The head of a leading anti-drug nonprofit on Thursday pledged to go on the offensive by lobbying to undo the federal law legalizing intoxicating hemp, fighting a pending proposal to loosen federal cannabis restrictions and attempting to reverse state-level legalization.
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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2025 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

Anti-Legalization Group Vows To Go On 'Offense'

By Sam Reisman

The head of a leading anti-drug nonprofit on Thursday pledged to go on the offensive by lobbying to undo the federal law legalizing intoxicating hemp, fighting a pending proposal to loosen federal cannabis restrictions and attempting to reverse state-level legalization.

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Fla. Judge Beats Bias Challenge In Presiding Over CBD Suit

By Madison Arnold

A Florida federal judge on Thursday rejected an objection by former franchisee for CBD company American Shaman Franchise System LLC to a magistrate judge's decision not to recuse herself from his breach of contract case.

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Mich. Man's Challenge To LA Pot Social Equity Program Axed

By Mike Curley

A California federal judge has dismissed with prejudice a Michigan man's suit challenging Los Angeles' social-equity cannabis-licensing scheme, finding he can't claim the program is unconstitutional because the dormant commerce clause does not apply to the federally illegal interstate cannabis market.

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Pot Co. Jushi Can't End Rival Shop's Antitrust Claims

By Julie Manganis

Cannabis distributor Jushi Holdings could plausibly be shown to have taken advantage of a Massachusetts town's retail marijuana permitting process and conspired with the sellers of a shop it purchased in 2021 to block a competitor from opening nearby, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled.

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2025 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2025 editorial advisory boards.

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ENFORCEMENT

SEC's Dealer Suit May Criminalize Major Investors, Funds Say

By Jessica Corso

The hedge fund industry has urged the Eighth Circuit on to overturn a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission victory against a penny stock trader, arguing that the SEC's case threatens to "make a felon of every institutional investor" by declaring them unregistered securities dealers.

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Buyers Want Kratom Cos. Addiction Suit To Go On

By Jonathan Capriel

Two California kratom manufacturers shouldn't be allowed to escape a lawsuit claiming they failed to warn about the "highly addictive" nature of their products, a proposed class of consumers argued, pointing to a podcast where a company executive suggested their products were more potent than morphine.

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LITIGATION

Ex-Worker Hits Pot Giant Cresco With Wrongful Firing Suit

By Mike Curley

A former kitchen agent for Cresco Labs LLC is suing the cannabis giant in Illinois federal court, alleging she was wrongly fired after a workplace injury and was not afforded time off as required under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

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PEOPLE

Nixon Peabody Adds Greenberg Glusker Cannabis Co-Chair

By James Mills

Nixon Peabody LLP is boosting its West Coast litigation team, bringing in a former federal prosecutor, who was most recently the founder and co-chair of the cannabis practice at Greenberg Glusker LLP, as a partner in its Los Angeles office.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex

Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

BigLaw Firms Saw Double-Digit Profit Growth In 2024

By Aebra Coe

Last year was "one of the strongest years on record" for U.S. law firm financial results, according to Citi Global Wealth at Work Law Firm Group head Gretta Rusanow, with a survey by the bank of mostly large law firms showing a 16.6% increase in profits and a 12.3% increase in revenue over 2023.

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Legal Sector Gains 900 Jobs In January Amid Data Revisions

By Xiumei Dong

The U.S. legal sector started the year with a modest boost, adding 900 jobs in January, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday following the agency's annual employment data revision that also lifted earlier job figures from the past year. 

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Dentons US Names Capital Markets Leader Managing Partner

By Anna Sanders

Dentons tapped capital markets partner and regulatory team leader John Holahan to serve as U.S. managing partner, the firm announced Friday.

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Injury Attys In Hot Water Over Possible AI-Hallucinated Cites

By Lauren Berg

Morgan & Morgan PA and the Goody Law Group on Friday withdrew pretrial motions in a personal injury lawsuit against Walmart over an allegedly defective hoverboard after a Florida federal court ordered the firms to explain why the filings contained what appears to be case law hallucinated by generative artificial intelligence.

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Plaintiffs Lawyers Swarm Los Angeles Post-Fires

By Brandon Lowrey

A deadly wildfire may be among the first covered by a new state fund that reimburses at-fault utility companies. This could mean billions of dollars for plaintiffs lawyers, and, if past fires are any indication, frustration and confusion for some victims.

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4th Circ. Says LeClairRyan Founder May Duck Tax Liability

By Jack Karp

Defunct law firm LeClairRyan PLLC's operating agreement did not bar founder Gary LeClair from jumping ship from the firm in time to potentially dodge massive tax bills tied to the firm's collapse, the Fourth Circuit ruled on Friday.

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Goldstein's Pro Se Filing Irks Feds Amid Murky Atty Situation

By Elliot Weld

Prosecutors have asked a Maryland federal judge to strike a pro se motion from Tom Goldstein in his tax evasion case, saying the U.S. Supreme Court attorney and SCOTUSblog publisher shouldn't be allowed to personally make arguments to the court when he is represented by several experienced lawyers.

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2nd Circ. Orders In-House Counsel Docs in Grand Jury Case

By Parker Quinlan

The Second Circuit on Friday ruled that an in-house attorney for a publicly traded company under federal investigation in New York must turn over communications as part of a grand jury investigation under the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege.

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Analysis

Del.'s Quiet Ambition To Tweak Chancery, Stem Feared DExit

By Jeff Montgomery

Anxious over claims that stockholder-tilted decisions by Delaware's Court of Chancery will trigger more companies to follow Tesla, SpaceX, Meta and Dropbox to other states, Delaware policymakers are taking a hard look at the venerable business court's processes, hoping to slow a feared rush to DExit.

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DC Prosecutor Axed Jan. 6 Case Against Client, Group Says

By Lauren Berg

A legal group filed a bar complaint in Missouri Thursday against President Donald Trump's top prosecutor in Washington, D.C., saying the attorney violated rules of professional conduct when, in his new government role, he moved to dismiss charges related to the U.S. Capitol attack against his own client.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Aebra Coe and Kevin Penton

Lawyers from Latham & Watkins LLP and Proskauer Rose LLP kick off this week's Law360 Legal Lions, with a jury decision ending a $500 million antitrust lawsuit against their clients, U.S. Soccer and Major League Soccer.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

General counsel will be scrutinizing their companies' DEI policies after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the U.S. Department of Justice to probe and penalize illegal diversity policies in the private and public sectors. Outside the DOJ, legal professionals, including in-house attorneys, reported high job satisfaction in a recent survey, likely leading to lower turnover. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.​

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UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen Investec Bank PLC sue two diamond tycoons, London florist Nikki Tibbles file a claim against an "imitator company," a direct descendant of the Cartier family launch a claim, and a Coronation Street actor hit footballer Joe Bunney with a defamation claim. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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Promo that reads 2024 Practice Groups of the Year Promo that reads Law360 Pulse In-House Counsel Satisfaction Survey

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AccuWeather Inc.

American Airlines Group Inc.

American Federation of Government Employees

American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees

Argo Group International Holdings Ltd.

Atos SE

Barclays PLC

Bibby Financial Services Ltd.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

California Earthquake Authority

Canon Inc.

Cartier SA

Credit Suisse Group AG

Cresco Labs Inc.

Democracy Forward Foundation

Exxon Mobil Corp.

Fordham University

Globant SA

Google LLC

Hatch Henderson Fivel LLC

Howden Broking Group Ltd.

IDEX Corp.

Instagram Inc.

Investec PLC

Jetson Electric Bikes LLC

Jushi Holdings Inc.

LexisNexis Legal & Professional

LinkedIn Corp.

London Stock Exchange Group PLC

Longford Capital Management LP

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

MGA Entertainment Inc.

Major League Soccer LLC

Major Lindsey & Africa LLC

Managed Funds Association

McKinsey & Co. Inc.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. SA

Meta Platforms Inc.

Michigan State University

Moelis & Co.

NICE Ltd.

NICE inContact

National Association of Government Employees

Netflix Inc.

Neurocrine Biosciences Inc.

New York Law School

PG&E Corp.

Palantir Technologies Inc.

Pershing Square Capital Management LP

Public Citizen Inc.

Purdue Pharma LP

RELX PLC

Robert Half Inc.

Rutter's Holdings Inc.

Smart Approaches to Marijuana

Southern California Edison Co.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

State Bar of California

Station Casinos LLC

TUI AG

Tempur Sealy International Inc.

Tesla Inc.

The Florida Bar

The PNC Financial Services Group Inc.

Toyota Motor Corp.

TripAdvisor Inc.

United Policyholders

UnitedLex Corp.

University of Virginia

Walmart Inc.

Wells Fargo & Co.

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Addleshaw Goddard

Bernstein Litowitz

Bird & Bird

Bivonas Law LLP

Bryan Cave

Bursor & Fisher

Cahill Gordon

Carpmaels & Ransford

Clyde & Co

Continental PLLC

Covington & Burling

Crowley Fleck

DLA Piper

Dentons

Fieldfisher

Foley Hoag

Fox Williams

Gentry Locke

Gibson Dunn

Goody Law Group

Greenberg Glusker

Guerra LLP

Guttman Buschner

Herbert Smith Freehills

Hicks Johnson

Hill Dickinson

Holland & Knight

Hueston Hennigan

Irwin Mitchell

Jones Day

Keoghs LLP

Kernkamp Law

Kirkland & Ellis

Krigel & Krigel

Latham & Watkins

Lauro & Singer

Law Office of Julie O. Herrera

Lerch Early

Lewis Silkin

Lynch Carpenter

McCoy Leavitt

Morgan & Morgan

Morgan Lewis

Morvillo Abramowitz

Munger Tolles

Murphy Anderson PLLC

Nixon Peabody

Orrick Herrington

Paul Weiss

Penningtons Manches

Porto Law Firm

Proskauer Rose

Quinn Emanuel

RBG Legal Services Ltd.

RWK Goodman

Reed Smith

Reynolds Porter

Ropes & Gray

Sheppard Mullin

Sidley Austin

Simmons & Simmons

Skadden Arps

Stevens & Bolton

Strang Scott

Tavenner & Beran PLC

Theodora Oringher

Troutman

Tymann Davis

Umberg & Zipser

Venable LLP

Walker Morris LLP

Willenken LLP

WilmerHale

Withersworldwide

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Trade Commission

Information Commissioner's Office

National Labor Relations Board

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

U.S. Army

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Labor

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court

UK High Court

United States District Court for the District of Wyoming