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Appellate

  • July 15, 2025

    High Court Term Yields Gains For Criminal Defendants

    The U.S. Supreme Court addressed several contentious issues this term, with the conservative majority prevailing in numerous high-profile cases. Yet, in a notable trend, the court also issued multiple rulings favorable to criminal defendants, including expanding prisoners' rights in civil lawsuits and reinforcing due process protections in capital cases.

  • July 15, 2025

    Anthropic Seeks 9th Circ. Fair Use Appeal Over Piracy Claims

    Anthropic PBC asked a California federal judge Tuesday to let the Ninth Circuit review his decision that making fair use of copyrighted books to train artificial intelligence technology did not absolve the company of potential liability for alleged piracy.

  • July 15, 2025

    Feds Ask Supreme Court To Deny Ghislaine Maxwell's Appeal

    Federal prosecutors urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to deny Ghislaine Maxwell's appeal of her 2022 sex trafficking conviction, arguing that a nonprosecution agreement struck in Florida with the late multimillionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein didn't apply to her or bind New York prosecutors.

  • July 15, 2025

    Booz Allen Urges DC Circ. To Affirm IRS Leak Sentence

    Government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton urged the D.C. Circuit to uphold the five-year prison sentence of its former employee for leaking tax returns while on a job at the IRS, saying the crime has hurt the company's reputation and subjected it to "baseless lawsuits."

  • July 15, 2025

    Michigan Cases To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2025

    Michigan's courts are gearing up for a busy second half of the year, with high-profile prosecutions of Chinese scientists accused of smuggling, the state's top court tackling arbitration and automotive contracts, and revisions to the professional conduct rules for lawyers and judges all on deck.

  • July 15, 2025

    Property Co. Says Storm Coverage Row Can't Be Arbitrated

    The owner of a New Orleans luxury apartment and retail complex urged the Fifth Circuit to affirm a lower court's decision to vacate a previous order forcing it to arbitrate its $7 million Hurricane Ida damage claims against a group of domestic insurers, saying Louisiana law applies and bars arbitration.

  • July 15, 2025

    Advocates Turn To Florida High Court For Bondi Ethics Probe

    A group of attorneys, law professors and former judges asked the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday to order the Florida Bar to investigate U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi for alleged unethical conduct.

  • July 15, 2025

    11th Circ. Told Tax Court Erred Nixing Easement's Values

    A Georgia partnership told the Eleventh Circuit that the U.S. Tax Court broke legal precedent by relying on a flawed valuation method that did not consider commercial mining potential when it denied a deduction tied to the conservation easement donation of a property.

  • July 15, 2025

    5th Circ. Says Oilfield Specialists Are OT Exempt

    Two former field specialists of an oilfield service provider were not eligible for overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act because they performed administrative tasks, a Fifth Circuit panel ruled, flipping a Texas district court's ruling in their favor.

  • July 15, 2025

    Funding 'Crisis' Jeopardizes Indigent Defense, Judiciary Says

    The judiciary rang the alarm on Tuesday that funding has been exhausted for the private attorneys who represent indigent federal criminal defendants, and this predicament is expected to last for three months.

  • July 15, 2025

    Atty Suspended In Fla. After Conviction In Fatal Texas Crash

    The Florida Supreme Court has suspended a Texas-based attorney who was also admitted to practice in the Sunshine State after he struck and killed two people while driving to a city council meeting in November 2021.

  • July 15, 2025

    Reed Smith Says Docs Slipped Through Stay In Eletson Row

    Reed Smith has asked the Second Circuit to again step in and block new owners of reorganized Greece-based international shipping company Eletson from viewing communications between the firm and the company's prior owners, saying that, despite a stay already in place, the new owners were allowed to acquire some files.

  • July 15, 2025

    Law Curbing Arbitration Keeps AutoNation Bias Suit In Court

    AutoNation Inc. can't arbitrate a former sales associate's lawsuit claiming supervisors treated her differently because she's an older Black woman and made sexual comments in the workplace, a California state appeals court ruled, saying her case is shielded by a federal law prohibiting mandatory arbitration of sex harassment cases.

  • July 15, 2025

    DC Circ. Backs Dismissal Of Green Orgs' Drilling Permit Suit

    The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday rejected environmental groups' challenge to the approvals of thousands of federally approved oil and gas drilling permits in New Mexico and Wyoming, finding that a lower court was right to find they lacked standing.

  • July 15, 2025

    3rd Circ. Says Risk Of Harm Justifies Disarming Pot User

    The Third Circuit has found that illegal drug users, including cannabis users, can be disarmed if their use is determined to increase the risk that they could pose a physical danger while possessing a gun, while finding that individual inquiry is necessary.

  • July 14, 2025

    7th Circ. Upholds Exxon's Win In Ex-Lab Tech's Sex Bias Suit

    The Seventh Circuit on Monday refused to revive a former ExxonMobil Corp. employee's sex discrimination suit against the major oil and gas company, saying the woman failed to prove she was treated less favorably than male colleagues in the lead-up to her termination.

  • July 14, 2025

    Casino Entrepreneur Fights Laos' Award Appeal At 9th Circ.

    An entrepreneur who was not party to an arbitration is fighting to toss Laos' bid before the Ninth Circuit to overturn an order refusing to enforce about $5 million in arbitral awards stemming from an ill-fated casino venture, saying the appealed ruling isn't a final decision.

  • July 14, 2025

    Vape Groups Urge 4th Circ. To Stall NC E-Cigarette Law

    Vape interests are urging the Fourth Circuit to temporarily stop North Carolina officials from enforcing a law that could prevent the sale of many types of e-cigarettes in the state, claiming the statute was pushed by "Big Tobacco" company Reynolds American Inc. and targets products that help people quit smoking.

  • July 14, 2025

    'It Is The Same Photo': 9th Circ. Questions Von D's Tattoo Win

    A Ninth Circuit panel grappled Monday with tattoo artist Kat Von D's jury win over a photographer who claimed she infringed his copyrighted photo of Miles Davis with a tattoo she inked, with one judge noting the panel disagrees with the jury's finding the two works aren't substantially similar.

  • July 14, 2025

    9th Circ. Partially Revives Doc's COVID-19 Insurance Fight

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday revived a lawsuit from an immunocompromised oral surgeon claiming Paul Revere Life Insurance Co. wrongly denied him disability benefits when he stopped working during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying a reasonable jury could find that he was unable to do his work.

  • July 14, 2025

    Group Urges 11th Circ. To Ditch 'Radioactive' Mosaic Road

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should not have approved The Mosaic Co.'s request to use radioactive phosphogypsum in road construction at a Florida fertilizer facility, the Center for Biological Diversity told the Eleventh Circuit.

  • July 14, 2025

    Ill. Court Orders Resentencing Due To Trial Judge's Remarks

    A split Illinois state appeals court has ruled that a Chicago man convicted of murder should be resentenced, saying comments made by a trial judge from the bench indicated the lower court inappropriately doubled up on aggravating factors when handing down its sentence.

  • July 14, 2025

    Split 2nd Circ. Denies Rehearing In Fox Threats Case

    A split Second Circuit on Monday declined to grant an en banc rehearing to a man convicted of sending threatening messages to two Fox News hosts and two members of Congress, saying the 11-member jury that found him guilty did not violate his constitutional rights.

  • July 14, 2025

    DC Circ. Temporarily Stays Block Of Trump's Asylum Curbs

    The D.C. Circuit agreed to pause a district court injunction blocking federal officials from implementing President Donald Trump's Jan. 20 proclamation declaring an invasion at the southern border while it weighs the government's request for an emergency stay during the appeal.

  • July 14, 2025

    9th Circ. Affirms FERC's Yank Of PG&E Grid Perk

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday backed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's decision to deny Pacific Gas & Electric Co. a grid incentive meant for public utilities that voluntarily join a regional transmission organization, saying PG&E was not entitled to the perk since a California law now mandates membership in an organization.

Expert Analysis

  • PG&E Win Boosts Employers' Defamation Defense

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    A California appeals court's recent Hearn v. PG&E ruling, reversing a $2 million verdict against PG&E related to an ex-employee’s retaliation claims, provides employers with a stronger defense against defamation claims tied to termination, but also highlights the need for fairness and diligence in internal investigations and communications, say attorneys at Kaufman Dolowich.

  • Justices' False Statement Ruling Curbs Half-Truth Liability

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Thompson v. U.S. decision clarified that a federal statute used to prosecute false statements made to bank regulators only criminalizes outright falsehoods, narrowing prosecutors’ reach and providing defense counsel a stronger basis to challenge indictments of merely misleading statements, says Tamara de Silva at De Silva Law Offices.

  • Jurisdiction Argument In USAID Dissent Is Up For Debate

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    A dissent refuting the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent order directing the U.S. Agency for International Development to pay $2 billion in frozen foreign aid argued that claims relating to already-completed government contract work belong in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims – answering an important question, but with a debatable conclusion, says Steven Gordon at Holland & Knight.

  • Firms Still Have Lateral Market Advantage, But Risks Persist

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    Partner and associate mobility data from the fourth quarter of 2024 shows that we’re in a new, stable era of lateral hiring where firms have the edge, but leaders should proceed cautiously, looking beyond expected revenue and compensation analyses for potential risks, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

  • Opinion

    We Must Allow Judges To Use Their Independent Judgment

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    As two recent cases show, the ability of judges to access their independent judgment crucially enables courts to exercise the discretion needed to reach the right outcome based on the unique facts within the law, says John Siffert at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: March Lessons

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    In this month's review of class actions appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses three federal appellate court decisions and identifies practice tips from cases involving antitrust allegations against coupon processing services, consumer fraud and class action settlements.

  • High Court Water Permit Ruling Lacks Specificity

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    The enforcement impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in San Francisco v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may not be significant, because while the ruling makes clear that certain water permit provisions must instruct permittees on how to achieve stated goals, it doesn’t clarify the level of necessary instruction, says Daniel Deeb at ArentFox Schiff.

  • The Central Issues Facing Fed. Circ. In Patent Damages Case

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    The en banc Federal Circuit's pending review of EcoFactor v. Google could reshape how expert damages opinions are argued, and could have ripple effects that limit jury awards, say attorneys at McAndrews Held.

  • Series

    Performing Stand-Up Comedy Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Whether I’m delivering a punchline on stage or a closing argument in court, balancing stand-up comedy performances and my legal career has demonstrated that the keys to success in both endeavors include reading the room, landing the right timing and making an impact, says attorney Rebecca Palmer.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From SEC To BigLaw

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    As I adjusted to the multifaceted workflow of a BigLaw firm after leaving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, working side by side with new colleagues on complex matters proved the fastest way to build a deep rapport and demonstrate my value, says Jennifer Lee at Jenner & Block.

  • How Fed. Circ. Ruling Complicates Patent Infringement Cases

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    The Federal Circuit's decision last month in Kroy IP Holdings v. Groupon may make defending patent infringement claims more challenging, time-consuming and expensive — but it has also complicated similar patent infringement proceedings involving the same patents and their appeals, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • The Revival Of Badie Arbitration Suits In Consumer Finance

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    Plaintiffs have recently revived a California appellate court's almost 30-year-old decision in Badie v. Bank of America to challenge arbitration requirements under the Federal Arbitration Act, raising issues banks and credit unions in particular should address when amending arbitration provisions, say attorneys at Orrick.

  • Making The Case For Rest In The Legal Profession

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    For too long, a culture of overwork has plagued the legal profession, but research shows that attorneys need rest to perform optimally and sustainably, so legal organizations and individuals must implement strategies that allow for restoration, says Marissa Alert at MDA Wellness, Carol Ross-Burnett at CRB Global, and Denise Robinson at The Still Center.

  • 1st Circ. IMessage Ruling Illustrates Wire Fraud Circuit Split

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    The First Circuit’s recent decision that text messages exchanged wholly within Massachusetts but transmitted by the internet count as interstate commerce spotlights a split in how circuits interpret intrastate actions under the federal wire fraud statute, perhaps prompting U.S. Supreme Court review, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • 4 Ways Women Attorneys Can Build A Legal Legacy

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    This Women’s History Month, women attorneys should consider what small, day-to-day actions they can take to help leave a lasting impact for future generations, even if it means mentoring one person or taking 10 minutes to make a plan, says Jackie Prester, a former shareholder at Baker Donelson.

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