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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impact and other fees it has paid since 2019, the latest dispensary to make such a request since the fees were rescinded by state lawmakers in 2023.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

  • Navigating The Expanding Frontier Of Premerger Notice Laws

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    Washington's newly enacted law requiring premerger notification to state enforcers builds upon a growing trend of state scrutiny into transactions in the healthcare sector and beyond, and may inspire other states to enact similar legislation, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Mastering Discovery

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    The discovery process and the rules that govern it are often absent from law school curricula, but developing a solid grasp of the particulars can give any new attorney a leg up in their practice, says Jordan Davies at Knowles Gallant.

  • Maneuvering The Weeds Of Cannabis Vertical Integration

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    The conversation around vertical integration has taken on new urgency as the cannabis market expands, despite federal reform remaining a distant dream, so the best strategy for cannabis operators is to approach vertical integration on a state-by-state basis, say attorneys at Sweetspot Brands.

  • Opinion

    The IRS Shouldn't Go To War Over Harvard's Tax Exemption

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    If the Internal Revenue Service revokes Harvard's tax-exempt status for violating established public policy — a position unsupported by currently available information — the precedent set by surviving the inevitable court challenge could undercut the autonomy and distinctiveness of the charitable sector, says Johnny Rex Buckles at Houston Law Center.

  • Series

    Playing Guitar Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Being a lawyer not only requires logic and hard work, but also belief, emotion, situational awareness and lots of natural energy — playing guitar enhances all of these qualities, increasing my capacity to do my best work, says Kosta Stojilkovic at Wilkinson Stekloff.

  • Crisis Management Lessons From The Parenting Playbook

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    The parenting skills we use to help our kids through challenges — like rehearsing for stressful situations, modeling confidence and taking time to reset our emotions — can also teach us the fundamentals of leading clients through a corporate crisis, say Deborah Solmor at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and Cara Peterman at Alston & Bird.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Despite SEC Climate Pause, Cos. Must Still Heed State Regs

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    While businesses may have been given a reprieve from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's rules aimed at standardizing climate-related disclosures, they must still track evolving requirements in states including California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York that will soon require reporting of direct and indirect carbon emissions, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

  • 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.

  • Charging A Separate Tariff Fee May Backfire For Retailers

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    In the wake of the Trump administration's newly imposed tariffs, retailers facing significant supply chain cost increases may be considering adding a tariff fee to offset these costs, but doing so risks violating state drip pricing bans, say attorneys at Benesch.

  • 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.

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