Analysis

4 Legal Ethics Matters That Rocked 2025

By Emily Sawicki

This year, judges across the country grappled with attorneys' use and misuse of generative artificial intelligence, and prominent federal prosecutor battles dominated headlines in some of the top legal ethics matters of 2025.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Citgo Fights To Ax SF's Climate Claims Before Calif. Panel

By Dorothy Atkins

Citgo urged a California appellate panel Monday to reverse their tentative finding that Golden State courts have personal jurisdiction over certain climate deception claims against oil and gas giants, arguing that local governments' public nuisance allegations are based on "a completely different set of facts" that occurred beyond California's borders.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Mercedes Inks $150M Deal In Emissions Cheating Claims

By Brian Steele

Mercedes-Benz USA LLC and Mercedes-Benz Group AG have reached a nearly $150 million national settlement with state attorneys general amid allegations that they sold and leased vehicles equipped with devices capable of defeating emissions tests.

Settlement attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Anthropic, Google, Meta Face More Writer Copyright Claims

By Hailey Konnath

A group of writers, including Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Carreyrou, on Monday lobbed yet another copyright infringement suit at tech companies Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta, xAI and Perplexity, criticizing Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement in a similar class action as seeming to serve the companies, not creators.

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Calif. Atty Slams 'Protectionist' ABS Fee-Sharing Ban

By Emily Sawicki

A California attorney has pushed back on opposition from California's attorney general and the state's bar association amid his efforts to block enforcement of a ban on fee sharing with out-of-state law firms owned by nonattorneys, arguing the new state law is a "protectionist act, in defiance of the constitution."

Brief attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

NY's James, 21 Other Dem AGs Say CFPB Defunding Unlawful

By Craig Clough

New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of nearly two dozen Democratic attorneys general in claiming the Trump administration's effort to defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is illegal, telling an Oregon federal court Monday the municipalities are statutorily entitled to the CFPB's resources

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ed Dept. Ordered To Restore $1B In Mental Health Grants

By Chris Villani

The U.S. Department of Education will not be allowed to cut more than $1 billion in mental health grants for schools after a Washington federal judge ruled that the agency acted illegally by citing new, undisclosed Trump administration priorities as a basis for slashing the funding.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

LawFirms.com Beats LegalForce's TM Suit After Bench Trial

By Ivan Moreno

A California judge has concluded that a company that operates LawFirms.com did not infringe a law firm's trademarks for LegalForce, saying that during a four-day bench trial in October the court found "no one was actually confused or misled."

2 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Apple Seeks To Overturn $634M Masimo Patent Verdict

By Craig Clough

Apple has urged a California federal judge to grant its combined motion for judgment or a new trial for its $634 million trial loss over a Masimo patient monitor patent, arguing that no reasonable jury could have reached the verdict and that the tech giant was "severely prejudiced" by erroneous court rulings.

Motion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Adeia Resolves Disney Patent Claims With Long-Term License

By Elliot Weld

Adeia Technologies Inc. said Monday that it had reached a long-term intellectual property license agreement with Disney that will resolve patent claims it brought against the entertainment giant.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Accent Translation Patent Claims Remain In Trade Secret Spat

By Ivan Moreno

A California federal judge has rejected a tech company's bid to dismiss patent claims from a competitor's trade secret lawsuit over accent translation technology, saying the motion was improper because it raised many of the same arguments it used in an unsuccessful attempt to dismiss other claims.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Britney Spears Disputes $720K IRS Bill In Tax Court

By Kat Lucero

Britney Spears is challenging the IRS over the more than $720,000 it assessed against her in 2021, telling the U.S. Tax Court that the agency improperly increased income she received through her pass-through entity.

Petition attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

9th Circ. Sides With Wash. Professor In Free Speech Case

By Rachel Riley

A split Ninth Circuit panel has determined that the University of Washington violated a professor's First Amendment rights by punishing him for mocking a suggested Native American land acknowledgment, concluding in a new published opinion that "student discomfort" alone is not enough to warrant restrictions on academic free speech.

Opinion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Chipotle Dodges Investor Claims Over Portion Cuts

By Sydney Price

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. has escaped a proposed shareholder class action accusing it and its executives of downplaying concerns about meager portion sizes, an issue the company later acknowledged it would correct, with a California federal judge's ruling that the allegations are insufficient to establish that Chipotle's statements were false or misleading.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Rivian Shareholder Sues Top Brass Over Post-IPO Pricing

By Sydney Price

Executives and directors of Rivian Automotive Inc. were hit with an investor's derivative suit accusing them of damaging the company by hiding that its flagship electric vehicles were far more expensive to build than advertised, making price hikes after its initial public offering inevitable.

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Calif. Judge Moves Insurance Compliance Co.'s Antitrust Suit

By Isaac Monterose

A California federal judge has transferred an artificial intelligence-driven insurance compliance company's antitrust suit against a property management software company to a different California federal court.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Brief

X Corp., Apple, OpenAI Hash Out Antitrust Suit Discovery

By Spencer Brewer

X Corp., Apple Inc. and OpenAI Inc. have agreed to run future disputes by a Texas federal judge regarding whether discovery in X's sprawling antitrust suit can be used in a separate suit targeting OpenAI in California.

Brief attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Cleary, Orrick Guide Alphabet's $4.75B Data Center Biz Buy

By Charlie Innis

Alphabet Inc. has agreed to pay $4.75 billion to buy Intersect Power, a data center infrastructure developer the Google owner has partnered with for about a year, in a deal advised by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, the companies said Monday.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

2025 Calif. Banking Oversight Centered On Consumer Issues

The combination of statutory reform, registration mandates and enforcement activity in 2025 signals that California's financial regulatory landscape is focused on consumer protection, particularly in the areas of crypto kiosk fee practices, earned wage access providers and elder fraud, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

4 California Insurance Law Decisions To Know From 2025

California continued to shape the national insurance landscape in 2025, issuing a series of decisions that may recalibrate claims handling, underwriting strategy and policy drafting in areas from property damage claims after a wildfire to automobile coverage for delivery drivers in the gig economy, say attorneys at Nicolaides Fink.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

The Major Securities Litigation Rulings And Trends Of 2025

The past 12 months saw increased regulator focus on disclosures concerning artificial intelligence, signs of growing judicial scrutiny at the class certification stage, and shifting regulatory priorities at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — all major developments that may significantly affect securities litigation strategy in 2026 and beyond, say attorneys at Debevoise.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Bonus Spotlight

Haynes Boone, Seward & Kissel Announce Year-End Bonuses

By Aebra Coe

Haynes Boone is handing its associates year-end and special bonuses in line with those offered by a significant portion of BigLaw this year, largely adhering to a bonus scale first put forward by Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP in November, a firm spokesperson confirmed Monday.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

DOJ Challenges ABA's Standing In Law Firm Intimidation Suit

By Ryan Boysen

The Trump administration is not waging an intimidation campaign against U.S. law firms, the government said Friday, calling an American Bar Association lawsuit challenging its alleged "law firm intimidation policy" as total speculation that must be dismissed due to lack of standing.

Brief attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

JPMorgan Rips Javice Attys' 'Absurd' Bills For Candy, Booze

By Dorothy Atkins

JPMorgan has unveiled new details in its ongoing legal fee fight with Charlie Javice, accusing the convicted financial aid startup founder's Quinn Emanuel defense counsel and other firms of billing for "absurd" and "outrageous" expenses, including specialty cocktails, cellulite butter, a Cookie Monster toy and $530 on gummy bears.

Memorandum attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ex-CIA Director's Lawyers Accuse DOJ Of Judge Shopping

By Carolina Bolado

Former CIA Director John Brennan's attorneys asked the chief judge for the Southern District of Florida on Monday to block prosecutors from trying to steer any potential charges against him for investigating Russia's 2016 election interference to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's courtroom.

Letter attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Analysis

2025 Was A Policy Year Like No Other For Immigration Attys

By Britain Eakin

This year brought nonstop immigration policy whiplash as the Trump administration ramped up enforcement, triggering panic among employers about I-9 compliance in a landscape of constantly shifting adjudication and work authorization policies. Here, Law360 looks at how policy shifted attorney practice in 2025.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Schumer Pushes Senate To Sue Over Epstein File Release

By Courtney Bublé

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced a resolution on Monday that would direct the Senate to take legal action to force the Trump administration to fully comply with the law to release the files of the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

1 document attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Analysis

As US Executions Decline, Florida Surges

By Brandon Lowrey

During Florida's 1994 gubernatorial race, Republican candidate Jeb Bush accused Democratic incumbent Lawton Chiles of being too soft on crime; Chiles' immediate predecessor, Bush pointed out, had signed almost 10 times as many death warrants as Chiles had.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's justices threw the Court of Chancery in reverse big time last week, rescinding a decision by the state's chancellor that last year effectively canceled tech tycoon Elon Musk's multi-year, then-$56 billion stock-based compensation package. It was a decision that lit up the court's relatively low-key, pre-holiday wind-up. It also highlighted the endless, 3D tug of war over Delaware-chartered companies and the interests of boards, officers, controllers, stockholders and the corporate bar.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »