Dem Lawmakers Urge Governors To Block ICE's DMV Data Access

By Rae Ann Varona

Forty Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday warned several governors, including in Arizona, California and Colorado, that their states may be unknowingly sending their residents' driver's license and registration information to federal immigration authorities.

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FCC To Face Senate Oversight Following Kimmel Controversy

By Nadia Dreid

For the first time in half a decade, the full Senate Commerce Committee will convene for an oversight hearing, this time to place an examining eye on the FCC after the head of the agency said ABC could lose its license if it didn't punish talk show host Jimmy Kimmel for comments he made on air.

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Feds Eye New Trial For MIT Brothers' $25M Crypto Theft Case

By Katryna Perera

Federal prosecutors want to retry two MIT-educated brothers accused of a $25 million cryptocurrency heist next year, after a New York court declared a mistrial last week following the jury's failure to reach a unanimous verdict.

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Google Spying On Users With Newly Default AI Tool, Suit Says

By Allison Grande

Google is illegally tracking its email, chat and videoconferencing users' private communications through its Gemini AI assistant, which the tech giant secretly turned on by default for all users without their knowledge or consent last month, according to a proposed class action filed Tuesday in California federal court.

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Ex-NY Gov. Aide Tells Jury FARA Rap Is A Bridge Too Far

By Stewart Bishop

Counsel for former New York state government official Linda Sun told a Brooklyn federal jury Wednesday that prosecutors overreached by accusing her of acting as an undisclosed agent for the People's Republic of China, saying the former aide was just doing her job as the go-between linking two Empire State governors and the Chinese-American community.

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Oracle's Lax Security Led To Customer Data Breach, Suit Says

By Lauren Berg

Oracle Corp. has been hit with a proposed class action in Texas federal court alleging the tech company failed to protect customers' sensitive information from hackers who breached its network in July and then waited months before notifying those affected.

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Blake Lively Defeats PR Consultant's 'It Ends With Us' Suit

By Hailey Konnath

A Texas federal judge on Wednesday threw out a public relations consultant's defamation suit accusing Blake Lively of wrongly roping him into her sexual harassment claims against her "It Ends With Us" co-star Justin Baldoni, meaning that all of Baldoni's team's suits against her have been dismissed, at least for now.

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DOJ Fights Claim That IRS Unlawfully Shared Info With ICE

By Tom Lotshaw

The Trump administration has said the IRS complied with regulations when considering information requests from immigration enforcement officials, urging a D.C. federal judge to deny advocacy groups' request to submit a supplemental filing asserting that documents it turned over show otherwise.

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Lawmakers Should Re-Up FirstNet, Advocacy Group Says

By Christopher Cole

Congress needs to reauthorize the national FirstNet public safety response network before it expires in just over a year, an advocacy group said, touting a survey of first responders who largely back the measure.

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Judge Questions Cigna Site Users' Standing In Data Suit

By Brian Steele

A Pennsylvania federal judge suggested Wednesday that she may toss a proposed class action alleging Cigna failed to safeguard private health data by tracking plan members' website usage in violation of state wiretapping and federal privacy laws, ordering the plaintiffs to demonstrate that they have standing to sue.

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SEC Focused On Fraud As Actions Markedly Declined In 2025

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement activity in its fiscal year 2025 was its lowest in 10 years, reflecting not only a significant decline in the commission's workforce, but also Chairman Paul Atkins' stated focus on fraud and individual wrongdoing and a new approach to crypto regulation, say attorneys at Covington.

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Defeating Estoppel-Based Claims In Legal Malpractice Actions

State supreme court cases from recent years have addressed whether positions taken by attorneys in an underlying lawsuit can be used against them in a subsequent legal malpractice action, providing a foundation to defeat ex-clients’ estoppel claims, says Christopher Blazejewski at Sherin and Lodgen.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Networking 101

Cultivating a network isn't part of the law school curriculum, but learning the soft skills needed to do so may be the key to establishing a solid professional reputation, nurturing client relationships and building business, says Sharon Crane at Practising Law Institute.

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McDermott Exploring Selling Stake To Private Equity

By Emily Sawicki and Alison Knezevich

McDermott Will & Schulte on Wednesday acknowledged it is fielding interest from private equity investors, a development that underscores how some of the legal industry's largest players are considering moving to a nontraditional business model.

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Baker McKenzie Accuses Ex-Atty Of Playing 'Cat And Mouse'

By James Boyle

An ex-associate at Baker McKenzie's Washington, D.C., office has been accused by her former employer of playing a "cat and mouse game" to avoid getting served a defamation complaint filed in October by the office and its managing partner.

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Ex-Prince Lobel Atty Charged With Forging Liquor Licenses

By Julie Manganis

The former chair of Prince Lobel Tye LLP's restaurant and hospitality practice has been indicted on charges that she forged liquor licenses for three clients before she was fired last year, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday.

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Feds Launch Crypto Scam Strike Force With New Sanctions

By Sarah Jarvis

Federal authorities said Wednesday they have created a strike force targeting cryptocurrency-related fraud and scams originating in Southeast Asia, a development announced alongside the addition of a Burmese armed group to a list of entities under U.S. sanctions.

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Reed Smith Facilitated Jet Repossession Ploy, Suit Claims

By Emilie Ruscoe

Reed Smith LLP and two of its attorneys are facing claims of improperly facilitating an attempted repossession of an aviation company's plane, purportedly representing the company's lender while actually working for an alternative investment firm angling to seize the plane.

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Law Firm Drops 'Steamboat Willie' Suit Against Disney

By Carolina Bolado

Morgan & Morgan dropped its suit Wednesday against Disney that asked a Florida federal court to declare that an advertisement the firm planned to run featuring elements from the animated short film "Steamboat Willie" does not infringe Disney's intellectual property because the work entered the public domain last year.

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Texas Pick Among 3 Formally Tapped For District Court Seats

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday three nominees for federal judgeships in Texas, Arkansas and Alaska, which have been anticipated for a few weeks.

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Analysis

CFPB Forges Ahead On Rules As Funding Hangs In Doubt

By Jon Hill

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is rolling out plans to narrow how it defines and watches out for lending discrimination, even as the Trump administration casts fresh doubt on any plans to fund the agency once its reserves dry up.

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Insurer Fights Margolis Edelstein's Bid To Toss Malpractice Case

By Jake Maher

An insurance company told a New Jersey state court this week that it should be allowed to proceed with a malpractice suit against Margolis Edelstein because the firm had a duty to represent it in an underlying insurance dispute under state law.

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Edelson Enters 'Clean' Dismissal In Girardi Atty Case

By Andrea Keckley

Edelson PC has submitted a "clean and unadulterated" dismissal of its conversion case against two former attorneys from the now-defunct law firm Girardi Keese after an Illinois federal judge took issue with a previous version of the stipulation.

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Ex-Alaska Judge Disbarred Over Sexual Misconduct Scandal

By Jack Karp

Former Alaska federal judge Joshua Kindred has been disbarred by that state's Supreme Court over multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, including that he had inappropriate sexual relationships with several attorneys who appeared before him.

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House Looks To Undo Sens.' Ability To Sue Over Phone Info

By Courtney Bublé

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday that House Republicans will be introducing stand-alone legislation to repeal a provision tucked into the government funding package the Senate passed Monday that would allow Republican senators investigated by special counsel Jack Smith to sue for damages.

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Analysis

By Ivan Moreno

The American Law Institute's restatements of law, widely regarded as influential reference points for judges and attorneys, are typically yearslong projects that are finished quietly and without much controversy, but one for copyright that concluded this year has diverged from that tradition.

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SEC's Atkins Previews Crypto 'Taxonomy' Plans, Exemptions

By Aislinn Keely

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins on Wednesday pledged to "draw clear lines" about which crypto transactions the SEC doesn't regulate, but said that coming rules and exemptions for digital assets are "not a promise of lax enforcement at the SEC."

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Trump's Budget Deputy Named Interim US Atty In NC

By Abigail Harrison

Federal budget official and former U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop secured an interim role as one of North Carolina's top prosecutors Wednesday.

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