Nonprofits, Voters Seek To Stymie NC's New Mail Ballot Rules

By Hayley Fowler

Nonprofit groups and two voters are asking a North Carolina federal judge to block the Tar Heel State's new mail-in ballot restrictions ahead of the November midterm elections, saying the rules threaten to disenfranchise eligible voters over "innocuous, technical errors."

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Labcorp Inks $2.3M Deal To Resolve Multistate Data Breach

By Carla Baranauckas

Labcorp will pay nearly $2.3 million and adopt data security changes under a multistate settlement resolving investigations into a 2019 breach at its former debt collection vendor, a group of state attorneys general announced Thursday.

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EEOC Says Hotel's '100% Healed' Policy Violates ADA

By Grace Elletson

A North Carolina hotel operator fired an employee rather than accommodate him after he faced disabling injuries from a bus crash, stating he needed to be fully healed to return to work, according to a Thursday lawsuit from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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AGs Push Congress To Regulate AI But Not Preempt State Laws

By Brian Steele

Nearly half the attorneys general in the United States implored Congress in a letter Thursday to "immediately" regulate the artificial intelligence industry and prohibit federal action from preempting state laws, telling U.S. House and Senate leaders that national security is at stake.

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Roundup

ITC Takes On Patents, Trade Secrets In Large Decision Drop

By Dani Kass

The U.S. International Trade Commission issued a flood of decisions this week on investigations in which imports are being evaluated to see if they infringe patents or misappropriate secrets, including three cases where it will reconsider holdings from administrative law judges.

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Brief

Default Sought After Racing Team Didn't Reply To Counterclaims

By Ganesh Setty

A former Joe Gibbs Racing LLC competition director and a rival NASCAR racing team where he currently works asked a North Carolina federal court on Thursday to enter default judgment against Joe Gibbs Racing after it accused them of trade secrets theft.

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Series

Playing Bid Whist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

As a child, I viewed bid whist as a family tradition and a source of friendly card game competition, but as a lawyer, I see it as a tool that has helped me cultivate skills like communication, teamwork, risk assessment and composure, says Keyonn Pope at Riley Safer.

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Litigation Spending To Keep Climbing While Biz Risks Mount

By Ryan Boysen

Big companies will increase their litigation budgets yet again next year, as navigating legal risk is now an essential element of achieving strategic business goals, according to a new report.

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Seyfarth Failed To Guard Client Data From Hack, Suit Alleges

By Lauren Berg

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on Thursday was hit with a proposed class action in Illinois federal court accusing it of failing to protect its current and former clients' personal information after the Chicago-based law firm this month disclosed a recent data breach.

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PACER Experiences Outages Of Some Court Dockets

By Matt Perez

PACER, the online public repository of federal court documents, experienced technical errors on Wednesday and Thursday preventing some users from accessing certain court dockets.

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New Eastern La. Judge's 5th Circ. Bid Goes To Full Senate

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Anna St. John of the Eastern District of Louisiana, who was confirmed to her current post in March, is one step closer to being elevated to the federal appeals bench.

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Fla. Judge To Get Reprimand For Remark On Shooting Attys

By Madison Arnold

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a public reprimand of a state district court judge for "intemperate and caustic" comments about shooting attorneys during a hearing.

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Congressional Probes Raise Legal, 'Reputational' Risks

By Phillip Bantz

An array of companies and executives may face investigations over their dealings with the Trump administration if Democrats take control of Congress, raising the possibility that some may refuse to comply. But experts say holding out hope for a mass pardon or expecting the Justice Department not to pursue contempt charges is a risky bet.

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Analysis

5 Circuit Splits To Watch At The High Court

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court has been deciding fewer and fewer cases over the past three decades, with its caseload reaching a historic low just last term. While attorneys believe several factors have contributed to that trend, they say one of the most consequential is the court's apparent declining interest in resolving circuit splits. 

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Trump's Antitrust Pick Advances Amid Independence Worries

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump's pick to lead the antitrust division at the U.S. Department of Justice advanced to the Senate floor on Thursday, despite Democratic concerns about agency independence.

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Sen. Hyde-Smith's Opponent Seeks Blue-Slip Transparency

By Courtney Bublé

Four years ago, Scott Colom — the son of the first African American elected to the chancery bench in her region of Mississippi — was nominated for a federal judgeship. Now he's running for Senate against the senator who blocked his confirmation.

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Ed. Dept. Committee Sidesteps ABA Accreditation Issue

By Ryan Boysen

A key U.S. Department of Education committee on Thursday declined to weigh in on whether an American Bar Association council should remain a federally recognized accreditor of law schools, a day after the panel deadlocked on different proposals over the hot-button issue.

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