Expert Analysis

• How Maine's Expanded Health Deal Reviews Complicate M&A

  

  A pair of recently approved Maine competition laws establish notice and approval requirements for certain healthcare transactions and expand state antitrust oversight, creating new hurdles for dealmakers as states take a more aggressive role in policing healthcare consolidation, especially involving private equity, say attorneys at McDermott.

• Wound Care Industry Should Expect Data-Driven Scrutiny

  

  The U.S. Department of Justice's recent update on its healthcare fraud takedown efforts indicates that the wound care space is under particularly high scrutiny, with the government increasingly utilizing data analytics to find cases, say attorneys at Bass Berry.

• Legal Risks Of Using AI To Screen Psychedelic Trial Patients

  

  Though using artificial intelligence to preemptively identify drug trial participants likely to experience placebo effects could produce clearer research results, sponsors will need to be ready for the new legal questions these methods raise about informed consent, accountability for algorithmically derived criteria, and potential bias in data training sets, says Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell.

• How 6th Circ. Tightened NLRB Injunction Standard

  

  The Sixth Circuit's recent ruling in Kerwin v. Trinity Health Grand Haven Hospital, dissolving a Section 10(j) injunction obtained by the National Labor Relations Board against an employer that refused to bargain, will make it harder for the NLRB to obtain injunctions while prosecuting unfair labor practice proceedings, say attorneys at Bass Berry.

• Series

  Choral Singing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Singing in the New York City Bar Chorus — a hobby partly inspired by the late U.S. District Judge Richard Owen, who infused my clerkship year with opera music — has improved my legal career by refining my abilities to listen, exude confidence and develop emotional intelligence, says Bonnie Baker at Friedman Kaplan.

• Attorney Mental Health Is An Ethical Obligation In The AI Era

  

  As attorneys cope with the increasing unpredictability that artificial intelligence and constant policy changes have created, particularly in practice areas where they carry the emotional weight of clients’ most consequential life events, otherwise soft discussions about self-care are a matter of professional competence, says attorney Jack Jrada.

• Md. Ruling Reflects Classic Administrative Law Principle

  

  A Maryland federal court's recent decision in Columbus v. Kennedy significantly limits how far the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services can go in reshaping the Affordable Care Act through regulation, highlighting a principle that will likely be applied in similar Administrative Procedure Act challenges, says Michael King at Brownstein Hyatt.

• Healthcare Orgs Should Prep For Greater Grant Oversight

  

  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new Audit Enforcement and Risk Oversight initiative, and a proposed overhaul of the governmentwide framework for grants management, signal an aggressive and data-driven approach to federal grant enforcement, and could significantly expand the pathways leading to enforcement actions and private litigation, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

• Key Tips For Patenting Antibody-Drug Conjugate Inventions

  

  Recent decisions highlight the significant challenges that can arise when patenting antibody-drug conjugates, which require strategic considerations for satisfying heightened written description and enablement requirements, says Xiaoban Xin at FisherBroyles.

• $885M IBS Drug Verdict Tests Pay-For-Delay Limits

  

  The outcome in the Amitiza Antitrust Litigation is significant because it is the first jury trial win for private antitrust plaintiffs in a suit challenging a patent settlement reverse payment since the U.S. Supreme Court adopted the rule-of-reason legal framework in 2013, offering a blueprint for pay-for-delay claims, say attorneys at Katten.

• Series

  Power To The Paralegals: Burnout As A Structural Problem

  

  Law firm leadership can best retain their paralegals not by encouraging self-care, but by seeking top-down structural solutions for the quiet proliferation of responsibilities and the vicarious exposure to client trauma that particularly drive burnout in this vital role, says Erika Sneeringer at Brockstedt Mandalas.

• 8 Ways 2026's Market Divide Is Rewriting Real Estate Risk

  

  As construction activity increasingly concentrates in data centers, healthcare and other resilient sectors, real estate developers and their counsel in the second half of 2026 should consider earlier risk allocation and more protective contract terms, and expect greater pressure on labor, pricing and infrastructure, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

• Ill. Law Firm MSO Bill Clashes With Court Power, Ethics Rules

  

  An Illinois bill prohibiting law firms from certain business arrangements with management service organizations, sent to the governor for signature last week, encroaches upon the courts' constitutional powers and goes beyond the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct in regulating investment in law-related services, says Matthew O’Hara at Smith Gambrell.

• 3rd Circ. Decision Sheds Light On BIPA Bank Exemption

  

  The Third Circuit's recent decision in McGoveran v. Amazon illuminates how courts are extending the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act's financial institution carveout beyond banks and insurers to technology vendors and other businesses handling biometric data, a defendant-friendly shift that still casts uncertainty around BIPA's enforcement, say attorneys at Dorsey & Whitney.

• Opinion

  State Courts Must Be Gatekeepers Of Expert Testimony

  

  Based on my experience in the state judiciary, emulating federal courts' role as gatekeepers of expert witness testimony would help state court judges maintain the appearance of impartiality and assist juries, thus enhancing the overall confidence people have in their justice system, says Lorie Gildea at Greenberg Traurig.