Massachusetts

  • November 05, 2025

    1st Circ. Questions Trump Admin. On NIH Indirect Cost Cuts

    A First Circuit panel seemed poised on Wednesday to uphold a district court decision finding that the Trump administration lacks the authority to cap indirect costs for research grants at the National Institutes of Health. 

  • November 05, 2025

    AGs Defend Bid To Intervene In DOJ's HPE Merger Deal

    More than a dozen Democratic attorneys general have assailed the Justice Department and Hewlett Packard Enterprise for fighting their bid to peek behind the controversial settlement clearing HPE's $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks, telling a California federal judge that Congress created court oversight for deals just like this.  

  • November 05, 2025

    Everclear Maker Wants Plaintiff's Atty Gagged For Harassment

    Everclear's manufacturer has asked a Massachusetts federal judge to order an attorney representing an international exchange student claiming to have suffered third-degree burns fueled by the high-proof spirit to stop sending harassing emails and otherwise trying to upend the trial through public disclosures made in social media posts.

  • November 05, 2025

    Judge Lets Ex-MIT Lab Head's Defamation Case Move To Trial

    A former research lab director at the MIT-affiliated Whitehead Institute may pursue defamation and tortious interference claims against a former subordinate and romantic partner who accused him of sexual harassment, a Massachusetts state court judge said in a decision released on Wednesday.

  • November 05, 2025

    Ex-Mashpee Tribal Leader Gets 3.5 Years For Casino Bribes

    The former chair of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe on Wednesday was sentenced to a 42-month prison term for orchestrating a bribery scheme tied to the tribe's $1 billion casino project, as a Massachusetts federal judge chastised him for characterizing his yearslong conduct as "mistakes."

  • November 05, 2025

    Philip Morris Damages Guardrail Bid Meets Skeptical Justices

    Massachusetts' top court appeared unreceptive Wednesday to arguments made by Philip Morris USA Inc. that a since-reduced $1 billion verdict issued by a state court jury means more guidelines are needed to curtail massive awards.

  • November 05, 2025

    Mass. Justices Consider Raises To Address Counsel Shortage

    Justices on Massachusetts' highest court grappled at a hearing Wednesday with its ability to address an ongoing shortage of attorneys willing to represent indigent defendants, after lawyers in two of the state's busiest counties stopped taking cases in May in protest over the low pay compared with other states.

  • November 04, 2025

    Jury Told $25M Crypto Win Was Fraud, MIT Bros Call It Legit

    Manhattan federal prosecutors on Tuesday told jurors that two MIT-educated brothers pulled off a meticulously planned $25 million crypto heist by ripping off other traders they didn't like, while defense counsel argued that the government is trying to take a legitimate "sharp-edged" trading strategy and turn it into a crime.

  • November 04, 2025

    Philip Morris, RJR Owe For Woman's Lung Cancer, Jury Told

    The family of an Italian immigrant who died of lung cancer after smoking for decades went to trial Tuesday against Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, telling a Massachusetts state jury that her experience was "not unique" from millions of others who have trodden the same path of addiction.

  • November 04, 2025

    LastPass Reports Settlement With Data Breach Class

    Password manager app LastPass told a Massachusetts federal judge Tuesday that it has reached an agreement in principle to settle a consolidated class action over its 2022 data breach.

  • November 04, 2025

    Mass. Attys Split As Punitive Damages Rules Go To Top Court

    A case before Massachusetts' top appellate court over whether more safeguards are needed to cap runaway punitive damage awards has divided attorneys, with some saying the big-dollar verdicts can be skewed by improper evidence and others calling the matter a solution in search of a problem.

  • November 04, 2025

    Industry, Enviros Oppose EPA Plan To Ditch GHG Reporting

    Industry and environmental groups alike are pushing back against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to repeal a program that requires power plants, fossil fuel and natural gas suppliers, and other facilities to report their greenhouse gas emissions.

  • November 04, 2025

    DC Circ. Backs DOE's Tougher Furnace Efficiency Rules

    The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday upheld the U.S. Department of Energy's tighter energy efficiency standards for furnaces and water heaters, rejecting arguments from gas utility and industry groups that the rules unlawfully force an expensive switch to new appliances.

  • November 04, 2025

    Confirmation Ends Dem-Appointed Judges' Lock On 1st Circ.

    The Senate voted 52-46 on Tuesday to confirm Joshua D. Dunlap, a partner at Pierce Atwood LLP, to the First Circuit.

  • November 04, 2025

    2 Facing Charges In Harvard Medical School Explosion

    Two college-age men from southeastern Massachusetts were arrested Tuesday on charges that they used a commercial-grade firework to set off an explosion inside a Harvard Medical School lab early Saturday morning, the U.S. attorney's office announced.

  • November 04, 2025

    BU Law Will Start Offering AI Certificate In Fall 2026

    Boston University School of Law will begin offering a certificate in artificial intelligence for law practice in fall 2026 to prepare students for using the technology in their legal careers.

  • November 04, 2025

    Mass. Developer, Wife Sue Hotel Over Fall At Award Gala

    A prominent Massachusetts real estate developer and his wife have filed a negligence lawsuit against Boston's Seaport Hotel, claiming she was seriously injured when she fell onto a partially obscured staircase during an event.

  • November 03, 2025

    MIT Bros Rest, Expert Says $25M Crypto Score Was Aboveboard

    Two MIT-educated brothers accused of using an unlawful crypto trading strategy to steal $25 million from other traders on Monday rested their case without taking the stand, after a defense expert witness said they didn't violate any rules of the Ethereum blockchain.

  • November 03, 2025

    Justices Urged To Rethink Baseball's Antitrust Shield, Again

    Three baseball players have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rehear their petition to stop major league organizations from restricting their salaries, noting another similar pending petition and saying the issue will persist until the justices undo baseball's exemption from antitrust laws.

  • November 03, 2025

    Mass. Justices Hint Charter Schools Must Obey Records Law

    Justices on Massachusetts' highest court on Monday appeared skeptical of arguments that a publicly funded charter school, unlike its city- and town-operated counterparts, is not subject to the state's public records law.

  • November 03, 2025

    Fla. Pain Doc Was 'Pawn' In Kickback Scheme, 11th Circ. Told

    A Florida pain management doctor on Monday urged the Eleventh Circuit to reverse his conviction in a conspiracy to accept kickbacks for prescribing a liquid fentanyl drug, arguing that he was merely a "pawn" in the scheme.

  • November 03, 2025

    Cannabis Cos. Allege Hinckley Allen Malpractice Cost $25M

    A group of cannabis companies have claimed that Hinckley Allen & Snyder LLP's alleged malpractice stemming from the purported decision to prioritize the personal interests of a manager in a 2017 investor suit ended up costing them over $25 million in damages.

  • November 03, 2025

    Black Man Granted New Trial In Mass. Over Lawyer's Bias

    A Black man who pled guilty to firearms offenses in 2018 after consulting with his lawyer — who was found to have made racist social media posts — is entitled to a new trial, Massachusetts' intermediate-level appeals court said Monday, unanimously reversing a lower court's decision.

  • November 03, 2025

    New Loan Forgiveness Rule Targets Trump Critics, States Say

    Two lawsuits filed Monday, one by a coalition of states and the other by a group of cities, unions and advocacy organizations, are challenging a new Trump administration rule imposing "intentionally vague" and allegedly illegal restrictions on student loan forgiveness for public employees intended to stifle dissent.

  • November 03, 2025

    Removal Dooms Brown Univ. Prof's Habeas Bid, Judge Rules

    A Lebanese professor at Brown University has seen her challenge to a five-year ban on reentering the United States dismissed as a Massachusetts federal judge ruled that her deportation leaves the court without any jurisdiction.

Expert Analysis

  • AI Litigation Tools Can Enhance Case Assessment, Strategy

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    Civil litigators can use artificial intelligence tools to strengthen case assessment and aid in early strategy development, as long as they address the risks and ethical considerations that accompany these uses, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Attys Beware: Generative AI Can Also Hallucinate Metadata

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    In addition to the well-known problem of AI-generated hallucinations in legal documents, AI tools can also hallucinate metadata — threatening the integrity of discovery, the reliability of evidence and the ability to definitively identify the provenance of electronic documents, say attorneys at Law & Forensics.

  • How 9th Circ. Ruling Deepens SEC Disgorgement Circuit Split

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Sripetch creates opposing disgorgement rules in the two circuits where the SEC brings a large proportion of enforcement actions — the Second and Ninth — and increases the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court will step in, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • When Atty Ethics Violations Give Rise To Causes Of Action

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    Though the Model Rules of Professional Conduct make clear that a violation of the rules does not automatically create a cause of action, attorneys should beware of a few scenarios in which they could face lawsuits for ethical lapses, says Brian Faughnan at Faughnan Law.

  • 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.

  • Federal Grantees May Soon Face More Limitations On Speech

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    If courts accept the administration’s new interpretation of preexisting case law, which attempts to graft onto grant recipients the existing limitations on government contractors' free speech, a more deferential standard may soon apply in determining whether an agency’s refusal or termination of a grant was in violation of the First Amendment, say attorneys at Venable.

  • What To Know About Interim Licenses In Global FRAND Cases

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    Recent U.K. court decisions have shaped a framework for interim licenses in global standard-essential patent disputes, under which parties can benefit from operating on temporary terms while a court determines the final fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms — but the future of this developing remedy is in doubt, say attorneys at Fish & Richardson.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • New Mass. 'Junk Fee' Regs Will Be Felt Across Industries

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    The reach of a newly effective regulation prohibiting so-called junk fees and deceptive pricing in Massachusetts will be widespread across industries, which should prompt businesses to take note of new advertising, pricing information and negative option requirements, say attorneys at Hinshaw.

  • 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.

  • State Paid Leave Laws Are Changing Employer Obligations

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    A wave of new and expanded state laws covering paid family, medical and sick leave will test multistate compliance systems, marking a fundamental operational shift for employers that requires proactive planning, system modernization and policy alignment to manage simultaneous state and federal obligations, says Madjeen Garcon-Bonneau at PrestigePEO.

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