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Appellate

  • July 02, 2025

    Houston Rodeo Says Unique Policy Means COVID Coverage

    The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is asking an appellate court to reverse a summary judgment win in favor of its insurer, arguing two provisions of its policy mean it's covered for business losses it sustained during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • July 02, 2025

    DC Circ. Stands By Decision Nixing $7B Power Line Fight

    The D.C. Circuit has rejected an en banc rehearing petition from Illinois landowners and farmers challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's decision to issue a license for the $7 billion Grain Belt Express transmission project, affirming an appellate panel and a district court's findings that the plaintiffs lack standing.

  • July 02, 2025

    Former FTC General Counsel Joins Orrick In New York

    The former general counsel of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has made the move to private practice at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in New York.

  • July 02, 2025

    Seaman Can't Seek Punitive Damages In Hand Injury Suit

    A Florida appeals court on Wednesday found that an injured seaman can't amend his complaint against his employer alleging that it mistreated him following his injury to add a punitive damages claim, saying he has failed to allege that the company engaged in callous, egregious or lax conduct.

  • July 02, 2025

    Mich. Justices Say Old Insurance Policies Violated New Limits

    In a closely divided order Wednesday, the Michigan Supreme Court held that insurance policies straddling the dates for which 2019 no-fault reforms went into effect are subjected to post-reform increased limits for liability, reversing a lower appellate opinion in favor of insurers.

  • July 02, 2025

    6th Circ. Backs Cigna's Win In Emergency Room Billing Suit

    The Sixth Circuit has ruled that Cigna did not have to face an unjust enrichment lawsuit brought against it by two Tennessee hospitals alleging the insurer underpaid them for out-of-network emergency services, backing a lower court's dismissal order.

  • July 02, 2025

    The Funniest Moments Of The Supreme Court's Term

    After justices and oral advocates spent much of an argument pummeling a lower court's writing talents, one attorney suggested it might be time to move on — only to be told the drubbing had barely begun. Here, Law360 showcases the standout jests and wisecracks from the 2024-25 U.S. Supreme Court term.

  • July 02, 2025

    9th Circ. Limits Cracker Barrel Collective To In-State Workers

    A nationwide collective of Cracker Barrel servers in a wage and hour case is too vast, the Ninth Circuit ruled, saying members who worked for the restaurant chain outside Arizona, where the suit was launched, should not have been permitted to join.

  • July 02, 2025

    11th Circ. Voids Injunction Shielding Trans Teacher's Job

    The Eleventh Circuit struck down an order allowing a transgender public school teacher to keep her job while she challenges a Florida law regulating workplace pronouns, ruling Wednesday that she wasn't likely to succeed on claims that the statute violates her free speech rights.

  • July 02, 2025

    Wisconsin High Court Narrowly Blocks 1849 Abortion Ban

    The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday narrowly struck down an 1849 statute criminalizing abortion, finding that the law has been effectively replaced by more modern legislation regulating the procedure.

  • July 01, 2025

    Racist Jury Selection Affords Ala. Death Row Inmate New Trial

    A Black man sentenced to death by the state of Alabama for murdering a sheriff has been granted a new trial by the Eleventh Circuit, which found that the state violated his constitutional right to equal protection by habitually eliminating potential Black jurors from cases like his in a discriminatory manner.

  • July 01, 2025

    NYT Says Palin Can't Get New Defamation Trial, Recusal

    The New York Times urged a New York federal judge to refuse Sarah Palin's request for a new trial and judge after a jury rejected her defamation claims over a 2017 editorial, saying her arguments misunderstood circuit court rulings in the long-running case and skipped a procedural bar.

  • July 01, 2025

    Illinois Court Orders Additional Look At Shooting Conviction

    An appeals court in Illinois has ruled that a man accused of committing a drive-by shooting in Chicago must be given a second chance at a postconviction petition because his counsel had not properly made arguments about evidence that could exonerate him.

  • July 01, 2025

    4th Circ. Backs Order To Release Georgetown Academic

    The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday denied the Trump administration's attempt to halt a Virginia federal court order requiring it to release a Georgetown University fellow from immigration detention, rejecting the government's claim that his lawsuit was filed in the wrong venue.

  • July 01, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Detainee's CIA Torture Suit

    A Washington federal judge was right to dismiss a Guantánamo Bay detainee's tort claims against two psychologists who helped the CIA pioneer so-called enhanced interrogation techniques on him after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled.

  • July 01, 2025

    Valve Can't Sue Firms Over Alleged Gamer Arbitration Scheme

    Valve Corp. cannot sue two law firms over a purported scheme to manipulate arbitration pacts between the video game seller and its customers, a Washington state appellate court has ruled, recognizing that the firms are shielded from liability because their actions were part of their work representing the consumers.

  • July 01, 2025

    Supreme Court Taps Latham Atty In Campaign Spending Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court has turned to Latham & Watkins LLP's Roman Martinez to defend caps on coordinated campaign spending as amicus counsel in a case on tap for next term.

  • July 01, 2025

    4th Circ. Urged To Rethink Decision Affirming $8M KBR Award

    A Kuwaiti construction company wants the Fourth Circuit to reconsider whether it missed a deadline to seek vacatur of an $8 million arbitral award favoring Kellogg Brown & Root International Inc. in a dispute over a U.S. Army contract, arguing Monday that its decision creates an "unworkable" rule.

  • July 01, 2025

    5th Circ. Backs Dallas Short-Term Lending Ordinance

    The Fifth Circuit denied a short-term lender's request for a court order blocking a Dallas city ordinance that created new hurdles for lenders, saying Tuesday the short-term lender did not demonstrate that the ordinance would shut down the industry.

  • July 01, 2025

    DC Circ. Tosses Mich. Utility's Grid Upgrade Challenge

    A D.C. Circuit panel Tuesday upheld the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's refusal to grant a Michigan transmission owner sole ownership of grid upgrades needed to serve a Michigan solar farm, rejecting arguments that existing agreements guaranteed it full ownership rights.

  • July 01, 2025

    DC Circ. OKs Trump Firing Of Privacy Board Dems, For Now

    The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday halted a lower court's order that blocked the Trump administration from firing two Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, suggesting in a per curiam order that members of the oversight board lacked adjudicatory functions that could shield them from termination.

  • July 01, 2025

    5 Federal Circuit Clashes To Watch In July

    The Federal Circuit's argument calendar this month includes Apple's bid to undo a ruling that caused a blood oxygen monitor feature to be pulled from the Apple Watch, and a challenge by Sonos to a decision that torpedoed its $32.5 million speaker patent verdict against Google.

  • July 01, 2025

    Apple Backers Raise Price, Privilege Concerns At 9th Circ.

    Trade groups and advocacy organizations have raised a series of concerns with the Ninth Circuit about a federal district court mandate blocking Apple from charging commissions on iPhone app purchases made outside its systems, arguing an Epic Games Inc. injunction redux improperly compels speech, imperils price-setting autonomy and threatens legal privilege.

  • July 01, 2025

    DC Circ. Says NLRB Rightly Axed Claim Of Union Betrayal

    A split D.C. Circuit has upheld the National Labor Relations Board's dismissal of allegations that a transportation union betrayed a member by suggesting that he be fired after a spat with a co-worker, with the majority saying Tuesday that the NLRB properly determined that the suggestion wasn't serious.

  • July 01, 2025

    ACLU Wants To Oppose Ex-Yale Student's Defamation Suit

    Saying the issue is too important to sit out, the ACLU's Connecticut litigation arm and other nonprofits have asked a state appeals court's permission to file a friend-of-court brief to support different organizations that filed a rejected amicus brief in a separate case and were sued for defamation.

Expert Analysis

  • A Cautionary Fed. Circ. Tale On Design Patents

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    The Federal Circuit's decision last month in Floyd highlights a risk in design patent prosecution — attempting to claim priority to a utility application, says John Hemmer at Morgan Lewis.

  • Series

    Power To The Paralegals: An Untapped Source For Biz Roles

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    Law firms looking to recruit legal business talent should consider turning to paralegals, who practice several key skills every day that prepare them to thrive in marketing and client development roles, says Vanessa Torres at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Google Case Amicus Briefs Reveal Patent Damage Fault Lines

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    The 21 amicus briefs filed before the en banc rehearing of EcoFactor v. Google offer opposing viewpoints on important patent damages issues that extend beyond the specific question the Federal Circuit eventually ruled on, helping practitioners anticipate and address likely objections to future damages opinions, say attorneys at Stout.

  • Using Federal Forum Provisions To Nix State Securities Cases

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    A California appeals court's recent decision in Bullock v. Rivian clarifies that underwriters may enforce federal forum provisions to escape state court Securities Act claims, marking progress in restoring such lawsuits to federal court and reducing the litigation costs arising from duplicative state court litigation, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • 30 Years Later: 2nd Circ.'s Road To Arbitral Preemption

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    The Second Circuit's recent decision in Lloyds of London v. 3131 Veterans Blvd. overturns its own 1995 precedent and squares its position with decades of circuit court jurisprudence holding that international arbitration agreements must take primacy over state anti-arbitration insurance laws, say attorneys at Linklaters.

  • Series

    Playing Poker Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Poker is a master class in psychology, risk management and strategic thinking, and I’m a better attorney because it has taught me to read my opponents, adapt when I’m dealt the unexpected and stay patient until I'm ready to reveal my hand, says Casey Kingsley at McCreadyLaw.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Becoming A Firmwide MVP

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    Though lawyers don't have a neat metric like baseball players for measuring the value they contribute to their organizations, the sooner new attorneys learn skills frequently skipped in law school — like networking, marketing, client development and case evaluation — the more valuable, and less replaceable, they will be, says Alex Barnett at DiCello Levitt.

  • 9th Circ. Ruling Clarifies Derivative Suit Representation Test

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent ruling in Bigfoot Ventures v. Knighton clarifies the test used to assess the adequacy of a plaintiff's representation in a shareholder derivative action, and will likely prove useful to litigants by ensuring that courts can fully examine all relevant circumstances, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Patenting AI And Machine Learning In The Wake Of Recentive

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    Though the Federal Circuit's recent decision in Recentive Analytics v. Fox Corp. initially appears to doom patents related to artificial intelligence and machine learning, a closer look shows that strategies for successfully drafting and prosecuting such patents offer hope despite increased pushback from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, say attorneys at Banner Witcoff.

  • Age Bias Suit Against Aircraft Co. Offers Lessons For Layoffs

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    In Raymond v. Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, an aircraft maker's former employees recently dismissed their remaining claims after the Tenth Circuit rejected their nearly decade-old collective action alleging age discrimination stemming from a 2013 reduction in force, reminding employers about the importance of carefully planning and documenting mass layoffs, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Trade Secrets Would Likely See Court Protection From GenAI

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    The advent of generative artificial intelligence has given rise to debate about how this technology will affect intellectual property rights and trade secret protections in particular, but courts to date have protected owners when technological advances have facilitated new means for trade secret theft, say attorneys at Kilpatrick Townsend.

  • How Mass Arbitration Defense Strategies Have Fared In Court

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    As businesses face consumers who leverage arbitration agreements to compel mass arbitration, companies are trying defense strategies like batching arbitration cases to reduce costs, and escaping specific mass arbitrations without rejecting the process completely, with varying results in the courtroom, say attorneys at Montgomery McCracken.

  • FTC Focus: Interlocking Directorate Enforcement May Persist

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    Though the Federal Trade Commission under Chair Andrew Ferguson seems likely to adopt a pro-business approach to antitrust enforcement, his endorsement of broader liability for officers or directors who illegally sit on boards of competing corporations signals that businesses should not expect board-level antitrust scrutiny to slacken, says Timothy Burroughs at Proskauer.

  • How Cos. Can Navigate Risks Of New Cartel Terrorist Labels

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    The Trump administration’s recent designation of eight drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations gives rise to new criminal and civil liabilities for companies that are unwittingly exposed to cartel activity, but businesses can mitigate such risks in a few key ways, say attorneys at Steptoe.

  • Mass. Suit Points To New Scrutiny For Home Equity Contracts

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    The Massachusetts attorney general’s recent charge that a lender sold unregulated reverse mortgages shows more regulators are scrutinizing mortgage alternatives like home equity contracts, but a similar case in the Ninth Circuit suggests more courts need to help develop a consensus on these products' legality, say attorneys at Weiner Brodsky.

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