Trump Admin Beats Chamber Suit Over $100K H-1B Visa Fee

By Rae Ann Varona

A Washington, D.C., federal judge on Tuesday refused to block the Trump administration's new $100,000 H-1B visa fee, ruling in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's lawsuit challenging the fee that President Donald Trump has "broad authority" to restrict noncitizens' entry.

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Blackstone's LivCor Latest To Settle Rent Price-Fixing Claims

By Hailey Konnath

LivCor LLC, a subsidiary of Blackstone, has agreed to a proposed settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice that would resolve allegations the landlord used RealPage's revenue management software to fix rent prices, according to a proposed consent decree filed in North Carolina federal court Tuesday.

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CFPB Shifts Focus To Debanking, Intentional Discrimination

By Katryna Perera

To align with objections set by the Trump administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is turning its attention to "debanking" moving forward and has closed all open investigations that were based on disparate impact liability or unintentional discrimination.

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Analysis

20 Years Later: How A Pink House Reshaped Takings Law

By Aaron Keller

The U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 holding in the controversial eminent domain case Kelo v. New London remains intact despite multiple challenges to urban development projects, but its unpopularity has spurred most states to spend the past 20 years reshaping their land-taking laws.

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Ex-Oura CEO Pushes To DQ Quinn Emanuel In Firing Suit

By Emily Sawicki

The onetime CEO of fitness tracker company Oura Health is pushing to disqualify Quinn Emanuel from representing the smart ring maker in his compensation suit, telling a San Francisco federal judge that he shared confidential information when he consulted with the firm about his claims prior to filing suit.

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Full 9th Circ. Won't Hear Ex-Theranos Exec Balwani's Appeal

By Dorothy Atkins

A Ninth Circuit panel rejected ex-Theranos executive Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani's en banc hearing request to reconsider his 12-count conviction and nearly 13-year prison sentence, while also amending its opinion to clarify that there was "ample evidence" to convict Balwani, even if prosecutors failed to correct a witness's testimony.

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OCC Wants 'Heightened Standards' Only For Biggest Banks

By Sarah Jarvis

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Tuesday said it is moving to amend its heightened standards guidelines for insured national banks to decrease the number of lenders subject to the toughest standards from 38 to eight.

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OCC Wants To Preempt State Mortgage Escrow Interest Laws

By Hailey Konnath

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has unveiled a pair of proposals aiming to, among other things, preempt state laws requiring banks it regulates to make interest payments for escrow accounts connected to certain types of residential mortgage loans, calling it a "critical tool for reducing unnecessary burden."

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SEC, FAT Brands Near Deal In Suit On CEO's $27M Loan Scam

By Dorothy Atkins

Restaurant franchiser FAT Brands, its former CEO and other executives told a California federal judge on Tuesday that they reached a deal to resolve the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's civil claims that they ran an illegal $27 million personal-loan scheme to fuel the former CEO's lavish lifestyle as the public company floundered.

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CFPB Says Earned Wage Access Products Aren't Loans

By Sarah Jarvis

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has determined that "earned wage access" products are generally not considered credit covered by the Truth in Lending Act, while withdrawing a Biden-era proposed interpretive rule that would have identified all such products as credit.

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Analysis

Biggest Energy & Environmental Court Decisions Of 2025

By Keith Goldberg and Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

Two U.S. Supreme Court rulings that erected stricter boundaries on federal environmental reviews and permitting highlighted an action-packed 2025 for energy and environmental litigation. Here, Law360 looks back at this year's most consequential court decisions in energy and environmental law.

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Farm To Pay $1M To Settle Claims It Favored Foreign Workers

By Ben Adlin

Washington state apple and hops producer Cornerstone Ranches and associated companies will pay $1 million to resolve claims by Attorney General Nick Brown that the farm fired local agricultural workers in favor of hiring temporary, foreign employees, according to a consent decree announced by the attorney general's office on Tuesday.

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Feature

Notable New Jersey Legislation In 2025

By Carla Baranauckas

New Jersey lawmakers delivered policy shifts in 2025, advancing measures in criminal justice, workplace regulation and emerging technology.

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Analysis

Top Gov't Contracts Policies Of 2025

By Madeline Lyskawa

The Trump administration made several prominent policy moves affecting contractors this year, including finalizing the U.S. Department of Defense's long-awaited rule implementing the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program and releasing model deviation text slimming down the Federal Acquisition Regulation. Here, Law360 examines significant policy changes from 2025 that government contractors should know.

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DHS Ordered To Restore $233M Grants To 'Sanctuary' States

By Chris Villani

A Rhode Island federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate $233 million in funding to immigration "sanctuary jurisdictions," finding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had illegally terminated the grants for political reasons.

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Top International Trade Developments Of 2025

By Dylan Moroses

Importers faced novel levels of uncertainty in 2025 as President Donald Trump introduced several new tariff actions during his second term, including some that prompted importers to challenge a law used to authorize duties that had never been used before. Here, Law360 examines the year's top international trade developments.

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Texas Phone App Age Law Blocked Days Before Taking Effect

By Jared Foretek

A Texas federal judge on Tuesday overturned a state law that would age-gate app downloads and require app stores to display age ratings, holding that the law failed the narrow-tailoring standard under strict scrutiny, just days before it was set to take effect.

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Feature

State Telecom Roundup: AGs Step Up War On Robocalls

By Nadia Dreid

Americans have been pummeled by more than 2.5 billion robocalls every month this year, and stanching the onslaught has become one of the more bipartisan issues in national politics. Federal and state authorities also agree on the magnitude of the issue, and the nation's attorneys general are teaming up for battle across the country at the state level.

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Google Not A Common Carrier, Think Tanks Tell Ohio Judges

By Nadia Dreid

Right-leaning institutions are lining up behind Google before an Ohio appeals court to argue that the state is trying to "skirt the First Amendment" by fighting to have the internet titan classified as a common carrier and a lower court was right to rebuff the attempt.

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Ex-Sunoco Atty Joins Greenberg Traurig In Philly

By James Boyle

A former Sunoco Inc. chief counsel and onetime adviser for the CEO of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania has returned to private practice at Greenberg Traurig LLP in Philadelphia.

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3 Key Trends For The Legal Industry In 2025

By Tracey Read

Executive orders, updated office attendance policies and private equity interests were three top issues that shaped the industry this year.

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ITC Atty's 1st Kids' Book Imagines A Santa-Less Christmas

By Dani Kass

Michelle Klancnik, assistant general counsel at the U.S. International Trade Commission, spends her days looking into when imports should be banned for violating intellectual property rights, but outside work, she​'s focused on one big question: What would happen if Santa took a year off?

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NYC Bar Issues Opinion On AI Use For Recording Client Calls

By Tracey Read

The New York City Bar Association's Professional Ethics Committee has issued an opinion addressing how the New York Rules of Professional Conduct impacts the use of artificial intelligence tools to record, transcribe and create summaries of conversations in audio and video calls between attorneys and their clients.

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Ex-DOJ Employees Fight Gov't Bid To Toss Their Firing Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

An ex-assistant U.S. attorney and two other former Justice Department employees urged a Washington, D.C., federal court on Tuesday to deny the government's motion to dismiss their lawsuit claiming they were unlawfully fired, arguing an internal government employment board isn't appropriate for their cases and is controlled by President Donald Trump.

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Top Delaware Chancery Cases Of 2025: A Year-End Report

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court closed out 2025 amid a period of institutional uncertainty, as landmark cases addressing fiduciary duty, executive compensation, board oversight and the limits of equitable power unfolded against the backdrop of sweeping legislative changes to the Delaware General Corporation Law.

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Hub Hires: Cooley, Morgan Lewis, Nixon Peabody

By Chris Villani

The end of the year marked the beginning of new chapters for plenty of Boston attorneys, as Cooley added more than 30 professionals to its life sciences team, Morgan Lewis snagged an intellectual property partner, and Nixon Peabody beefed up its cybersecurity practice.

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