Appellate

  • June 16, 2025

    Justices Deny Challenge To Copyright's 'Discovery Rule'

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will not revisit the so-called discovery rule, rejecting an appeal from a shoe designer who argued the justices needed to clarify whether it's appropriate to bring copyright claims outside the three-year statute of limitations.

  • June 16, 2025

    Justices Won't Review Ed Sheeran's 'Thinking Out Loud' Win

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition to review a ruling finding that Ed Sheeran's hit song "Thinking Out Loud" did not rip off Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On."

  • June 16, 2025

    Justices Take Up NJ Anti-Abortion Group's Subpoena Fight

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review the Third Circuit's dismissal of an anti-abortion pregnancy center's federal lawsuit challenging a subpoena from the New Jersey attorney general demanding information about its donors.

  • June 16, 2025

    High Court Skips NexStep's Patent Fight With Comcast

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected NexStep Inc.'s bid to revive its patent suit against Comcast in a case that had implicated patent law's doctrine of equivalents. 

  • June 16, 2025

    Justices Again Refuse To Hear Trading Tech's Patent Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to reconsider its April decision not to hear Trading Technologies' appeal seeking to boost its $6.6 million trading patent win after the company claimed new developments and patent eligibility legislation warranted taking the case.

  • June 13, 2025

    7th Circ. Won't Revive RICO Claims Against Blood Test Co.

    A group of pilots and other people required to undergo alcohol screening for their employment cannot pursue their Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act claims against a drug testing company, the Seventh Circuit ruled Friday after finding that the complaint doesn't adequately tie the plaintiffs' injuries to the alleged fraudulent scheme.

  • June 13, 2025

    9th Circ. Allows ConocoPhillips Project To Proceed, For Now

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday held that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management must reconsider a small part of its approval for the controversial ConocoPhillips Willow oil and gas project, though it stopped short of vacating existing approvals for the Arctic energy development and allowed the project to proceed.

  • June 13, 2025

    NY Supreme Court Bars ICE Office At Rikers, For Now

    The New York Supreme Court on Friday blocked New York City Mayor Eric Adams from letting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement open up an office at Rikers Island, saying that there was a "real and imminent risk" immigrant communities would lose trust in the city's government institutions absent an injunction.

  • June 13, 2025

    DC Circ. Knocks NLRB For 'Irrational' Impasse Analysis

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday rejected the National Labor Relations Board's conclusions that a quarry operator unlawfully threatened to stop contributions to a pension fund for unionized workers, finding the board's "legal analysis is irrational" about whether the parties were at an impasse.

  • June 13, 2025

    10th Circ. Affirms Expert DQ In Sig Sauer Gun Discharge Suit

    Gunmaker Sig Sauer Inc. scored a win at the Tenth Circuit on Friday with the panel disqualifying two experts who were ready to testify that its P320 pistol was defectively designed, giving the company an appeals court ruling to lean on as it continues to fend off a rash of suits claiming the gun fires unintentionally.

  • June 13, 2025

    $1.6M Verdict Should've Been Trimmed Sooner, NJ Panel Says

    A New Jersey trial court should've reduced a $1.6 million jury verdict to $200,000 sooner in an automobile accident dispute after the plaintiff told both the trial judge and judge in the defendant's bankruptcy proceedings he would seek only $200,000, a state appeals court ruled Friday.

  • June 13, 2025

    4th Circ. Affirms Toss Of Contractor's ULP Suit Against Union

    The Fourth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a Maryland mechanical contractor's lawsuit against a Sheet Metal Air Rail & Transportation Workers local on Friday, ruling that the union's alleged smear campaign against the company didn't rise to the level of an unfair labor practice under the National Labor Relations Act.

  • June 13, 2025

    9th Circ. Renews Copyright Claims In Software Cos. Fight

    A Ninth Circuit panel has partially revived an intellectual property dispute between software companies Cloanto Corp. and Hyperion Entertainment, ruling that the lower court erred in tossing Cloanto's copyright claims while correctly axing its breach of contract claim.

  • June 13, 2025

    5th Circ. Says No Private Right Of Action In No Surprises Act

    The Fifth Circuit has ruled a pair of flight ambulance providers cannot pursue their lawsuit seeking to enforce out-of-network billing dispute resolution awards against a health insurance company, saying there's no private right of action built into a 2022 law that protects patients from surprise medical bills.

  • June 13, 2025

    Calif. State Bar Is Immune From Atty's ADA Suit, 9th Circ. Says

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday declined to revive an attorney's claims alleging the California State Bar violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by not granting extra time to respond to disciplinary action based on outstanding debt, finding the bar, as an arm of the state, is entitled to sovereign immunity.

  • June 13, 2025

    DC Circ. Urged To Reject Approval For Braille-Free Drug Label

    Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. is urging the D.C. Circuit to reverse a lower court decision upholding the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of a generic sleep-disorder drug without Braille labeling, a move the company argues jeopardizes patient safety.

  • June 13, 2025

    Omitted Jury Instruction Tainted Fraud Trial, DC Circ. Says

    A D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday that a new trial was warranted in a pandemic relief loan fraud case based on the trial court's inadvertent failure to instruct jurors to not draw negative conclusions from the defendant's decision not to testify.

  • June 13, 2025

    4th Circ. Axes Guilty Plea Over Police Misconduct

    The Fourth Circuit vacated a North Carolina man's guilty plea on drug trafficking charges, holding Friday that new information regarding "egregious police misconduct" that plagued the prosecution's case rendered his plea involuntary. 

  • June 13, 2025

    Wash. High Court Suspends Atty Amid Delays In Bar Probe

    The Washington State Supreme Court has suspended an Evergreen state attorney's legal license, at the state bar association's request, for allegedly stalling disciplinary investigations into her work representing student families in two federal lawsuits against school districts.

  • June 13, 2025

    11th Circ. Holds Local GOP Had Right To Bar Anti-Trumpers

    An Eleventh Circuit panel has sided with a county-level Georgia Republican Party and reversed a federal district court's dismissal of the party's suit, which looked to vindicate its right to exclude purportedly anti-Trump candidates from qualifying for local office on the GOP ticket.

  • June 13, 2025

    2nd Circ. Won't Rehear Trump Appeal Of $5M Assault Verdict

    The full Second Circuit refused Friday to revisit President Donald Trump's challenge to writer E. Jean Carroll's $5 million sexual assault finding against him, with two judges dissenting.

  • June 13, 2025

    Pa. Court Faults Agency For Rebuffing Late Child-Death Filing

    Pennsylvania's labor regulator should have at least considered accepting a business's late submission of a response to accusations of child labor stemming from a fatal accident with a wood chipper, a state appellate panel ruled Friday in an opinion that clarified when to make exceptions to agency filing deadlines.

  • June 13, 2025

    3rd Circ. Won't Rehear Bid To Toss Boy Scouts' Ch. 11 Plan

    The Third Circuit declined to hold a panel or full court rehearing of its May decision to uphold the Boy Scouts of America's Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan in a pair of Friday orders rejecting petitions by two sets of abuse survivors, with the orders implying some judges on the court had supported taking another look.

  • June 13, 2025

    Texas Justices Pass On Final 'Love Is Blind' Appeal

    The Texas Supreme Court on Friday declined for the third time to intervene in a suit between the producers of Netflix's "Love Is Blind" and a former contestant who says she was sexually assaulted while filming the show.

  • June 13, 2025

    DC Circ. Sides With FERC In Substation Cost Dispute

    A D.C. Circuit panel ruled Friday that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission got it right when it denied a wind facility operator's petition seeking reimbursement from the Western Area Power Administration for its contribution to a substation expansion.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Supporting A Trial Team

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    While students often practice as lead trial attorneys in law school, such an opportunity likely won’t arise until a few years into practice, so junior associates should focus on honing skills that are essential to supporting a trial team, including organization, adaptability and humility, says Lucy Zelina at Tucker Ellis.

  • Google Damages Ruling May Spur Income Approach Usage

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in EcoFactor v. Google may affect the extent to which damages experts apply the market approach in patent infringement matters, and income approach techniques may assume greater importance, says Erin Crockett at Charles River Associates.

  • Opinion

    Address Nationwide Injunction Issues With Random Venues

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    Many of the qualms about individual district court judges' authority to issue nationwide injunctions could be solved with a simple legislative solution: handling multiple complaints about the same agency action filed in different district courts by assigning a venue via random selection, says Harvey Reiter at Stinson.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From US Attorney To BigLaw

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    When I transitioned to private practice after government service — most recently as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia — I learned there are more similarities between the two jobs than many realize, with both disciplines requiring resourcefulness, zealous advocacy and foresight, says Zach Terwilliger at V&E.

  • 11th Circ. Ruling Warns Parties To Follow Arbitral Rules

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    The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision in Merritt Island Woodwerx v. Space Coast is important for companies utilizing arbitration clauses because it clearly demonstrates the court's intent to hold noncompliant parties responsible in federal court — regardless of subsequent efforts to cure, says Ed Mullins at Reed Smith.

  • 2nd Circ. Limits VPPA Liability, But Caveats Remain

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    The Second Circuit's narrowed scope of the Video Privacy Protection Act in Solomon v. Flipps Media, in which the court adopted the ordinary person standard, will help shield businesses from VPPA liability, but the decision hardly provides a free pass to streamers and digital media companies utilizing website pixels, say attorneys at Frankfurt Kurnit.

  • The Ins And Outs Of Consensual Judicial References

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    As parties consider the possibility of judicial reference to resolve complex disputes, it is critical to understand how the process works, why it's gaining traction, and why carefully crafted agreements make all the difference, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • SpaceX Labor Suit May Bring Cosmic Jurisdictional Shifts

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    The National Mediation Board's upcoming decision about whether SpaceX falls under the purview of the National Labor Relations Act or the Railway Labor Act could establish how jurisdictional boundaries are determined for employers that toe the line, with tangible consequences for decades to come, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • Opinion

    The BigLaw Settlements Are About Risk, Not Profit

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    The nine Am Law 100 firms that settled with the Trump administration likely did so because of the personal risk faced by equity partners in today's billion‑dollar national practices, enabled by an ethics rule primed for modernization, says Adam Forest at Scale.

  • Opinion

    Courts Must Revitalize Robust Claim Construction

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    Two Federal Circuit decisions from earlier this year illustrate the rarity of robust claim construction and the underused reverse doctrine of equivalents — a dual problem that prevents courts from clearly delineating and correctly cabining the scope of rights conferred by patent claims, say attorneys at Klarquist Sparkman.

  • State Tort Claims May Help Deter Bribes During FCPA Pause

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    As the U.S. pauses Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, companies that lose business due to competitors' bribery should consider using state tortious interference suits to expose corruption, deter illegal practices and obtain compensation for commercial losses, says Jason Manning at Levy Firestone.

  • 2nd Circ. Arb. Ruling May Give Foreign Insurers An Edge

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    The Second Circuit's decision this month in Lloyds of London v. 3131 Veterans Blvd that international arbitration agreements take primacy over state anti-arbitration insurance laws opens a division between domestic and foreign insurers that could affect the surplus lines market, says attorney Rosanne Felicello.

  • Buyer Beware Of Restrictive Covenants In Delaware

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    Based on recent Delaware Chancery Court opinions rejecting restricted covenants contained in agreements in the sale-of-business context, businesses need to craft narrowly tailored restrictions that have legitimate interests, say attorneys at Saul Ewing.

  • Series

    Brazilian Jiujitsu Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Competing in Brazilian jiujitsu – often against opponents who are much larger and younger than me – has allowed me to develop a handful of useful skills that foster the resilience and adaptability necessary for a successful legal career, says Tina Dorr of Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Fed. Circ. Offers Lesson On Gov't Data Rights In Contracts

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    The Federal Circuit's recent decision in FlightSafety v. Air Force serves as a warning for U.S. Department of Defense contractors attempting to mark their commercial technical data developed at private expense, say attorneys at Butzel Long.

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