Criminal Practice

  • August 24, 2026

    Dems Seek GAO Review Of Federal Agencies Hacking Americans

    U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, ranking member of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement, have requested that the Government Accountability Office conduct a comprehensive review of federal law enforcement agencies' hacking of Americans' electronic devices.

  • August 24, 2026

    Feds Seek Early End To Commodities Firm Bribery Case DPA

    Federal prosecutors have moved to release a Connecticut-based commodities firm from a deferred prosecution agreement nearly four months early, telling a judge Monday that Freepoint Commodities LLC has satisfied its obligations and paid more than $106 million to resolve allegations that it bribed Brazilian government officials.

  • August 21, 2026

    Vandy Law Grad Can Keep Hidden-Evidence Suit Against Attys

    A Connecticut federal judge ruled Friday that a Vanderbilt Law School graduate can continue a suit against the town of Westport and two attorneys who defended him in a criminal case when he was a teen and, he claims, helped cover up critical information — causing him to be incarcerated.

  • August 21, 2026

    Ex-Abercrombie CEO Fit For Sex-Trafficking Trial

    A Brooklyn federal judge found Friday that former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries is mentally fit to stand trial for sex trafficking after a four-month rehabilitation committal.

  • August 21, 2026

    Divided 2nd Circ. Backs DQ Of Acting NDNY US Attorney

    The Second Circuit on Friday upheld a lower court's decision that found the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, John Sarcone III, was unlawfully serving in his position when he obtained grand jury subpoenas of the New York attorney general's office.

  • August 21, 2026

    Colo. Appeals Panel Clarifies Destruction Of Wildlife Statute

    A Colorado Court of Appeals panel Thursday provided clarification on the state's willful destruction of wildlife statute, finding that a hunter who abandoned an animal carcass after collecting only its trophy parts without intending to return violated the law even if they returned at a later date.

  • August 21, 2026

    Calif. Panel Creates Exception To Successive Prosecution Ban

    A California state appeals court panel has upheld the convictions of a man who illegally bought large-capacity magazines, creating a new exception to a rule barring successive prosecutions for multiple related crimes that have already resulted in judgments.

  • August 21, 2026

    Ex-CIA Analyst Loses Bid To Bar FBI Interview In FARA Case

    A former CIA analyst accused of aiding the South Korean government without proper registration can't suppress statements she made to FBI agents in a series of interviews that lasted more than six hours, a New York federal judge has ruled.

  • August 21, 2026

    Balancing The Scales: Diminished Capacity, Sentencing Rules

    The Michigan Supreme Court has overturned 25 years of state precedent by reviving the diminished capacity defense, and the justices in Pennsylvania said the Legislature is out of time to craft new sentencing guidelines for second-degree murder. Here, Law360 highlights access to justice stories arising from litigation, verdicts and judgments you may have missed.

  • August 21, 2026

    Hall Booth Fights Malpractice Discovery Amid Appeal

    Hall Booth Smith PC and two of its attorneys on Friday asked the North Carolina appeals court to pause a legal malpractice suit against it from the court-appointed receiver for two wrongfully convicted brothers awarded millions in an underlying suit, arguing their appeal challenging jurisdiction should be handled first.

  • August 21, 2026

    Ex-Tenn. AUSA Charged With Federal-Official Murder Threats

    A former Tennessee assistant U.S. attorney was indicted on 12 counts of threatening to murder law enforcement officers and members of their immediate family, according to federal prosecutors.

  • August 24, 2026

    CORRECTED: 3rd Circ. Rules Jury Instruction Didn't Trigger New Trial

    In a precedential ruling Friday, the Third Circuit reversed an order granting a man a new trial on drug charges, ruling that while the trial judge should not have told a deadlocked jury that jurors "have to" come up with a verdict, which eventually resulted in the defendant being found guilty, the instruction wasn't "unduly coercive." 

  • August 21, 2026

    Trump Says Pardon Atty Ed Martin Leaving For Midterms

    U.S. pardon attorney Ed Martin will be leaving the administration to work on the midterm elections, President Donald Trump announced on Friday.

  • August 21, 2026

    DNA Can Prove Your Innocence — If They Let You Test It

    Since the mid-1980s, DNA testing has exonerated hundreds of wrongfully convicted people and reshaped the criminal justice system. Rodney Reed's decadeslong unsuccessful effort to test the belt prosecutors say he used to kill a woman, however, shows how difficult access to post-conviction DNA testing can be, even for prisoners with credible innocence claims.

  • August 21, 2026

    Fla. Panel Cuts Juvie Sentence Over Double Jeopardy Finding

    A Florida appeals court has ruled that a juvenile must have one of her two resisting arrest charges dropped and be resentenced accordingly, finding that double jeopardy rules bar the second charge because they both stemmed from the same incident.

  • August 21, 2026

    8th Circ. Won't Revisit Cannabis User's Gun Conviction

    The Eighth Circuit on Thursday declined to revisit its decision to preserve a man's conviction for possessing a firearm while being a user of cannabis.

  • August 21, 2026

    Gov't To Take 9th Circ.'s Bar Of Nev. US Atty To High Court

    The U.S. government asked the Ninth Circuit to stay its ruling disqualifying Nevada's top prosecutor from assuming that role without Senate confirmation, saying it plans to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • August 21, 2026

    Judge's Job Bid Sinks Conn. Atty's Homicide Conviction

    Former Cramer & Anderson LLP partner Robert L. Fisher Jr. is entitled to a new manslaughter trial because the presiding judge at his original trial "created an appearance of a lack of impartiality" when he did not disclose to the parties that he had applied for an oversight job with the state prosecutor's office, an appeals court ruled Friday.

  • August 20, 2026

    10th Circ. Backs Immunity In Shooting Of Man Aiming At K-9

    The Tenth Circuit has upheld a grant of qualified immunity to four Colorado police officers who fatally shot a man after he drew a gun on a police dog during an armed standoff, saying a lawsuit filed by his estate failed to show officers clearly violated his constitutional rights.

  • August 20, 2026

    Colo. Panel OKs Suspect's DNA Collection From Trash

    A divided Colorado state appeals court panel Thursday ruled that investigators did not need a warrant to collect a cold-case murder suspect's DNA from garbage he left in a publicly shared dumpster, saying abandoned property is not subject to privacy protections.

  • August 20, 2026

    Mich. Appeals Court Bars Hearing Testimony At Murder Retrial

    A Michigan state appeals court has ruled that testimony provided by witnesses at a hearing where a defendant argued he had ineffective counsel at his murder trial cannot be used in an upcoming new trial, even though the hearing witnesses are not available to testify again.

  • August 20, 2026

    Ex-Michigan Judge To Lead Macomb Conviction Integrity Unit

    Former Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Mary Chrzanowski will step into a new role as the chief of the Macomb County Prosecutor's Conviction Integrity Unit at the end of the month, the county prosecutor's office said Thursday.

  • August 20, 2026

    Staffing Co. Owner Charged In $7M Employment Tax Scheme

    A Philadelphia business owner was charged Thursday with filing false tax returns and failing to pay $7 million in payroll taxes owed to the IRS from his staffing agency, which federal prosecutors say provided companies with workers who were ineligible for employment in the U.S.

  • August 20, 2026

    Ethics Complaints Barred In Mass. Sheriff's Pot Extortion Trial

    The government cannot use records of past state ethics commission complaints against a Massachusetts sheriff in an extortion trial set to get underway next week, a federal judge said Thursday.

  • August 20, 2026

    Man Accused Of Threatening Judge In Mass Shooting Case

    A Texas man is accused of threatening the state judge and district attorney in a Georgia school shooting case, as well as a federal judge in Alabama, according to an announcement from federal prosecutors.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Practicing Stoicism Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Practicing Stoicism, by applying reason to ignore my emotions and govern my decisions, has enabled me to approach challenging situations in a structured way, ultimately providing advice singularly devoted to a client's interest, says John Baranello at Moses & Singer.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Texas, One Year In

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    A year after the Texas Business Court's first decision, it's clear that Texas didn't just copy Delaware and instead built something uniquely its own, combining specialization with constitutional accountability and creating a model that looks forward without losing touch with the state's democratic and statutory roots, says Chris Bankler at Jackson Walker.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Educating Your Community

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    Nearly two decades prosecuting scammers and elder fraud taught me that proactively educating the public about the risks they face and the rights they possess is essential to building trust within our communities, empowering otherwise vulnerable citizens and preventing wrongdoers from gaining a foothold, says Roger Handberg at GrayRobinson.

  • 5 Crisis Lawyering Skills For An Age Of Uncertainty

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    As attorneys increasingly face unprecedented and pervasive situations — from prosecutions of law enforcement officials to executive orders targeting law firms — they must develop several essential competencies of effective crisis lawyering, says Ray Brescia at Albany Law School.

  • Opinion

    It's Time For The Judiciary To Fix Its Cybersecurity Problem

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    After recent reports that hackers have once again infiltrated federal courts’ electronic case management systems, the judiciary should strengthen its cybersecurity practices in line with executive branch standards, outlining clear roles and responsibilities for execution, says Ilona Cohen at HackerOne.

  • Identifying The Sources And Impacts Of Juror Contamination

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    Jury contamination can be pervasive, so it is important that trial teams be able to spot its sources and take specific mitigation steps, says consultant Clint Townson.

  • Key NY State Grand Jury Rules Can Shape Defense Strategy

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    As illustrated by recent cases, New York state's grand jury rules are more favorable than their federal counterparts, offering a genuine opportunity in some cases for a white collar criminal defendant to defeat or meaningfully reduce charges that a prosecutor seeks to bring, says Ethan Greenberg at Anderson Kill.

  • Series

    Writing Novels Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Writing my debut novel taught me to appreciate the value of critique and to never give up, no matter how long or tedious the journey, providing me with valuable skills that I now emphasize in my practice, says Daniel Buzzetta at BakerHostetler.

  • SDNY OpenAI Order Clarifies Preservation Standards For AI

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    The Southern District of New York’s recent order in the OpenAI copyright infringement litigation, denying discovery of The New York Times' artificial intelligence technology use, clarifies that traditional preservation benchmarks apply to AI content, relieving organizations from using a “keep everything” approach, says Philip Favro at Favro Law.

  • 4 Strategies To Ensure Courts Calculate Restitution Correctly

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    Recent reversals of restitution orders across the federal appeals courts indicate that some lower courts are misapplying fundamental restitution principles, so defense attorneys should consider a few ways to vigilantly press these issues with the sentencing judge, says Wesley Gorman at Comber Miller.

  • In NY, Long COVID (Tolling) Still Applies

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    A series of pandemic-era executive orders in New York tolling state statutes of limitations for 228 days mean that many causes of action that appear time-barred on their face may continue to apply, including in federal practice, for the foreseeable future, say attorneys at Sher Tremonte.

  • Opinion

    High Court, Not A Single Justice, Should Decide On Recusal

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    As public trust in the U.S. Supreme Court continues to decline, the court should adopt a collegial framework in which all justices decide questions of recusal together — a reform that respects both judicial independence and due process for litigants, say Michael Broyde at Emory University and Hayden Hall at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

  • Reel Justice: 'One Battle After Another' And The Limits Of Zeal

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    The political thriller “One Battle After Another,” following a former revolutionary who became a recluse, offers a potent metaphor for attorneys on diligence and the ethical boundaries of zealous advocacy, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University School of Law.

  • Series

    Traveling Solo Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Traveling by myself has taught me to assess risk, understand tone and stay calm in high-pressure situations, which are not only useful life skills, but the foundation of how I support my clients, says Lacey Gutierrez at Group Five Legal.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Client Service

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    Law school teaches you how to interpret the law, but it doesn't teach you some of the key ways to keeping clients satisfied, lessons that I've learned in the most unexpected of places: a book on how to be a butler, says Gregory Ramos at Armstrong Teasdale.

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