Analysis

What's Behind 'Nuclear' Verdicts? Skeptical Juries, Attys Say

By Spencer Brewer

Jurors becoming more skeptical of corporations are handing down sky-high verdicts, and trial attorneys say it's forcing a shift in the strategies they employ as they aim to score — or prevent — so-called nuclear verdicts.

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Asset Manager Cops To $1.2B Venezuelan Oil Co. Fraud

By Carolina Bolado

An asset manager pled guilty Tuesday to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for his role in a $1.2 billion scheme to embezzle money from Venezuela's state-owned oil company and launder it through false investment schemes in the U.S. and abroad.

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'Come On, Counsel!': 11th Circ. Scoffs At Ga. District's Appeal

By Chart Riggall

The Eleventh Circuit appeared dubious Tuesday that an Atlanta-area school district had standing to appeal a district court's order demanding the Georgia Legislature redraw a map found to be racially gerrymandered, with at least one judge casting aspersions on the school district's motives for pressing the appeal.

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DOI Urges High Court To Uphold Seminole Gambling Compact

By Crystal Owens

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a petition by two casino operators seeking to undo a sports gambling compact between the state of Florida and the Seminole Tribe, arguing that such agreements may include provisions that address matters off tribal lands.

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Law Firm Must Face Ex-HR Manager's Pregnancy Bias Suit

By Emmy Freedman

A Florida federal judge refused Tuesday to allow a law firm to escape a former human resources manager's pregnancy discrimination suit, saying a jury should decide the dispute given the "peculiar" timing of her firing.

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States, Elec. Co-Op Seek To Block EPA Power Plant GHG Rule

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

A group of 25 red states and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association asked the D.C. Circuit to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from implementing its new power plant greenhouse gas emissions rule while they challenge its legality.

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Sullivan & Cromwell Seeks To Ax Claims Of Aiding FTX Fraud

By Madison Arnold

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP wants a Florida federal court to dismiss a proposed class action alleging the firm knew about and helped facilitate the massive fraud by FTX, saying customers of the cryptocurrency exchange platform fail to claim anything beyond a "series of speculative allegations with no factual basis."

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Fla. Man Get 13 Mos. For Trading On Goldman Insider Info

By Elliot Weld

A Florida man was sentenced to 13 months in prison after pleading guilty to trading stocks on information provided by a former Goldman Sachs analyst, his attorney said Tuesday.

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Gunster Data Breach Affected 9K Clients' Data, Suit Says

By Henrik Nilsson

A former client of Gunster Yoakley & Stewart PA has filed a proposed class action in Florida federal court, alleging the law firm's weak cybersecurity systems allowed outsiders to access clients' personal and sensitive health information and that the firm waited over a year to inform those affected.

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Insurer Says Miami Retaliation Scheme Not Covered

By Jennifer Mandato

An insurer for the City of Miami is seeking reimbursement of $5 million for expenses incurred in defending the city and one of its commissioners against underlying lawsuits alleging political retaliation, telling a Florida federal court that the allegations fall outside the scope of its policies.

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Cannabis Co., Wrigley Heir Settle $7M Investor Suit

By Carolina Bolado

An investor that sank $7.4 million into cannabis operator Parallel has settled its suit with the company and its former CEO and heir to the Wrigley chewing gum fortune, according to a mediation report filed in Florida federal court.

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Polsinelli Grows With 2 CMBS Experts From Kilpatrick

By Aebra Coe

Polsinelli PC has brought on two shareholders in Florida and North Carolina from Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, bolstering the firm's real estate finance and financial services offerings, according to a Tuesday announcement.

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Bankruptcy Courts Have Contempt Power, Del. Case Reminds

A Delaware bankruptcy court recently held Camshaft Capital and its principal in contempt, serving as a reminder to bankruptcy practitioners and anyone else that appears before a bankruptcy judge that there are serious consequences for failing to comply with court orders, say Daniel Lowenthal and Kimberly Black at Patterson Belknap.

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A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System

As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.

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Venable Opens Colo. Office With 8 Sherman & Howard Attys

By Gina Kim

Venable LLP is growing its presence by opening its first office in Colorado, with eight commercial and employment attorneys from Sherman & Howard LLP opening its Denver location, which will be headed by partner-in-charge James "Jim" Sawtelle, the firm announced Tuesday.

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Analysis

Keep It Short, And Other Advice From Fed. Circ. Judges

By Dani Kass

Six Federal Circuit judges counseled a packed room of attorneys on Tuesday about the most common ways to ruin their own cases, such as talking too much at oral argument, adding additional citations and attacking judges or opposing counsel.

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BigLaw Attys Fight Sanctions Over Alleged Judge Shopping

By Jack Karp

Attorneys from Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP, Cooley LLP, Lightfoot Franklin & White LLC and prominent LGBTQ rights organizations did not engage in judge shopping when walking away from cases challenging an Alabama law banning certain medical procedures for transgender youth, the lawyers have told an Alabama federal court.

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Morgan Lewis NY Corporate Partner, Family Man Dies

By Tracey Read

Jonathan D. Morris, a deputy leader of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP's global corporate and business transactions practice, passed away Monday morning at 50, the firm said Tuesday.

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DLA Piper Expands To Brazil With New São Paulo Office

By Adrian Cruz

DLA Piper announced that it is growing its Latin American operations with a newly opened location in Brazil's largest city, São Paulo.

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Calif. Bar To Weigh New Virtual Bar Exam To Cut Costs

By Dorothy Atkins

The State Bar of California's board of trustees is expected to consider replacing the National Conference of Bar Examiners' exam and new licensing test with its own state bar exam that could be taken remotely in order to cut up to $4.2 million in costs annually, according to a memo posted online in advance of this week's board meeting.

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Ex-Husch Blackwell, Dykema Atty Pleads Guilty To Tax Evasion

By Jack Rodgers

A former Husch Blackwell LLP partner who helped launch Dykema Gossett PLLC's Milwaukee office two years ago has agreed to plead guilty in Wisconsin federal court to willfully evading paying income tax, which could land him in prison for over a year and will force him to pay almost $4 million in restitution to the IRS.

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Cohen Says Trump Directed Crimes From The White House

By Stewart Bishop and Frank G. Runyeon

Michael Cohen on Tuesday told a Manhattan jury that he met with Donald Trump at the White House in the early days of the former president's administration to confirm the final component of what prosecutors say was a scheme to bury a sex story in order to swing the 2016 election.

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Trump Can't Overturn Gag Order In NY Criminal Trial

By Cara Salvatore

A New York state appeals court on Tuesday denied Donald Trump's bid to overturn a gag order intended to stop him from criticizing witnesses and others involved in his ongoing criminal fraud trial.

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Coverage Recap: Day 13 Of Trump's NY Hush Money Trial

By Frank G. Runyeon

Law360 reporters are providing live updates from the Manhattan criminal courthouse as Donald Trump goes on trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election. Here's a recap from Tuesday, day 13 of the trial.

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White House Continues To Back Adeel Mangi For 3rd Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

The White House is standing by Adeel Mangi's nomination for the Third Circuit despite the path to confirmation being unclear and the vast opposition he's been facing.

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5th Circ. Expresses Doubt On Nasdaq Board Diversity Rules

By Jessica Corso

Lawyers for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Nasdaq Stock Market LLC faced a barrage of questions from the full Fifth Circuit on Tuesday, with judges wondering whether rules requiring corporations to disclose board diversity information would open the door to investor questions on religious practices, political beliefs or Taylor Swift fandom.

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Magnets Co. Can't Trim Suit Despite Feds' PACER Accident

By Rae Ann Varona

The federal government's accidental posting of an unredacted expert report containing sensitive technical data doesn't warrant trimming the government's lawsuit accusing a magnetics manufacturer of sharing that same data with China, a Kentucky federal judge ruled Tuesday.

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Trial Averted In Boston Health Agency Harassment Case

By Julie Manganis

A former Boston health department employee on Tuesday reported that she had settled her claims against the city and a former boss who she says sexually harassed her, scuttling a trial that would have featured several high-profile witnesses, including a federal judge.

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Seattle Public Defender's $7M Employment Win Wiped Out

By Rachel Riley

The Washington Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled a former King County public defender could not bring a hostile work environment claim over a client's harassing behavior that persisted after she stopped representing him, erasing her $7 million jury win.

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Colo. Atty Disbarred For Ghosting Client In Jet Purchase Suit

By Greg Lamm

A Colorado disciplinary judge has disbarred a lawyer who abandoned his client in a lawsuit alleging the client was sold an $800,000 used business jet that was not airworthy, finding the attorney showed a lack of remorse for his misconduct.

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