Expert Analysis

• Keys To Effective Mental Health Mitigation In Sentencing

  

  Instead of framing a defendant's mental health diagnoses as generalized grounds for leniency during sentencing, defense counsel should present them as objective clinical data that directly informs the risk assessment and rehabilitative questions judges are statutorily required to consider, say Joseph De Gregorio at JN Advisor and Richard Levitt at Levitt & Kaizer.

• Rescheduling Cannabis Marks New Tax Era For Operators

  

  As the attorney general takes steps to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act, operators and advisers should prepare by considering the significant changes this will bring from tax, state, industry and market perspectives, says Michael Harlow at CohnReznick.

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  Playing Tennis Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  An instinct to turn pain into purpose meant frequent trips to the tennis court, where learning to move ahead one point at a time was a lesson that also applied to the steep learning curve of patent prosecution law, says Daniel Henry at Marshall Gerstein.

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  Judges On AI: How Judicial Use Informs Guardrails

  

  U.S. Magistrate Judge Maritza Dominguez Braswell at the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado discusses why having a sense of how generative AI tools behave, where they add value, where they introduce risk and how they are reshaping the practice of law is key for today's judges.

• Challenging Restitution Orders After Supreme Court Decision

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court’s Ellingburg v. U.S. decision from last week, holding that mandatory restitution is a criminal punishment subject to the Sixth Amendment, means that all challenges to restitution are now fair game if the amount is not alleged in the indictment, say Mark Allenbaugh at SentencingStats.com and Doug Passon at Doug Passon Law.

• Justices' Double Jeopardy Ruling May Limit Charge-Stacking

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent holding in Barrett v. U.S. that the double jeopardy clause bars separate convictions for the same act under two related firearms laws places meaningful limits on the broader practice of stacking charges, a reminder that overlapping statutes present prosecutors with a menu, not a buffet, says attorney David Tarras.

• Presidential Pardon Brokering Can Create Risks For Attys

  

  The emergence of an apparent “pardon shopping” marketplace, in which attorneys treat presidential pardons as a market product, may invite investigative scrutiny of counsel and potential criminal charges grounded in bribery, wire fraud and other statutes, says David Klasing at The Tax Law Offices of David W. Klasing.

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  Adapting To Private Practice: 5 Tips From Ex-SEC Unit Chief

  

  My move to private practice has reaffirmed my belief in the value of adaptability, collaboration and strategic thinking — qualities that are essential not only for successful client outcomes, but also for sustained professional satisfaction, says Dabney O’Riordan at Fried Frank.

• Prisoners' Access To Health Info Should Have No Bars

  

  To safeguard against unnecessary deaths in custody, courts and policymakers should clarify that incarcerated individuals’ constitutional right to medical care also includes access to sufficient information about their medical conditions, lifting current restrictions that can lead to crucial information being withheld, says Jaehyun Oh at Jacob Fuchsberg Law.

• Key False Claims Act Trends From The Last Year

  

  The False Claims Act remains a powerful enforcement tool after some record verdicts and settlements in 2025, and while traditional fraud areas remain a priority, new initiatives are raising questions about its expanding application, says Veronica Nannis at Joseph Greenwald.

• Reel Justice: 'Die My Love' And The Power Of Visuals At Trial

  

  The powerful use of imagery to capture the protagonist’s experience of postpartum depression in “Die My Love” reminds attorneys that visuals at trial can persuade jurors more than words alone, so they should strategically wield a new federal evidence rule allowing for illustrative aids, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University.

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  Hosting Exchange Students Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Opening my home to foreign exchange students makes me a better lawyer not just because prioritizing visiting high schoolers forces me to hone my organization and time management skills but also because sharing the study-abroad experience with newcomers and locals reconnects me to my community, says Alison Lippa at Nicolaides Fink.

• Postconviction Law In 2026: A Recalibration, Not A Revolution

  

  As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to issue decisions in several federal postconviction cases in the coming months, the justices appear focused on restoring coherence to a system in which sentencing modification, collateral review and finality increasingly overlap, and success for practitioners will depend on strategic clarity, say attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.

• How A 1947 Tugboat Ruling May Shape Work Product In AI Era

  

  Rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence test work-product principles first articulated in the U.S. Supreme Court’s nearly 80-year-old Hickman v. Taylor decision, as courts and ethics bodies confront whether disclosure of attorneys’ AI prompts and outputs would reveal their thought processes, say Larry Silver and Sasha Burton at Langsam Stevens.

• Opinion

  Faulty Legal Assumptions Obscure Police Self-Defense Law

  

  As illustrated by the public commentary surrounding the shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an immigration agent, lawyers sometimes have mistaken assumptions about the applicability of self-defense when law enforcement officers deploy deadly force, but the governing legal standard is clear, says Markus Funk at White & Case.