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A California federal judge said a proposed consumer class action accusing Tesla of misleading owners about the capabilities of their cars could move ahead. Plus, Boeing faces a possible criminal prosecution that it once avoided; Cornell's law school set a new standard for loan repayment assistance programs; and the U.S. Supreme Court preserved a Louisiana voting map that has implications for control of the U.S. House. In court today, Epic Games and Apple will resume their face-off over the App Store. Subscribe to The Daily Docket for the latest legal news: https://reut.rs/4aBvwvO #legal #legalnews #tesla #boeing #apple #epicgames #SCOTUS

LIVE: Donald Trump's criminal trial over hush money payment

 Donald Trump's lawyers plan to resume their cross-examination of the Republican presidential candidate's ex-fixer Michael Cohen on Thursday, aiming to undermine his testimony that Trump was intimately involved in buying a porn star's silence over an alleged sexual encounter.

 #DonaldTrump #Trump #hushmoney #MichaelCohen #StormyDaniels #trial #NewYork #live #Reuters #News Keep up with the latest news from around the world: https://www.reuters.com/

Cornell Law School in June will begin providing full federal loan repayments for its graduates in public interest jobs earning up to $120,000 annually—a $40,000 increase from the current $80,000 salary cap. That change, announced this month, sets a new standard among U.S. law school loan repayment assistance programs, widely known as LRAPs, for graduates who take jobs as public defenders or in civil legal services organizations, for example. Harvard Law School and New York University School of Law previously had the highest salary caps for full loan repayment through their LRAPs at $110,000. Each of U.S. News & World Report’s 14 top-ranked law schools offer loan repayment assistance to graduates in public interest jobs, which typically pay significantly less than private sector legal jobs. The national median starting salary for civil legal services lawyers was $64,200 in 2023, while new lawyers at public service organizations earned a median salary of $69,500 and public defenders made $69,600, according to the National Association for Law Placement (NALP). By contrast, the median base salary for new law firm associates was $200,000 in 2023, NALP data shows. Karen Sloan has more: https://reut.rs/44Qg65u

What does it mean to force someone to work? A class action on behalf of people from the Philippines who say they were lured to Clinton, Oklahoma, (population 8,500) on temporary visas with false promises of well-paying jobs in the hospitality industry hinged on that question. In her latest column, Jenna Greene looks at the pro bono effort by lawyers from Skadden and nonprofits, who argued that human trafficking laws reach beyond the sex trade. Read more: https://reut.rs/3WDHGAP  

The State Bar of California is looking to develop its own bar exam, parting ways with the National Conference of Bar Examiners and rejecting its overhauled licensing test set to debut in July 2026, Karen Sloan reports. The change would save the state bar up to $4.2 million annually in bar administration costs, according to a staff memo outlining the proposal reviewed by Reuters. Read more: https://reut.rs/3wFBQEr 

The DOJ said Boeing breached its obligations under a 2021 agreement that kept it from facing criminal prosecution following fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. The finding raises the prospect of Boeing facing prosecution it had previously avoided, which could result in fresh penalties and deepen an ongoing corporate crisis that has already resulted in a management shakeup and government investigations. Subscribe to The Afternoon Docket: https://reut.rs/4aVlZjE #legal

U.S. defamation law firm Clare Locke scored a win on May 14 in a fight with an ex-client and its own former lawyers, persuading a Virginia federal judge to uphold an arbitrator's decision to freeze any money obtained by ice cream machine technology start-up Kytch in lawsuits against McDonald's and others. Clare Locke initially represented Kytch as it sued McDonald's and others for $900 million, alleging the fast food giant falsely told franchisees its device for improving the reliability of ice cream machines could cause worker injuries. McDonald's has denied the allegations but agreed to a tentative settlement. Kytch is now represented by a group of former Clare Locke lawyers who broke off in August to form their own firm, Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch. Read more in David Thomas' report: https://reut.rs/3ycFdTB

A jury was chosen on May 15 to determine whether Democratic U.S. Senator Robert Menendez broke the law in what federal prosecutors have called a years-long bribery scheme to benefit the governments of Egypt and Qatar, as well as himself. Opening statements in the trial of New Jersey's senior senator are expected to begin later in the day before U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan. The trial could last into early July. Twelve jurors and six alternates were chosen, including an investment banker, a commercial litigator, a retired economist, a doctor, and multiple therapists. Jury selection took about 2-1/2 days, and more than 130 prospective jurors were excused. Menendez, 70, faces 16 criminal charges including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction. Read more: https://reut.rs/3yt0Tee

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston rejected a call to disregard a key new NLRB labor ruling that a company said could be overturned on appeal. Joun ordered a cannabis dispensary operator to bargain with a #union even though its workers voted against unionizing, in the first court ruling to apply a #NLRB decision creating a new path for unions to organize workers. The NLRB’s general counsel lauded Joun’s ruling. Subscribe to The Daily Docket for more: https://reut.rs/4aBvwvO #legal #labor

A London-based comic-book artist on May 14 asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel several #trademarks covering the term 'Super Hero' that are jointly owned by #Disney's Marvel and its main rival, Warner Bros' DC Comics. Scott Richold's Superbabies told a USPTO tribunal that 'Super Hero' is a generic term that is not entitled to trademark protection, according to a copy of the petition provided by Superbabies' law firm Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP. #Marvel and #DC jointly own four trademarks covering the terms 'Super Hero' and 'Super Heroes,' the oldest of which dates back to 1967. The comic-book giants have cited their marks to oppose dozens of superhero-related trademark applications at the USPTO, according to the office's records. More from Blake Brittain: https://reut.rs/3JZCNur #legal #legalnews #intellectualproperty #comicbooks #superhero