Business of Law

July 24, 2024
Watchdog Clears DOJ In 'Unusual' Roger Stone Sentencing

The Justice Department did not bow to political pressure to push for a more lenient sentence for former President Donald Trump's longtime adviser Roger Stone, but the way in which the department handled the sentencing was "highly unusual" and the result of a U.S. attorney's poor leadership, according to a watchdog report released Wednesday.
July 24, 2024
Pa. Judge Won't 'Chase' Deadline-Flouting ADA Case Attys

A Pennsylvania federal judge on Wednesday told attorneys in an Americans with Disabilities Act case against Tommy Bahama that he wasn't going to "chase" lawyers flouting scheduling orders, warning that the consequences might hurt more than just complying with the plan.
July 24, 2024
Ex-McElroy Deutsch Exec Says Ch. 11 Doesn't Pause Claims

A former McElroy Deutsch executive told a New Jersey state court that just because her husband — former McElroy Deutsch chief financial officer John Dunlea — has filed for bankruptcy does not mean she needs to pause her claims against the firm for discrimination and retaliation.
July 24, 2024
Legal Tech Co.'s $1.3M Data Privacy Deal Gets OK'd

A Kansas federal judge granted preliminary approval to a proposed $1.3 million settlement between a data and professional services company catering to law firms and a class of thousands of its customers and employees, who said their personal information was stolen in a March 2023 data breach that exposed 200 gigabytes of sensitive information.
July 24, 2024
Where Biden Stands On Judicial Noms Compared To Trump

With President Joe Biden now set to be a one-term president, it appears he can match President Donald Trump's record on district court nominees, but it's not likely he will on nominees to circuit courts.
July 24, 2024
Parts Of Klehr Harrison Bills Not Privileged, Pa. Panel Finds

Pennsylvania journalists can view the subject lines of invoice requests sent to the Pennsylvania Office of General Counsel by outside law firms, including Klehr Harrison, with a state appeals court panel determining the information falls under the state's Right-to-Know Law and is not privileged, nor is it protected by a court order.
July 24, 2024
Jenner & Block Wants Out Of COVID Vax Refusal Firing Suit

Jenner & Block LLP has asked an Illinois federal judge to toss a former employee's claims that she was fired after being denied a religious exemption from the firm's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, saying she didn't do enough to spell out her religious beliefs or how they conflict with the vaccine.
July 24, 2024
Mintz Reelects Bodian To Final Term As Managing Member

Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC announced Wednesday that Bob Bodian, who was already the longest-serving managing member in the firm's 91-year history, has been elected to a sixth and final three-year term.
July 24, 2024
Dentons Brings On Former Big 4 Exec As New Global CEO

Global law firm Dentons, which has made a name for itself by aggressive growth through combinations, has tapped a new global chief executive officer with leadership experience at accounting giant EY, the firm's first change at the top in over a decade.
July 23, 2024
Knives Out For Another Pro-Agency Landmark After Chevron

Only weeks after U.S. Supreme Court conservatives took a hatchet to the judicial deference shown to federal agencies, right-leaning lawyers are imploring the justices to rock the administrative law realm again by gutting a New Deal-era precedent at the heart of the modern regulatory system.
July 23, 2024
JetBlue Upgrades Former Deputy To General Counsel Seat

JetBlue Airways Corp. announced Tuesday that it has tapped a former member of its legal leadership team as the company's next general counsel and corporate secretary.
July 23, 2024
Hogan Lovells Wants Afghanistan Atty Fee Award Enforced

Hogan Lovells US LLP has asked a New York federal court to enforce a more than $1.2 million award it secured against Afghanistan in arbitration over fees it says it's owed for the firm's work representing the country in various legal matters, including litigation over the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
July 23, 2024
Schiff's Bill Would Expand FOIA Provisions To Federal Courts

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., introduced legislation Tuesday that would extend the rights provided by the federal Freedom of Information Act to the work of the judicial branch.
July 23, 2024
X's Tesla Ties Could Require Judge's Recusal, Watchdog Says

Elon Musk's X Corp. wants to avoid disclosing its financial links with Tesla in the social media company's defamation lawsuit against Media Matters for America because the Texas federal judge overseeing the case likely holds Tesla stock and would need to recuse himself, the progressive media watchdog said.
July 23, 2024
Prosecutor Turned Witness: 'Rust' Case Shows Rare Dilemma

The botched "Rust" trial of Alec Baldwin and Donald Trump's election interference case in Georgia have offered scarce examples of prosecutors taking the stand, demonstrating how ethics scandals can snowball and make government attorneys choose between protecting themselves or their cases.
July 23, 2024
US, UK, EU Antitrust Enforcers Outline AI Principles

The top antitrust officials from the U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, the European Commission and the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority presented a unified international commitment Tuesday to closely monitor artificial intelligence technology and the companies that they warned could wield AI anticompetitively.
July 23, 2024
FTC Attys On Kroger Case Get Extensions After IT Outage

The administrative law judge overseeing the Federal Trade Commission's in-house challenge to Kroger and Albertsons' $25 billion merger has given the agency and the grocery behemoths two extra days on a couple of filing deadlines after the FTC said the worldwide Microsoft outage left several counsel laptops unusable.
July 23, 2024
Labor Dept. ESG Rule May Survive Chevron's Demise

The Fifth Circuit recently overturned a ruling that relied on the now-defunct doctrine of Chevron deference to uphold a U.S. Department of Labor rule covering socially conscious retirement plan investing, but some experts believe the rule has a good chance at surviving — even with the precedent off the books.
July 23, 2024
SEC Names New Acting Head Of Exams

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that the deputy director of its examinations division will serve as the unit's new acting director, as the previous director takes a leave of absence to focus on his health.
July 23, 2024
Litigation Funder Says Apple Doc Request Is 'Mere Suspicion'

Apple Inc. is trying to make an "end run" around a California trial court by demanding that Omni Bridgeway LLC turn over documents explaining its financial interest in patent litigation against Apple based on "mere suspicion," the litigation funder has told a Delaware federal judge.
July 23, 2024
After Trump Attack, GOP Presses DOJ On Justices' Security

Two Republican U.S. House representatives pressed the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday for information on security measures protecting court officers, warning that limitations on the U.S. Marshals Service's authority to arrest protesters near justices' homes are "dangerous and misguided," especially after former President Donald Trump's attempted assassination.
July 23, 2024
No Victims, No Fraud, Trump Says In $465M Judgment Appeal

Donald Trump has appealed the $465 million judgment against him, arguing that the New York attorney general exceeded her authority in her civil fraud suit against the former president because the statute in question does not apply to victimless transactions.
July 23, 2024
Senate Dems Roll Out Bill To Codify Chevron Deference

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., led a group of Democratic senators Tuesday in introducing a bill to codify the now-defunct doctrine of Chevron deference after it was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last month.
July 23, 2024
Brennan Center Gets $30M For High Court Reform Unit

The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law announced Tuesday that philanthropist and businessman Jim Kohlberg has committed $30 million for the establishment of a new unit focused on U.S. Supreme Court reform.
July 23, 2024
Chamber Rips Multibillion-Dollar Atty Fee Bid In Musk Pay Suit

The nation's largest business organization has urged Delaware's Court of Chancery to adopt sweeping curbs to jumbo plaintiff attorney fee awards, declaring a multibillion-dollar fee bid following the cancellation of Tesla CEO Elon Musk's stock-based pay plan "shocks the conscience."

Expert Analysis

7 E-Discovery Predictions For 2024 And Beyond

The legal and technical issues of e-discovery now affect virtually every lawsuit, and in the year to come, practitioners can expect practices and policies to evolve in a number of ways, from the expanded use of relevancy redactions to mandated information security provisions in protective orders, say attorneys at Littler.
5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2024

Over the next year and beyond, litigation funding will continue to evolve in ways that affect attorneys and the larger litigation landscape, from the growth of a secondary market for funded claims, to rising interest rates restricting the availability of capital, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.
4 Legal Ethics Considerations For The New Year

As attorneys and clients reset for a new year, now is a good time to take a step back and review some core ethical issues that attorneys should keep front of mind in 2024, including approaching generative artificial intelligence with caution and care, and avoiding pitfalls in outside counsel guidelines, say attorneys at HWG.
What The Law Firm Of The Future Will Look Like

As the legal landscape shifts, it’s become increasingly clear that the BigLaw business model must adapt in four key ways to remain viable, from fostering workplace flexibility to embracing technology, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.
4 PR Pointers When Your Case Is In The News

Media coverage of new lawsuits exploded last year, demonstrating why defense attorneys should devise a public relations plan that complements their legal strategy, incorporating several objectives to balance ethical obligations and advocacy, say Nathan Burchfiel at Pinkston and Ryan June at Castañeda + Heidelman.
Law Firm Strategies For Successfully Navigating 2024 Trends

Though law firms face the dual challenge of external and internal pressures as they enter 2024, firms willing to pivot will be able to stand out by adapting to stakeholder needs and reimagining their infrastructure, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants.
Legal Practice In The AI Era: The Top Guest Articles Of 2023

Guest columnists explored the possibilities and challenges for the legal profession amid the rise of generative artificial intelligence, including privilege complications, demands for new types of legal skills, and the ethics of a ChatGPT-authored motion.
AI In Employment Law: The Top Guest Articles Of 2023

This year, the most popular employment law topics related to artificial intelligence in Law360's Expert Analysis section included ChatGPT, new AI legislation, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
AI In Health Law: The Top Guest Articles Of 2023

As the use of artificial intelligence accelerated this year, Expert Analysis writers examined AI's significant impact on the healthcare sector, ranging from key compliance considerations for companies utilizing AI tools to regulators' efforts to keep up with rapidly evolving technologies.
AI In IP Law: The Top Guest Articles Of 2023

Keeping up with generative artificial intelligence was the name of the game for intellectual property lawyers in 2023 as the government worked to determine whether AI-generated output is protectable under the law and guest writers assessed the technology's risks and rewards.
The Most-Read Securities Law360 Guest Articles Of 2023

Securities guest article topics that piqued reader interest this year include how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission utilized seldom-used rules to go after bad actors, and how Delaware courts increased scrutiny on boards of directors — sometimes in surprising ways.
The Most-Read Employment Law360 Guest Articles Of 2023

This year, some of the most popular employment topics in articles written for Law360's Expert Analysis section focused on workplace diversity, equity and inclusion, new unionization rules from the National Labor Relations Board, and proposed regulations for implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
Managing AI Risks: The Top Guest Articles Of 2023

Amid the rapidly developing legal landscape around artificial intelligence, Law360 Expert Analysis writers tackled a range of compliance and litigation challenges, providing insights on privacy in the age of AI, the role of class actions in AI risk mitigation, and the creation of corporate AI policies.
The Most-Read Law360 UK Guest Articles Of 2023

Benefits of the new EU Unified Patent Court, artificial intelligence regulation and M&A trends amid rising inflation were among the hot topics U.K. Expert Analysis articles explored this year.
The Most-Read IP Law360 Guest Articles Of 2023

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office incentives and restrictions, Federal Circuit decisions on exact meaning, and lessons from the comedic whodunit “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” were among popular intellectual property topics guest authors tackled this year.