Massachusetts

  • December 05, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Unfreeze Trump Cuts To Student Mental Health

    The Ninth Circuit rejected the Trump administration's effort to undo a lower court's pause on federal funding reductions to K-12 mental health services, siding with a coalition of 16 states seeking to preserve programs established in the wake of high-profile school shootings.

  • December 05, 2025

    Energy Dept. Defends $7.5B Grant Cuts In Political Bias Case

    The U.S. Department of Energy has urged a federal judge in Washington not to block its termination of energy project grants worth more than $7.5 billion, arguing there is no merit to claims alleging the federal government unconstitutionally targeted funds for Democratic-leaning states.

  • December 05, 2025

    Court Staff Attys Settle Claims Of Undermining Colleague

    Six months after Massachusetts' highest court revived some of a former Appeals Court staff attorney's claims in a suit alleging two supervisors intentionally undermined him, the parties have reported reaching a settlement in the case.

  • December 05, 2025

    Mass. Justices Muse On Swift, 'FOMO' In Meta Addiction Case

    Massachusetts' highest court appeared divided Friday as it wrestled with whether Meta Platforms Inc. should have to face a suit by the state attorney general claiming that it is illegally getting kids hooked on Instagram.

  • December 05, 2025

    Mass. IOLTA Panel Says It's Owed Slice Of Residual Funds

    A Massachusetts panel that oversees Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts asked the state's highest court Friday to at least partially unwind a $4 million class action settlement, saying a lower court didn't give it a chance to argue for a portion of what it says are "significant" residual funds.

  • December 05, 2025

    Nickel For Your Thoughts? Dems Want Plan For Ending Penny

    Top Democrats on banking and financial services committees are claiming the Trump administration has not formulated a sufficient plan for the transition away from the penny and are asking for a public plan by Dec. 12.

  • December 04, 2025

    Dems Press CFPB's Vought On Mortgage Rate Shutdown Plan

    Senate Democrats are demanding clarity on the fate of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's benchmark mortgage-rate work if the Trump administration lets the agency go dark, warning of imminent potential chaos for the $13 trillion mortgage market.

  • December 04, 2025

    Gov't Watchdog To Probe FHFA Mortgage Fraud Referrals

    The Government Accountability Office will review whether Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte weaponized mortgage fraud investigations against the president's perceived political opponents and flouted the agency's typical investigation process.

  • December 04, 2025

    Mass. Justices Unlikely To Revive Verizon Tower Suit

    Justices on Massachusetts' highest court appeared unlikely to second-guess a local health board's decision to drop an enforcement action against Verizon over perceived health effects from a cell tower after the telecom filed suit.

  • December 04, 2025

    Nixon Peabody Hires Cybersecurity Atty For Boston Office

    Nixon Peabody LLP has added to its cybersecurity and privacy team in Boston with a newly hired attorney from Arnall Golden Gregory LLP, saying she focuses on privacy, governance, risk, compliance and public policy matters.

  • December 04, 2025

    Pharma Cos. Denied Early Win In States' Price-Fixing Suit

    Twenty-six pharmaceutical companies failed to secure a quick win on overarching conspiracy claims in an antitrust case by the attorneys general of Connecticut and most other states, with a federal judge finding the "substantial bulk of evidence" points toward a broad industry scheme to fix 98 dermatology drug prices.

  • December 04, 2025

    Feds Defend Pro-Trump Policy Question On Job Applications

    The Trump administration on Wednesday urged a Massachusetts federal judge not to strike a question for potential federal employees asking how they would advance the president's agenda, saying there's no evidence the question hurts an applicant's chances of getting hired.

  • December 03, 2025

    Boston Celeb Chef Facing Default In City's $1.7M Tax Case

    Celebrity chef Barbara Lynch failed to line up new counsel or respond to an amended complaint the city of Boston brought against her in state court over an unpaid $1.7 million tax bill for her now-shuttered restaurants, the city has argued, asking that she be found in default.

  • December 03, 2025

    WilmerHale Hires BNP Paribas Director In Boston

    An attorney with nearly 30 years of experience counseling clients on financial regulatory matters, including 10 years with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, has moved his practice to WilmerHale's Boston office.

  • December 03, 2025

    Mass. Court Says Plea Deal Inattention May Be Ineffectiveness

    Massachusetts' highest court on Wednesday concluded that a lawyer's failure to seek a plea bargain if asked to do so by a defendant may amount to ineffective assistance of counsel requiring a new trial under certain circumstances.

  • December 03, 2025

    1st Circ. Doubts Ex-BigLaw Atty's Campaign Finance Appeal

    The First Circuit on Wednesday expressed misgivings about a former BigLaw attorney's argument that a jury that convicted him of a campaign finance scheme during a failed run for Congress should have been required to unanimously find that each specific transaction was illegal.

  • December 03, 2025

    Cooley Names Largest Partner Class In 4 Years With 23 Attys

    Cooley LLP will add 23 lawyers to the firm's partnership when the new year starts, up slightly from the number of new partners added last year.

  • December 02, 2025

    States Hit Abbott With FCA Suit Over Infant Formula Recall

    Seven states, including California, Michigan and New York, on Monday intervened in a False Claims Act suit brought by the federal government against Abbott Laboratories over the 2022 infant formula crisis seeking to recoup funds spent on the tainted baby food.

  • December 02, 2025

    Judge Blocks Planned Parenthood Funding Cut In 22 States

    A Massachusetts federal judge Tuesday stopped the Trump administration from halting Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood clinics in 22 states, ruling the funding cutoff likely violated requirements to warn the states ahead of time about the change.

  • December 02, 2025

    Mass. Court Lets MBTA Escape Rider's Fare Gate Injury Suit

    A Massachusetts commuter cannot proceed with her personal injury lawsuit against the state's transportation authority, a state appeals court ruled to end the case, because she sent her notice of injury to the wrong transit officials.

  • December 02, 2025

    Exec To Admit To $1.6M Scheme Involving Taxes, Restitution

    A Massachusetts executive has agreed to plead guilty in a scheme to avoid paying income taxes and restitution in a 2008 securities fraud case by receiving more than $1.6 million in compensation and benefits under the table, federal prosecutors announced.

  • December 02, 2025

    Wells Fargo Beneficiary's Hidden Trust Claims Are Too Late

    Wells Fargo has beaten claims that it intentionally concealed a Massachusetts man's trust fund and drove him to financial instability, after a federal judge found the man didn't take appropriate steps to find his trust decades earlier.

  • December 02, 2025

    Drivers Get Class Cert. In Liberty Mutual Rental Coverage Suit

    A Massachusetts federal judge on Tuesday granted class certification to a group of auto drivers alleging that a Liberty Mutual subsidiary prematurely terminated car rental coverage, but denied the group's request to pursue its claims for classwide, injunctive relief. 

  • December 02, 2025

    Judge Doubts That FEMA Funds Freeze Is Harmless

    A Massachusetts federal judge on Tuesday appeared to push back on assertions by the Trump administration that states are not entitled to a court order vacating what the government says is a temporary freeze of Federal Emergency Management Agency funds intended to pay for disaster-mitigating projects.

  • December 02, 2025

    States' HPE-Juniper Intervention Limited To Settlement

    A California federal court's ruling allowing state enforcers to intervene over a deal to end the Justice Department's challenge of Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks is limited to the court's review of the settlement, according to a new order.

Expert Analysis

  • The Metamorphosis Of The Major Questions Doctrine

    Author Photo

    The so-called major questions doctrine arose as a counterweight to Chevron deference over the past few decades, but invocations of the doctrine have persisted in the year since Chevron was overturned, suggesting it still has a role to play in reining in agency overreach, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Series

    Playing Mah-Jongg Makes Me A Better Mediator

    Author Photo

    Mah-jongg rewards patience, pattern recognition, adaptability and keen observation, all skills that are invaluable to my role as a mediator, and to all mediating parties, says Marina Corodemus.

  • Calif. Air Waivers Fight Fuels Automakers', States' Uncertainty

    Author Photo

    The unprecedented attempt by Congress and the Trump administration to kill the Clean Air Act waivers supporting California's vehicle emissions standards will eventually end up in the U.S. Supreme Court — but meanwhile, vehicle manufacturers, and states following California's standards, are left in limbo, says John Watson at Spencer Fane.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Navigating Client Trauma

    Author Photo

    Law schools don't train students to handle repeated exposure to clients' traumatic experiences, but for litigators practicing in areas like civil rights and personal injury, success depends on the ability to view cases clinically and to recognize when you may need to seek help, says Katie Bennett at Robins Kaplan.

  • Opinion

    4 Former Justices Would Likely Frown On Litigation Funding

    Author Photo

    As courts increasingly confront cases involving hidden litigation finance contracts, the jurisprudence of four former U.S. Supreme Court justices establishes a constitutional framework that risks erosion by undisclosed financial interests, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

  • Quantifying Trading-Based Damages Using Price Impact

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will likely increasingly rely on price impact analyses to demonstrate pecuniary harm from trading-related misconduct, meaning measuring price impact will be helpful in challenging SEC disgorgement, determining appropriate remedies, and assessing loss causation and damages in private litigation, says Vyacheslav Fos at Boston College and Erin Smith at Compass Lexecon.

  • State Law Challenges In Enforcing Arbitration Clauses

    Author Photo

    In recent cases, state courts in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Jersey have considered or endorsed heightened standards for arbitration agreements, which can mean the difference between a bilateral arbitration and a full-blown class action in court, says Fabien Thayamballi at Shapiro Arato.

  • How Attys Can Use AI To Surface Narratives In E-Discovery

    Author Photo

    E-discovery has reached a turning point where document review is no longer just about procedural tasks like identifying relevance and redacting privilege — rather, generative artificial intelligence tools now allow attorneys to draw connections, extract meaning and tell a coherent story, says Rose Jones at Hilgers Graben.

  • Series

    Playing The Violin Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Playing violin in a string quartet reminds me that flexibility, ambition, strong listening skills, thoughtful leadership and intentional collaboration are all keys to a successful legal practice, says Julie Park at MoFo.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Self-Care

    Author Photo

    Law schools don’t teach the mental, physical and emotional health maintenance tools necessary to deal with the profession's many demands, but practicing self-care is an important key to success that can help to improve focus, manage stress and reduce burnout, says Rachel Leonard​​​​​​​ at MG+M.

  • Birthright Opinions Reveal Views On Rule 23(b)(2) Relief

    Author Photo

    The justices' multiple opinions in the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 27 decision in the birthright citizenship case, Trump v. CASA, shed light on whether Rule 23(b)(2) could fill the void created by the court's decision to restrict nationwide injunctions, says Benjamin Johns at Shub Johns.

  • ABA Opinion Makes It A Bit Easier To Drop A 'Hot Potato'

    Author Photo

    The American Bar Association's recent ethics opinion clarifies when attorneys may terminate clients without good cause, though courts may still disqualify a lawyer who drops a client like a hot potato, so sending a closeout letter is always a best practice, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • Series

    My Opera And Baseball Careers Make Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Though participating in opera and the world of professional baseball often pulls me away from the office, my avocations improve my legal career by helping me perform under scrutiny, prioritize team success, and maintain joy and perspective at work, says Adam Unger at Herrick Feinstein.

  • 8 Ways Lawyers Can Protect The Rule Of Law In Their Work

    Author Photo

    Whether they are concerned with judicial independence, regulatory predictability or client confidence, lawyers can take specific meaningful actions on their own when traditional structures are too slow or too compromised to respond, says Angeli Patel at the Berkeley Center of Law and Business.

  • Despite Dark Clouds, Outlook For US Solar Has Bright Spots

    Author Photo

    While tariff, tax policy and bankruptcy news seemingly portends unending challenges for the U.S. solar energy industry, signs of continued growth in solar generating capacity and domestic solar manufacturing suggest that there is a path forward, say attorneys at Beveridge & Diamond.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Massachusetts archive.