Business of Law

April 15, 2024
Justice Thomas Misses Monday's Supreme Court Arguments

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was absent Monday for oral arguments examining disputes over whether accepting illegal gratuities without a quid pro quo is prohibited under a federal bribery statute and what test courts should apply when determining whether malicious prosecution claims can proceed.
April 15, 2024
Stressed About The Trump Trial? Imagine How The Attys Feel

A trial-of-the-century moment like Donald Trump's New York criminal case heaps singular attention and pressure on the lawyers involved — and a commensurate need for smart stress relief tactics during months of prep, lawyers who have taken on landmark cases say.
April 15, 2024
Trump Accused Of Witness Threats As Jury Selection Begins

The Manhattan district attorney's office on Monday asked the judge overseeing Donald Trump's hush money trial to find Trump in contempt for flouting the court's gag order barring witness intimidation, on day one of jury selection in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.
April 12, 2024
In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.
April 12, 2024
Trump Can't Derail Hush Money Trial Over Media Saturation

A New York judge overseeing Donald Trump's hush money case on Friday rejected another of the former president's bids to derail trial next week, waving off his complaints that prejudicial media coverage has tainted the jury pool.
April 12, 2024
'Much More Is Coming': Experts See Wave Of AI-Related Suits

Legal experts speaking Friday at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law's symposium on artificial intelligence and evidence in civil litigation warned that broadening usage and increased regulation will lead to a wave of litigation over the technology, leaving courts to analyze the "black box" of corporate AI algorithms to determine liability.
April 12, 2024
Fed. Circ.'s Fight With Newman: A Year In Review

One year has passed since it came to light that the Federal Circuit's judges were investigating whether their colleague, U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, was mentally competent to remain on the court. In that time, Judge Newman has garnered support from many in the patent community, but has faced a series of setbacks in her legal challenges.
April 12, 2024
Fed. Circ.'s Competency Feud With Newman Turned Personal

A year after the Federal Circuit publicly acknowledged its investigation into U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's mental and physical competency, the nonagenarian still refuses to follow the court's medical testing orders and remains determined to reclaim her seat on the bench.
April 12, 2024
Berry Appleman Faces Disability Bias Suit By Ex-Tech Lead

Global immigration law firm Berry Appleman & Leiden is facing a disability discrimination suit filed Friday in Texas federal court by its former software tech lead, who says the firm set him up to fail when he sought reasonable accommodations for a coding project due to side effects from his medication.
April 12, 2024
Judge Pauline Newman's Year In Her Own Words

April 14 marks the one-year anniversary of when the Federal Circuit confirmed an unprecedented investigation into whether U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman was mentally and physically competent to remain on its bench, and the judge has not been allowed to hear cases during that time. Here is what she had to say about the investigation in an interview with Law360.
April 12, 2024
Trump Trial's Anonymous Jury Signals Sacrifice Of Service

As jury selection begins Monday in the criminal trial of former president Donald Trump, the panel's identities will remain shielded from the public and the media. So-called anonymous juries are relatively new and rare, but they're being used more and more for high-profile cases in an age of doxxing and political polarization.
April 12, 2024
Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after an Illinois federal jury found that Amazon owes $525 million in damages for infringing three patents covering cloud data storage technology.
April 12, 2024
Panama Papers Attys Deny Money Laundering At Trial

Two attorneys who ran the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama, at the center of a 2016 leak that produced multiple convictions for tax evasion, pled not guilty with 27 others to money-laundering charges as a trial began in Panama, according to prosecutors.
April 12, 2024
NY Court System Launches Panel To Study AI Risks, Rewards

New York's state court system has announced a new statewide advisory panel to study how the potential implementation of artificial intelligence could improve justice in the Empire State, as well as ways to avoid ethical risks posed by the new technology.
April 12, 2024
DC Circ. Upholds Jan. 6 Rioter's 52-Month Sentence

The DC Circuit on Friday affirmed a judgment and 52-month sentence against a Texas militia leader who pled guilty to assaulting a law enforcement officer during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, saying the judge had acted within his discretion in applying certain enhancements.
April 12, 2024
The Week In Trump: Catch Up On The Ex-President's Cases

Donald Trump and his legal team proved that they are nothing if not persistent as they repeatedly tried — and failed — to hit the brakes on the former president's porn star hush money trial in Manhattan.
April 12, 2024
GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

Key congressional leaders announced a surprising deal on a national data privacy framework, and a Republican congressman said he plans to ask the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to push back the compliance timeline for controversial rules governing corporate climate disclosures. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.
April 12, 2024
Kevin Carey, Bankruptcy Bench 'Legend,' Dies At 69

Former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey, who served on the Delaware bench for 14 years and was hailed as a "legend in the bankruptcy world," died Thursday at the age of 69.
April 12, 2024
Trump Voir Dire Aims To Keep Ballot Box Out Of The Jury Box

As jury selection begins Monday in the first-ever criminal trial against a former president, experts say both the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and lawyers for Donald Trump will rely on voir dire questioning and social media sleuthing to keep out jurors who'd use their civic duty to "have a stronger vote in the next presidential election."
April 11, 2024
Orrick To Pay $8M To Settle Data Breach Litigation

A proposed class of data-breach victims asked a California federal judge Thursday to greenlight an $8 million settlement with Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in litigation over a March 2023 data breach that purportedly exposed Social Security numbers and other personal information of more than 638,000 individuals.
April 11, 2024
Leonard Leo Rebuffs Senate Judiciary Committee Subpoena

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, served influential conservative and longtime Federalist Society executive Leonard Leo with a subpoena on Thursday as part of his U.S. Supreme Court ethics probe, which Leo is refusing to comply with.
April 11, 2024
Jewish Attys Sue Union Over Dues After Pro-Palestine Stance

A public defenders union violated the First Amendment by forcing two Jewish attorneys who oppose its pro-Palestine rhetoric to continue paying dues, the New York City-based attorneys claimed in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday, naming the city and their employer as defendants as well.
April 11, 2024
Tax Controversy Quintet Joins Bradley Arant In Atlanta

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP announced that it hired a five-person tax controversy team from Chamberlain Hrdlicka White Williams & Aughtry highlighted by the addition of three experienced partners, including two former Internal Revenue Service trial attorneys.
April 11, 2024
Calif., NY And SD Judicial Nominees Advance To Full Senate

Four judicial nominees were voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, including one scrutinized for his affiliation with the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and the group's position on hot button issues.
April 11, 2024
OJ Simpson's Jury Was Sequestered. Why Not Trump's?

Unlike jurors in the murder case of O.J. Simpson, the 12 Manhattanites picked to hear criminal charges against Donald Trump likely won't be sequestered during the trial — easing psychological and financial burdens but potentially exposing them to outside pressures.

Expert Analysis

Atty-Client Privilege Arguments Give Justices A Moving Target

Recent oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case regarding the scope of the attorney-client privilege appeared to raise more questions about multipurpose counsel communications than they answered, as the parties presented shifting iterations of a predictable, easily applied test for evaluating the communications' purpose, say Trey Bourn and Thomas DiStanislao at Butler Snow.
5 Gen X Characteristics That Can Boost Legal Leadership

As Generation X attorneys rise to fill top roles in law firms and corporations left by retiring baby boomers, they should embrace generational characteristics that will allow them to become better legal leaders, says Meredith Kahan at Whiteford Taylor.
6 Questions For Boutique Firms Considering Mergers

To prepare for discussions with potential merger partners, boutique law firms should first consider the challenges they hope to address with a merger and the qualities they prioritize in possible partner firms, say Howard Cohl and Ron Nye at Major Lindsey.
5 Tips For Adding Value To Legal Clients' Experience In 2023

Faced with a potential economic downturn this year, attorneys should look to strengthen client relationships now by focusing on key ways to improve the client experience, starting with a check-in call to discuss client needs and priorities for the coming year, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
6 Ways To Avoid Compounding Errors When Practicing Law

For lawyers and law firms, inevitable human error can lead to claims of malpractice or ethical violations, but the key is to avoid exacerbating mistakes by adding communication failures, conflicts of interest or insurance coverage losses, says Mark Hinderks at Stinson.
What Will Keep Legal Talent Professionals Up At Night In 2023

Hybrid work environments, high demand for lateral hires and a potential slowdown of the economy defined 2022 in the always-busy marketplace for legal talent, and as BigLaw looks at the year ahead, there are five major sources of concern for the teams charged with securing and retaining that talent, say advisers at Baretz+Brunelle.
The Most-Read Legal Industry Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

A range of legal industry topics drew readers' attention in Law360's Expert Analysis section this year, from the "great resignation" to potential expansion of attorney-client privilege.
Remote Work: The Top Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

In 2022, Law360 Expert Analysis writers examined how remote and hybrid work is affecting the legal industry and many areas of law, including employment, cybersecurity, patent venue, immigration and tax.
The Most-Read IP Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

IP Law360 guest experts dug into sanctions on Russia, Elizabeth Holmes' trade secret defense, and other key topics including non-fungible tokens, patent examiner classification and inventor testimony in a busy 2022.
Artificial Intelligence: The Top Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

This has been a hugely transformative year for artificial intelligence, with rapid advancements in AI capabilities raising a variety of novel legal questions that Law360 Expert Analysis writers explored, including copyright conundrums, murky legal rights and the troubling possibility of deepfake evidence.
Perspectives

The Most-Read Access To Justice Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

Law360 guest experts weighed in on a broad slate of emerging access to justice issues last year, ranging from evidence of ineffective counsel to opportunities for nonlawyers to provide legal help and the presumption of innocence.
ESG: The Top Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

This year, as many companies embraced environmental, social and corporate governance strategies, Law360 Expert Analysis discussions revolved around increasing scrutiny from investors, regulators and state attorneys general, and the influx of anti-ESG bills and litigation.
The Metaverse: The Top Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

As the metaverse became a popular destination to explore new business opportunities this year, it raised regulatory questions, with Law360 guest experts discussing risk assessments and compliance procedures across various industries, and NFT issues related to intellectual property, privacy and securities law.
The Most-Read Employment Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

This year, issues related to noncompetes, no-poach enforcement and abortion access were among the most popular employment law topics in Law360's Expert Analysis section.
Trial Tips: The Top Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

Law360 guest experts offered commentary on the high-profile trials of 2022 and highlighted best practices for attorneys, such as key principles for sound closing arguments that win over jurors, strategies to help witnesses stay focused, and how to recognize the most common cognitive distortions that can cripple witnesses' testimony.