DC Pulse


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    Getting To Court Can Pose Barrier To Justice In Rural America

    In rural areas of the U.S., many people live great distances from courthouses and other legal services, creating major barriers to accessing justice and taking a toll on residents, lawyers and legal personnel.

  • Senate Panel Weighs 6 Trump Judicial Picks From Red States

    Six nominees for U.S. district judge appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday for their nomination hearing.

  • Justices Told DHS Voter Citizenship Database 'Unprecedented'

    The U.S. Supreme Court should reject the Trump administration's bid to reinstate the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's upgraded citizenship verification database ahead of this year's election, a voting rights group told the court Tuesday, arguing that the administration unlawfully reinterpreted several statutes to claim that Congress authorized the changes.

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    Orrick Hires CFO From Paul Hastings, Tech Leader From KKR

    Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced Tuesday that the firm has two new C-suite executives, both of whom will be based in New York.

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    Legal Ops Pay Stagnates As Big Company GCs See Increases

    A company's size has always influenced pay for in-house lawyers, but a new study shows a significant difference for general counsel and chief legal officers, with their median base salaries running 90% higher than their counterparts at smaller organizations. Meanwhile, compensation for directors of legal operations was flat.

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    Legal Deserts: Millions Across America Struggle To Access Lawyers

    Tens of millions of Americans live in towns and counties across the nation with limited or no access to legal services. By one estimate, at least a third of the nation's counties qualify as a "legal desert," having only one or no attorney per 1,000 residents. Roughly 24 million Americans reside in these counties.

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    Ashurst Perkins Coie Adds Veteran DOJ Antitrust Leader

    A 22-year veteran of the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division who most recently served as assistant chief of the Technology and Digital Platforms section has joined Ashurst Perkins Coie.

  • Washington Sen. Murray Vows To Block Trump US Atty Pick

    President Donald Trump's nominee to be U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington is under fire from one of the home state senators who vowed to use every avenue possible to block him.

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    Nixon Peabody Hires Ex-SEC Commissioner Stein In DC

    Nixon Peabody LLP has hired former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission commissioner Kara Stein, who for the past four years has worked as a board member with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the firm announced Tuesday.

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    What Happens When The Only Lawyer In Town Retires?

    Many rural attorneys, often the only lawyer in town, work until they die or simply close their practices when they retire. But small to mid-sized firms looking to expand into rural markets could help to make succession planning a real possibility for these solo practitioners.

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    4th Circ. Appears Split On Reviving Comey, James Indictments

    Partisan splits were apparent Tuesday on the Fourth Circuit panel hearing the Trump administration's challenge to a federal district judge's dismissal of the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, with two of the three judges appearing to agree an improper appointment doomed the cases.

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    First-Gen Students Pressured By Earlier BigLaw Recruiting

    Students who are the first in their families to attend law school have been thrown a new challenge at the beginning of their legal journeys, as BigLaw accelerates their recruitment timelines.

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    The 2026 Summer Associate Experience: AI Led The Way

    Summer associate programs give law students an up-close look at changes unfolding in the legal industry, and a new Law360 Pulse survey found artificial intelligence use and pay have reached new heights.

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    What Summer Associates Learned From Working At Firms

    From learning how to come back from mistakes to cross-team collaboration, this year's summer associates came away with lessons that will help them succeed in their future careers. Here's what they want law students to know as they begin their own journeys.

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    Simpson Thacher Hires McGuireWoods, Ex-DOJ Antitrust Atty

    Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP has hired a former McGuireWoods LLP partner who previously spent over 10 years with the U.S. Department of Justice working on antitrust matters involving price fixing and bid rigging.

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    Trump Taps Ex-DOL Official To Serve As EEOC Top Cop

    The White House nominated a former Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP attorney who previously led the U.S. Department of Labor's contractor compliance arm to serve as the general counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

  • Supreme Court Blocks USPS Mail Ballot Rules For Midterms

    The U.S. Postal Service cannot enforce new mail-in ballot regulations ahead of this year's midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday, agreeing with an earlier First Circuit order that maintained a prohibition on the purported election integrity measures taking effect.

  • Quinn Emanuel Ends Ex-Binance CEO Suit Over $1.5M Bill

    Quinn Emanuel has quietly dropped its lawsuit against former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, in which it asked a court in Washington, D.C., to enforce an arbitral award of nearly $1.5 million in unpaid attorney fees and other costs.

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    Sanford Heisler Hires Ex-DOJ Litigator As Partner In DC

    Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight LLP announced Monday that it has added an attorney with a decade of experience in the Employment Litigation Section of the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division as a partner in its Washington, D.C., office.

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    Former DOJ Antitrust Leader Rejoins Winston Taylor

    The former deputy director of litigation for the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, who was lead counsel for antitrust trials involving Live Nation-Ticketmaster and Google, has returned to Winston Taylor, the firm said Monday.

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    One County, One Lawyer: Legal Deserts Take A Human Toll

    Divorce is often hard, but it is harder still when there’s just one lawyer in town. The story of one divorcing couple in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula illustrates the financial costs and emotional pain of living in a legal desert, and it helps explain why lawyer shortages are spreading throughout rural America. This story introduces Law360 Pulse’s special series on legal deserts.

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    Morgan & Morgan Plans $1B In AI Spending, Unveils Platform

    Personal injury firm Morgan & Morgan formally announced Monday that it has been running a proprietary artificial intelligence platform over the past few years while also committing to spend at least $1 billion on AI and technology improvements over the next decade.

  • Former Trump Assistant To Co-Lead Covington Policy Practice

    Covington & Burling LLP said Monday the firm has hired a former assistant to President Donald Trump, who served in the president's first administration as director of the Domestic Policy Council and most recently owned a federal consulting business in Washington, D.C.

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    McGuireWoods Consulting Adds New Energy Group Co-Head

    McGuireWoods Consulting LLC, the lobbying subsidiary of law firm McGuireWoods LLP, has hired a longtime energy industry government affairs leader who most recently worked as co-leader of Arnold & Porter LLP's energy and infrastructure industry group, the firm announced Monday.

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    ABA Cyber Task Force Co-Chair Eyes AI Education Boost

    With the legal industry presenting a more and more enticing target for cyberattacks, it's becoming increasingly important for practitioners to know how to best protect clients' data and most effectively use emerging artificial intelligence tools — a task that the American Bar Association's Cybersecurity Legal Task Force is well positioned to assist with, its incoming co-chair recently told Law360.

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Expert Analysis

  • What Law Firm MSOs Can Learn From Accounting Co. Model Author Photo

    Private equity capital has been flowing into accounting firms for years, with investors developing creative structures to work within that field's specific ownership restrictions, and the framework developed by these transactions offers valuable insights for law firms looking for outside investment, says Russell Shapiro at Levenfeld Pearlstein.

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    Legal Tech Talks: StrongSuit CEO On The AI Gold Rush Author Photo

    Justin McCallon, CEO of StrongSuit, discusses how the potential for automation and insight generation with artificial intelligence is massive, but that in legal work, especially litigation, the margin for error is essentially zero.

  • How Leaders Can Foster Professional Growth With Feedback Author Photo

    When law firm leaders provide work product feedback by identifying errors instead of offering guiding input, they miss a key opportunity to treat feedback as a professional development and leadership tool, but several practices can help bridge the gap between intent and impact, says Janet Jackson at Well-Law.

  • Why Marketing Teams Are Vital For Law Firm AI Storytelling Author Photo

    Many law firms are using generic decks for multiple client presentations to articulate their artificial intelligence strategy, but in order to differentiate themselves, it's important to bring marketing teams into the fold to identify what's actually distinctive about how a firm uses AI, says Eric Greenberg at Cox Media.

  • Legal Marketing Conference Highlights Pivotal Time For Firms Author Photo

    The Legal Marketing Association's recent annual conference underscored how advances in artificial intelligence and shifting client expectations are causing law firms to evolve into more structured, data-driven businesses that place greater emphasis on strategy, implementation and measurable results, say Maria Aronson and Gina Rubel at Furia Rubel.

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    Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Build Relationship Habits Author Photo

    Meaningful relationships are foundational to business development, and they can be deliberately fostered through a set of habits for authentically, intentionally and consistently connecting with clients and colleagues — starting with people you already know and like, says Matthew Moran at V&E.

  • Legal Leaders Are Asking The Wrong Questions About AI Author Photo

    Artificial intelligence is already woven into everyday work for attorneys, so beyond questioning whether AI was used and approving such tools, legal leaders need to create a shared foundation for what good AI use looks like on their team, says Alex Denniston at Factor.

  • In-House Leaders Can Turn Contract Data Into Growth Insight Author Photo

    A company's contracts contain final, negotiated commercial commitments that reveal important growth, revenue and strategy insights, but for organizations that aren’t making two key structural changes, the information tends to remain within the legal department — untranslated and unused, says Shimane Smith at NerdWallet.

  • PE's Path In UK Legal Market Offers Playbook For US Firms Author Photo

    The U.K. offers 14 years' worth of data on private equity's involvement in the legal market, demonstrating for U.S. firms what worked, what didn’t and why, and illustrating several lessons about operational readiness, cultural fit and timing, says Tom Lenfestey at The Law Practice Exchange.

  • 8 Mistakes That Derail Law Firms' Sector Strategies Author Photo

    When firms attempt to deliberately organize their expertise, client relationships, business development, and thought leadership around specific industry verticals – sometimes called industry sector programs – several missteps commonly arise, but with discipline and alignment any firm can successfully grab market share, say Heidi Gardner at Harvard Law School and David Harvey at Harvey Global Consulting.

  • Making Legal Cents: A Strategic Plan For Lateral Partner Hires Author Photo

    Firms of all sizes are accelerating lateral hiring of experienced partners because investing in senior expertise can pay off big — but for such an investment to work, firms need a disciplined strategy for vetting candidates, supporting their integration, and ensuring they'll generate real returns, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Strategic Consulting.

  • As AI Rewrites BigLaw Hiring, Mid-Law May Snag Edge Author Photo

    Similar to the way the transfer portal changed how many NCAA men’s basketball teams are built, artificial intelligence use in the legal industry is changing BigLaw’s lateral hiring market and creating a field where midmarket firms that develop their talent will hold an edge in the legal profession's next era, says Michael Ott at Ice Miller.

  • 5 Firm Structure Changes To Adequately Address Atty Burnout Author Photo

    While wellness programs, flexible schedules and mental health resources are meaningful steps toward addressing burnout in the legal industry, a more effective approach must involve a redesign of law firm incentive structures, says retired attorney Jason Ward.

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    Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Be An Industry Expert Author Photo

    Although taking the time to fully invest in a client and its industry is a big ask, it is well worth it for attorneys to understand the pressures, trends and constraints of a client's industry in order to build enduring business relationships, says Nonnie Shivers at Ogletree.

  • Talking Mental Health: Fostering Cultures Where Women Excel Author Photo

    Sylvie Rodrigue at Torys discusses why authenticity is essential to women's career growth, why burnout is not the result of a lack of resilience, how the legal industry can better support women's mental health needs, and how firms can address gender gaps in senior roles.

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