Business of Law

  • March 22, 2024

    Calif. Releases Interim Guidelines On GenAI Use

    The state of California on Thursday released interim guidelines for public-sector procurement, uses and training of generative artificial intelligence by state leaders in preparation for all state agencies to consider pilot projects using the technology by July, per Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order issued last year.

  • March 22, 2024

    GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

    Federal antitrust prosecutors have added Apple Inc. to the list of Big Tech companies it is suing for anti-competitive behavior; and a law firm general counsel explains how he put guardrails into the firm's AI policy.

  • March 22, 2024

    Trump Election Case Gives Young Ga. Judge 'A World Stage'

    As Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee prepares for perhaps the highest profile case he will ever see, legal experts and former state justices told Law360 that the young jurist has the ethics and temperament to not let the politically charged Donald Trump prosecution derail a promising legal career.

  • March 22, 2024

    Ill. Judges End Diversity Rules That Drew Conservative Ire

    The Seventh Circuit's chief judge has resolved judicial misconduct complaints targeting allegedly discriminatory standing orders by some Illinois federal judges encouraging younger, female and minority attorneys to handle oral arguments, after two of the judges rescinded their policies in response to the complaints.

  • March 22, 2024

    BigLaw's Shanghai Exodus Continues With Orrick Closure

    The list of large, international law firms downsizing in China — and, in particular, shuttering Shanghai offices — continues to grow, with an Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP spokesperson revealing Friday that the firm plans to close its office in the city and has already terminated its lease in Taipei, Taiwan.

  • March 22, 2024

    Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a Second Circuit panel rejected what it characterized as a lower court's "new standard" for so-called patent monopolies.

  • March 22, 2024

    In 107K Pro Bono Hours: Hogan Lovells Tackles Racial Justice

    Hogan Lovells pledged to dedicate 65,000 pro bono hours to advancing racial justice in June 2020, and, according to a report out this week, the firm's personnel have exceeded that goal by dedicating approximately 107,000 hours through 2023 to causes across the globe aimed at advancing racial justice.

  • March 22, 2024

    Del. Courts Examining 'Colonoscopy'-Like Bylaw Rules

    Invasive advance-notice bylaws that some observers say make shareholder board nominations as intrusive as a "colonoscopy" are reviving old questions in Delaware courts about how far boards can go to protect themselves against shareholder activism.

  • March 22, 2024

    DOJ Atty And Magistrate Judge Secure Texas Court Seats

    The Senate voted 88-7 on Friday to confirm Ernest Gonzalez, a senior attorney adviser in the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division, Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Section, and then 90-8 to confirm U.S. Magistrate Judge Leon Schydlower both to the Western District of Texas.

  • March 21, 2024

    Burford, Sysco Get OK To Swap Bid In Price-Fixing Cases

    An Illinois federal judge on Thursday agreed to allow an affiliate of legal investment firm Burford Capital to substitute for food giant Sysco in price-fixing litigation against broiler chicken producers, a ruling that comes a month after a Minnesota federal judge refused to allow the same Burford unit to substitute for Sysco in similar pork and beef price-fixing litigation.

  • March 21, 2024

    Schumer Urges Texas District To Adopt Judge-Shopping Rule

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday urged the chief judge of the Northern District of Texas to quickly implement the Judicial Conference of the United States' updated policy that looks to prevent litigants from judge shopping, arguing that the district's current practices are "dangerous."

  • March 21, 2024

    Trump Misquotes Justices In Immunity Case's Opening Brief

    Former President Donald Trump invoked the writings of three sitting U.S. Supreme Court justices in a brief Tuesday to argue that former presidents are absolutely immune from criminal prosecution. Yet the cited opinions and papers actually express the opposite theories from what he claims — a miscue attorneys say could backfire on him.

  • March 21, 2024

    'Sit Down!' DC Judge Snaps At Atty Over False Ad Defense

    Oral arguments over footwear nearly got an attorney kicked out of court Thursday, as a D.C. federal judge told a defense counselor to "Sit down!" for making "snide remarks" before ultimately denying most of his motion to dismiss a Federal Trade Commission suit alleging deceptive advertising.

  • March 21, 2024

    Ex-Moses & Singer Partner Says New-Mom Bias Is Rampant

    A former partner at New York litigation firm Moses & Singer LLP said she witnessed women at the firm go from being considered "superstars" to "mommy brained" after returning from maternity leave, according to a declaration attached to an amended pregnancy discrimination complaint in federal court.

  • March 21, 2024

    Unabomber Prosecutor To Probe FTX's Sullivan & Cromwell Ties

    The Delaware bankruptcy court overseeing the Chapter 11 case of FTX Trading Ltd. has approved the appointment of a former federal prosecutor, whose experience includes work on the Unabomber case, to delve into accusations Sullivan & Cromwell is conflicted as debtor's counsel.

  • March 21, 2024

    Trump's Mystery Docket: Inside NY's Secretive Filing System

    The first criminal indictment of a former American president may have arrived in 21st century New York, but it landed in a court system stuck in the past — where the official record is a disorganized and incomplete mass of paper with no accounting of what's inside.

  • March 21, 2024

    Robins Kaplan, Funding Firm Must Pay Sanctions, Court Told

    An investment firm has urged a New York state appellate court to uphold a $156,000 sanction levied against a litigation funding firm and its counsel from Robins Kaplan LLP over the law firm's access to the opposing party's Dropbox account, saying a trial court acted within its discretion in imposing the sanction.

  • March 21, 2024

    Biden's Judicial Nominees Face New Barriers

    President Joe Biden is encountering new hurdles to placing his judicial nominees on the bench, particularly one who would be the first Muslim federal appellate judge if confirmed.

  • March 21, 2024

    The LA Boutique Repping MLB's Ohtani Amid Betting Scandal

    An unfolding sports betting scandal has prompted Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani to lawyer up, enlisting the West Hollywood boutique Berk Brettler LLP to advise him in a saga that has already led the club to fire his longtime interpreter.

  • March 21, 2024

    Reed Smith Ties Associate Raises To Billable Hours

    Reed Smith LLP is reportedly raising associate salaries in a range similar to those first announced by Milbank LLP last November, with an associate's place on the scale depending on their billable hours.

  • March 21, 2024

    12 Ex-Constantine Cannon Attys Launch Whistleblower Firm

    A dozen attorneys who have represented whistleblowers from Facebook, Theranos and Boeing have left Constantine Cannon LLP to form their own stand-alone boutique to support whistleblowers and boost corporate accountability globally, according to a Thursday announcement.

  • March 21, 2024

    DA Rips Trump For 'Wild' Accusations Over Late Documents

    The Manhattan district attorney is pushing back on claims of misconduct from former President Donald Trump's legal team as the two sides spar over the late production of thousands of pages of documents that have cast doubt on the timing of his hush-money trial.

  • March 21, 2024

    USPTO Expands Types Of E-Signatures Allowed For Patents

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will allow filers to sign patent documents using a wider range of third-party electronic signature platforms, including DocuSign and Acrobat Sign, starting Friday.

  • March 21, 2024

    Lawmakers Eye Permanent Status For 10 Federal Judgeships

    A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers has put forward bills in the Senate and House that would make 10 temporary district judgeships permanent in 10 states including Texas, Florida and California.

  • March 20, 2024

    Trans Kids' Attys May Face Sanctions Over Ala. Judges' Probe

    Eleven attorneys, including lawyers from Cooley LLP, Lightfoot Franklin & White LLC and prominent LGBTQ rights organizations, have been ordered to show why they should not be sanctioned after a judicial report concluded they engaged in judge-shopping when challenging an Alabama law banning certain medical procedures for transgender youth, according to a newly unsealed order.

Expert Analysis

  • Refining Info Governance As E-Discovery Gets More Complex

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    Courts are increasingly requiring litigants to produce chats and other conversations recorded on business collaboration platforms as evidence, so companies should develop strategies for preserving and organizing such data to timely comply with e-discovery requests and to protect sensitive information, say attorneys at Akerman.

  • Risk Mitigation In Face Of Rising Legal Malpractice Claims

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    As the recent rise in frequency and cost of legal malpractice claims is expected to continue amid global high inflation and economic uncertainty, law firms and insurers would be wise to evaluate key risk areas and consider six steps to minimize exposure, say Nicole Shapiro and Cory Stumpf at Atheria Law.

  • Roundup

    Keys To A 9-0 High Court Win

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    In this Expert Analysis series, advocates who have recently won unanimous rulings from the justices share their argument strategies, the tactics they think may help unify the court, and what other practitioners can learn from their experience. 

  • Series

    Keys To A 9-0 High Court Win: Look For Common Ground

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    When arguing for the petitioner in Golan v. Saada before the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, a focus was placed on appealing to multiple judicial philosophies with the aim of not only winning each justice’s vote, but also achieving clear guidance from the court’s opinion, says Karen King at Morvillo Abramowitz.

  • Limiting The Scope Of Representation Is Critical For Lawyers

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    A Mississippi federal court's recent decision in Kee v. Howard L. Nations PC highlights the importance of well-written engagement letters, and shows why it is vital for attorneys to specify exactly which services they intend to supply, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.

  • The Lawyer Personalities That Make Up Joint Interest Groups

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    As multiparty litigation rises and forces competing law firms to work together, George Reede at Zelle looks at the different personalities — from tactful synthesizers to misguided Don Quixotes — that often make up joint representation groups, and how lawyers can overcome the tensions in these and other team settings.

  • How ITC's Junior Atty Program Can Benefit Firms, Clients

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    Victoria Reines and Philip Marsh at Arnold & Porter offer some thoughts on making the U.S. International Trade Commission's Nurturing Excellence in Trial Advocates program work for firms and clients, and discuss the benefits of having a junior attorney present an opening statement.

  • Attys Shouldn't Assume Judicial Critique Is Protected Speech

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    As it becomes more commonplace to see criticism of the judiciary in the media, licensed attorneys are well advised to remember that they may have less freedom than nonlawyers to make protected speech critical of the judiciary, says Mark Hinderks at Stinson.

  • Series

    Keys To A 9-0 High Court Win: Practicality Over Perfection

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    When I argued for the petitioner in Wooden v. U.S. last year, I discovered that preparation is key, but so is the right kind of preparation — in giving decisive answers to the U.S. Supreme Court justices' hypothetical questions I was not aiming for perfection, just the best response available, says Allon Kedem at Arnold & Porter.

  • What New Bar Exam Means For Law Students And Schools

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    Stephanie Acosta at UWorld discusses how law students and law schools can start preparing now for the new bar exam launching in 2026, which is expected to emphasize real-world lawyering skills-based tasks over rote memorization.

  • Apple's New Messaging Features Will Complicate E-Discovery

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    Apple's newest mobile operating system allows users to edit and recall messages and recover deleted messages, which could significantly increase the time, burden and expense of processing and analyzing cellphones if messages or their associated metadata become an area of scrutiny in a case, says Jarrett Coco at Nelson Mullins.

  • Law Firm Inclusion Efforts Often Overlook Business Staff

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    Law firms committed to a culture of universal inclusion can take steps to foster a sense of belonging in their business services teams, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Consulting.

  • Retail Ruling Clarifies Attorney Fees For Large Ch. 11 Cases

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    A Virginia federal court’s recent order in the Retail Group bankruptcy matters shines light on the relevant factors for approving fee applications in complex Chapter 11 cases, confirming the importance of making an appropriate factual record to support professional fee applications, say Jason Harbour and Justin Paget at Hunton.

  • An Associate's Guide To Rebounding After A Layoff

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    Law firm associates laid off due to economic conditions can recuperate and move forward by practicing self-care, identifying key skills to leverage during the job search, engaging in self-reflection and more, say Kate Sheikh at Major Lindsey and wellness consultant Jarrett Green.

  • AML Regulation Of Lawyers Is Imminent And Controversial

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    The U.S. House of Representatives' recently passed National Defense Authorization Act subjects lawyers engaged in certain financial-related activities to anti-money laundering regulation under the Bank Secrecy Act, which could pit lawyers against clients in ways harmful to the rule of law and administration of justice, says Jeremy Glicksman at the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office in New York.

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