Public Policy

  • October 16, 2025

    Trump Taps V&E's Swett As New FERC Chair

    President Donald Trump will appoint Vinson & Elkins LLP energy regulatory counsel Laura Swett as chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the White House confirmed to Law360 Thursday.

  • October 16, 2025

    Ex-Paralegal Says She Was Scapegoat For NC City Atty

    A former paralegal in a North Carolina city attorney's office said she was falsely accused of misusing city resources on her boss's behalf and was not given a fair shot to clear her name, which has allegedly damaged her reputation and made it difficult to find a new job.

  • October 16, 2025

    Mass. Board Reduces Condo Value For Its Street Proximity

    A Massachusetts condominium unit with a desirable view was overvalued by a local assessor, a state panel said, agreeing with the owner that its location close to a street was a detriment to its value.

  • October 16, 2025

    Mass. Tax Board Reduces Condo's Fair Cash Value

    A Massachusetts condominium's value should be lowered because the trust that owns the property proved that the property was less updated and smaller compared with similar properties, the state tax board ruled. 

  • October 16, 2025

    Firm's Case Against GILTI Regs Can Proceed, DC Judge Says

    An Israeli law firm's suit alleging that U.S. Department of the Treasury regulations regarding overseas income create disproportionate burdens for small entities may continue, a D.C. federal judge said, though dismissing a parallel claim brought by an individual attorney.

  • October 16, 2025

    Ill. Judge Tosses Law Firm's $36M Pandemic Loan Fraud Suit

    An Illinois federal judge dismissed a Michigan law firm's $36 million whistleblower suit against dozens of automotive dealerships, ruling that the information underpinning its claims of pandemic loan fraud was already publicly available.

  • October 16, 2025

    US Attorney Nominations For Missouri And Indiana Advance

    The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve, along party lines, two U.S. attorney nominees for Missouri and Indiana on Thursday.

  • October 15, 2025

    Vought Aims To Close CFPB Within '2 Or 3 Months'

    White House budget chief Russell Vought said Wednesday that he wants to shutter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and expects to succeed in the next few months, despite the Trump administration's claims in court that the agency is just being downsized.

  • October 15, 2025

    Top Del. Judge Details Views On Willful Infringement Issues

    A lawsuit cannot provide an accused infringer with the notice needed for a patent owner to allege indirect and willful infringement, and enhanced infringement demands aren't subject to dismissal motions, Delaware's top judge has ruled.

  • October 15, 2025

    OCC Conditionally OKs Palmer Luckey's Thiel-Backed Bank

    The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Wednesday gave its initial green light to a new virtual currency-focused national bank backed by tech entrepreneurs Peter Thiel and Palmer Luckey, marking the first such approval for a new bank since Jonathan Gould was sworn in as Comptroller in July.

  • October 15, 2025

    Patent Examiners Facing Productivity Push, Higher Standards

    Officials at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday detailed changes to patent examiners' performance requirements, outlining increased productivity goals, heightened supervisory scrutiny, and more strenuous evaluation standards for the examiner corps.

  • October 15, 2025

    ICE Policies Harm Noncitizen Crime Survivors, Suit Says

    Legal advocacy groups and noncitizen victims of domestic violence and other serious crimes have lodged a proposed class action in California federal court, accusing the Trump administration of unlawfully ignoring deportation and exploitation protections that Congress took decades to craft.

  • October 15, 2025

    Goldstein Can't Dismiss 2016 Tax Charges As Time-Barred

    A Maryland federal judge denied SCOTUSblog co-founder Tom Goldstein's motion to dismiss four of the 22 federal tax charges brought against him in January, ruling that his defense that the counts stemming from the 2016 tax year should be time-barred will have to be raised at trial.

  • October 15, 2025

    Conn. Pot Licensing Program Is Discriminatory, Suit Says

    A would-be cannabis grower is challenging Connecticut's marijuana licensing program, claiming it unconstitutionally prioritizes in-state "social equity" applicants "above all others" in direct violation of the dormant commerce clause, according to a federal lawsuit.

  • October 15, 2025

    Trump Fundraiser Guilty Of Mar-A-Lago Straw Donor Scheme

    A New York man who raised funds for President Donald Trump's 2020 reelection campaign was found guilty Wednesday of making straw donor contributions under others' names, a scheme prosecutors said was partly intended to help Chinese nationals gain access to Trump.

  • October 15, 2025

    Court Ends Hemp Grower's Suit Over Seized Crop

    An Oregon cannabis cultivator can't sue the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on claims it failed to return 383 pounds of legal hemp mistakenly assumed to be illicit marijuana, a federal judge ruled, saying the government gets sovereign immunity.

  • October 15, 2025

    JPMorgan Dinged By Judge For Raising Arbitration Issue Late

    A Washington federal judge hinted on Wednesday that she's likely to stand by her past decision spurning JPMorgan Chase's attempt to force arbitration of a customer's racial discrimination claims, suggesting the bank lost its chance to make the points it's now relying on to persuade the court to reconsider.

  • October 15, 2025

    High Court Leans Toward Limiting Voting Rights Act Suits

    The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative supermajority seemed ready Wednesday to further limit the use of the Voting Rights Act in challenging alleged racial discrimination in legislative redistricting, but appeared divided over how to accomplish that.

  • October 15, 2025

    Proposed Bill Could Stall NFL Bears' Suburban Stadium Plan

    A member of the Illinois General Assembly has introduced a bill that could delay the Chicago Bears' efforts to build a stadium in the suburbs by requiring a 30-day window to review any proposed state or local agreements on new or renovated pro sports stadiums.

  • October 15, 2025

    Judge Won't Block Mich. Medicaid Mental Health Restructure

    A Michigan state judge has ruled that the Great Lakes State has the authority to competitively bid and restructure the geographic territory of prepaid inpatient health plans that manage mental health care for the state's Medicaid beneficiaries.

  • October 15, 2025

    FDIC's Hill Discusses Stablecoin Rulemaking Lift

    Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. acting Chairman Travis Hill said Wednesday that crafting a licensing regime for stablecoin issuers under his agency's purview will likely be relatively "straightforward," but the recently passed stablecoin legislation has also tasked banking regulators with thornier policy issues.

  • October 15, 2025

    Meat Industry Fights To Defend Nix Of Slaughterhouse Rules

    A meat and poultry industry group has told the Ninth Circuit it opposes green groups' challenge to the federal government's decision to rescind a Biden-era proposal that would have imposed stricter water discharge regulations on slaughtering, processing and rendering facilities.

  • October 15, 2025

    States Want To Keep Eye On $14B HPE-Juniper Deal Review

    The Justice Department is in the middle of trying to settle its challenge to Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks, but a dozen states are now trying to get involved and have asked a California federal judge to allow them to intervene in the litigation.

  • October 15, 2025

    Some Sugar Producers Escape Info Sharing Claims

    A Minnesota federal court dismissed several major sugar producers from a case accusing them of sharing competitively sensitive information but is allowing claims against Domino and United Sugar Producers & Refiners to proceed.

  • October 15, 2025

    10th Circ. Restores Asylum Grant In 10-Year Immigration Fight

    A Tenth Circuit panel said a Honduran woman and her two children can remain in the U.S., ruling that the Board of Immigration Appeals misstepped when it overturned their grant of asylum for a second time in 10 years.

Expert Analysis

  • Junior Attys Must Beware Of 5 Common Legal Brief Mistakes

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Junior law firm associates must be careful to avoid five common pitfalls when drafting legal briefs — from including every possible argument to not developing a theme — to build the reputation of a sought-after litigator, says James Argionis at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Expect DOJ To Repeat 4 Themes From 2024's FCPA Trials

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    As two upcoming Foreign Corrupt Practice Act trials approach, defense counsel should anticipate the U.S. Department of Justice to revive several of the same themes prosecutors leaned on in trials last year to motivate jurors to convict, and build counternarratives to neutralize these arguments, says James Koukios at MoFo.

  • As Student Loan Outlook Dims, What Happens To The Banks?

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    While much of the news around the student loan crisis focuses on the direct impact on young Americans' decreasing credit scores, the fate of the banks themselves — and the effect on banking policy — has been largely left out of the narrative, says Madeline Thieschafer at Fredrikson & Byron.

  • How Trade Fraud Task Force Launch Furthers Policy Goals

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    A new cross-agency trade fraud task force is the latest in a series of Trump administration efforts to leverage agency relationships in pursuit of its trade policy goals, and its creation signals a further uptick in customs enforcement, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Keys To Extended Producer Responsibility Compliance

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    As states' extended producer responsibility laws come into effect, reshaping packaging obligations for businesses, regulated entities should ensure they register with a producer responsibility organization, understand state-specific deadlines and obligations, and review packaging to improve recyclability and reduce compliance costs, say attorneys at Baker Donelson.

  • Digital Asset Report Opens Doors For Banks, But Risks Linger

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    A recent report from a White House working group discussing digital asset market structure signals how banks may elect to expand into digital asset custody, trading and related services in the years ahead, but the road remains layered with challenges, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • Series

    Power To The Paralegals: How And Why Training Must Evolve

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    Empowering paralegals through new models of education that emphasize digital fluency, interdisciplinary collaboration and human-centered lawyering could help solve workforce challenges and the justice gap — if firms, educators and policymakers get on board, say Kristine Custodio Suero and Kelli Radnothy.

  • 5 Real Estate Takeaways From Trump's Sweeping Tax Law

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    Changes to the Internal Revenue Code included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will have a range of effects on real estate sponsors, investors and real estate investment trusts — from more compliance flexibility around taxable REIT subsidiary limits to new considerations raised by a key retaliatory tax provision that was left out, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • Evaluating The Current State Of Trump's Tariff Deals

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    As the Trump administration's ambitious tariff effort rolls into its ninth month, and many deals lack the details necessary to provide trade market certainty, attorneys at Adams & Reese examine where things stand.

  • Series

    Playing Softball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My time on the softball field has taught me lessons that also apply to success in legal work — on effective preparation, flexibility, communication and teamwork, says Sarah Abrams at Baleen Specialty.

  • 5 Years In, COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Landscape Is Shifting

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    As the government moves pandemic fraud enforcement from small-dollar individual prosecutions to high-value corporate cases, and billions of dollars remain unaccounted for, companies and defense attorneys must take steps now to prepare for the next five years of scrutiny, says attorney David Tarras.

  • How Securities Test Nuances Affect State-Level Enforcement

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    Awareness of how different states use their securities investigation and enforcement powers, particularly their use of the risk capital test over the federal Howey test, is critical to navigating the complicated patchwork of securities laws going forward, especially as states look to fill perceived federal enforcement gaps, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Mastering Time Management

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    Law students typically have weeks or months to prepare for any given deadline, but the unpredictability of practicing in the real world means that lawyers must become time-management pros, ready to adapt to scheduling conflicts and unexpected assignments at any given moment, says David Thomas at Honigman.

  • Calif. Bill May Shake Up Healthcare Investment Landscape

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    If signed by the governor, newly passed California legislation would significantly expand the Office of Health Care Affordability's oversight of private equity and hedge fund investments in healthcare companies and management services organizations, and raise several questions about companies' data confidentiality and filing burdens, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • How Prohibiting Trigger Leads May Affect Mortgage Marketing

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    Recent amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act prohibiting the sale of trigger leads mark a significant shift in the regulatory landscape for mortgage lenders, third-party lead generators and their legal counsel, who should reevaluate lead generation strategies and compliance protocols, say Joel Herberman, Rob Robilliard and Leah Dempsey at Brownstein Hyatt.

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