The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, however, was entitled to summary judgment on the employee’s discriminatory termination claims and it survived summary on two of its three counterclaims. Although a senior employee of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board failed to show her termination, purportedly for performance issues and her excessive travel, was actually due to her race, national origin, and political affiliation, her Title VII and DCHRA hostile work environment claims…

Counsel knowingly misrepresented when she learned of a private annuity agreement central to an SEC asset freeze. The Second Circuit affirmed sanctions imposed on an attorney who knowingly submitted a false declaration during an SEC asset-freeze proceeding. The panel held that the district court adequately supported its finding that the attorney acted knowingly and in bad faith when she misrepresented when she learned of a private annuity agreement central to the litigation. The opinion is by…

The top priority for Rep. Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.) if, as expected, he regains the chairmanship of the House Homeland Security Committee will be rebuilding the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, according to a statement shared with CPR today. Rep. Thompson was the committee’s ranking member when it was established as a standing committee in 2005. Since then, he has been either ranking member or chair of the committee during every session of Congress, and he’s likely to become…

The CY 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule revised payment, coding, quality, and accountable-care policies to strengthen primary care and prevention while tightening payment integrity. CMS finalized broad changes to Medicare Part B payment that redirected resources toward longitudinal, preventive, and coordinated care while reducing payments that the agency viewed as duplicative or poorly aligned with current practice. The CY 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule adjusted…

CoinFlip, one of the California’s largest cryptocurrency ATM companies, was ordered to pay over $4.8 million to California victims after failing to adequately protect them from financial fraud. The California Commissioner of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) has entered into a Consent Order with GPD Holdings LLC dba CoinFlip (CoinFlip) under which CoinFlip agreed to pay over $4.8 million to California victims after failing to adequately protect them from financial fraud. Additionally,…

The European Court of Justice's First Advocate General weighs in, though his opinion is advisory and nonbinding. The training of artificial intelligence language models on copyrighted content can be protected under European law as long as that content is not harvested in violation of online access controls and reasonable measures are taken to ensure that the content is not regurgitated to users, the court’s First Advocate General has argued. The lengthy submission by the court’s advocate…

Court rejects Amazon's contention that the class action method of litigation would be unmanageable due to "the unprecedented size of the proposed class." The federal district court in Seattle, Washington has granted class certification in litigation alleging improper anticompetitive effects by the Amazon Marketplace platform's "most-favored nation restraints" allegedly imposed upon third-party merchants using the platform, resulting in customers paying supracompetitive prices. Class…

A company’s motion to partially exclude the expert testimony of a widow who alleged that her husband died from exposure to asbestos contained in the company’s products was denied by the court. A federal district court in Pennsylvania denied the request of a company to partially exclude an expert’s testimony in a case brought by the widow of a man who allegedly died from exposure to asbestos contained in the company’s packing and gasket materials. The widow’s wrongful death and survival action…

According to the Justice Department, this is the “largest class of workers to publicly recover under an EEOC settlement on account of alleged Title VII violations arising from or relating to a DEI program or practices.” Lockheed Martin Corp. has agreed to pay $29.5 million to resolve allegations that it discriminated against employees and job applicants based on race and sex through compensation, hiring, promotion, and career-development practices, federal authorities announced. The settlement…