Appellate

  • July 21, 2025

    Calif. Court Orders Drug Deal Retrial Over Mistaken Admission

    A California state appeals court on Monday demanded a new trial on drug dealing charges for a man who admitted to possessing cocaine while on probation, finding a trial court judge had erroneously admitted botched testimony the man gave in a probation hearing.

  • July 21, 2025

    How GOP Judges Teed Up 4th Circ.'s Supreme Court Shutout

    No appeals court found the U.S. Supreme Court's latest term less endearing than the Fourth Circuit, where a supersize shutout accentuated a multiyear slump for the once-favored circuit and repeatedly vindicated conservative dissenters on the left-leaning bench.

  • July 21, 2025

    Board Says Salvadoran Women Not A Social Group Under INA

    The Board of Immigration Appeals has dismissed a Salvadoran woman's attempt to revive her application for asylum and withholding of removal, ruling that a particular social group based solely on an individual's sex and nationality is "overbroad and insufficiently particular." 

  • July 21, 2025

    Energy Litigation To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2025

    Courtroom showdowns between the Trump administration and blue states over U.S. energy and climate change policy will dominate the energy litigation landscape for the rest of 2025. Here is what the energy industry will be watching closely in the second half of the year.

  • July 21, 2025

    Pa. Hospital Can Shield Some Docs In Birth Injury Suit

    A Pennsylvania state appeals panel won't force a hospital to turn over all of its internal reports in a suit by parents alleging that the hospital's negligence led to their son's injuries at birth, finding that the hospital sufficiently showed that two of the three contested files are privileged.

  • July 21, 2025

    Mich. Panel Upholds Atty Fee For Court-Appointed Counsel

    A Michigan appellate panel has upheld a sentence requiring a defendant to pay a $400 attorney fee to her court-appointed counsel, rejecting her contentions that it was an unconstitutional fine and that the court failed to determine whether she had the ability to pay.

  • July 21, 2025

    Calif. High Court Says Biotech Investor Suit Belongs In Del.

    The California Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a lawsuit pursued by a minority investor alleging San Diego-based EpicentRx and its officers bamboozled investors belongs in Delaware Chancery Court, rejecting arguments that enforcing the biopharmaceutical company's forum selection clause violated Golden State jury trial protections.

  • July 21, 2025

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Last week at the Delaware Court of Chancery, a major settlement between Meta Platforms Inc. and its investors reached on the proverbial courthouse steps during day two of a trial ended an $8 billion-plus suit accusing the company's directors and officers of breaching privacy regulations and corporate fiduciary duties tied to allegations dating to the Cambridge Analytica scandal more than a decade ago.

  • July 21, 2025

    Tax-Lien Biz Atty Tells Jury He Didn't Seek To Dupe Lender

    Counsel for a former compliance lawyer accused of pilfering from a $20 million line of credit extended to his tax-lien investment firm told a Manhattan federal jury Monday that the defendant was "sloppy," but never intended fraud.

  • July 21, 2025

    DC Circ. Strikes Down Gag Order On X Corp. Subpoenas

    A D.C. Circuit panel has struck down a lower court's sweeping order blocking X Corp. from informing users about government data requests, with the appeals court finding the district court failed to identify specific harm that would come from keeping users in the loop.

  • July 21, 2025

    11th Circ Says. Experian Not Liable For Credit Dispute Costs

    The Eleventh Circuit upheld a win for Experian PLC when it held that a consumer's attempts to correct inaccurate information in a credit report can't constitute an injury without evidence that the data was published to a third party or some other actual or imminent harm.

  • July 21, 2025

    EPA Asks 9th Circ. To Reverse Calif. Judge In Fluoride Suit

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is asking the Ninth Circuit to reverse a California federal judge who ruled that the EPA's current "optimal" level of fluoride in drinking water poses an unreasonable risk of lowering children's IQ.

  • July 21, 2025

    Dentist Can't Shake $11.4M Verdict Over Patient's Cancer

    A Pennsylvania Superior Court on Monday affirmed an $11.4 million verdict against a dentist who allegedly ignored signs of skin cancer during appointments, rejecting her argument that the evidence didn't support the verdict.

  • July 21, 2025

    4th Circ. Reverses Portion Of Railroads' Broadband Suit

    The Fourth Circuit has ruled that the Association of American Railroads has standing to challenge a Virginia state law requiring railroads to allow for broadband crossings, reversing a trial court decision and dealing another blow to a law that the Virginia Supreme Court already gutted on state constitutional grounds in May.

  • July 21, 2025

    Reed Smith's Doc Block Motion 'Hyperbolic,' 2nd Circ. Told

    Reed Smith LLP cannot block the new owners of reorganized Greece-based international shipping company Eletson from viewing files already in its possession, the company has told the Second Circuit, arguing the law firm's emergency motion to stop the new owners from accessing the files was intentionally timed to head off anticipated district court rulings.

  • July 21, 2025

    Ex-Eckert Seamans Atty Drops Pa. License Over Cash Scheme

    A onetime Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC attorney who allegedly asked clients for direct payments to circumvent the firm has surrendered his Pennsylvania law license, but is now alleging state disciplinary authorities violated a deal to keep the records private if he agreed to the disbarment.

  • July 21, 2025

    Trump DOJ To Appeal Axing Of Order Targeting Jenner & Block

    The U.S. Department of Justice plans to fight a federal judge's ruling that struck down President Donald Trump's executive order targeting Jenner & Block LLP, as it filed a notice of appeal Monday in D.C. federal court.

  • July 21, 2025

    2nd Circ. Backs Union Win Over Concrete Cos. In CBA Fight

    The Second Circuit on Monday refused to revive a fringe contributions dispute between two concrete companies and a group of union fringe benefit funds, affirming a lower court's decision to hand the union an early win that was partially based on the companies' failure to respond to discovery requests.

  • July 21, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Affirms Motorola Win In Camera Patent Suit

    A prominent Taiwanese manufacturer of smartphone camera lenses has failed to convince the Federal Circuit that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board wrongly found one of its patents challenged by Motorola to be invalid.

  • July 21, 2025

    6th Circ. Revives Fired Clariant Clerk's Gender Bias Suit

    A former warehouse clerk is entitled to a trial on her claim that she was terminated because of her gender during a workforce reduction at a U.S. division of Swiss chemical company Clariant, the Sixth Circuit has ruled.

  • July 21, 2025

    2nd Circ. Affirms Big Banks' Win In Terrorism Financing Fight

    A New York federal judge was right to dismiss a suit seeking to hold Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Danske Bank liable for aiding and abetting terrorist bombings in Afghanistan, a Second Circuit panel ruled Monday.

  • July 21, 2025

    Top 4 Texas Cases To Watch: A Midyear Report

    Several major cases are taking shape in the Lone Star State, including the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association's suit seeking to hold Boeing accountable for lost revenue after the 737 Max was grounded, as well as the continuing fallout of a former Houston judge's romance scandal that could cost a Texas firm millions of dollars. Here's a look at the top cases to watch in Texas through the rest of the year.

  • July 21, 2025

    Travelers Unit, NC Door Maker Settle Excess Insurance Fight

    A Travelers unit has resolved a North Carolina door manufacturer's lawsuit seeking $10 million in excess coverage from the insurer to help cover a $39.5 million securities class action settlement, court records show.

  • July 21, 2025

    Senate Panel To Revote On US Atty Noms After Dem Walkout

    The Senate Judiciary Committee is poised to revote on five U.S. attorney nominees on Thursday, including Jeanine Pirro, former Fox News host and New York state judge, after Democrats walked out of last week's meeting over objections to how the consideration of controversial Third Circuit nominee Emil Bove was being handled.

  • July 21, 2025

    How Criminal Law Is Shaped By Administrative Decisions

    Behind line prosecutors are administrators, policies, and day-to-day logistics that enable and shape not only prosecutors' work but trends in how justice is administered throughout the country, according to a New York University School of Law professor and researcher.

Expert Analysis

  • 9th Circ. Customs Ruling A Limited Win For FCA Plaintiffs

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    While the decision last month in Island Industries v. Sigma may be welcome news for False Claims Act relators, under binding precedent courts within the Ninth Circuit still do not have jurisdiction to adjudicate customs-based FCA claims pursued by the government, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Opinion

    4 Former Justices Would Likely Frown On Litigation Funding

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    As courts increasingly confront cases involving hidden litigation finance contracts, the jurisprudence of four former U.S. Supreme Court justices establishes a constitutional framework that risks erosion by undisclosed financial interests, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

  • Quantifying Trading-Based Damages Using Price Impact

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will likely increasingly rely on price impact analyses to demonstrate pecuniary harm from trading-related misconduct, meaning measuring price impact will be helpful in challenging SEC disgorgement, determining appropriate remedies, and assessing loss causation and damages in private litigation, says Vyacheslav Fos at Boston College and Erin Smith at Compass Lexecon.

  • How Attys Can Use AI To Surface Narratives In E-Discovery

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    E-discovery has reached a turning point where document review is no longer just about procedural tasks like identifying relevance and redacting privilege — rather, generative artificial intelligence tools now allow attorneys to draw connections, extract meaning and tell a coherent story, says Rose Jones at Hilgers Graben.

  • How McKesson Ruling Will Inform Interpretations Of The TCPA

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    Amid the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, we can expect to see both plaintiffs and defendants utilizing the decision to revisit the Federal Communications Commission's past Telephone Consumer Protection Act interpretations and decisions they did not like, says Jason McElroy at Saul Ewing.

  • Justices Rethink Minimum Contacts For Foreign Entities

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    Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Devas v. Antrix and Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization, suggest that federal statutes may confer personal jurisdiction over foreign entities that have little to no contact with the U.S. — a significant departure from traditional due process principles, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.

  • Opinion

    High Court Must Overrule Outdated Patent Eligibility Doctrine

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    A certiorari petition should directly ask the U.S. Supreme Court to correct its 1972 patent decision in Gottschalk v. Benson, the critical point where patent eligibility law veered from the statutory text toward judicial policymaking, says Robert Greenspoon at Dunlap Bennett.

  • Examining TCPA Jurisprudence A Year After Loper Bright

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    One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, lower court decisions demonstrate that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act will continue to evolve as long-standing interpretations of the act are analyzed with a fresh lens, says Aaron Gallardo at Kilpatrick.

  • Gauging The Risky Business Of Business Risk Disclosures

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    With the recent rise of securities fraud actions based on external events — like a data breach or environmental disaster — that drive down stock prices, risk disclosures have become more of a sword for the plaintiffs bar than a shield for public companies, now the subject of a growing circuit split, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

  • How Justices' Ruling Limits Options To Challenge DHS Orders

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    In Riley v. Bondi, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a 30-day deadline for challenging deportation orders begins when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issues a final administrative review order, opening the door for the government to effectively bar circuit court review in future similar cases, says Kevin Gregg at Kurzban Kurzban.

  • Series

    Playing The Violin Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing violin in a string quartet reminds me that flexibility, ambition, strong listening skills, thoughtful leadership and intentional collaboration are all keys to a successful legal practice, says Julie Park at MoFo.

  • Purdue Case Could Transform Patent Obviousness Analyses

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    If accepted for review by the U.S. Supreme Court, Purdue Pharma v. Accord Healthcare — concerning whether Purdue's abuse-deterrent opioid formulation patents were invalid as obvious — could significantly shift how courts weigh secondary considerations in patent obviousness analyses, say attorneys at Lathrop.

  • NM Cyber Ruling Will Spur Litigation As Coverage Remedy

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    In Kane v. Beazley, the New Mexico Court of Appeals recently found that a cyber liability provision insuring security breaches included coverage for funds transfer fraud, implicitly and incorrectly motivating policyholders to commence litigation to avoid contractual limitations on cyber coverages, say attorneys at Zelle.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Self-Care

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    Law schools don’t teach the mental, physical and emotional health maintenance tools necessary to deal with the profession's many demands, but practicing self-care is an important key to success that can help to improve focus, manage stress and reduce burnout, says Rachel Leonard​​​​​​​ at MG+M.

  • Texas' Cactus Ruling Clarifies 'Produced Water' Rules

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    The Texas Supreme Court's decision in Cactus Water Services v. COG Operating, holding that mineral interest lessees have the rights to water extracted alongside oil and gas, should benefit industry players by clarifying the rules — but it leaves important questions about royalties unresolved, say attorneys at Yetter Coleman.

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