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CDO Manager Chau Comes Up Short in Libel Appeal

November 14, 2014
After almost half a decade as a poster child for Wall Street greed and incompetence, investment adviser Wing Chau won a measure of sympathy from a judge on Friday. But for Chau and his lawyers at MoloLamken, the news is too little, too late.
3 minute read

Litigators of the Week: David Heiman, Bruce Bennett and Heather Lennox of Jones Day

November 13, 2014
The team led the army of Jones Day lawyers that shepherded Detroit through its historic bankruptcy—and possibly the start of the city's resurgence.
4 minute read

Dragon Founders Lose Again Despite 'Sloppy' Goldman Advice

November 13, 2014
Sometimes bad advice is negligence, and sometimes it's just bad advice.
4 minute read

Psst, Bank Regulators: Can You Give Us a Name?

November 12, 2014
Why is it so hard for the government to identify the people who are gaming our financial system?
4 minute read

Dairy Giant Hopes to Tempt SCOTUS with New Antitrust Puzzle

November 12, 2014
The Supreme Court's rulings in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly and Comcast v. Behrend made it tougher for plaintiffs to survive dismissal motions and win class certification. Now, says U.S. dairy giant Dean Foods, the court should go one further.
4 minute read

Squire Patton Boggs Gears Up for DQ Hearing in Megabucks Sugar Case

November 11, 2014
An apparent slip-up by a Patton Boggs paralegal last June is still haunting newly-formed Squire Patton Boggs, which must convince a judge this week that it shouldn't be disqualified from a multibillion-dollar trademark lawsuit that's already earned the firm more than $12 million in fees.
4 minute read

Boies Schiller, Debevoise Square Off in Mayo False Ad Fight

November 11, 2014
Boies Schiller's Josh Schiller says Unilever's false advertising suit against the maker of Just Mayo is nothing more than "a transparent attempt" to drive away competition from best-selling mayonnaise brands Hellmann's and Best Foods.
3 minute read

High Court Rejects Enfamil Baby Formula Brain Damage Case

November 10, 2014
By refusing to hear the case on Monday, a lawyer for the plaintiff said the U.S. Supreme Court tacitly affirmed the Eighth Circuit's holding that judges weighing Daubert challenges are limited to assessing an expert's credentials and methodology.
3 minute read

Quinn Emanuel Aims for Knockout in Zoloft Birth Defects MDL

November 10, 2014
A hearing next week could determine the fate of 600 consolidated cases claiming that Pfizer's blockbuster antidepressant causes birth defects when taken by pregnant women.
4 minute read

Vermont AG Weighs FTC Deal as Fight With 'Troll' Continues

November 09, 2014
Vermont attorney general Bill Sorrell said he welcomed news that MPHJ Technology Investments has made a deal with the FTC to stop intimidating businesses with allegedly bogus infringement claims. But he said the agency's settlement could have been tougher.
4 minute read

As Lawyer Bills Pile Up, SEC Target Sam Wyly Defends Expenses

November 09, 2014
In the wake of his $200 million loss to the SEC, Samuel Wyly asked a bankruptcy judge to approve a personal spending plan that includes nearly $2 million in legal expenses for November and December.
3 minute read

Online Education Company K12 Beats Investor Class Action

November 06, 2014
Take a company with a controversial business model, throw in some rosy projections by senior management and top it off with a sudden 40 percent stock drop, and you've got a classic recipe for a securities class action.
2 minute read

Litigators of the Week: Aaron Marcu of Freshfields and Matthew Menchel of Kobre & Kim

November 06, 2014
For the defenders of former UBS banker Raoul Weil, a six-year prosecution ended with their client crying tears of joy.
4 minute read

Latham Vows Extra Rounds in Allergan Takeover Fight

November 05, 2014
Allergan and its lawyers at Latham & Watkins filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday after a judge largely sided with hostile bidder Valeant Pharmaceuticals and the activist hedge fund Pershing Square.
4 minute read

Federal Circuit Rebukes Reines over Rader Letter, Says Pair Swapped Gifts

November 05, 2014
Few compliments have ever backfired as ferociously as the email that former Federal Circuit Chief Judge Randall Rader sent to Edward Reines, a leading patent litigator at Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
3 minute read

Fifth Circuit Unleashes WWE on WrestleMania Counterfeiters

November 04, 2014
World Wrestling Entertainment suffered a smack-down when a federal judge refused to "deputize" the company to take on bootleggers. WWE's lawyers at K&L Gates persuaded the Fifth Circuit that the judge's squeamishness was mostly misplaced.
3 minute read

Yukos Unit Defeats Bid to Nix $186M Arbitration Award

November 04, 2014
International arbitration pro Matthew Slater of Cleary Gottlieb suffered back-to-back $185 million defeats this week in appeals challenging 2007 arbitration awards against his clients.
3 minute read

No Supreme Court Relief for Kolon in DuPont Secrets Case

November 03, 2014
The high court declined Monday to consider whether a judge should have recused himself in Kolon Industries' long-running battle with DuPont, leaving Kolon to face DuPont's trade secrets claims with a series of unfavorable lower court rulings intact.
3 minute read

Argentina Strikes Out in Bid to Undo $185M BG Group Award

November 03, 2014
Capping a decade-long legal battle with British energy company BG Group plc, the Republic of Argentina ran out of options at the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday in the country's bid to overturn a $185 million arbitration award.
3 minute read

UBS Hits Dead End in $350M Facebook IPO Case

November 02, 2014
Siding with Nasdaq's lawyers at Ballard Spahr, the Second Circuit rejected the bank's bid to arbitrate claims over $350 in alleged losses stemming from Facebook's troubled initial public offering.
3 minute read

The Global Lawyer: The Rule of Law with Chinese Characteristics

October 31, 2014
In the decade since The American Lawyer first profiled human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, the Chinese state set out to break his body and spirit. It only half succeeded.
7 minute read

Litigators of the Week: Bruce Clark and Sharon Nelles of Sullivan & Cromwell

October 30, 2014
In Motorola v. Standard Chartered, Clark and Nelles scored a huge win not just for their client, but for every big bank that does business in New York.
4 minute read

Whirlpool Beats Moldy Washer Class Action in Bellwether Trial

October 30, 2014
After winning class action status and surviving multiple appeals, plaintiffs lawyers hit a dead end in the first trial over claims that Whirlpool sold mold-prone washers to millions of unsuspecting customers.
4 minute read

Judge OKs NY Discovery in Billionaires' Beachfront Brawl

October 29, 2014
Never underestimate how hard the rich—in this case a hedge fund founder and a clothing magnate—will fight over oceanfront property.
4 minute read

Propofol Woes Continue for UnitedHealth Over Hep C Outbreak

October 29, 2014
Can Bartlit Beck fend off another blockbuster verdict over claims that UnitedHealth Group referred patients to a doctor whose clinic spawned a massive outbreak of Hepatitis C?
4 minute read

Following Investors, Class Action Firms Get Ebola Fever

October 28, 2014
Who better to turn a crisis into an opportunity than investors—and the securities class action plaintiffs bar?
2 minute read

Judge Shuts Door on Hotel Price-Fixing Class Action

October 28, 2014
Eight months after Hagens Berman got a second chance to press claims that top Internet booking sites and the country's biggest hotel chains conspired to fix room prices, on Tuesday a federal judge in Dallas dismissed the case for good.
3 minute read

Banking Behemoth Blasts Finance Patents at PTO, CAFC

October 27, 2014
Wall Street may not be as vulnerable to patent lawsuits as Silicon Valley or the pharmaceuticals industry. But the gap is narrowing—and major banks are collaborating in an effort to keep accused patent trolls at bay.
4 minute read

U.S. Terror Victims Win Battle Over Syrian State Funds

October 27, 2014
After eight years of litigation in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, families of two Americans who were beheaded in 2004 by members of an al-Qaida splinter group are finally on the verge of receiving about $82 million in frozen Syrian bank funds.
6 minute read

McGraw Hill Corporate Spying Case Heads to Second Circuit

October 26, 2014
Does allegedly peeking at a competitor's wares to help you sell your own products count as corporate espionage or legitimate market research? The answer, as you might expect, is it depends.
3 minute read

NBC Inks $6.4 Million Deal to Stem Intern Uprising

October 24, 2014
Everyone's waiting for a federal appeals court to decide if unpaid interns can band together to sue former employers for back wages. But for two contestants in the intern wars, the suspense was apparently too much to bear.
2 minute read

NY High Court Upholds Rule Shielding Foreign Bank Branches

October 23, 2014
In a decision with major implications for New York and its resident global financial institutions, the state's highest court ruled Thursday that banks with New York branches needn't turn over customers' overseas assets to claimants attempting to enforce U.S. court judgments.
4 minute read

Excalibur Litigation Funders Take Another Hit

October 23, 2014
A London judge ruled that a group of litigation funders must ante up an additional $7.7 million for a failed cased brought by an obscure entity called Excalibur Ventures that was represented by Clifford Chance. That brings their total legal tab to date to $57.7 million.
3 minute read

Litigator of the Week: Nicholas Gravante Jr. of Boies, Schiller & Flexner

October 23, 2014
On Texas turf, the New York litigator marshaled his resources to score a massive verdict against Trinity Industries that could affect the safety of drivers around the nation, and possibly beyond.
4 minute read

When Lawyers Sue Lawyers, One Standard Should Apply

October 22, 2014
Corporate law firms and their clients like to talk about tort reform and abuses by the plaintiffs bar. But what happens when the accusations flow the other way?
5 minute read

Covington Fends Off Contraceptive IP Challenge for Actavis

October 22, 2014
In a big win for Actavis plc, the Federal Circuit on Wednesday reaffirmed a lower court decision that Actavis' patent for the popular low-estrogen birth control pill Lo Loestrin is valid and enforceable.
3 minute read

Wall Street Targets Urge NY Judges to Hobble the SEC

October 22, 2014
A trio of federal judges—and eventually the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit—will have to grapple with the SEC's power to target Wall Street defendants on the agency's own turf.
3 minute read

Tech Players Line Up Against ITC Power to Ban Digital Files

October 21, 2014
Congress gave the U.S. International Trade Commission the power to bar imports of products that infringe U.S. patents or otherwise offer their makers an unfair competitive edge. But should the ITC be able to block the flow of information as well?
5 minute read

Dish, Southwest, Time Warner Targeted in New Patent Blitz

October 21, 2014
After a brief hiatus—and some promising developments for patent defendants—the patent plaintiff Phoenix Licensing LLC fired off a new round of infringement lawsuits in East Texas federal court, targeting 15 companies ranging from Charter Communications to Honda to T-Mobile.
2 minute read

Lawyer Escapes Sanctions Over Fosamax Trial 'Tirade'

October 20, 2014
Four years after a federal district judge in New York lambasted a product liability lawyer for going overboard in his closing arguments during a bellwether trial against Merck & Co. Inc., an appeals court has vacated sanctions against the attorney.
3 minute read

Boies Schiller Scores $175M Verdict in Guardrail Defects Case

October 20, 2014
A federal jury ordered Dallas-based Trinity Industries to pay the government $175 million for withholding critical information about design changes to an approved safety feature.
2 minute read

Facebook Sues DLA, Milberg, Former NY AG Over Ceglia Case

October 20, 2014
The lawsuit, filed by lawyers at Kellogg Huber, alleges that leading partners at DLA Piper, Milberg and other firms knew or should have known that Paul Ceglia forged the contract at the heart of his highly publicized ownership case against Facebook.
4 minute read

Knowles Evens Score in IP Fight With Chinese Rival

October 19, 2014
Amid claims that its client was unfairly bullied by protectionist Chinese courts, team from Covington won a key victory at the U.S. International Trade Commission in an intercontinental patent feud involving mobile device technology.
3 minute read

Kramer Levin Becomes Target in TransPerfect Partners' Row

October 17, 2014
A multijurisdictional slugfest between the cofounders of the world's third-largest translation company is heating up after Sullivan & Cromwell sought sanctions against one of the founders and her lawyers at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel.
3 minute read

Q&A: Brandon Garrett on Corporate Prosecution Agreements

October 17, 2014
The UVA law professor talked to the Litigation Daily about his new book, the rise in nonprosecution and deferred prosecution agreements, and whether the government takes a "rehabilitative approach" to corporate offenders that it denies to most individual criminal defendants.
5 minute read

Litigators of the Week: Randall Baron of Robbins Geller and Joel Friedlander of Friedlander & Gorris

October 16, 2014
Before Friedlander and Baron took control of the Delaware shareholder litigation over Warburg Pincus' acquisition of Rural/Metro Corp., the case was ready to fizzle. Instead, the duo uncovered a web of conflicts and deception that led up to a $75.8 million ruling against Royal Bank of Canada.
4 minute read

Ambac Loses Bid to Revive JPMorgan RMBS Contract Claims

October 16, 2014
Siding with defense lawyers at Sullivan & Cromwell, an appeals court in New York affirmed a decision dismissing breach of contract claims by Ambac against EMC Mortgage, a Bear Stearns unit acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
2 minute read

Trinity Battles Guardrail Claims as Texas Trial Nears Close

October 16, 2014
Three months after a whistleblower's billion-dollar case against a major Texas manufacturer of highway guardrail systems ended in a mistrial, platoons of lawyers for both sides are gearing up for closing arguments in a retrial now underway in Marshall, Texas.
4 minute read

The Global Lawyer: Forget 'Arab Bank.' 'In re 9/11' Is Back.

October 15, 2014
Twelve years after Ron Motley filed a trillion-dollar lawsuit over the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, it's time to pick on the Saudis.
11 minute read

Wife of Ex-SAC Trader Martoma Asks Court for Lifeline

October 15, 2014
Rosemary Martoma was never implicated in her husband Mathew's insider trading scheme, which entailed using confidential drug trial information to help SAC make a windfall $275 million profit. Now her lawyers at Goodwin Procter say she shouldn't have to pay for his crimes.
2 minute read

A Class Cert Win, Another Settlement and DQ Woes for Air Cargo Plaintiffs

October 15, 2014
Fresh on the heels of a new settlement, a judge on Wednesday recommended certifying a direct purchaser class in the massive air cargo antitrust MDL. But an attempt to disqualify one of the lead plaintiffs firms threatens to block it from seeing the case through to the end.
4 minute read

Patent Battle Over Teva's Copaxone Heads to High Court

October 14, 2014
The case could set a precedent requiring the Federal Circuit to defer to district court claim construction rulings, a move that would shift power from the Federal Circuit and could make it more difficult for lawyers to get patent decisions reversed on appeal. 
4 minute read

Judge Sets AriZona Cofounder's Stake at $1 Billion

October 14, 2014
After nearly seven years of litigation, a state judge in Mineola, N.Y., ruled Tuesday that the cofounder of the company that makes AriZona iced tea owes his former business partner about $1 billion for his ownership share in the company.
4 minute read

Amkor Vows to Fight $128 Million Tessera Win, PTO Defeat

October 14, 2014
Last week ended on a decidedly sour note for Amkor Technology, a contract chip assembler that's been locked in endless litigation with semiconductor IP company Tessera Technologies. But the news was all good for Tessera and its lawyers at Irell & Manella.
3 minute read

Chevron, Yukos, and 'Two Lifetimes of Litigation' Revisited

October 13, 2014
Which will be remembered as the main event in the world's biggest cases—the litigation or the arbitration?
5 minute read

NFL Defeats Ex-Players' Publicity Rights Lawsuits

October 13, 2014
Debevoise, representing the National Football League, convinced a federal judge in Minnesota that the works of NFL Films are not commercial speech and deserve First Amendment protection.
2 minute read

Cooley Wins Attorney Fees After NexTag Patent Trial Win

October 10, 2014
A federal judge in Charlotte held that LendingTree and its lawyers at Sheppard Mullin engaged in unreasonable litigation tactics against Cooley client NexTag and must pay a large portion of Cooley's fees.
2 minute read

Toberoff's Last Superhero Stand at the Ninth Circuit

October 10, 2014
In the last two weeks, plaintiffs lawyer Marc Toberoff has seen his assault on Hollywood over superhero copyrights largely wind down. But the plaintiffs lawyer is still fighting for the daughter of Jerry Siegel, a cocreator of Superman.
3 minute read

Ordered To Pay Exxon $2B, Venezuela Claims Victory

October 10, 2014
Although an international arbitration panel ordered Venezuela to pay more than $2 billion to subsidiaries of Exxon Mobil Corp., Venezuela's lead lawyer at Curtis is crowing about the victory.
2 minute read

Litigator of the Week: Lewis Remele Jr. of Bassford Remele

October 09, 2014
Capping years of litigation over an arbitration gone awry, Remele helped secure an estimated $800 million victory for Seagate in a trade secrets battle with rival hard drive maker Western Digital.
5 minute read

Court Revives SOX Whistleblower's Case Against JPMorgan

October 09, 2014
Thanks to an earlier decision by the Second Circuit that lowered the requirements for asserting whistleblower claims under Sarbanes-Oxley, JPMorgan Chase must again face allegations that it fired a former vice president for raising suspicions about a favored client.
2 minute read

How One Firm Tracked an Oligarch—and Billions in Fraud

October 09, 2014
Mukhtar Ablyazov lived a fairy tale life—until Hogan Lovells persuaded the world's toughest antifraud courts to get much tougher.
10 minute read

Seagate Claims $800 Million Win in Trade Secrets Appeal

October 08, 2014
Despite efforts by appellate heavyweight Lisa Blatt of Arnold & Porter to engineer a reversal, Western Digital Corp. and one of its employees came up short again on Wednesday in their bid to undo a blockbuster arbitration victory for Seagate Technology.
3 minute read

Fee Fight Shines Spotlight on Patent Plaintiff's Troubles

October 08, 2014
A decade ago Rates Technology Inc. was one of the busiest patent plaintiffs around. Now, according a ruling in a failed case RTI brought last year, the company isn't paying its lawyers, its patents are near expiring and its president, Jerry Weinberger, is worried about his job.
4 minute read

Shut Out in Court, SAP Inks Deal To End Versata Patent Woes

October 07, 2014
After fighting for three years to undo a $391 million patent infringement verdict it lost to Versata Software Inc., SAP AG has finally thrown in the towel.
3 minute read

Court Revives Contract Row Over Bristol-Myers HIV Drug

October 07, 2014
In a win for Mayer Brown, the court rekindled claims that Bristol-Myers Squibb permitted Mylan Laboratories to sell a low-cost version of its patented HIV drug in countries struggling to cope with AIDS, only to have Mylan exceed the scope of the agreement.
3 minute read

DietGoal Can't Escape Invalidity Ruling in Texas Patent Cases

October 06, 2014
DietGoal Innovations tried to keep a batch of Texas patent lawsuits alive by attacking a New York ruling killing off the company's patent. But despite drawing a visiting appeals judge in the Texas case, DietGoal's bid to challenge the New York decision will have to wait.
3 minute read

High Court Snubs Omnicare Whistleblower's False Claims Act Appeal

October 06, 2014
In a development that's sure to cheer the pharmaceutical industry, the U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to review a lower court ruling limiting drug companies' False Claims Act liability for shoddy distribution practices.
3 minute read

The Global Lawyer: A Wild 'Off Week' in the Chevron Ecuador Case

October 06, 2014
The Canadian bar revolts, Chevron mugs a litigation funder, and the plaintiffs play jujitsu. What's next—Donziger tossing out the first pitch of the World Series?
3 minute read

Judge Trims Abbott Whistleblower's False Claims Act Suit

October 05, 2014
The ruling is a blow to salesmen-turned-plaintiffs lawyer Kevin Colquitt, who sued Abbott when he was a law student and then, Kirkland & Ellis says, shopped the case to law firms in order to land a job.
4 minute read

MatlinPatterson Fends Off $55 Million Arbitration Award

October 05, 2014
The fund's lawyers at Simpson Thacher persuaded a judge to rule for the second time that MatlinPatterson never agreed to arbitrate pricing disputes over a $320 million Brazilian airline industry transaction.
3 minute read

The Global Lawyer: Class Actions Aborning in Europe and the UK

October 05, 2014
After 15 years in the waiting room, it's time for global antitrust plaintiffs to hand out cigars.
6 minute read

Baker Botts Wins High Court Review in Bankruptcy Fee Fight

October 02, 2014
The firm and its cocounsel raked in about $120 million in fees from the bankruptcy of Asarco LLC, plus an enhancement of $4.2 million for work that a judge called "nothing short of extraordinary." But the firm says it's entitled to millions more incurred successfully defending its bounty.
3 minute read

Litigator of the Week: Joseph Re of Knobbe Martens

October 02, 2014
Re and his firm won their biggest victory yet for medical device company Masimo Corp., persuading a federal jury in Delaware that Philips Electronics owes $467 million for infringing two Masimo patents.
4 minute read

Cahill, BASF Say Court Flubbed Litigation Privilege Ruling

October 02, 2014
The firm and its former client want the Third Circuit to rehear arguments that they're shielded from allegations they deceived plaintiffs and the courts for years about evidence of potential asbestos liability.
3 minute read

Robbins Geller Deflects Attacks as JPMorgan Case Gets Green Light

October 01, 2014
A judge certified an investor class action against JPMorgan Chase & Co. related to about $10 billion in mortgage-backed securities, rejecting the bank's claims that the plaintiffs firm isn't cut out to lead the 5-year-old case.
3 minute read

Facebook Won't Easily Shake Private Messaging Suit

October 01, 2014
A California federal judge indicated she needs more information to evaluate claims that Facebook illegally scanned users' messages.
4 minute read

Del. Court Wipes Out $250M Verdict Against Covidien Unit

October 01, 2014
The Delaware Supreme Court's ruling is a victory for ev3's appellate lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, who said it will help shield Delaware companies from attacks over deal terms that were never made final.
3 minute read

Apple Fights to Cap Damages as iPad Patent Trial Looms

October 01, 2014
Two weeks after an appeals court tossed VirnetX Inc.'s $368 million patent infringement verdict against Apple, the company's lawyers are hoping the ruling will limit its liability in another case that's now on the verge of trial.
3 minute read

Cravath, Kaye Scholer Lose Bid to Derail Novartis Kickbacks Case

September 30, 2014
Judging by a ruling issued on Tuesday, defense lawyers have their work cut out for them in the latest False Claims Act lawsuit alleging that Novartis AG offered doctors kickbacks to prescribe certain drugs.
2 minute read

Ruling Blasts Acacia for 'Reckless and Wasteful' Litigation

September 30, 2014
A Delaware federal judge has unsealed his Sept. 25 order granting NetApp's attorney fees against Acacia Research subsidiary Summit Data Systems, and it's a doozy.
3 minute read

U.S. Judges Become South American Villains in Argentina, Ecuador Cases

September 30, 2014
Lawyers and career criminals aside, most Americans couldn't come up with the name of a single active trial court judge in their own country. But plenty of folks in Argentina and Ecuador have heard of U.S. District Judges Thomas Griesa and Lewis Kaplan.
3 minute read

Marvel Settlement Leaves Copyright Questions Hanging

September 30, 2014
No superheroes emerged from the five-year battle between Marvel Entertainment and the heirs of comic book artist Jack Kirby, which fizzled with a settlement before the U.S. Supreme Court was due to weigh the case this week. But the copyright adventure is likely to continue.
5 minute read

US Judges Become South American Villains in Argentina, Ecuador Cases

September 30, 2014
Lawyers and career criminals aside, most Americans couldn't come up with the name of a single trial court judge in their own country. But plenty of folks in Argentina and Ecuador have heard of U.S. District Judges Thomas Griesa and Lewis Kaplan.
3 minute read

Wachtell Fends Off Class Action Sparked by Avon Bribes Flap

September 29, 2014
Allegations that Avon bribed its way into the Chinese market sparked a massive internal probe and a criminal settlement. But a judge sent a proposed securities class action over the scandal back to the drawing board on Monday, dealing a defeat to plaintiffs lawyers at Motley Rice.
3 minute read

Signs of a Tougher SEC?

September 29, 2014
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed rare nerve in two cases that reached a head last week.
4 minute read

Judge Cues Trial in Antitrust Case Over Apple's iPod

September 29, 2014
A federal judge has hit the play button on antitrust allegations targeting Apple iPods, sending the case toward trial after nearly 10 years of litigation.
3 minute read

Lawyers Shoot for the Moon With Fee Bid in LBO Case

September 29, 2014
Scott & Scott, Robins Kaplan and Robbins Geller didn't end up getting the billions in damages they were seeking in a class action alleging that private equity firms fixed the prices of leveraged buyouts. But you wouldn't know it from the bold attorneys fee request they made on Friday.
3 minute read

Judge Nixes Hedge Fund's Bid to Block $3.7B Bank Merger

September 28, 2014
The ruling offers an answer to an unsettled question for securities fraud litigants, and it removes one roadblock to the proposed $3.7 billion merger between CorpBanca, one of Chile's largest banks, and Brazil's Itaú Unibanco.
3 minute read

Honda Wins Ruling That Patent Plaintiff Deceived the PTO

September 28, 2014
Nine years after first filing a patent infringement suit against Honda, attorneys at Baker Botts have again failed to shake a ruling that their client duped the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in order to obtain its patents.
4 minute read

Fairfield Liquidator Wins New Chance to Void Madoff Deal

September 27, 2014
As with any financial upheaval, the collapse of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities brought opportunities for fees and profit. And as with Madoff's fraud, some suffered plain old bad luck.
4 minute read

Facebook Fights to Snuff Out Privacy Suit

September 26, 2014
A federal judge in California is set to hear arguments Wednesday on the company's motion to dismiss claims it illegally screened users' messages.
6 minute read

Wylys Must Pay at Least $300 Million, Judge Rules

September 25, 2014
In one of the stiffest penalties ever imposed on individual defendants in a securities fraud case, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ordered billionaire Sam Wyly and the estate of his brother Charles Wyly to hand over between $300 million and $400 million to the SEC.
3 minute read

Litigators of the Week: Plaintiffs Counsel in Linde v. Arab Bank

September 25, 2014
Arab Bank may someday reverse a jury's verdict that it's liable for facilitating acts of terror. But for now the victims' lawyers are relishing a long-awaited victory.
5 minute read

What's Next For Eric Holder?

September 25, 2014
"In the months ahead, I will leave the Department of Justice, but I will never, I will never leave the work," said Holder, who left Covington & Burling to become attorney general in 2009.
10 minute read

Boston Scientific Socked With $309 Million Verdict

September 25, 2014
Siding with lawyers at Williams & Connolly, a state court jury in Maryland awarded patent licensing company Mirowski Family Ventures $309.3 million after a two-week trial.
3 minute read

Exxon Loses Bid to Dismiss Human Rights Lawsuit

September 25, 2014
Indonesians suing Exxon Mobil over the deaths, injuries or disappearances of their family members—allegedly at the hands of soldiers hired by the oil company—can move forward with their case, a federal judge in Washington ruled Wednesday.
3 minute read

Illinois High Court Takes Up $10 Billion Philip Morris Case

September 24, 2014
The Illinois Supreme Court is ready to take another look at a $10 billion tobacco verdict against Philip Morris that it threw out a decade ago, only to have a lower court reinstate the verdict this April based on evidence that came out after trial.
3 minute read

Weil Helps Game-Makers Defeat Animation Patent Claims

September 24, 2014
Invoking classic Bob Dylan and fresh U.S. Supreme Court precedent on patent-eligibility, a federal judge on Wednesday halted a small company's litigation campaign against the video game industry.
4 minute read

CalPERS Flags Concerns Over HP Settlement

September 24, 2014
The nation's largest public pension fund this week became the latest to voice concerns over a settlement that would extinguish shareholder derivative litigation over Hewlett-Packard's botched 2011 acquisition of British software firm Autonomy.
2 minute read

Persistence Pays Off for Boies Schiller in Barclays-Lehman Brawl

September 24, 2014
Barring an unlikely U.S. Supreme Court reversal, lawyers at Boies, Schiller & Flexner can finally add the roller-coaster bankruptcy litigation over Barclays' fire sale acquisition of Lehman Brothers' brokerage unit to the firm's win column.
3 minute read

White & Case Wins $740M Award Over Venezuela Mine Seizure

September 23, 2014
Spokane, Wash.-based Gold Reserve Inc. is trumpeting the award and congratulating its lawyers, even as it admits that it wanted a lot more money.
3 minute read

The Global Lawyer: Scenes from the Arab Bank Terrorism Trial

September 23, 2014
A great trial lawyer delivers a classic closing, only to be upstaged by the shy man who pulled him into the case.
9 minute read

A Good Day for Terror Funding Plaintiffs in New York

September 22, 2014
With a historic trial victory against Arab Bank and an appellate decision reviving claims against NatWest, plaintiffs took the advantage in Anti-Terrorism Act litigation against international financial institutions in New York.
4 minute read

Foreign SEC Tipster Gets Record $30 Million Award

September 22, 2014
In its largest whistleblower award to date, the SEC set aside at least $30 million for a foreign resident who tipped off the agency about an unnamed fraud. The agency said the award was appropriate despite the Supreme Court's stricture against applying U.S. securities laws overseas.
4 minute read

After Losing Patent Case, RICO Claims Still Dog Lumen View

September 22, 2014
Lumen View Technology would probably love to forget the patent lawsuit it brought against search engine company FindTheBest.com. But after beating the IP case, winning back its defense fees and suing Lumen View for alleged RICO violations, FindTheBest isn't going to let the plaintiff walk away that easily.
3 minute read

Class Action Denied, But Antiaging Pill Litigation Lives On

September 22, 2014
Telomerase Activation Sciences is still locked in litigation with Brian Egan, a former TAS executive who says the pill-maker's marquee product, TA-65, gave him prostate cancer.
3 minute read

The Global Lawyer: A Review of Paul Barrett's 'Law of the Jungle'

September 21, 2014
Paul Barrett's fine new book on Chevron in Ecuador has been called lopsided. Let's take a closer look.
11 minute read

Diegeo Inks Deal to Exit Johnnie Walker Trademark Row

September 21, 2014
As part of the settlement, Johnnie Walker will become a corporate sponsor for the New York-based Explorers Club. The deal ends a feud that pitted the club's lawyers at Boies, Schiller & Flexner against counsel for Diageo at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
3 minute read

Settlement Ends Trade Secrets Case Against McKinsey Duo

September 19, 2014
After repeatedly touting its lawsuit against two former executives who departed for McKinsey & Co., turnaround consultancy AlixPartners and its lawyers at Gibson Dunn quietly settled the case.
3 minute read

Iraq Loses Its Bid for Oil-for-Food Damages

September 18, 2014
The Republic of Iraq can't pursue damages against some 90 companies for allegedly conspiring with Saddam Hussein to corrupt and plunder the U.N-administered oil-for-food program during the last years of the dictator's regime, the Second Circuit ruled Thursday.
6 minute read

Oxfam Sues SEC Over Oil Industry Transparency Rule

September 18, 2014
In its second lawsuit related to requirement for publicly traded oil and gas companies to disclose payments to foreign governments, Oxfam claims the wait for a final version of the rule has gone on far too long.
3 minute read

Patent Defendant Seeks to Recover Contingency Fees

September 18, 2014
A semiconductor company that turned back patent infringement allegations wants to recover attorney fees that include a contingency bonus for Kilpatrick Townsend's success in the case.
3 minute read

Litigators of the Week: Stephanie Aranyos and Brian Gershengorn of Ogletree Deakins

September 18, 2014
The threat of big overtime damages for contract lawyers in New York has been diminished, thanks to a ruling that Stephanie Aranyos and Brian Gershengorn won for Skadden.
3 minute read

Daimler Ruling Hangs Over Chinese Counterfeiting Case

September 17, 2014
The Supreme Court's ruling in Daimler v. Bauman arose from claims of torture, kidnapping and murder in Argentina. But the decision holds promise for foreign defendants in all kinds of cases, as the Second Circuit illustrated Wednesday in a battle over funds held by Chinese counterfeiters at Bank of China.
3 minute read

Acacia Unit Socked with Fees in Alcatel Patent Fight

September 17, 2014
A judge in Delaware agreed with Alcatel-Lucent's lawyers at Goodwin Procter that the plaintiff, an Acacia subsidiary called Chalumeau Power Systems, filed a frivolous lawsuit and backed off only after Alcatel refused to negotiate a settlement.
3 minute read

Holder Touts Bigger Payouts For Wall Street Whistleblowers

September 17, 2014
Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday called on the government to increase rewards for those who blow the whistle on financial crimes, arguing that greater incentives are needed to induce people to come forward with insider information.
3 minute read

Wilmer's Lee Erases $368 Million Apple Damages Verdict

September 16, 2014
Another big verdict went up in smoke at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Tuesday, when the appeals court ordered a new damages trial in VirnetX Inc.'s patent infringement case against Apple.
3 minute read

Gibson Dunn Gets Mixed Ruling in CFTC Swaps Rule Challenge

September 16, 2014
A judge upheld key aspects of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's rules on cross-border swaps.
2 minute read

Wilson Sonsini IT Employee Charged With Insider Trading

September 16, 2014
The charges against longtime IT employee Dimitry Braverman come two years after a former Wilson Sonsini associate received a record 12-year jail sentence for insider trading.
3 minute read

CBS Verdict Empowers Podcast Patent Campaign

September 16, 2014
Personal Audio and its lawyers showed they know how to sway a jury, giving the company leverage in any settlement talks with other defendants they've targeted over podcasting IP.
3 minute read

O'Melveny Fends Off Hitachi TV Patent Claims for TPV

September 15, 2014
O'Melveny & Myers scored a speedy appellate victory in a battle between past and present television titans, persuading the Federal Circuit to reject patent infringement claims by Japan's Hitachi Consumer Electronics against fast-growing Chinese TV manufacturer TPV Technology Ltd.
2 minute read

Chadbourne, Boies Square Off as U.S. Guards Iran Secrets

September 15, 2014
Chadbourne's Abbe Lowell and Lee Wolosky of Boies Schiller are no strangers to sensational cases. Exhibit A: billionaire Victor Restis' defamation lawsuit against United Against Nuclear Iran, which was thrown back into the headlines over the weekend by the government's plea to toss the case.
4 minute read

The Global Lawyer: How Russia Can Fight the Yukos Award

September 15, 2014
Dutch courts like arbitration winners, and the Dutch don't like Russia. But if you're a former superpower staring down the barrel at a $50 billion award, you take your chances and look for your best argument.
5 minute read

Years After Guilty Plea, Cooley Wipes Out Money Laundering Conviction

September 15, 2014
Cooley litigation partner Michael Attanasio called the outcome a once-in-a-career victory.
3 minute read

Lawyers Hit Rough Patch in Unpaid Intern Class Actions

September 15, 2014
Thanks to a dustup with an erstwhile client and unfavorable rulings by two New York judges, an intern's case against CBS is dead on arrival, and cases against Warner Music Group and Viacom are destined never to go before a jury.
4 minute read

In the Home Stretch, FHFA Inks $550M Deal With HSBC

September 12, 2014
Like more than a dozen bank defendants before it, HSBC on Friday reached a megabucks settlement to end its mortgage-backed securities fight with Fannie and Freddie's conservator.
3 minute read

IndyMac Settlement Leaves Tolling Question Unresolved

September 12, 2014
Investors in mortgage-backed securities issued by IndyMac settled their claims against the bank's underwriters. But the IndyMac litigation lives on at the U.S. Supreme Court—with important implications for the time limits that govern securities class actions.
4 minute read

Court Rejects Objectors' Appeal in NFL Concussion Case

September 12, 2014
A day after the Third Circuit heard arguments over the right of several former NFL players to challenge a class settlement in litigation over player concussions, the court declined to exercise jurisdiction.
3 minute read

Jones Day Loses EU Appeal in Credit Card Fee Fight

September 11, 2014
Europe's highest court upheld a ban on credit card fees set by MasterCard Inc., dealing a defeat to the credit card company and its lawyers at Jones Day.
2 minute read

Litigator of the Week: Brad Brian of Munger, Tolles & Olson

September 11, 2014
As the owner of the oil rig whose explosion fouled the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, Transocean has always been a key defendant in litigation over the Gulf spill. But thanks in part to Brian, BP is still stuck with most of the tab.
4 minute read

Eleventh Circuit Blasts Lawyer, Tosses Florida Smoker Suits

September 10, 2014
"Any lawyer worth his salt knows a dead person cannot maintain a personal injury action," an appellate panel wrote in throwing out hundreds of defective personal injury cases brought by Florida lawyer Norwood Wilner.
4 minute read

Third Circuit Gets It Right in Cahill Fraud Case

September 10, 2014
By refusing to allow the litigation privilege to shield Cahill Gordon and its former client from egregious fraud claims, a Third Circuit panel took a welcome step toward holding lawyers more accountable for their actions.
4 minute read

Weil Wunderkind Sonal Mehta Scores for Adobe

September 10, 2014
Mehta is used to hitting milestones before her peers: college degree by 17, Big Law partner by 30. This week the 33-year-old won her first big patent trial as colead counsel, securing a total defense victory for Adobe Systems.
4 minute read

MPHJ Files New Suit Challenging Vermont Antitroll Law

September 10, 2014
The accused patent troll MPHJ Technology Investments is trying a different tack in its battle with Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, bringing a new federal lawsuit to block the AG from pursuing state consumer protection claims against the company. 
3 minute read

First Biosimilar Drugs Challenge Unfolds in Federal Circuit

September 10, 2014
In the first appellate challenge to a new regulatory path for creating generic versions of biologic medicines derived from living organisms, advocates for Sandoz and Amgen on Wednesday faced tough questions from a three-judge panel at the Federal Circuit.
4 minute read

Quinn Emanuel Wields Fair Use to Foil Fox News Claims

September 09, 2014
Fox News and its lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis suffered a big setback on Tuesday in their copyright case against TVEyes Inc., a service that allows corporations, media watchdogs and political campaigns to track what cable news pundits are saying.
3 minute read

Del. Judge Blesses Forum Bylaw Aimed at Scuttling M&A Suits

September 09, 2014
Delaware judges aren't exactly known for ceding jurisdiction to other states, especially in shareholder disputes. But a chancery judge ruled that forum selection bylaws are valid even if they're adopted in anticipation of litigation, and even if they designate a Delaware company's out-of-state home turf as the forum.
4 minute read

Arista Taps Latham's Lumish in Feud With Founder

September 09, 2014
A team led by Latham & Watkins partner Douglas Lumish is replacing Wilson Sonsini in a nasty dispute between former business allies.
2 minute read

Warren Blasts Bank Regulators for Lack of Prosecutions

September 09, 2014
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday lambasted the Federal Reserve and other banking regulators who appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
3 minute read

ViaSat Agrees to Drop Satellite IP Case for $100 Million

September 08, 2014
After a judge tossed a $283 million damages award they won against rival Space Systems/Loral, the satellite design company ViaSat and its lawyers at Quinn Emanuel have opted to cut a deal rather than face another jury.
3 minute read

Venable Appeals Win for Generics in Hospira Sedative Fight

September 08, 2014
Less than three weeks after halting drugmakers Mylan and Par Pharma from selling generic versions of Hospira's blockbuster sedative Precedex, a judge in Baltimore performed an unexpected about-face that allows the generics to resume sales.
3 minute read

Cravath Beats Back Xerox Investor Class Action

September 08, 2014
Despite some regrettably worded internal communications it produced during discovery, Xerox Corporation has finally killed off a class action alleging it overstated the cost-saving benefits of its big corporate reorganization in 1998.
3 minute read

LBO Collusion Case Winds Down With $115M Carlyle Deal

September 08, 2014
After seven years of litigation, the white flags are waving in a once massive antitrust class action accusing top private equity firms of scheming to drive down the value of leveraged buyout deals.
2 minute read

Psych Association Wins Reversal in Fee Class Action

September 07, 2014
In a setback for the American Psychological Association and its lawyers at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, an appeals court has revived an unusual class action alleging that the APA duped psychologists into paying extra annual fees to support its lobbying wing.
3 minute read

Polo Group Blocks Ralph Lauren Lawsuit in Trademark Fight

September 05, 2014
The United States Polo Association scored a win in its endless trademark fight with Ralph Lauren Corporation, persuading a judge to compel arbitration of claims that it breached a decade-old truce with RLC.
3 minute read

Quinn Emanuel Reloads Against Banks in New Price-Fixing Case

September 05, 2014
Fresh off a pretrial win in a lawsuit accusing big banks of conspiring to fix credit default swaps, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has launched a new multibillion-dollar antitrust suit against the banks, this time over interest rate swaps.
3 minute read

Tech Giants Ask Ninth Circuit to Restore 'No-Poach' Deal

September 05, 2014
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh "committed clear legal error" by spurning the $324.5 million settlement, argue lawyers for four technology companies.
5 minute read

Litigators of the Week: Christopher Placitella of Cohen, Placitella & Roth and Jeffrey Pollock of Fox Rothschild

September 04, 2014
Placitella and Pollock persuaded an appeals court to revive fraud claims against BASF Corporation and Cahill Gordon—and to affirm that the litigation privilege isn't a license to deceive the courts.
5 minute read

Patent Wins Pile Up for Google After Alice v. CLS Bank

September 04, 2014
Applying the age-old concepts of searching and ranking to the Internet made Google one of the world's richest companies. But Google's lawyers are on a roll, defeating patent cases on the grounds that taking an abstract idea and adding a computer doesn't warrant patent protection.
4 minute read

After McDonnell Guilty Verdict, a Look Ahead to Appeal

September 04, 2014
A federal jury in Virginia on Thursday found former Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell and his wife Maureen guilty of public corruption charges. McDonnell's lawyers say they plan to appeal, but the verdict is for now a high-profile win for the DOJ.
4 minute read

No Escape for Banks in Credit Default Swap Antitrust Case

September 04, 2014
Institutional investors represented by Quinn Emanuel and Pearson, Simon & Warshaw cleared a major hurdle on Thursday, when a judge refused to toss most of a multibillion-dollar class action targeting top international investment banks.
3 minute read

Airlines Knock Out Business Method Patent in East Texas

September 03, 2014
Mayer Brown's Stephen Baskin represented five of the nine airlines named as defendants in the case: American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Frontier Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways.
3 minute read

Judges Smile on Vermont, Chide Nebraska in Patent Troll Cases

September 03, 2014
When it comes to fighting the infamous patent troll MPHJ Technology Investments, Nebraska attorney general Jon Bruning must envy his counterpart in Vermont, Bill Sorrell.
3 minute read

Cahill Fends Off German Bank's Suit Against S&P

September 03, 2014
Siding with Cahill's Floyd Abrams, a judge ruled that IKB Deutsche Industriebank waited too long to sue Standard & Poor's for the top ratings it bestowed on notes issued by an ill-fated investment vehicle.
3 minute read

Two Ex-Goldman Sachs Employees Suffer Courtroom Defeats

September 03, 2014
Armed with lawyers from Boies, Schiller & Flexner and O'Melveny & Myers, Goldman Sachs scored back-to-back victories on Wednesday against former employes who burned their bridges with the investment banking behemoth in spectacular ways.
3 minute read

Banks Beat FDIC Suit Over Mortgage-Backed Securities

September 02, 2014
Adopting an argument that other courts have rejected, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled that the FDIC waited too long to sue Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Credit Suisse and other banks that sold mortgage-backed securities.
4 minute read

Gibson Dunn Exit Shakes Up New York Teacher Tenure Case

September 02, 2014
After creating a playbook for overturning public teacher tenure rules on one coast, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has been sidelined on the other.
5 minute read

Yelp Shakes Off Extortion Claims

September 02, 2014
The Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that manipulating user reviews amounts, at most, to "hard bargaining."
3 minute read

Goldman, JPMorgan Crush Aluminum Price-Fixing Claims

September 02, 2014
The aluminum warehousing industry has been the target of critical media coverage and regulatory scrutiny. But thanks to defense lawyers from Latham, Sullivan & Cromwell and other firms, it's not turning out to be fertile ground for antitrust litigation.
4 minute read

Halliburton Agrees to Pay $1B in Deepwater Horizon Claims

September 02, 2014
Halliburton Energy Services Inc. has agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle civil claims for damages caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.
3 minute read

Scheindlin Tosses Claims That Ford and IBM Aided Apartheid

September 01, 2014
Manhattan U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin called it "regrettable" that the plaintiffs are left without relief, but she said she was bound to follow the Supreme Court's and the Second Circuit's interpretation of the Alien Tort Statute, "no matter what my personal view of the law may be."
5 minute read

Detroit Bankruptcy Trial Steps into Uncharted Territory

August 30, 2014
The city's proposed plan to emerge from bankruptcy is fraught with complexities. Among the issues to be argued by several Am Law firms during the six-week trial, which begins Tuesday, is whether securities holders insured by Syncora Guarantee Inc. are getting their fair share.
8 minute read

SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar's Disturbing Dissent

August 29, 2014
Luis Aguilar lashed out at his fellow SEC commissioners for the weak penalties they imposed on a former CFO. But the most disturbing part of his dissent was his accusation that the agency waters down the facts it releases to the public about cases it settles.
4 minute read

Ninth Circuit Hikes Oracle's Copyright Damages Against SAP

August 29, 2014
The court upped damages to $356.7 million, but won't allow Oracle to argue for hypothetical license fees if it opts for a new trial.
4 minute read

SEC Pays Whistleblower $300K

August 29, 2014
The SEC paid a whistleblower who first tried to report wrongdoing internally more than $300,000. It's the first time the SEC has paid an award to a compliance officer.
2 minute read

Litigator of the Week: Margaret Zwisler of Latham & Watkins

August 28, 2014
Reports of aluminum price-fixing by big investment banks and the London Metal Exchange sparked widespread outrage—and class action litigation. Zwisler led LME to an early victory this week, leaving the other defendants to face the plaintiffs on their own.
5 minute read

Remaining Banks Hit Another Dead End in FHFA Case

August 28, 2014
We've lost count of how many times the banks sued by the Federal Housing Finance Agency for selling shoddy mortgage-backed securities have had their defenses slapped down by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote.
3 minute read

Judge Rejects Challenge to $9 Billion Actos Verdict

August 28, 2014
A federal judge on Thursday refused to toss out a $9 billion verdict in the first federal bellwether trial over claims that taking Actos increases the risk of bladder cancer.
2 minute read

Former SG Ruffled by 'Patent Troll' Tag

August 28, 2014
Paul Clement doesn't appreciate the T-word being lobbed at his client in a high stakes patent case.
3 minute read

Ninth Circuit Slaps FedEx Over Contractor Policy

August 27, 2014
The company improperly classified more than 2,000 California delivery drivers as contractors, the appeals court ruled.
4 minute read

PwC Can't Shake MF Global Malpractice Suit

August 27, 2014
The administrator unwinding MF Global called on Kasowitz Benson to sue PricewaterhouseCoopers, claiming that the accounting firm's advice led MF Global to amass enormous exposure to European debt, contributing to more than $1 billion in losses.
2 minute read

Patent Troll MPHJ Faces Special PTO Review

August 27, 2014
Xerox, Ricoh and Lexmark asked for a review of two MPHJ Technology patents that cover a virtual copier technology described as "scan-to-email." MPHJ has sent thousands of demand letters to small companies, threatening to sue them for infringement if they don't pay a licensing fee.
3 minute read

Greenberg's $25B Case Against U.S. Set for Trial

August 27, 2014
Maurice Greenberg's $25 billion lawsuit against the U.S. government over the bailout of AIG moved a step closer to trial this week. That trial, set to begin Sept. 29, would feature testimony from former top government officials, as well as some of Wall Street's most prominent banking lawyers.
3 minute read

Geithner's Lawyer Defends Redactions in S&P Litigation

August 27, 2014
Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is fighting a request by Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC to turn over unpublished notes from his memoir that he considers to be “private, confidential or sensitive materials.”
2 minute read

Robbins Geller Sanctioned for 'Reckless' Conduct

August 27, 2014
The Boeing Company pursued the firm for bringing a botched securities fraud case based on the testimony of an unreliable confidential witness.
4 minute read

Federal Circuit Judges Put Spin on Patent Fee-Shifting

August 26, 2014
Sitting as a trial judge recently, Timothy Dyk of the Federal Circuit denied an attorney fee request, writing "every case will have a loser."
5 minute read

Latham Knocks Out Antitrust Case Against LME

August 26, 2014
A daring and novel argument by Latham & Watkins persuaded a federal judge that the London Metal Exchange Ltd., a private for-profit entity, should get sovereign immunity.
3 minute read

Decade-Old Battle Over Stoli Trademark Continues

August 26, 2014
With its plot twists and sheer length, the decade-old battle for the Stolichnaya vodka trademark is starting to resemble a Russian novel.
3 minute read

PACER Changes Draw Ire of Attorneys, Journalists

August 26, 2014
The federal judiciary this month removed years of court records from its online archives, drawing concern from attorneys, journalists, researchers and open-record advocates who rely on remote access to files.
3 minute read

Kirkland Scores for BP in Long-Running Pollution Case

August 25, 2014
BP plc and its lawyers Kirkland & Ellis have likely finished off a long-running class action alleging that the oil company should cover cleanup costs from a shuttered oil refinery in southeast Kansas.
3 minute read

Judge Axes Retainer for Cotchett From HP Derivative Deal

August 25, 2014
A federal judge in San Francisco said he wouldn't OK a planned partnership between plaintiffs lawyers and Hewlett Packard.
3 minute read

Spanish Bank Can't Deflect Claims by Cuba Terror Victims

August 25, 2014
After winning about $3.5 billion in default judgments against the Republic of Cuba, Fidel Castro's persecuted political opponents and their families have cleared a hurdle in their bid to seize funds from global banks including Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA).
3 minute read

Shareholder Firms Clash Over Client Referrals

August 25, 2014
Brower Piven and Harwood Feffer worked together to tee up plaintiffs for an investor class action that ultimately settled for $586 million. But the relationship has since soured, judging by a new contract battle between the firms.
3 minute read

Foley Partner in Detroit Loses Compensation Challenge

August 25, 2014
A Foley & Lardner partner who sued his firm for paying him less than female, minority and younger partners was rebuked by a federal appellate court Monday.
3 minute read

FHFA Reaches $1.2 Billion Deal with Goldman

August 24, 2014
This deal brings the FHFA's recovery from major banks to more than $21 billion, reinforcing that the agency's litigation crusade, begun in 2011 against 18 banks and led by Philippe Selendy of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, has been a monumental success.
2 minute read

Starr's Claims Against Chinese Company Survive Morrison

August 22, 2014
Maurice Greenberg's Starr Investments claimed it was fraudulently induced to buy stock in China MediaExpress, one of many Chinese companies to be listed on a U.S. stock exchange through a so-called reverse merger.
2 minute read

BP Squelches False Claims Act Suit Over Oil Platform

August 22, 2014
"The genesis of this suit is a disgruntled layman's speculation about complex laws and engineering, abetted by ideologues," wrote a Houston federal judge about the purported whistleblower suit.
3 minute read

RIM Won't Have To Pay $147M Jury Award

August 22, 2014
A Federal Circuit panel upheld the elimination of a verdict against Research in Motion won by former business partner mFormation.
2 minute read

Judges Toy With One Strike Policy on Patent Damages

August 22, 2014
Facing increasing waves of Daubert motions, judges can't seem to agree on the penalties to impose when the challenges succeed.
9 minute read

Litigator of the Week: Stephen Neal of Cooley

August 21, 2014
When Roche tried to stake a claim to Gilead Sciences' blockbuster Hepatitis C drug, Gilead turned to Cooley to neutralize the threat.
3 minute read

Whistleblowers Stand Out in $16.65 Billion BofA Deal

August 21, 2014
More than $1 billion of Thursday's megasettlement with Bank of America resolves claims first brought by private whistleblowers—including one case involving a two-time False Claims Act tipster who's married to one of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey."
4 minute read

Bank of America Monitor Vows to Speed Mortgage Relief

August 21, 2014
Eric Green, court-appointed independent monitor in the nearly $17 billion Bank of America settlement announced on Thursday, understands that he has his work cut out for him.
3 minute read

Finnegan Beats Humira IP Licensing Claims for AbbVie

August 21, 2014
A U.K. arthritis research trust overreached by demanding more patent royalties from drugmaker and longtime licensee AbbVie, an appeals court ruled on Thursday.
3 minute read

Banks Lose Last-Ditch Bid to Block NCUA Claims as Time-Barred

August 20, 2014
The Tenth Circuit ruled once again that the National Credit Union Administration didn't wait too long to sue big banks that sold billions of dollars in ill-fated mortgage-backed securities to federally chartered credit unions.
4 minute read

For Paul Weiss Client Sharp, Time Runs Out to Opt Out

August 20, 2014
Lawyers for Sharp Electronics insisted that a missed opt-out deadline in a price-fixing class action was a "harmless oversight," but a federal judge disagreed.
4 minute read

Apple Loses Bid to Collect Attorney Fees From Samsung

August 20, 2014
Judge Lucy Koh ruled that Samsung raised reasonable defenses to the trade dress claims at issue in its epic fight with Apple, making fee shifting inappropriate.
3 minute read

Vivendi Takes Aim at Remains of $9.3B Shareholder Verdict

August 20, 2014
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Morrison v. NAB already helped slash a rare securities class action jury verdict against Vivendi. Now the company's lawyers at Weil and Cravath are busy trying to bury what's left of the spoils.
4 minute read

Second Circuit Swats Down Fee Bid in Citi Say-on-Pay Case

August 20, 2014
Barely 24 hours after hearing oral arguments, a federal appellate panel refused Wednesday to revive claims that plaintiffs lawyers deserve $6 million in fees for supposedly helping to oust former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and another Citi exec two years ago.
3 minute read

McDermott Beats Back Drug Patent Challenge for Depomed

August 19, 2014
The ruling, which Depomed said would extend its monopoly on the pain drug Gralise for a decade, is a huge relief for the small pharma company and its investors.
2 minute read

Judge Kaplan Blasts Plaintiffs in Irish Bank Case

August 19, 2014
Motions for reconsideration are always a long shot. But they don't usually backfire as dramatically as they did Tuesday in a decision by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan.
4 minute read

Lawsky Strikes Again With $300M Standard Chartered Fine

August 19, 2014
It's not odd for regulators to demand independent monitors for companies caught breaking the rules. But it's rare to learn that a monitor found even more failures—starting the cycle of payment, official contrition and monitoring all over again.
3 minute read

Fraud Suit Over Twitter IPO Fizzles at Second Circuit

August 18, 2014
Lawyers at Simpson Thacher made quick work of a $124 million lawsuit alleging that Twitter duped two investment advisers into propping up demand for its shares ahead of the company's initial public offering.
3 minute read

Alabama Court Bucks Trend, Says Generic Patient Can Sue Pfizer

August 18, 2014
The tort theory of "innovator liability"—the notion that brand-name drug companies can be held liable for inadequate warnings on other manufacturers' generic versions of their drugs—has been widely panned on appeal. But innovator liability isn't dead yet.
4 minute read

Spotlight Falls on Sullivan & Cromwell in PwC Settlement

August 18, 2014
For the second time this summer, a major law firm has come under scrutiny for its questionable role advising a bank on transactions with sanctioned countries.
3 minute read

Ninth Circuit Spurns 'Browsewrap' Arbitration Agreement

August 18, 2014
Barnes & Noble customers weren't put on notice of an arbitration agreement buried in the retailer's website, the appeals court ruled.
3 minute read

The Global Lawyer: Hamas on Trial

August 17, 2014
As Israeli-Palestinian violence swirls anew, a jury judges the terror crimes of old.
12 minute read

S&C Prevails Again for Porsche in Battle With Hedge Funds

August 15, 2014
Echoing a 2012 ruling by a state appeals court, the Second Circuit agreed with Porsche's lawyers at Sullivan & Cromwell that billions of dollars in claims against the German automaker don't belong in the United States.
4 minute read

Oracle Scores in Rimini Street Copyright Row

August 15, 2014
A ruling by a federal judge in Nevada chips away at the obstacles confronting Oracle and its lawyers at Bingham McCutchen and Boies, Schiller & Flexner as they inch toward a long-awaited trial.
3 minute read

Federal Circuit Guts $30 Million Jury Verdict Against Google

August 15, 2014
Circuit Judge Raymond Chen dissented from the panel's decision, which found that web search patents asserted against Google should have been deemed obvious.
4 minute read

The Terror Docket

August 15, 2014
With trial in Linde v. Arab Bank now underway in Brooklyn, see our roundup of the other key Anti-Terrorism Act cases unfolding in U.S. courts.
2 minute read

After 10 Years, Jury Hears Arab Bank Terror Funding Case

August 14, 2014
Lawyers for a group of terrorist attack victims tried to convince a Brooklyn jury Thursday that a Jordan-based bank knowingly facilitated transactions used to finance 24 attacks carried out by Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group, between 2000 and 2004.
5 minute read

FCPA Targets Ask Supreme Court to Define 'Foreign Official'

August 14, 2014
With their clients facing a combined 22 years in prison, lawyers at Perkins Coie and Foley & Lardner are urging the U.S. Supreme to shed light on what it means to bribe a foreign official in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
3 minute read

Litigators of the Week: Michael Hausfeld of Hausfeld LLP and William Isaacson of Boies, Schiller & Flexner

August 14, 2014
Hausfeld and Isaacson's landmark win in O'Bannon v. NCAA promises to transform the business of college sports—and the fate of the student athletes who play them.
5 minute read

Second Circuit Sides With Siemens in FCPA Whistleblower Case

August 14, 2014
The ruling is a victory for Siemens and its lawyers at Kirkland. But it's a disappointment for those who hoped the court would clarify whether Dodd-Frank protects employees who are fired after blowing the whistle internally but before alerting the SEC.
4 minute read

Google Asks Federal Circuit to Decide Turf War With Rockstar

August 14, 2014
The only "sensible" venue for the dispute, argues Quinn Emanuel's Charles Verhoeven, is Northern California.
3 minute read

In-house Counsel Sued for Trade Secret Theft SLAPPs Back

August 14, 2014
A former Schlumberger Ltd. in-house counsel sued by the company for allegedly revealing trade secrets has countered with a claim that the company filed a "frivolous" lawsuit against her.
3 minute read

Willkie Preserves Copyright Win for Haitian Photographer

August 13, 2014
The ruling is the latest in a string of victories for photojournalist Daniel Morel and his lead trial lawyer, Joseph Baio of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, who may soon be financially rewarded for a case he's called a labor of love.
4 minute read

Chipmaker's Return Trip From Federal Circuit Is a Bumpy Ride

August 13, 2014
Judge Susan Illston, who denied a fee motion against Santa Clara-based Kilopass Technology in 2012, has now awarded attorney fees in light of new case law.
5 minute read

Judge Trims Madoff Trustee's Suit Against Merkin Funds

August 13, 2014
Irving Picard of Baker & Hostetler, the liquidation trustee for Bernie Madoff's fraud-soaked investment firm, suffered a second setback this week in his bankruptcy court fight with J. Ezra Merkin and the Madoff feeder funds he managed.
4 minute read

The Global Lawyer: Cleary's Litigation Slump

August 13, 2014
In the past six months Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton litigators have lost a string of historic cases. Powerful entities routinely ask Cleary to push the envelope in international law. Lately it hasn't worked out well.
5 minute read

Judge Nixes Facebook Fee Bid in Rembrandt Patent Fight

August 12, 2014
Facebook Inc. and its lawyers at Cooley have lost their bid to recover attorney fees from Rembrandt Social Media, the nonpracticing entity they slayed at trial in June.
4 minute read

Las Vegas Judge Sides With NML in Argentine Bonds Spat

August 12, 2014
The hedge fund NML and its lawyers at Dechert won a discovery ruling in Las Vegas that could help the company collect a small fraction of the $1.7 billion they're demanding from Argentina.
4 minute read

Lawyers Suing Google Say Proof Is in the Post-its

August 12, 2014
After deal talks went south, a London-based company says Google returned files littered with Post-it notes describing plans to copy valuable technology.
4 minute read

Google, Law Profs Join Battle Over $1.5B Marvell Verdict

August 12, 2014
A group of major tech companies and academics have thrown their weight behind Marvell Semiconductor's bid to reverse a $1.54 billion trial loss to Carnegie Mellon University, arguing that the verdict was based on a dangerous ruling applying U.S. patent law to overseas commerce.
4 minute read

LA Clippers Sale Vindicates Attorney's Probate Strategy

August 12, 2014
Former Microsoft Corp. chief executive officer Steve Ballmer completed his purchase of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team on Tuesday for $2 billion.
3 minute read

Susman Godfrey Wipes Out $283M Verdict in Satellite IP War

August 11, 2014
A federal judge in San Diego ruled that that a do-over is needed in ViaSat's case against Space Systems/Loral in order "to prevent a miscarriage of justice."
3 minute read

Vermont AG Beats Appeal by Accused Patent Troll MPHJ

August 11, 2014
Vermont can proceed with its lawsuit against the much-maligned patent holder MPHJ Technology in state court, the Federal Circuit ruled Monday, handing a victory to state AG William Sorrell and to other states that have passed consumer protection laws to thwart patent trolls.
4 minute read

New VirnetX Patent Case Survives Apple Challenge

August 11, 2014
The patent licensing company VirnetX got a boost on Friday in its latest fight with Apple, persuading a federal judge in East Texas that Apple can't revive defenses from an earlier case that culminated in a $368 million verdict for VirnetX.
4 minute read

Judge Won't Toss Antitrust Class Actions Against MLB, NHL

August 10, 2014
Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and cable broadcasters are stuck fighting claims that they schemed to shield regional sports networks from competition for live game broadcasts.
2 minute read

Madoff Trustee Loses Bid to Block Fairfield, Merkin Deals

August 09, 2014
Irving Picard, the trustee tasked with unwinding Bernie Madoff's investment firm, has hit another wall in his efforts to block two big-dollar settlements with companies that once funneled cash into Madoff's Ponzi fraud.
4 minute read

Student Athletes Score in NCAA Antitrust Case

August 08, 2014
Top college football and basketball players must be paid the full cost of their education, plus up to $5,000 a year in broadcast and video game licensing, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District of California ruled Friday.
3 minute read

DLA, Plaintiffs Prepare for Arab Bank Terror Funding Trial

August 08, 2014
The first-ever U.S. terrorism financing trial represents a big challenge for defense lawyers at DLA Piper, and a historic opportunity for the unusual alliance of plaintiffs attorneys behind the case.
4 minute read

Judge Rejects Silicon Valley No-Poach Settlement

August 08, 2014
A federal judge in San Jose rejected a controversial $324.5 million settlement in the case, echoing arguments by a named plaintiff and other critics that the dollar amount ought to be higher.
5 minute read

Chadbourne Wins Reprieve for Broadcaster in MLB Rights Spat

August 07, 2014
Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, a broadcaster mostly controlled by the Baltimore Orioles, has bought itself an extra inning in its bid to undo an arbitration panel's decision that it owes about $80 million in telecast licensing revenue to the Washington Nationals.
3 minute read

Litigator of the Week: David Wasinger of The Wasinger Law Group

August 07, 2014
In his first and only forays into whistleblower litigation, Wasinger helped the government win nearly $2 billion from Wall Street—including a $1.27 billion ruling against Bank of America that came at precisely the wrong time for the bank.
3 minute read

MoFo Beats Back Double-Charging Class Action Against Apple

August 07, 2014
A federal judge in San Jose denied class certification in the Apple case, concluding that some customers might intentionally purchase the same product twice.
2 minute read

Carlyle Hangs Tight in Buyout Firms Collusion Case

August 07, 2014
Shareholders have now inked deals worth $475.5 million with private equity firms accused of scheming to drive down the value of major leveraged buyout deals. But Carlyle Group and its lawyers at Latham have shown no signs of surrender ahead of a looming trial this fall.
3 minute read

Citi Dodges CDO Claims Brought by S. Korea's Woori Bank

August 06, 2014
Judge Jed Rakoff may have thought Citigroup's $285 million settlement with the SEC amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist. But at least the SEC recovered something from Citi, which is more than we can say for South Korea's Woori Bank and its lawyers at Hausfeld.
4 minute read

Securities Litigation Surges Against Biotech Companies

August 06, 2014
Overall, class action filiings are down for the first six months of 2014, but the pace doubled against biotech companies.
2 minute read

Apple and Samsung Drop Overseas Fights

August 06, 2014
The cease-fire allows the companies to await the outcome of U.S. appeals while ending the expense of worldwide war.
3 minute read

After PTO Loss, Webvention Patent Campaign Fizzles

August 06, 2014
More than four years after Webvention LLC began peppering hundreds of companies with licensing demands for allegedly infringing its sole patent, the prolific and controversial nonpracticing entity may have finally reached the end of the line.
4 minute read

Judge Blocks Diageo Whiskey Line in Explorers Club Fight

August 05, 2014
With help from Boies Schiller, the Explorers Club in New York won a highly unusual court order blocking the international liquor giant Diageo from selling a line of whiskeys called the Johnnie Walker Explorers' Club Collection.
4 minute read

Appeals Court Sides With Barclays in Battle for Lehman Assets

August 05, 2014
The Second Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a big victory for Barclays and its lawyers at Boies, Schiller & Flexner in long-simmering litigation over the collapse of Lehman Brothers, ruling that Barclays is entitled to billions in disputed Lehman assets.
3 minute read

Rakoff Grudgingly Approves $285 Million Citigroup Deal

August 05, 2014
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff didn't give up without signaling that the Second Circuit made a terrible error in forcing him to approve the SEC's settlement with Citigroup over a doomed-to-fail investment.
3 minute read

NLRB Ratifies Actions Affected by Noel Canning Ruling

August 05, 2014
The National Labor Relations Board has ratified all of its administrative, personnel and procurement decisions from the 18-month period that were cast in doubt by the U.S. Supreme Court's Noel Canning decision in June.
2 minute read

Investors Settle AIG Crisis Claims for $970.5 Million

August 04, 2014
After Halliburton lost its bid to upend the securities litigation landscape at the U.S. Supreme Court, AIG and its lawyers at Weil, Gotshal & Manges opted to cut their losses in an investor class action stemming from the financial crisis.
3 minute read

Posner Rips Conan Doyle Estate (Again) Over Sherlock Copyrights

August 04, 2014
Likening the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to a shakedown artist, Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has once again ruled for a California lawyer who tussled with the estate over copyright licensing fees.
4 minute read

L'Etat C'est ... An East Texas Patent Plaintiff?

August 04, 2014
State-sponsored France Brevets and its lawyers at McKool Smith won a fight over their preferred U.S. battleground, persuading a judge to keep a patent infringement suit against HTC and LG Electronics in the plaintiffs-friendly Eastern District of Texas.
4 minute read

Proposed HP Class Action Settlement Challenged - Again

August 04, 2014
Ted Frank's Center for Class Action Fairness says an HP class should be decertified because the plaintiffs' counsel has a conflict.
4 minute read

Niro Firm Back in Fee-Fight Frying Pan

August 04, 2014
HTC's lawyers say they've found new evidence the Niro firm knew client Daniel Henderson had lied about his invention, including an email calling for a more "circumspect" approach to presenting his story.
7 minute read

Covington Scores for Roche in Accutane Appeal

August 04, 2014
After nearly a decade of mass tort litigation in New Jersey, Roche's lawyers won a ruling on Monday that could help the company stamp out claims that it failed to warn the public about side effects associated with its acne treatment Accutane.
3 minute read

The Global Lawyer: The Real Yukos Shocker

August 01, 2014
The $50 billion Yukos arbitration award got the big headlines this week. But a smaller Yukos award by the European Court of Human Rights could have even greater implications for Russia's future.
3 minute read

Latham, Wachtell File Takeover Defense Suit for Allergan

August 01, 2014
Allergan claims that hostile bidder Valeant colluded with activist investor Bill Ackman, enabling Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square to trade on inside information.
2 minute read

Second Circuit Sets New Rule for FINRA Cases

August 01, 2014
For the first time, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has announced a bright-line rule to determine which investors are entitled to arbitration with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
3 minute read

Intel Defeats Class Cert for Consumer Antitrust Case

August 01, 2014
Four years ago, a special master recommended that class certification be denied in a case brought by plaintiffs who bought computers equipped with Intel microprocessors. A judge has finally agreed.
2 minute read

Patent Claims Drawing Derivative Suits

August 01, 2014
Patent judgments don't usually spawn shareholder derivative litigation. But a $1.5 billion award against Marvell Technology is so juicy, plaintiffs securities lawyers can't stay away.
6 minute read

Microsoft Loses Bid to Quash U.S. Warrant for Server Data

August 01, 2014
Calling it "a question of control, not a question of location," a federal judge has turned down Microsoft's attempt to quash a warrant for the search of a user's email account information held at a company-owned server in Ireland.
6 minute read

ECHR Piles on Russia with $2.5 Billion Yukos Award

July 31, 2014
The European Court of Human Rights announced a $2.5 billion judgment against Russia for its handling of OAO Yukos Oil Company. The news follows a Monday announcement that Russia would be on the hook for a $50 billion arbitration award.
3 minute read

Litigators of the Week: Emmanuel Gaillard and Yas Banifatemi of Shearman & Sterling

July 31, 2014
We've always rejected strict formulas for choosing Litigators of the Week. Here's an exception: If you win a $50 billion judgment in a complex, politically charged battle with a major world power, you've got it made.
4 minute read

Justices Asked To Settle Split Ruling on Health Care

July 31, 2014
Challengers to federal subsidies under the Affordable Care Act have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review their defeat before a unanimous appellate panel last week.
3 minute read

Patent Foes Square Off Over New Fee-Shifting Rules

July 31, 2014
It's been three months since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on fee-shifting in patent infringement lawsuits. But battles over how to apply the new standards are just beginning, as two companies at the center of the high court's rulings illustrated this week.
4 minute read

Amazon Ducks Online Ad Patent Claims; Next Up: Microsoft

July 30, 2014
Inventor Sheldon Goldberg and lawyers at Dovel & Luner dropped a patent case against Amazon without recovering a cent. But they immediately picked a new fight, suing Microsoft on the same day in the same court over some of the same patents on online advertising technology.
3 minute read

BofA Fined $1.27 Billion Over Countrywide Mortgage 'Hustle'

July 30, 2014
What does a dead cow have to do with a mortgage sold by Countrywide Financial? U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff has the answer, and it's a costly one for Bank of America.
3 minute read

Toshiba Accuses Paul Hastings of Loyalty Breach

July 30, 2014
The firm crossed the line when it stepped in to defend a rival accused of stealing Toshiba trade secrets, alleges MoFo partner Harold McElhinny.
4 minute read

Apple Surrenders in Sales Ban Fight Against Samsung

July 30, 2014
Apple's decision to stop pushing for an injunction out of its 2012 trial win comes after repeated denials from U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh.
2 minute read

Judge Guts $1.4B Damages Claim in Wyly Brothers' Case

July 29, 2014
Ahead of a damages-only bench trial set for next month, a judge precluded the SEC from recovering the total profits it accuses Sam and Charles Wyly of netting from stock trades orchestrated through a secret offshore system.
3 minute read

D.C. Circuit Rejects Flanking Attack on Health Reform Law

July 29, 2014
A week after a divided panel upheld a conservative challenge to the Affordable Care Act, a different panel of the same court on Tuesday unanimously rejected another avenue of attack.
3 minute read

Full D.C. Circuit Upholds Meat Labeling Rule

July 29, 2014
Meat producers must disclose where an animal is born, raised and slaughtered, the full D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday, holding that the congressionally mandated disclosure requirement does not violate commercial free speech protections.
5 minute read

DuPont, Kolon Feud Over Freezing $1B Trade Secrets Case

July 29, 2014
Facing claims by both DuPont and the Justice Department that it stole secrets related to Kevlar, Kolon's lawyers say keeping the civil case on track would give prosecutors an unfair advantage.
4 minute read
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Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.

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Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.

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Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.

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David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.

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Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.

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