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NY Judge Orders Temporary Block On DOL's Job Corps Cuts

By Beverly Banks

A New York federal judge on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order to stop the U.S. Department of Labor from eliminating Job Corps, saying the agency can't move ahead with shutting down the more than 60-year-old job training program without approval from Congress.

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Russell Simmons Claims HBO Doc Defamed Him In $20M Suit

By Dorothy Atkins

Def Jam Recordings co-founder Russell Simmons filed defamation claims in New York state court Tuesday seeking $20 million against HBO and the makers behind the 2020 documentary "On the Record" for allegedly falsely reporting that he raped multiple women.

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1st Circ. Upholds Block On Trump's Education Dept. Job Cuts

By Chris Villani

The First Circuit on Wednesday rejected a bid by President Donald Trump to greenlight massive job cuts at the U.S. Department of Education, finding that the administration had not provided enough evidence to overturn a block put in place by a Massachusetts federal judge.

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OneTaste Jury Hears Of Illicit Labor Plot, As Trial Closes

By Stewart Bishop

A Brooklyn federal prosecutor on Wednesday told jurors that OneTaste co-founder Nicole Daedone and her former top deputy used an array of manipulative tactics, including sexual and financial abuse, to keep workers for the sexual wellness company in line, as the trial nears its end.

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Barclays Investors Can't Redo Unregistered Securities Suit

By Katryna Perera

A New York federal judge has declined to reconsider his dismissal of a securities class action alleging Barclays misled investors about its internal controls and unregistered securities sales, which eventually triggered so-called short squeezes, finding that the plaintiffs' most recent arguments are "unavailing" for the same reasons that led to their dismissal.

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Navios CEO Sued Over 'Disloyal' Share Buyback Scheme

By Sydney Price

Two investors of shipping and logistics company Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. say the company's CEO and board of directors ran a scheme to devalue preferred shares after taking the company private, supposedly concealing plans to delist the stock and buy it back at fire-sale prices.

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MoneyLion Says CFPB Can't Duck Fed Funding Issue

By Katryna Perera

Online lending platform MoneyLion has doubled down on its bid for dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, telling a New York federal judge that new reasoning from the U.S. Supreme Court confirms the agency is improperly funded and that it is not improper to file successive dismissal motions as the CFPB has contended.

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CFPB Resumes $4.2M Redress After Pressure From States

By Sarah Jarvis

California's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation said Wednesday that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is now making good on a $4.2 million redress plan for former students of a shuttered sales-training firm, following agency delays and subsequent pressure from various states.

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Series

Hospitality Law Leaders Parse Trade War Fallout

In this weekly Q&A series from °µÍø½ûÇø Real Estate Authority, law firm hospitality leaders assess the issues the hotel space is facing amid market uncertainty and the ongoing trade war.

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OpenAI Says Data Retention Order Creating Privacy Concerns

By Elliot Weld

ChatGPT maker OpenAI has asked a Manhattan federal judge to lift an order for it to retain output log data for conversations users have had with the generative artificial intelligence model, saying ongoing preservation won't be useful in a case brought by news organizations that say their content was used to train the program.

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Judge Grills Kidde-Fenwal About Missing Info In Disclosures

By Emily Lever

A Delaware bankruptcy judge Wednesday questioned why firefighting foam maker Kidde-Fenwal did not include in plan disclosures details about the recoveries its creditors can expect under its Chapter 11 proposal, as the debtor prepares to send its reorganization plan out for a vote.

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Davis Polk, Skadden Guide Circle's Upsized $1B IPO

By Tom Zanki

Venture-backed stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group Inc. on Wednesday priced an upsized $1.05 billion initial public offering above its marketed range amid strong demand, represented by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and underwriters counsel Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.

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Ex-Kirkland Project Finance Atty Joins McGuireWoods In NY

By Nate Beck

McGuireWoods LLP has added Sharaf Islam as a partner from Kirkland & Ellis LLP to help expand the firm's project finance group with an attorney versed in digital infrastructure and renewable-energy deals.

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Ex-Paul Weiss Corporate Partner Joins Cooley's NY Practice

By Jack Rodgers

Cooley LLP has hired a former Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP finance partner, who told °µÍø½ûÇø Pulse in an interview Wednesday that he followed his father and uncle's footsteps when deciding to pursue a career in law.

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HSF Kramer Taps Bankruptcy Duo As 1st Hires Since Merger

By Andrea Keckley

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP announced on Wednesday its first hires since the merger between Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP and Herbert Smith Freehills LLP became official at the start of this month, welcoming two attorneys from New York bankruptcy boutique Togut Segal & Segal LLP.

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Brief

Jack Nicklaus' Defamation Suit Can Stay In Fla., Court Says

By Elaine Briseño

A Florida appeals court ruled Wednesday that golf legend Jack Nicklaus can keep his defamation lawsuit against Nicklaus Cos. LLC in the state, despite a forum selection clause between the two that designated New York as the required venue.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Supporting A Trial Team

While students often practice as lead trial attorneys in law school, such an opportunity likely won’t arise until a few years into practice, so junior associates should focus on honing skills that are essential to supporting a trial team, including organization, adaptability and humility, says Lucy Zelina at Tucker Ellis.

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Analysis

How Trump's Pardons Could Sway Prosecutorial Discretion

By Phillip Bantz

As President Donald Trump dismantles a growing list of white collar criminal cases with a flurry of clemency grants early in his second term, erasing years of investigative and prosecutorial work with a stroke of his black Sharpie, experts worry his actions will have a chilling effect on prosecutorial decision-making.

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Bernstein Litowitz Can Hire Ex-SEC Atty Over Musk Objection

By Jessica Corso

A New York federal judge on Thursday gave the all-clear for investor-side firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP to hire the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's former litigation chief over the objections of Elon Musk.

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Seyfarth Joins Long List Of BigLaw's China Closures

By Aebra Coe

Seyfarth Shaw LLP is the latest large law firm to close an office in China, with a spokesperson confirming Thursday that the firm plans to shutter its Shanghai office later this year.

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Foley & Lardner Says Palestine Support Didn't Doom Job Offer

By Andrea Keckley

Foley & Lardner LLP urged an Illinois federal judge to dismiss a bias suit by a former summer associate, arguing her job offer was rescinded not due to her Arab Muslim identity but because her public comments on Hamas' 2023 attack on Israel "violated the firm's core values" and showed "incredibly poor judgment."

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Analysis

Trump's New Travel Ban May Be Harder To Fight This Time

By Britain Eakin

President Donald Trump's travel ban, which suffered multiple court losses during his first term before the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld it, may be on more solid legal footing in its renewed form, with lessons evidently applied from those losses.

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Dems, GOP Question Contempt Section Of Reconciliation Bill

By Courtney Bublé

Senate Democrats have vowed to do whatever they can to defeat a provision in the budget reconciliation that would limit federal courts' ability to hold federal officials in contempt, and some Republicans are wary of it as well. 

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Girardi's Son-In-Law Admits Contempt In Illinois Theft Case

By Lauraann Wood

Tom Girardi's son-in-law pled guilty to criminal contempt Thursday in Illinois federal court, admitting he knew the once-celebrated plaintiffs lawyer failed to pay millions of dollars in plane crash settlement funds they had been ordered to distribute to their clients "as soon as practical."

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Justices Nix Higher Hurdle For Heterosexual Bias Claims

By Ryan Harroff

A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday vacated the Sixth Circuit's ruling that plaintiffs claiming anti-heterosexual workplace discrimination need to provide extra "background circumstances" evidence, opining that it improperly imposed special standards on majority-group plaintiffs.

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High Court Drops Class Cert. Clarification Bid

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Thursday to weigh in on whether federal courts can certify classes that include uninjured members, holding it improperly agreed to hear a disability discrimination case against diagnostics company Labcorp that raised the important question.

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Atty Coalition Asks Fla. Bar To Open Ethics Probe Into Bondi

By Carolina Bolado

A group of lawyers, law professors and former judges asked the Florida Bar on Thursday to open an ethics investigation into Pam Bondi's actions as attorney general, saying she has pushed U.S. Department of Justice attorneys to violate their ethical obligations under the guise of "zealous advocacy."

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Senate Panel Advances Picks For Nat. Sec. Post, Iowa US Atty

By Courtney Buble

The Senate voted 52-43 along party lines on Thursday to confirm John Andrew Eisenberg to be assistant attorney general for national security.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Joseph Saveri

By Daniel Connolly

Joseph Saveri, now one of the most successful plaintiffs lawyers in the U.S., said he's thought often about the story of his paternal grandparents, who left Italy around 1918, immigrated to America and traveled across the continent to settle in San Francisco.

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