The U.S. Department of Labor issued a temporary rule Friday making another 64,716 H-2B visas for seasonal, non-agricultural workers available for fiscal year 2026, but only to employers facing severe financial hardship.
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

DOL Adds More H-2B Visas For Imperiled Employers

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Department of Labor issued a temporary rule Friday making another 64,716 H-2B visas for seasonal, non-agricultural workers available for fiscal year 2026, but only to employers facing severe financial hardship.

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'I Will Not Stop Now': Don Lemon Defiant After Arrest

By Craig Clough

A Los Angeles federal judge released journalist Don Lemon from custody Friday afternoon, rejecting a prosecutor's request that his travel be restricted after he was arrested Thursday on charges related to his coverage of a protest inside a Minnesota church. 

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Immigrant Advocates Sue ICE Over Warrantless Entries

By Julie Manganis

A pair of immigrant advocacy groups filed suit Friday over a Trump administration policy memo advising Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that they may use force to enter private homes without a judicial warrant, calling it an illegal "home invasion policy."

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2026 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2026 editorial advisory boards.

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LITIGATION

Feds Say Alleged $100K H-1B Fee Harm Only Speculative

By Britain Eakin

The Trump administration asked a California federal judge to dismiss a suit challenging President Donald Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee, arguing it rests upon multiple what-ifs that deprive the groups that challenged the fee of standing.

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Judge Keeps Ethiopians' TPS Status In Place For Now

By Chris Villani

A Massachusetts federal judge on Friday extended temporary protected status for about 5,000 Ethiopians living in the United States, temporarily blocking a directive from the Trump administration that sought to rescind their legal status.

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Split 4th Circ. Reverses Va. Man's Revocation Sentence

By Parker Quinlan

A split Fourth Circuit panel on Friday ordered resentencing for a convicted drug dealer after a district court judge refused to engage with his arguments for why he should not have his probation revoked from an earlier drug charge.

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POLICY & REGULATION

Senate Passes Gov't Funding Package; House Must Vote Next

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 71-29 on Friday to pass five of the remaining government funding bills for fiscal 2026 and a short tenure extension for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security bill to give lawmakers and the White House time to work on possible immigration enforcement changes.

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Virginia Senators Ask DHS IG To Investigate Surveillance Tech

By Ganesh Setty

Virginia's Democratic senators have urged the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's inspector general to investigate the agency's technology procurement amid the Trump administration's immigration enforcement push, warning that DHS' various information collection tools put Americans' privacy rights under threat.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

4 Quick Emotional Resets For Lawyers With Conflict Fatigue

Though the emotional wear and tear of legal work can trap attorneys in conflict fatigue — leaving them unable to shake off tense interactions or return to a calm baseline — simple therapeutic techniques for resetting the nervous system can help break the cycle, says Chantel Cohen at CWC Coaching & Therapy.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Paul Weiss Chair's Emails To Epstein Include Apollo Info

By Aebra Coe

Files released by the Department of Justice over the weekend belonging to the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein show a yearslong relationship between Epstein and Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp, which included dinners, phone calls and meetings, as well as communication related to Paul Weiss client Apollo Global Management.

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Ex-Goldstein Employee Claims Accountants Made Mistakes

By Jared Foretek

Defense attorneys for SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein presented evidence Monday that his firm's tax accountants made serious mistakes in tax filings for Goldstein's wife, Amy Howe, in 2021.

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6th Circ. Clears Judge Boasberg In DOJ Ethics Complaint

By Courtney Bublé

The complaint the U.S. Department of Justice filed against Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia has been dismissed.

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Analysis

Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action

By Jeff Overley

What happened to a GOP donor's $250,000 Swiss watch? Can cigarette warnings show jarring medical images? Will a circuit split of "far-reaching importance" for arbitration get even wider? That's a taste of the oral argument menu we'll help you digest in this preview of February's top appellate action.

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Fenwick Reaches Deal In FTX Crypto Scam Suit

By Madison Arnold

Fenwick & West LLP and victims of the infamous FTX Trading Ltd. cryptocurrency scam are working toward a settlement in a case over the firm's alleged role in the trading platform's collapse.

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NYC Bar Opinion Warns Attys On Use Of AI Recording Tools

Attorneys who use artificial intelligence tools to record, transcribe and summarize conversations with clients should heed the New York City Bar Association’s recent opinion addressing the legal and ethical risks posed by such tools, and follow several best practices to avoid violating the Rules of Professional Conduct, say attorneys at Smith Gambrell.

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Watchdog Renews Halligan Bar Complaint After Court Rulings

By Emily Sawicki

The nonprofit Campaign for Accountability on Monday once again launched a bar complaint against former interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan in Virginia, after the Virginia State Bar declined to pursue an ethics investigation against the attorney last year, calling it a matter for the courts to determine.

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Brief

Judiciary Open As Usual Until Thursday Despite Shutdown

By Courtney Bublé

The federal judiciary has enough funding to sustain normal operations until Thursday, following the partial government shutdown that started at midnight on Saturday.

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DOJ Defends NJ US Atty Office Funding Amid Scrutiny

By Matthew Santoni

Defending the three-person leadership structure of New Jersey's federal prosecution operations since the departure of Alina Habba, an administrator told a federal court that two of the attorneys running the office are paid through the office's budget and the third is funded through the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

U.S. enforcers reached three new merger settlements, while the Federal Trade Commission successfully blocked a $945 million heart valve deal and lodged an appeal for its case targeting Meta's past acquisitions.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jeff Montgomery

A pair of new high-dollar suits in Delaware's Court of Chancery showed last week that post-deal stock appraisal suits still have legs, despite some efforts to reduce potential from deal-price gains challenges. The week ended with Delaware's justices nipping $100 million from the attorney fees owed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk from $176.2 million to roughly $70.9 million, rejecting part of a Court of Chancery fee calculation.

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The Top In-House Hires Of January

By Sue Reisinger

Legal department hires over the first month of 2026 included high-profile appointments at SiriusXM, at a host of West Coast tech companies including Microsoft and Meta, and at Black & Decker. Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from January.

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Promo that reads 2025 Practice Groups of the Year

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Advisors LLC

Arnold & Porter

Audet & Partners

Bless Litigation

Cleary Gottlieb

Cohen Milstein

Cooley LLP

Covington & Burling

Crowell & Moring

Duane Morris

Fenwick & West

Friedman Kaplan

Gibson Dunn

Goldstein & Russell

Gunster Yoakley

Gupta Wessler

Irell & Manella

Jenner & Block

Jones Day

Joseph & Hall

Kennyhertz Perry

Kirkland & Ellis

Kobre & Kim

Kuck Baxter

Latham & Watkins

Lewis Brisbois

Lowell & Associates

McLane Bednarski

Meritz Reddy

Munger Tolles

Orrick Herrington

Paul Weiss

Robbins LLP

Selendy Gay

Siskind Susser

Smith Gambrell

Wiley Rein

WilmerHale

Ziegler Resnick

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

African Communities Together

Amazon.com Inc.

American Bar Association

American Industrial Partners

American Lung Association

Anywhere Real Estate Inc.

Apollo Global Management LLC

Apple Inc.

Aramark

Arctic Glacier Inc.

BNSF Railway Co.

Binance Holdings Ltd.

BlackRock Inc.

BrightSpring Health Services

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd.

CITGO Petroleum Corp.

Cable News Network Inc.

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

Charter Communications Inc.

Citigroup Inc.

Clearview AI

Coinbase Global Inc.

Columbus McKinnon Corporation

Comerica Inc.

Compass Inc.

Cox Communications Inc.

Democracy Forward Foundation

Elliott Investment Management LP

Epic Games Inc.

FalconX Ltd.

FedEx Corp.

Fifth Third Bancorp

Flipkart Internet Pvt. Ltd.

Fort Point Capital

Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman

Google LLC

HSBC Holdings PLC

Henkel Corp.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

Home Box Office Inc.

Impossible Foods Inc.

Instagram Inc.

Intel Corp.

JELD-WEN Inc.

JM Family Enterprises

Janus Henderson Group PLC

Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Jump Trading LLC

Juniper Networks Inc.

Kimberly-Clark Corp.

Kito Crosby

LS Power Development LLC

Lambda Legal Defense & Educational Fund

Lawyers for Civil Rights

Liggett Group LLC

LinkedIn Corp.

Live Nation Entertainment Inc.

Meta Platforms Inc.

Miami Heat

Microsoft Corp.

Moelis & Co.

Muslim Advocates

NRG Energy Inc.

National Football Museum Inc.

National Treasury Employees Union

Netflix Inc.

New York City Bar Association

Norfolk Southern Corp.

Oxford University Press Ltd.

Palantir Technologies Inc.

Qualia Labs Inc.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Inc.

Reddy Ice Holdings Inc.

Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co.

ServiceNow Inc.

Sevita

Sirius XM Radio Inc.

Skydance Media LLC

Spotify Technology SA

Stanford Health Care

Stanford University

Stanley Black & Decker Inc.

Suzano

Teck Resources Ltd.

Tesla Inc.

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The Justice Collaborative

Tyson Foods Inc.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Victory Park Capital Advisors LLC

Virginia State Bar

Walmart Inc.

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

WeWork Inc.

Yahoo Inc.

Zuora Inc.

Zynga Inc.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Central Intelligence Agency

City and County of San Francisco, California

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Competition and Markets Authority

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Delaware Court of Chancery

European Commission

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Federal Trade Commission

Florida Supreme Court

Food and Drug Administration

Internal Revenue Service

New York Attorney General's Office

New York State Public Service Commission

Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Surface Transportation Board

U.S. Attorney's Office

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

U.S. Department of Agriculture

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Labor

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota

U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. General Services Administration

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court