Aerospace & Defense

  • March 06, 2025

    Top Groups Lobbying The FCC

    The Federal Communications Commission heard from advocates more than 50 times in February about their priorities, including opening valuable airwaves for 5G, clearing hurdles to rural broadband, and pushing T-Mobile's $4.4 billion deal to take over UScellular's wireless operations.

  • March 06, 2025

    Trump Tells Admin To Yank Perkins Coie Security Clearance

    Perkins Coie LLP is the latest law firm to face the ire of President Donald Trump, with Trump ordering on Thursday the immediate suspension of the firm's security clearances over its diverse hiring efforts and its representation of certain political figures, including former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

  • March 06, 2025

    Veterans Slam BofA's 'Recycled' Defense In Interest Cap Suit

    Veterans have opposed Bank of America's bid to toss their proposed class claims accusing the financial giant of violating an interest cap law for military service members, arguing its "recycled" defenses were already rejected in a similar suit in the same North Carolina federal court.

  • March 06, 2025

    Holland & Knight Adds Partner Who Was FBI General Counsel

    The FBI has lost its general counsel, who has joined Holland & Knight LLP as a partner in its national security and defense industry group, the firm announced Thursday.

  • March 06, 2025

    Ex-Credit Suisse Banker Avoids Prison In 'Tuna Bond' Fraud

    A Brooklyn federal judge spared a former Credit Suisse banker from prison time Thursday, after he pled guilty and became a testifying government cooperator over a plot to defraud investors in a $2 billion state-backed development initiative in Mozambique.

  • March 06, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Nixes Portion Of VA Rule Authorizing Inspections

    A Federal Circuit panel on Thursday axed part of a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs rule that allowed it to inspect computer hardware and software and even the physical locations that people use to remotely access its electronic benefit management systems.

  • March 06, 2025

    Morgan Lewis Lands Baker McKenzie's Aviation Group Leader

    Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP has hired the former chair of Baker McKenzie's global aviation group as a partner in Washington, D.C., who says she landed at Morgan Lewis because of its culture and focus on a full suite of aviation law-adjacent services.

  • March 06, 2025

    Trump Administration Ordered To Release Funds To States

    A Rhode Island judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to stop withholding funds from states, saying an executive order freezing federal grants, loans and other payments approved by Congress "fundamentally undermines" the separation of powers and is causing irreparable harm.

  • March 05, 2025

    SpaceX Fails To Get 5th Circ. To Block NLRB Case

    The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday dismissed SpaceX's appellate court bid to stop a National Labor Relations Board administrative proceeding alleging it unlawfully fired employees who criticized company CEO Elon Musk, saying the circuit court lacked jurisdiction since a lower court didn't first deny SpaceX's injunctive relief request.

  • March 05, 2025

    Army To Disinter 19 Students From Boarding School Cemetery

    The Office of Army Cemeteries says it will honor the requests of three Oklahoma tribes and disinter the remains of 19 Indigenous children from a cemetery at the site of the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

  • March 05, 2025

    FCC Could Weigh Network Options To Back Up GPS

    The Federal Communications Commission plans to vote this month on whether to dig deeper into proposals to set aside spectrum for an Earth-based broadband network and backup to the Global Positioning System.

  • March 05, 2025

    Judge Rejects Protests To $182M Army Pilot Training Contract

    A Court of Federal Claims judge rejected post-award protests raised by three companies after the U.S. Army passed on their proposals and awarded a $182 million contract for helicopter flight training support services at a fort in Alabama.

  • March 05, 2025

    Bezos' Satellite Co. Drops Docs Fight With His Newspaper

    Jeff Bezos' satellite company has ended a public records fight with the Bezos-owned Washington Post over Washington state labor department workplace investigation records, after both sides agreed on blacking out some details to shield trade secrets.

  • March 05, 2025

    Defense Biz Epirus Clinches $250M Funding Round

    National security-focused technology company Epirus announced Wednesday it closed an oversubscribed Series D fundraising round after securing $250 million from investors, bringing the startup's total venture funding to more than $550 million.

  • March 05, 2025

    Airplane Parts Makers Say Fatal Crash Order Invites 'Chaos'

    A pair of airplane parts makers have urged the North Carolina Supreme Court to reverse the dismissal of their appeal in a fatal crash case, arguing that the lower appellate court "usurped" the justices' authority by tossing the appeal despite an active stay order from the high court.

  • March 05, 2025

    Four Firms Seek Top Roles In Pa. Warehouse Fire Litigation

    Lawyers from four plaintiffs firms across the country have asked a Philadelphia judge to name them class counsel in recently filed litigation over the effects of an aircraft parts warehouse fire and also requested that the court consolidate all related lawsuits in the city.

  • March 05, 2025

    Judge Sides With Feds In Suit Over Illicit Gold Trade

    A D.C. federal judge has upheld Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions against a Belgian gold trafficker, ruling that the government had ample evidence that the man directly or indirectly supported armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

  • March 05, 2025

    High Court Upholds VA's Authority To Doubt Disability Claims

    A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a veterans' appeals court can rely on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' decisions to offer the benefit of the doubt in disability claims cases, rejecting two veterans' efforts to revive their PTSD claims.

  • March 05, 2025

    High Court Allows Release Of Frozen USAID Foreign Aid

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a D.C. federal judge can require the Trump administration to release up to $2 billion in frozen foreign aid funding, but told the judge he must clarify the scope of the government's responsibility and ensure it has enough time to comply with any deadline. 

  • March 04, 2025

    Agencies Have 'Ultimate' Authority Over Firings, OPM Says

    The Office of Personnel Management on Tuesday issued a revised version of its January memo directing agency heads to identify all probationary employees, adding a disclaimer that OPM "is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions" and that agencies "have ultimate decision-making authority."

  • March 04, 2025

    Justices Asked To Uphold Ruling Against Anti-Terror Law

    The Palestine Liberation Organization is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm a ruling striking down a 2019 law nixing a jurisdictional hurdle for lawsuits stemming from terrorist attacks in Israel and the Palestinian territories, arguing that the law "attempts an end-run around settled constitutional analysis."

  • March 04, 2025

    Gov't Says 2 Lab Owners Billed $40M In COVID Test Scheme

    Federal prosecutors opened their case Tuesday against two laboratory owners, telling jurors in Florida that they ran a more than $40 million scheme to submit medically unnecessary COVID-19 testing claims to healthcare benefit programs.

  • March 04, 2025

    House Aviation Panel Weighs Air Traffic Control Fixes

    Aviation workers' unions and industry stakeholders told lawmakers on Tuesday that years of political inertia and more recent tumult related to the federal workforce firings are impacting efforts to hire more air traffic controllers and overhaul the nation's outdated and overburdened ATC system.

  • March 04, 2025

    US Air Force Base's Faulty Wall Crushed Ga. Teen, Suit Says

    The parents of a Georgia teen who was killed in a wall collapse at Robins Air Force Base filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that the U.S. Air Force faultily constructed and failed to maintain the concrete structure that toppled over and crushed their child last summer.

  • March 04, 2025

    Trump Admin Can't Pause DEI Injunction, Judge Says

    President Donald Trump's administration cannot suspend a preliminary block on executive orders that scrap diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public and private sectors, a Maryland federal judge ruled, finding that the potential harm of the orders outweighs the president's policy priorities.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Undoing An American Ideal Of Fairness

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    President Donald Trump’s orders attacking birthright citizenship, civil rights education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs threaten hard-won constitutional civil rights protections and decades of efforts to undo bias in the law — undermining what Chief Justice Earl Warren called "our American ideal of fairness," says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Nippon Order Tests Gov't Control Over Foreign Investments

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    The U.S. government is primarily interested in restraining foreign transactions involving countries of concern, but former President Joe Biden’s January order blocking the merger of Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel shows that all foreign direct investments are under the federal government’s microscope, say attorneys at Blank Rome.

  • Opinion

    Inconsistent Injury-In-Fact Rules Hinder Federal Practice

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    A recent Third Circuit decision, contradicting a previous ruling about whether consumers of contaminated products have suffered an injury in fact, illustrates the deep confusion this U.S. Supreme Court standard creates among federal judges and practitioners, who deserve a simpler method of determining which cases have federal standing, says Eric Dwoskin at Dwoskin Wasdin.

  • In-House Counsel Pointers For Preserving Atty-Client Privilege

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    Several recent rulings illustrate the challenges in-house counsel can face when attempting to preserve attorney-client privilege, but a few best practices can help safeguard communications and effectively assert the privilege in an increasingly scrutinized corporate environment, says Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics.

  • How SDNY US Atty Nom May Shape Enforcement Priorities

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    President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Jay Clayton, will likely shift the office’s enforcement priorities, from refining whistleblower policies to deemphasizing novel prosecutorial theories, say attorneys at Cohen & Gresser.

  • How FAR Council's Proposal May Revamp Conflicts Reporting

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    The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council's recent proposal for updating organizational conflict of interest rules includes some welcome clarifications, but new representation and disclosure obligations would upend long-standing practices, likely increase contractors’ False Claims Act risks, and necessitate implementation of more complex OCI compliance programs, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • How Criminal Enforcement Of Trump Tariffs May Work

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    While tariff enforcement has traditionally been handled as a civil matter, tariffs are central to President Donald Trump's broader economic, immigration and national security agendas — making it likely that the U.S. Department of Justice will be tasked with criminal enforcement of tariff evasion, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • Series

    Collecting Rare Books Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My collection of rare books includes several written or owned by prominent lawyers from early U.S. history, and immersing myself in their stories helps me feel a deeper connection to my legal practice and its purpose, says Douglas Brown at Manatt Health.

  • DeepSeek AI Investigation Could Lead To IP Law Precedents

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    The investigation by OpenAI and Microsoft into DeepSeek's artificial intelligence model raises interesting legal concerns involving intellectual property and contract law, including potential trade secret appropriation and fair use questions, say Saishruti Mutneja and Raghav Gurbaxani.

  • Preparing For Stricter Anti-Boycott Enforcement Under Trump

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    Given the complexity of U.S. anti-boycott regulations and the likelihood of stepped-up enforcement under the new administration, companies should consider adopting risk-based anti-boycott compliance programs that include training employees to recognize and assess potential boycott requests, and to report them expeditiously when necessary, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Opinion

    New DOJ Leaders Should Curb Ill-Conceived Prosecutions

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    First-of-their-kind cases have seemingly led to a string of overly aggressive prosecutions in recent years, so newly sworn-in leaders of the U.S. Department of Justice should consider creating reporting channels to stop unwise prosecutions before they snowball, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • Opinion

    Judge Should Not Have Been Reprimanded For Alito Essay

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    Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor's New York Times essay critiquing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for potential ethical violations absolutely cannot be construed as conduct prejudicial to the administration of the business of the courts, says Ashley London at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.

  • Navigating The Ins And Outs Of Gov't Contracting SAM Site

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Recent developments at the U.S. Government Accountability Office highlight the importance of government contractors knowing how to navigate the online System for Award Management and maintaining an up-to-date registration, says Matthew Moriarty at Schoonover & Moriarty.

  • Aviation Watch: Litigation Liabilities After DC Air Tragedy

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    While it will likely take at least a year before the National Transportation Safety Board determines a probable cause for the Jan. 29 collision between a helicopter and a jet over Washington, D.C., the facts so far suggest the government could face litigation claims, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.

  • Lights, Camera, Ethics? TV Lawyers Tend To Set Bad Example

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    Though fictional movies and television shows portraying lawyers are fun to watch, Hollywood’s inaccurate depictions of legal ethics can desensitize attorneys to ethics violations and lead real-life clients to believe that good lawyers take a scorched-earth approach, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

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