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Massachusetts

  • June 24, 2025

    Mass. Justices Say Key In Ignition Triggers DUI Law

    Massachusetts' highest court on Tuesday found that the act of sitting behind the wheel with the key in the ignition is enough to sustain a drunken driving charge, even if the car is not in motion and the engine is not turned on.

  • June 24, 2025

    Kirkland Hires Goodwin Investment Partner In Boston

    Kirkland & Ellis LLP has hired a former counsel to a commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, who moves to the firm's Boston office after more than five years at Goodwin Procter LLP.

  • June 23, 2025

    Boston Firm Says Competitor Had Secret Deal With Shareholder

    A Boston law firm is accusing a smaller personal injury practice of secretly steering cases and work to a now-former shareholder, including one case that led to a $5 million settlement, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in a Massachusetts state court.

  • June 23, 2025

    DraftKings Social Media Exec Agrees To Delete Rival's IP

    A social media director at DraftKings has agreed to delete alleged trade secrets from his personal ChatGPT account, which his former employer, rival PrizePicks, alleged he stole before changing employers.

  • June 23, 2025

    Justices Drop 'Third Country' Removal Due Process, For Now

    A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Trump administration can send noncitizens facing deportation to countries where they have no prior ties without providing due process protections, including written notice or a chance to raise concerns about their future safety.

  • June 23, 2025

    Mass. Cannabis Shop Seeks $2.3M Refund Of 'Impact Fees'

    A cannabis retailer with a location on Massachusetts' North Shore is asking for a refund of $2.3 million in so-called community impact and other fees it has paid since 2019, the latest dispensary to make such a request since the fees were rescinded by state lawmakers in 2023.

  • June 23, 2025

    Takings Not Enough To Lower Lot Value, Mass. Board Says

    A half-acre parking lot in Massachusetts was not overvalued by a local assessor despite temporary and permanent takings by the state highway department during road construction, the state Appellate Tax Board said in a decision released Monday.

  • June 23, 2025

    Mass. Home Was Overvalued, Tax Board Rules

    A Massachusetts home should have its value lowered based on the home's purchase price and comparable sales in the area, the state Appellate Tax Board said in a ruling released Monday.

  • June 23, 2025

    Medical AI Co. Says Rival Targeted 'Crown Jewel' Source Code

    OpenEvidence, a Massachusetts artificial intelligence company focusing on medical information, has filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing a competitor of using misappropriated personal information and sophisticated prompts in an attempt to pry trade secrets from the startup's platform.

  • June 20, 2025

    Science Research Funding Cuts Blocked By Mass. Judge

    A Massachusetts federal judge Friday prohibited the Trump administration from cutting certain National Science Foundation research funding associated with facilities and administrative costs, ruling that the policy runs afoul of multiple laws and the government hasn't adequately explained its reasoning.

  • June 20, 2025

    Real Estate Recap: Senior Living, Data Centers, CEQA

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including attorney insights into a senior housing surge, data center construction, and the Golden State's latest efforts to spur housing construction without upsetting the California Environmental Quality Act.

  • June 20, 2025

    SEC Weighs Settlement After 1st Circ. Pulls $93M Win

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has entered settlement negotiations with Massachusetts-based financial firm Commonwealth Financial Network, two months after the First Circuit nixed the agency's $93 million win against the company, according to a court document filed Friday.

  • June 20, 2025

    SEC Axes 3 More Dealer Suits In Continued Policy Shift

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has voluntarily dismissed three lawsuits accusing a hedge fund and two penny stock traders of operating as unregistered securities dealers, continuing the new Republican leadership's shift away from pursuing cases that defendants argued unlawfully expanded agency oversight.

  • June 20, 2025

    Ex-Haitian Mayor Gets 9 Years For Visa Fraud Tied To Violence

    A former Haitian mayor convicted of lying on his visa application about his role in ordering the killing of a human rights observer's brother and other political violence was sentenced to nine years in prison Friday by a Massachusetts federal judge.

  • June 20, 2025

    Liberty Mutual Off Hook For Tow Charge After Fatal Crash

    Liberty Mutual is not responsible for $118,290 a Massachusetts towing company tried to collect in storage charges for a vehicle that was evidence in a fatal car accident, the state's highest court concluded Friday.

  • June 20, 2025

    DOT Blocked From Conditioning Grants On Immigration Policy

    A Rhode Island federal judge on Thursday preliminarily blocked the U.S. Department of Transportation from conditioning billions of state grant dollars on enforcing President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown agenda, finding that a 20-state coalition is likely to win its constitutional legal fight and will be irreparably harmed without an injunction.

  • June 20, 2025

    Judge Halts Trump's Harvard Foreign Student Ban

    A Massachusetts federal judge on Friday granted a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration's move to bar foreign students from attending Harvard University.

  • June 20, 2025

    Taxation With Representation: Latham, Paul Weiss, Covington

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Nippon Steel closes its purchase of U.S. Steel, Hunter Point Capital buys a minority stake in Equitix, Eaton acquires Ultra PCS Ltd. from the Cobham Ultra Group, and Eli Lilly and Co. acquires Verve Therapeutics.

  • June 20, 2025

    1st Circ. Blocks Swiss Arbitration Of Au Pair Wage Claims

    A Massachusetts-based au pair agency cannot enforce a Swiss arbitration requirement included in a contract that childcare workers signed with a separate European company, the First Circuit has determined.

  • June 18, 2025

    Feds Want Nuke Trust Earnings To Offset DOE Breach Awards

    The U.S. government asked the Federal Circuit to toss a ruling holding that trust fund earnings that reimbursed closed nuclear plant owners' spent fuel storage costs should not offset the damages awarded for the Energy Department's ongoing failure to accept fuels for disposal.

  • June 18, 2025

    J&J Hit With $8M Verdict In Multi-Exposure Talc Case

    A jury awarded $8 million on Wednesday to a Massachusetts woman who said Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder caused her mesothelioma, rejecting the company's claims that family members' work around asbestos absolved it of blame.

  • June 18, 2025

    AI Software Co. Cerence's Leaders Beat Shareholder Suit

    A Massachusetts federal judge Wednesday tossed a consolidated derivative shareholder suit against the top brass of artificial intelligence software company Cerence Inc. over its revenue reporting, saying the plaintiffs did not make a presuit demand on the company's board and have failed to show that such a demand would have been futile.

  • June 18, 2025

    Cities Sign On To Chicago's Suit Over DHS Funding 'Pause'

    Boston, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle have joined Chicago's federal lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of illegally suspending federal counterterrorism funding meant for urban areas, saying the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has failed to fulfill nearly $3 million in preapproved reimbursement requests.

  • June 18, 2025

    Psychedelics And The Law In Focus At Colo. Conference

    Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced a pardon for all state-level convictions for psilocybin and psilocin possession at a psychedelics conference this week, in recognition that these substances are now legal in the state and in another indication that their relationship with the law is in flux.

  • June 18, 2025

    Feds Want Pa. Inmate To Face $810K Tax Refund Case

    Massachusetts federal prosecutors want a Pennsylvania inmate returned to the Bay State by July to face claims he impersonated a corporate executive and swiped an $810,000 tax refund bound for a Stamford, Connecticut, investment firm.

Expert Analysis

  • Empathy In Mediation Offers A Soft Landing For Disputes

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    Experiencing a crash-landing on a recent flight underscored to me how much difference empathy makes in times of crisis or stress, including during mediation, says Eydith Kaufman at Alternative Resolution Centers.

  • Series

    Being An Artist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My work as an artist has highlighted how using creativity and precision together — qualities that are equally essential in both art and law — not only improves outcomes, but also leads to more innovative and thoughtful work, says Sarah La Pearl at Segal McCambridge.

  • How Judiciary Can Minimize AI Risks In Secondary Sources

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    Because courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence and other safeguards do not address the risk of hallucinations in secondary source materials, the judiciary should consider enlisting legal publishers and database hosts to protect against AI-generated inaccuracies, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.

  • How Attorneys Can Break Free From Career Enmeshment

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    Ambitious attorneys can sometimes experience career enmeshment — when your sense of self-worth becomes unhealthily tangled up in your legal vocation — but taking the time to discover and realign with your core personal values can help you recover your identity, says Janna Koretz at Azimuth Psychological.

  • Lawyers With Disabilities Are Seeking Equity, Not Pity

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    Attorneys living with disabilities face extra challenges — including the need for special accommodations, the fear of stigmatization and the risk of being tokenized — but if given equitable opportunities, they can still rise to the top of their field, says Kate Reder Sheikh, a former attorney and legal recruiter at Major Lindsey & Africa.

  • Employer Lessons From Mass. 'Bonus Not Wages' Ruling

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    In Nunez v. Syncsort, a Massachusetts state appeals court recently held that a terminated employee’s retention bonus did not count as wages under the state’s Wage Act, illustrating the nuanced ways “wages” are defined by state statutes and courts, say attorneys at Segal McCambridge.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Committee Best Venue For Litigation Funding Rules

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    The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules' recent decision to consider developing a rule for litigation funding disclosure is a welcome development, ensuring that the result will be the product of a thorough, inclusive and deliberative process that appropriately balances all interests, says Stewart Ackerly at Statera Capital.

  • The Strategic Advantages Of Appointing A Law Firm CEO

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    The impact on law firms of the recent CrowdStrike outage underscores that the business of law is no longer merely about providing supplemental support for legal practice — and helps explain why some law firms are appointing dedicated, full-time CEOs to navigate the challenges of the modern legal landscape, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Strategies.

  • Series

    Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The practice of patent law and beekeeping are not typically associated, but taking care of honeybees has enriched my legal practice by highlighting the importance of hands-on experience, continuous learning, mentorship and more, says David Longo at Oblon McClelland.

  • Budding Lessons From Landmark Plant Seed Patent Battle

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    The Corteva v. Inari case involving intellectual property rights in genetically modified plants is now proceeding through discovery and potentially to trial, and will raise critical questions that could have a major impact on the agriculture technology industry, say Tate Tischner and Andrew Zappia at Troutman Pepper.

  • Useful Product Doctrine May Not Shield Against PFAS Liability

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    Courts have recognized that companies transferring hazardous recycled materials can defeat liability under environmental laws by showing they were selling a useful product — but new laws in California and elsewhere restricting the sale of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances may change the legal landscape, says Kyle Girouard at Dickinson Wright.

  • SEC Fine Shows Risks Of Nonpublic Info In X, LinkedIn Posts

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced a settlement with DraftKings over charges arising from posting material nonpublic information on the CEO's social media accounts, highlighting that information posted to company websites and social media sites does not automatically qualify as "publicly disclosed" for purposes of Regulation FD, say attorneys at O'Melveny.

  • Opinion

    Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits

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    With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.

  • How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program

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    During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.

  • Series

    Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.

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