Keep your finger on the legal world's pulse

More than 300 South Korean workers who were detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai Motor Group-LG Energy Solution joint venture battery plant in the U.S. state of Georgia have started filing administrative claims with nine federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection, the FBI and the Departments of Justice and Labor. The claims, which are a necessary step before pursuing lawsuits under the Federal Tort Claims Act, allege unlawful detention and poor conditions at an ICE facility. An attorney representing the workers aims to submit all claims by year-end. Both companies have sought to distance themselves from the legal actions. An LG Energy Solution official told The Korea Times the company would not become involved because the legal actions were based on individual decisions by the workers. The raid, which occurred on September 4, 2025, was the largest single-site enforcement action in ICE's history.

 

Chinadaily US Edition

The Korea Times

Bloomberg Law profiles Lisa Solbakken, the ex-Wilkie Farr associate who now runs her six-lawyer firm, Arkin Solbakken, and helps white-collar professionals navigate their exits from Big Law firms. Solbakken has “endeared herself to heavy hitters with a style that's part empathetic divorce lawyer and part hardened litigator,” the report observes. “When you meet her, she's personable, engaging, and laughs easily, so you're inclined to let your guard down,” said Jack Devine, a former acting CIA deputy director who now runs a private risk consulting and intelligence firm that's retained Solbakken. “But you make a mistake if you think that's what you're dealing with, because once you get into the law, now you have a lioness.”

 

Bloomberg Law

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan has ordered Attorney General Todd Blanche to comply with court orders regarding the release of information related to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. The judge set a deadline of September 24 for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide the requested records or explain why the orders were not “clear and unambiguous.” Sullivan found the DOJ's arguments against releasing the documents to be “without merit.” The lawsuit, filed by attorney Katie Phang, claims the DOJ violated the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) by withholding information. Phang said: “I can't imagine that anybody would be satisfied that there's still millions of documents that Todd Blanche says are duplicative or nonresponsive.” The court has ordered the release of specific documents, including handwritten FBI interview notes.

 

The Hill

Democratic lawmakers have intensified calls to impeach Education Secretary Linda McMahon, and are seeking an inspector general investigation into her restructuring of the Department of Education. During her 18 months as secretary, McMahon has cut more than 40% of the department’s staff, closed regional divisions, and transferred core responsibilities to other federal agencies through interagency agreements as she pursues President Donald Trump’s mandate to return greater education authority to the states. Critics, including Sens. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), argue that the changes have harmed students, federal employees, and public education. McMahon and the administration maintain that the restructuring is lawful, reduces federal bureaucracy, and is intended to improve student outcomes.

 

ABC News

A federal appeals court has ruled that Kalshi's prediction market operates more like a gambling enterprise that may violate the rights of Indian tribes in California to regulate gaming on their lands, and the company has been blocked ​from offering sports event contracts on the lands of two of the state's tribes. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, by a 3-0 vote, said the two federally recognized California tribes - Blue Lake Rancheria and Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians - deserved a preliminary injunction because they would likely show that Kalshi's ​contracts violated the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and the tribes' own gaming ordinances.

 

Reuters

San Francisco Chronicle

Starbucks has settled a discrimination lawsuit brought by Florida, agreeing not to use race- or sex-based quotas or preferences in hiring, promotions, or pay decisions. The company, which denied wrongdoing, will pay $1m to cover litigation costs, comply with Florida anti-discrimination law, and submit annual compliance certifications for four years. The agreement, which Florida’s attorney general’s office said applies nationwide, also prevents Starbucks from participating in organizations that require increased racial diversity on its board. The settlement comes amid broader challenges to corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the U.S.

 

Reuters

OpenAI has published six reports detailing unexpected or concerning model behavior. The incidents include the models generating instructions to get around restrictions imposed on them, hiding mistakes, and fabricating information. The company has also announced a new system to track, investigate and disclose cases of models misbehaving (misalignment). Under the framework, developers will be able to flag incidents for review, and a new set of rules will decide whether the issue is disclosed publicly. "Because we believe in the value of transparency around misalignment, our new framework favors disclosure even when significance is uncertain," OpenAI said.

 

New York Times

Reuters

BBC News

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a blanket five-year exemption for listing and trading tokenized securities - digital tokens that represent a stock and can be traded on a blockchain similar to a cryptocurrency - without registering as an exchange. The regulator is also offering liquidity providers in tokenized stocks a five-year exemption from dealer ​registration requirements. Platforms would be required to notify companies before listing tokenized versions of their stocks, and would be ⁠prohibited from offering those products if the issuer objects, an SEC official said. “The Securities and Exchange Commission is taking a significant step forward, within its statutory authority, to bring America’s capital markets into the digital age by facilitating onchain trading of certain tokenized stocks through the ‘Innovation Exemption,’” SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said.

 

CoinDesk

Forbes

SEC.gov

Reuters

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher is enhancing its litigation capabilities by adding a three-partner products liability team from Paul Weiss, led by Kimberly Branscome, who will serve as co-chair of the firm's mass torts and products liability practice. Yahonnes Cleary and Jonathan Tam are joining the firm as partners in its mass torts and product liability practice group.

 

Bloomberg Law

Spanish labor union FIST wants a court to cancel the redundancies of 2,062 staff who worked for a company that moderated content for Meta. Canadian tech firm Telus International, which operated in Spain as CCC Barcelona Digital Services, cut the roles  in a package agreed with main unions last year, citing the termination of its contract with the U.S. tech giant, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Minority union FIST has now launched a lawsuit against Telus and Meta, claiming before a court in Barcelona that the layoffs were an “attack and a retaliation against the workers’ exercising of their basic rights.” According to the lawsuit, more than half of the affected workers had launched legal action for alleged “salary discrimination” based on language and origin: moderators’ wages varied according to their working language.

 

Catalan News

Demócrata

Straits Times

The U.K.'s Competition Appeal Tribunal has approved a £260m ($347m) settlement in a case against Google. The firm is accused of abusing its dominant position in the U.K. app market. The settlement is the largest the tribunal has approved since U.S.-style class actions were made legal in Britain.

 

The Times

Americans' confidence in vaccines for childhood diseases, particularly measles, has significantly decreased, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. The survey revealed that only 76% of respondents believe in the safety of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, down from 84% in 2020. The decline is most notable among Republicans. The U.S. is currently facing its worst measles outbreaks in 35 years, with over 3,000 confirmed cases this year. The poll showed 19% of Americans approve of President Trump's handling of the measles outbreak, compared ⁠with 52% who disapprove; the remainder said they didn't have a view, or didn't answer the question.

 

U.S. News