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Appellate

  • July 15, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs Nature's Way Loss In Supplements TM Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday upheld a lower court's finding that a Doctor's Best Inc. brand of supplements didn't infringe a trademark of competitor Nature's Way Products LLC because the Doctor's Best products were all sold outside the U.S.

  • July 15, 2025

    Insurers Prevail In $59M Mishandled Remains Row At 9th Circ.

    Two insurers for a provider of medical training have no duty to cover a $58.5 million civil judgment against a man found liable for mishandling donated bodily remains, the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday, though also allowing the underlying claimants to still pursue bad faith claims against the insurers.

  • July 15, 2025

    3rd Circ. Backs FAA's Civil Penalty Actions Post-Jarkesy

    The Third Circuit on Tuesday backed the Federal Aviation Administration's adjudicatory authority to impose civil penalties for air safety rules violations, saying in a precedential ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court's Jarkesy decision doesn't entitle a paint supplier to a jury trial in a case stemming from a leaky paint can on a FedEx plane.

  • July 15, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Temporarily Blocks MSN's Entresto Generic

    The Federal Circuit gave Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. a temporary reprieve Tuesday from having to face generic competition for its top-selling drug, Entresto, after losing a bench trial in Delaware.

  • July 15, 2025

    11th Circ. Backs Enhancements In Cocaine Trafficking Case

    A federal appeals panel in the Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday published an opinion finding that a Florida man who pled guilty to federal drug trafficking charges was correctly given a sentence enhancement for career criminals after being found guilty in state court of other offenses including trafficking cocaine, and that he could not challenge the validity of his guilty plea.

  • July 15, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Revive SAG-AFTRA Vax Mandate Challenge

    The Ninth Circuit declined Tuesday to reinstate a suit claiming SAG-AFTRA shirked its duties to union members by greenlighting a COVID-19 vaccine mandate to get actors back to work during the pandemic, ruling their claims are either untimely or preempted by federal labor law.

  • July 15, 2025

    9th Circ. Rejects Sentencing Enhancement In Gun Case

    A Washington state federal court should not have applied a sentencing enhancement in the case of a man who handed a gun to someone who later used it to shoot an undercover federal agent, the Ninth Circuit said Monday, finding there wasn't proof his five-second hold on the weapon emboldened the shooter.

  • July 15, 2025

    FCC Drops 'Single Seller' Marketing Reg After 11th Circ. Ruling

    The Federal Communications Commission has plucked from the books a rule requiring individual consumer consent for companies to contact customers through comparison shopping sites after the Eleventh Circuit declared the regulation an overstep.

  • July 15, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs United Airlines In Worker's Diabetes Bias Suit

    The Ninth Circuit upheld United Airlines' win over a lawsuit claiming it refused to accommodate a diabetic employee's restriction barring her from operating a jet bridge, ruling Tuesday that the airline wasn't required to modify the worker's duties to meet her needs.

  • July 15, 2025

    Tribes, Enviro Groups Look To Block Copper Mine Land Swap

    Environmental and tribal groups are asking a federal court to extend an injunction blocking the transfer of more than 2,500 acres within Tonto National Forest to an Arizona copper mining company, arguing that a final environmental impact study and appraisal of the property raise serious questions in the dispute.

  • July 15, 2025

    11th Circ. Rules Inmate's Suit Against Nurse Was 'Malicious'

    The Eleventh Circuit upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit from a man incarcerated in Florida accusing a nurse practitioner of an Eighth Amendment violation, saying the lower court was right in tossing the complaint after deeming it "malicious" because he failed to disclose two prior legal actions. 

  • July 15, 2025

    Voxer Sues Google And Amazon Over Streaming Patents

    Virtual walkie-talkie maker Voxer has sued Google and Amazon in Delaware federal court, claiming they infringed the same network reception patents resulting in a $206 million trial win in a separate case against Meta in 2022 that was later vacated after a settlement.

  • July 15, 2025

    NC Justices Urged To Halt Project Tract's Foreclosure Sale

    A North Carolina property owner and other parties urged the state's high court Tuesday to pause foreclosure proceedings for a property that's part of a mixed-use real estate development project, arguing that an entity created by one of the project partners wrongfully increased the owner's related loan debt.

  • July 15, 2025

    Door Maker Defends Landmark Divestiture Order At 4th Circ.

    Steves & Sons Inc. has urged the Fourth Circuit to preserve the first court-ordered divestiture in a private merger challenge, arguing Jeld-Wen's sale of the Pennsylvania factory restored competition in the market for the door skins used to make molded interior doors.

  • July 15, 2025

    Wash. Court Doubts Hospitals' Bid To Nix $230M Judgment

    A Washington state appellate judge criticized a hospital system's attempt to undo a $230 million loss in a class wage and hour suit on Tuesday, suggesting the employer's arguments about meal break waivers and timekeeping practices are at odds with its own records.  

  • July 15, 2025

    Forgotten Jury Instruction Undoes Child Abuse Conviction

    A Georgia Court of Appeals panel on Tuesday reversed a man's conviction for cruelty to children after it found that he received constitutionally ineffective counsel when his attorney forgot to request a key jury instruction.

  • July 15, 2025

    Michigan Court Eases Rules On Admitting Past Abuse Evidence

    The Michigan Supreme Court on Monday ruled that evidence of a sexual assault victim's past abuse is generally barred from being presented during trial but modified the test used to determine when such information can be admitted to no longer require the previous abuse to have resulted in a conviction.

  • July 15, 2025

    11th Circ. Says Big Rig Driver's Fire Risk Was 'Obvious'

    The Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday upheld an early win for truck manufacturer Daimler Truck AG in a suit from a Georgia driver who was badly burned in a crash with a Daimler-manufactured truck, ruling that the "open and obvious" risk of a fire in a high-speed collision doomed his failure to warn claim.

  • July 15, 2025

    Grassley Rejects Dems' Push For 2nd Hearing On Emil Bove

    Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday rebuffed the request from Democrats on his committee for the whistleblower who made claims regarding Third Circuit nominee Emil Bove to testify and said the committee will proceed with the vote on Bove's nomination Thursday.

  • July 15, 2025

    5th Circ. Says Media Matters Can Challenge X Suit Venue

    The Fifth Circuit gave left-leaning watchdog Media Matters for America another shot at transferring a business disparagement lawsuit launched by X Corp. to California, saying Tuesday the Texas federal judge overseeing the case didn't do an adequate venue analysis.

  • July 15, 2025

    9th Circ. Upholds Axing Of IT Co.'s Microsoft Data Misuse Case

    The Ninth Circuit declined Tuesday to revive a cybersecurity supplier's case accusing Microsoft of misusing a proprietary database of login credentials recovered on the black market, concluding that the parties' contract did not impose limits on the tech giant's use of the data.

  • July 15, 2025

    Zimbabwe Wins Bid To Nix $50M Award Suit

    The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday overturned a ruling ordering Zimbabwe to face litigation to enforce an 11-year-old $50 million arbitral award stemming from an ill-fated mining deal, ruling that two exceptions to sovereign immunity were inapplicable and that the court therefore lacks jurisdiction.

  • 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.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • Maximizing Employer Defenses After Calif. Meal Waiver Ruling

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    A California state appeals court's recent decision in Bradsbery v. Vicar Operating, finding that revocable meal period waivers prospectively signed by employees are enforceable, offers employers four steps to proactively reduce their exposure to meal period claims and bolster their defenses in a potential lawsuit, say attorneys at Fisher Phillips.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From DOJ Enviro To Mid-Law

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    Practitioners leaving a longtime government role for private practice — as when I departed the U.S. Department of Justice’s environmental enforcement division — should prioritize finding a firm that shares their principles, values their experience and will invest in their transition, says John Cruden at Beveridge & Diamond.

  • Independent Contractor Rule Up In The Air Under New DOL

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    In several recent court challenges, the U.S. Department of Labor has indicated its intent to revoke the 2024 independent contractor rule, sending a clear signal that it will not defend the Biden-era rule on the merits in anticipation of further rulemaking, say attorneys at Jackson Lewis.

  • Why Trade Cases May Put Maple Leaf Deference On Review

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    When litigation challenging the president’s trade actions reaches the Federal Circuit, the court will have to reevaluate the Maple Leaf standard in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 Loper Bright decision limiting Chevron-like deference to cases involving statutory provisions in which Congress delegated discretionary authority to the executive branch, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • A Look At Probabilistic Tracing After High Court's Slack Ruling

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    Recent decisions following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Slack v. Pirani have increased the difficulty of pleading Securities Act claims for securities issued in direct listings by rejecting the use of statistical probabilities to establish that share purchases were traceable to a challenged registration statement, says Jonathan Richman at Brown Rudnick.

  • Legal Ethics Considerations For Law Firm Pro Bono Deals

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    If a law firm enters into a pro bono deal with the Trump administration in exchange for avoiding or removing an executive order, it has an ethical obligation to create a written settlement agreement with specific terms, which would mitigate some potential conflict of interest problems, says Andrew Altschul at Buchanan Angeli.

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