Expert Analysis

• Leveraging MDLs And State Courts In Mass Tort Strategy

  

  Multidistrict litigation's quiet drift from a pretrial coordination device to a de facto national court for mass torts poses a strategic question for plaintiffs counsel — whether an MDL will yield timely trials, meaningful accountability and fair value for clients, or whether a state court strategy will be more effective, say attorneys at DiCello Levitt.

• PFAS Risks In M&A Amid Litigation, Legislative Developments

  

  Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances have become a significant M&A concern amid new trends in settlements and state laws, and potential buyers must find ways to evaluate potential related risks, say attorneys at Debevoise.

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  Volunteering With Scouts Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Serving as an assistant scoutmaster for my son’s troop reaffirmed several skills and principles crucial to lawyering — from the importance of disconnecting to the value of morality, says Michael Warren at McManis Faulkner.

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  Law School's Missed Lessons: In Court, It's About Storytelling

  

  Law school provides doctrine, cases and hypotheticals, but when lawyers step into the courtroom, they must learn the importance of clarity, credibility, memorability and preparation — in other words, how to tell simple, effective stories, say Nicholas Steverson and Danielle Trujillo at Wheeler Trigg, and Lisa DeCaro at Courtroom Performance.

• Aligning Microsoft Tools With NYC Bar AI Recording Guidance

  

  The New York City Bar Association’s recently issued formal opinion, providing ethical guidance on artificial intelligence-assisted recording, transcription and summarization, raises immediate questions about data governance and e-discovery for companies that use Microsoft 365 and Copilot, say Staci Kaliner, Martin Tully and John Collins at Redgrave.

• Social Media Trial Raises Key Product Safety Questions

  

  The trial underway in a California state court against Meta and Google is unprecedented, because it marks the first time a jury has been asked to consider whether social media platforms' engagement-maximizing design can be treated as a product safety issue, or whether it is inseparable from protected expression, says Gary Angiuli at Angiuli & Gentile.

• 11th Circ. NextEra Ruling Broadens Loss Causation Standard

  

  The Eleventh Circuit's recent Jastram v. NextEra Energy decision significantly expands the loss causation standard at the motion-to-dismiss stage and may lead to suits predicated on more tenuous connections between company disclosures and alleged misstatements, say attorneys at Sidley.

• Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: March Lessons

  

  In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses four recent rulings from January and identifies practice tips from cases involving allegations of violations of consumer fraud regulations, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, employment law and breach of contract statutes.

• Where 5th Circ. Ruling Fits In ERISA Arbitration Landscape

  

  The Fifth Circuit's recent decision in Parrott v. International Bancshares, holding that an Employee Retirement Income Security Act plan may consent to arbitration, must be understood against the backdrop of a developing body of appellate authority addressing ERISA arbitration, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

• 5 Different AI Systems Raise Distinct Privilege Issues

  

  A New York federal court’s recent U.S. v. Heppner decision, holding that a defendant’s use of Claude was not privileged, only addressed one narrow artificial intelligence system, but lawyers must recognize that the spectrum of AI tools raises different confidentiality and privilege questions, says Heidi Nadel at HP.

• Why Meme Coin Ruling May Amplify Crypto Legislation Push

  

  A Florida federal court's recent decision in De Ford v. Koutolas, declining to rule definitively whether LGBCoin is a security, is notable for how it refused to give deference to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission guidance on meme coins, which may strengthen the ongoing industry push for clear rules-based regulatory frameworks, say attorneys at Goodwin.

• Opinion

  AI-Assisted Arbitration Needs Safeguards To Ensure Fairness

  

  As tribunals and arbitral institutions increasingly use artificial intelligence tools in their decision-making processes, ​​​​​​​clear disclosure standards and procedural safeguards are necessary to ensure that efficiency gains do not erode the fairness principles on which arbitration depends, says Alexander Lima at Wesco International.

• What Recent Dataset Suits Signal For AI Training Litigation

  

  Plaintiffs are moving away from abstract debates about artificial intelligence at large and toward dataset provenance, and three filings illustrate how provenance is pled using public dataset documentation, archives and discovery‑ready allegations about copying, retention and downstream handling, says Yulia Leshchenko at Name & Fame.

• How Del. High Court's Moelis Reversal Fits Into DExit Debate

  

  By declining to decide the facial validity of the provisions at issue in Moelis & Co. v. West Palm Beach Firefighters Pension Fund, the Delaware Supreme Court's recent reversal of the Court of Chancery's 2024 ruling highlights broader implications for the ongoing debate over whether companies should incorporate elsewhere, say attorneys at Akin.

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  Playing Piano Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Playing piano and practicing law share many parallels relating to managing complexity: Just as hearing an entire musical passage in my head allows me to reliably deliver the message, thinking about the audience's impression helps me create a legal narrative that keeps the reader engaged, says Michael Shepherd at Fish & Richardson.