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Appellate

  • June 16, 2025

    Justices Won't Review Ed Sheeran's 'Thinking Out Loud' Win

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition to review a ruling finding that Ed Sheeran's hit song "Thinking Out Loud" did not rip off Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On."

  • June 16, 2025

    Justices Take Up NJ Anti-Abortion Group's Subpoena Fight

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review the Third Circuit's dismissal of an anti-abortion pregnancy center's federal lawsuit challenging a subpoena from the New Jersey attorney general demanding information about its donors.

  • June 16, 2025

    High Court Skips NexStep's Patent Fight With Comcast

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected NexStep Inc.'s bid to revive its patent suit against Comcast in a case that had implicated patent law's doctrine of equivalents. 

  • June 16, 2025

    Justices Again Refuse To Hear Trading Tech's Patent Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to reconsider its April decision not to hear Trading Technologies' appeal seeking to boost its $6.6 million trading patent win after the company claimed new developments and patent eligibility legislation warranted taking the case.

  • June 13, 2025

    7th Circ. Won't Revive RICO Claims Against Blood Test Co.

    A group of pilots and other people required to undergo alcohol screening for their employment cannot pursue their Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act claims against a drug testing company, the Seventh Circuit ruled Friday after finding that the complaint doesn't adequately tie the plaintiffs' injuries to the alleged fraudulent scheme.

  • June 13, 2025

    9th Circ. Allows ConocoPhillips Project To Proceed, For Now

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday held that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management must reconsider a small part of its approval for the controversial ConocoPhillips Willow oil and gas project, though it stopped short of vacating existing approvals for the Arctic energy development and allowed the project to proceed.

  • June 13, 2025

    NY Supreme Court Bars ICE Office At Rikers, For Now

    The New York Supreme Court on Friday blocked New York City Mayor Eric Adams from letting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement open up an office at Rikers Island, saying that there was a "real and imminent risk" immigrant communities would lose trust in the city's government institutions absent an injunction.

  • June 13, 2025

    DC Circ. Knocks NLRB For 'Irrational' Impasse Analysis

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday rejected the National Labor Relations Board's conclusions that a quarry operator unlawfully threatened to stop contributions to a pension fund for unionized workers, finding the board's "legal analysis is irrational" about whether the parties were at an impasse.

  • June 13, 2025

    10th Circ. Affirms Expert DQ In Sig Sauer Gun Discharge Suit

    Gunmaker Sig Sauer Inc. scored a win at the Tenth Circuit on Friday with the panel disqualifying two experts who were ready to testify that its P320 pistol was defectively designed, giving the company an appeals court ruling to lean on as it continues to fend off a rash of suits claiming the gun fires unintentionally.

  • June 13, 2025

    $1.6M Verdict Should've Been Trimmed Sooner, NJ Panel Says

    A New Jersey trial court should've reduced a $1.6 million jury verdict to $200,000 sooner in an automobile accident dispute after the plaintiff told both the trial judge and judge in the defendant's bankruptcy proceedings he would seek only $200,000, a state appeals court ruled Friday.

  • June 13, 2025

    4th Circ. Affirms Toss Of Contractor's ULP Suit Against Union

    The Fourth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a Maryland mechanical contractor's lawsuit against a Sheet Metal Air Rail & Transportation Workers local on Friday, ruling that the union's alleged smear campaign against the company didn't rise to the level of an unfair labor practice under the National Labor Relations Act.

  • June 13, 2025

    9th Circ. Renews Copyright Claims In Software Cos. Fight

    A Ninth Circuit panel has partially revived an intellectual property dispute between software companies Cloanto Corp. and Hyperion Entertainment, ruling that the lower court erred in tossing Cloanto's copyright claims while correctly axing its breach of contract claim.

  • June 13, 2025

    5th Circ. Says No Private Right Of Action In No Surprises Act

    The Fifth Circuit has ruled a pair of flight ambulance providers cannot pursue their lawsuit seeking to enforce out-of-network billing dispute resolution awards against a health insurance company, saying there's no private right of action built into a 2022 law that protects patients from surprise medical bills.

  • June 13, 2025

    Calif. State Bar Is Immune From Atty's ADA Suit, 9th Circ. Says

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday declined to revive an attorney's claims alleging the California State Bar violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by not granting extra time to respond to disciplinary action based on outstanding debt, finding the bar, as an arm of the state, is entitled to sovereign immunity.

  • June 13, 2025

    DC Circ. Urged To Reject Approval For Braille-Free Drug Label

    Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. is urging the D.C. Circuit to reverse a lower court decision upholding the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of a generic sleep-disorder drug without Braille labeling, a move the company argues jeopardizes patient safety.

  • June 13, 2025

    Omitted Jury Instruction Tainted Fraud Trial, DC Circ. Says

    A D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday that a new trial was warranted in a pandemic relief loan fraud case based on the trial court's inadvertent failure to instruct jurors to not draw negative conclusions from the defendant's decision not to testify.

  • June 13, 2025

    4th Circ. Axes Guilty Plea Over Police Misconduct

    The Fourth Circuit vacated a North Carolina man's guilty plea on drug trafficking charges, holding Friday that new information regarding "egregious police misconduct" that plagued the prosecution's case rendered his plea involuntary. 

  • June 13, 2025

    Wash. High Court Suspends Atty Amid Delays In Bar Probe

    The Washington State Supreme Court has suspended an Evergreen state attorney's legal license, at the state bar association's request, for allegedly stalling disciplinary investigations into her work representing student families in two federal lawsuits against school districts.

  • June 13, 2025

    11th Circ. Holds Local GOP Had Right To Bar Anti-Trumpers

    An Eleventh Circuit panel has sided with a county-level Georgia Republican Party and reversed a federal district court's dismissal of the party's suit, which looked to vindicate its right to exclude purportedly anti-Trump candidates from qualifying for local office on the GOP ticket.

  • June 13, 2025

    2nd Circ. Won't Rehear Trump Appeal Of $5M Assault Verdict

    The full Second Circuit refused Friday to revisit President Donald Trump's challenge to writer E. Jean Carroll's $5 million sexual assault finding against him, with two judges dissenting.

  • June 13, 2025

    Pa. Court Faults Agency For Rebuffing Late Child-Death Filing

    Pennsylvania's labor regulator should have at least considered accepting a business's late submission of a response to accusations of child labor stemming from a fatal accident with a wood chipper, a state appellate panel ruled Friday in an opinion that clarified when to make exceptions to agency filing deadlines.

  • June 13, 2025

    3rd Circ. Won't Rehear Bid To Toss Boy Scouts' Ch. 11 Plan

    The Third Circuit declined to hold a panel or full court rehearing of its May decision to uphold the Boy Scouts of America's Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan in a pair of Friday orders rejecting petitions by two sets of abuse survivors, with the orders implying some judges on the court had supported taking another look.

  • June 13, 2025

    Texas Justices Pass On Final 'Love Is Blind' Appeal

    The Texas Supreme Court on Friday declined for the third time to intervene in a suit between the producers of Netflix's "Love Is Blind" and a former contestant who says she was sexually assaulted while filming the show.

  • June 13, 2025

    DC Circ. Sides With FERC In Substation Cost Dispute

    A D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission got it right when it denied a wind facility operator's petition seeking reimbursement from the Western Area Power Administration for its contribution to a substation expansion.

  • June 13, 2025

    Midyear Report: 5 ERISA Decisions Attys Should Know

    The U.S. Supreme Court revived retirement plan mismanagement allegations against Cornell University, the Sixth Circuit restarted a yacht company's suit against its health benefits administrator and American Airlines took a hit for emphasizing socially conscious investing in its 401(k) plan decisions. Here are five important decisions that came down in Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases during the first half of this year.

Expert Analysis

  • Justices' Labcorp Questions Explore Class Cert. Tensions

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    At the recent oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings v. Davis, the justices' questioning highlighted a fundamental tension between constitutional standing requirements, the procedural framework of Rule 23, and the practical challenges of managing large, diverse classes in complex litigation, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.

  • Immunity Waiver Ruling A Setback For Ch. 7 Trustees

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    While governmental units should welcome the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in U.S. v. Miller restricting the reach of the Bankruptcy Code's sovereign immunity waiver, Chapter 7 trustees now have a limited ability to maximize bankruptcy estates, says Dan Prieto at Jones Day.

  • Wash. Justices' Moonlight Ruling Should Caution Employers

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    The Washington Supreme Court's recent decision in David v. Freedom Vans, which limited when employers can restrict low-wage workers from moonlighting, underscores the need for employers to narrowly tailor restrictive covenants, ensuring that they are reasonable and allow for workforce mobility, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • What To Watch For As High Court Mulls NRC's Powers

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    If successful, Texas’ challenges to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s authority — recently heard by the U.S. Supreme Court and currently pending before a Texas federal court — may have serious adverse consequences for aspiring NRC licensees, including potential nuclear power plant operators, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From NY Fed To BigLaw

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    While the move to private practice brings a learning curve, it also brings chances to learn new skills and grow your network, requiring a clear understanding of how your skills can complement and contribute to a firm's existing practice, and where you can add new value, says Meghann Donahue at Covington.

  • Calif. Smoke Claim Ruling Gives Insurers Support On Denials

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    Far from being an outlier among ash, soot and smoke coverage cases, a California appellate court's recent opinion in Gharibian v. Wawanesa General Insurance reinforces the principle that policyholders must establish entitlement to coverage as a threshold matter, while supporting denials of coverage for meritless claims, says Kyle Espinola at Zelle.

  • Cos. Face Enviro Justice Tug-Of-War Between States, Feds

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    The second Trump administration's sweeping elimination of environmental justice policies, programs and funding, and targeting of state-level EJ initiatives, creates difficult questions for companies on how best to avoid friction with federal policy, navigate state compliance obligations and maintain important stakeholder relationships with communities, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Top 3 Litigation Finance Deal-Killers, And How To Avoid Them

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    Like all transactions, litigation finance deals can sometimes collapse, but understanding the most common reasons for failure, including a lack of trust or a misunderstanding of deal terms, can help both parties avoid problems, say Rebecca Berrebi at Avenue 33 and Boris Ziser at Schulte Roth.

  • 5th Circ. Ruling Is Latest Signal Of Shaky Qui Tam Landscape

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    In his recent concurring opinion in U.S. v. Peripheral Vascular Associates, a Fifth Circuit judge joined a growing list of jurists suggesting that the False Claims Act's whistleblower provisions are unconstitutional, underscoring that acceptance of qui tam relators can no longer be taken for granted, say attorneys at Miller & Chevalier.

  • How Attys Can Use A Therapy Model To Help Triggered Clients

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    Attorneys can lean on key principles from a psychotherapeutic paradigm known as the "Internal Family Systems" model to help manage triggered clients and get settlement negotiations back on track, says Jennifer Gibbs at Zelle.

  • Tracking The Evolution Of Liability Management Exercises

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    As liability management exercises face increasing legal scrutiny, understanding the history of these debt restructuring tools can help explain how the playbook keeps adapting — and why the next move is always just one ruling or transaction away, say attorneys at Weil.

  • Navigating Florida's Bad Faith Reforms After Appellate Ruling

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    A Florida appellate court's recent decision is among the first to interpret two significant amendments to the state's insurance bad faith law, and its holding that one of the statutes could not apply retroactively may affect insurers' interpretation of the other statute, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • 3 Steps For In-House Counsel To Assess Litigation Claims

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    Before a potential economic downturn, in-house attorneys should investigate whether their company is sitting on hidden litigation claims that could unlock large recoveries to help the business withstand tough times, says Will Burgess at Hilgers Graben.

  • Series

    Teaching College Students Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Serving as an adjunct college professor has taught me the importance of building rapport, communicating effectively, and persuading individuals to critically analyze the difference between what they think and what they know — principles that have helped to improve my practice of law, says Sheria Clarke at Nelson Mullins.

  • A New Tool For Assessing Kickback Risks In Health Marketing

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    The Seventh Circuit's recent decision in U.S. v. Sorensen, reversing a conviction after trial of a durable medical equipment distributor, highlights two principle considerations for determining whether payments to marketers in healthcare are unlawful under the Anti-Kickback Statute, says Elisha Kobre at Sheppard Mullin.

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