and evaluate their counsel’s activities, so attorneys must clearly define the terms of engagement and likewise take advantage of the efficiencies offered by AI, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.
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Insurer's '600-Lb. Life' Win Shows Why Fraud Suits Don't Stick
A Texas federal court’s recent ruling that Philadelphia Indemnity Co. did not fraudulently induce Megalomedia, the production company behind reality show “My 600-Lb. Life,” into purchasing insurance, demonstrates why a policyholder’s fraudulent inducement claim against an insurer will rarely succeed, says Robert Tugander at Rivkin Radler.
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3 Types Of Evidence Excluded Pretrial In 2023 TM Cases
Dylan I. Scher at Quinn Emanuel reviews three areas of rulings on motions in limine from 2023 where parties successfully excluded evidence in a trademark dispute, for legal practitioners to consider for future cases.
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New Texas Funds For Water And Power Projects: Key Points
Two amendments to the Texas Constitution recently approved by the state's voters, implementing public funds for water and energy projects, may incentivize private companies to participate in development of new water and power infrastructure in Texas — and could well serve as a model for similar partnerships elsewhere, say attorneys at O'Melveny.
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Judge D'Emic On Moby Grape
The 1968 Moby Grape song "Murder in My Heart for the Judge" tells the tale of a fictional defendant treated with scorn by the judge, illustrating how much the legal system has evolved in the past 50 years, largely due to problem-solving courts and the principles of procedural justice, says Kings County Supreme Court Administrative Judge Matthew D'Emic.
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Series
Performing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The discipline of performing live music has directly and positively influenced my effectiveness as a litigator — serving as a reminder that practice, intuition and team building are all important elements of a successful law practice, says Jeff Wakolbinger at Bryan Cave.
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5th Circ. Ruling Sets Bostock, Faith Exemption Up For Review
The Fifth Circuit's Braidwood v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decision could tee up U.S. Supreme Court review of whether employing an individual to whose protected class the employer objects infringes on the employer's religious beliefs, potentially narrowing LGBTQ worker protections from the high court's 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County decision, says Adam Grogan at Bell Law.
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Breaking Down High Court's New Code Of Conduct
The U.S. Supreme Court recently adopted its first-ever code of conduct, and counsel will need to work closely with clients in navigating its provisions, from gift-giving to recusal bids, say Phillip Gordon and Mateo Forero at Holtzman Vogel.
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Alcohol's E-Commerce Spike Brings Regulatory Dilemmas
In the evolving landscape of beverage alcohol e-commerce, the clash between supplier marketing and tied-house laws poses challenges, with regulators grappling to keep pace with the digital marketplace, leaving the industry in a gray area, says Jaci Flug at Greenspoon Marder.