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DC Pulse
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4 High Court Cases To Watch This Spring
The U.S. Supreme Court justices will return from the winter holidays to tackle several constitutional disputes that range from who is entitled to birthright citizenship to whether transgender individuals are entitled to heightened levels of protection from discrimination.
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BigLaw Leaders Tackle Growth, AI, Remote Work In New Year
Rapid business growth, cultural changes caused by remote work and generative AI are creating challenges and opportunities for law firm leaders going into the New Year. Here, seven top firm leaders share what’s running through their minds as they lie awake at night.
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Ex-DOJ Employees Fight Gov't Bid To Toss Their Firing Suit
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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ITC Atty's 1st Kids' Book Imagines A Santa-Less Christmas
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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3 Key Trends For The Legal Industry In 2025
Executive orders, updated office attendance policies and private equity interests were three top issues that shaped the industry this year.
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Alston & Bird Doles Out Associate Bonuses
Alston & Bird LLP has reportedly unveiled its year-end associate bonus tiers, matching the market scale set by Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP this fall.
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Office Snapshot: Miles & Stockbridge's New DC-Area Home
Miles & Stockbridge PC has moved one of its Washington-area offices to the Pike & Rose neighborhood — a mixed-use development featuring restaurants, retail, business and residential spaces — in North Bethesda, Maryland.
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Justices Deny Trump's Bid To Send Nat'l Guard To Chicago
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration cannot deploy National Guard troops into Chicago to aid federal immigration enforcement, saying President Donald Trump didn't show he was permitted to federalize the National Guard under a statute he had relied on.
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How 2025 Became The Year Of The Boutique
When news broke this month that former special counsel Jack Smith planned to open a new boutique law firm, it underscored a bigger trend: All year long, elite small firms have proliferated as many federal lawyers left government service and some disaffected attorneys left BigLaw jobs.
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Baker Botts Hires 2 New DC Partners For Enviro, IP Team
Baker Botts LLP has hired two new partners in its intellectual property and environmental safety and incident response groups, who will both be based in the firm's Washington, D.C., office, Baker Botts said in recent announcements.
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McGlinchey Stafford Leaders Tout Equity-Driven Firm Culture
While the traditional idea of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace is often appearance-based, a group of McGlinchey Stafford PLLC leaders told Law360 Pulse that its approach to DEI goes further, embedding itself in the firm's cultural and operational ethos.
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Schumer Pushes Senate To Sue Over Epstein File Release
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced a resolution on Monday that would direct the Senate to take legal action to force the Trump administration to fully comply with the law to release the files of the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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4 Legal Ethics Matters That Rocked 2025
This year, judges across the country grappled with attorneys' use and misuse of generative artificial intelligence, and prominent federal prosecutor battles dominated headlines in some of the top legal ethics matters of 2025.
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Haynes Boone, Seward & Kissel Announce Year-End Bonuses
Haynes Boone is handing its associates year-end and special bonuses in line with those offered by a significant portion of BigLaw this year, largely adhering to a bonus scale first put forward by Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP in November, a firm spokesperson confirmed Monday.
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Legal Departments Pushing Back Against Partner Rate Hikes
Billing rates from law firms varied widely in the first half of 2025, and corporate legal departments will need to anticipate tiered and regional shifts in fee dynamics to keep costs under control next year, according to a report released Monday by Wolters Kluwer's ELM Solutions.
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DOJ Challenges ABA's Standing In Law Firm Intimidation Suit
The Trump administration is not waging an intimidation campaign against U.S. law firms, the government said Friday, calling an American Bar Association lawsuit challenging its alleged "law firm intimidation policy" as total speculation that must be dismissed due to lack of standing.
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Lawyers Hit Billable Hour Goals, But At What Cost?
As lawyers across the U.S. tally their hours and take stock of how the past year unfolded, a recent Law360 Pulse survey suggests many will meet their billable goals, but often at the expense of their mental health and work-life balance.
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Lawyers Don't Expect AI To Lower Billing Targets
Generative AI is raising questions about how time-based billing adapts when tasks become faster to complete, but most attorneys recently surveyed by Law360 Pulse are skeptical that AI will shift expectations anytime soon.
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Winston Taylor Will Eye Growth Beyond $1.75B Merger
The architects of the deal to create a major new transatlantic player called Winston Taylor say that "there's no finishing point" to their plans for expansion as they signal an openness to more deals and even external investment.
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Feds To Appeal Dismissal Of Comey, James Indictments
The U.S. Department of Justice indicated Friday that it will appeal the dismissals of headline-grabbing indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, after a federal judge ruled the controversial prosecutor handling both cases was not properly appointed.
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DC Firm Hiring From Government Skyrocketed In 2025
As federal lawyers left in droves this year amid President Donald Trump's return to the White House, the number of attorneys who moved from government jobs to BigLaw firms in Washington, D.C., doubled in 2025 compared to the last post-presidential election year.
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Hogan Lovells, Cadwalader's Divergent Paths Led To Deal
The blockbuster combination between Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP announced this past week involves two law firms that have charted very different paths in recent years. Here, a look at what events led up to the firms joining together at the deal table.
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Law360 Pulse Spotlight On Mid-Law Work
Foley Hoag's handling of a suit challenging the proposed White House ballroom and Vedder Price's work on a $2 billion transaction with Goldman Sachs lead this edition of Law360 Pulse's Spotlight On Mid-Law Work, recapping the top matters for Mid-Law firms from Dec. 4 to 19.
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More Pardon Seekers Going 'Straight To The White House'
A nonprofit's unusual plan to make a mass pardon request directly to the Trump administration highlights burgeoning optimism among white collar defendants about their chances of securing relief, and a recognition that the clearest path to clemency no longer runs through the traditional channels.
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Federal Courts Not Subject To FOIA, DC Judge Rules
The conservative litigation group America First Legal Foundation cannot demand documents from the federal Judicial Conference of the U.S. and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts under the Freedom of Information Act because they are not executive agencies, a D.C. federal judge ruled Thursday.
Expert Analysis
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Guidance For Attorneys As Tariffs Reshape Legal Hiring
As law firms and in-house legal departments grapple with the uncertainty of evolving tariff policies, attorneys at all career stages should consider how to lean into these shifts to best position themselves for long-term opportunities, says Rena Barnett-Matthews at Attorney Career Coach.
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How Firms Can Plan For Succession Of Admin Professionals
Many law firms are familiar with the need for attorney succession plans, but it’s also essential to plan for the succession of administrative professionals — from human resources personnel to finance leaders — to ensure continuity of critical day-to-day operations, say Eryn Carter and Travis Armstrong at the Association of Legal Administrators.
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Expanding The Reach Of A Legal Nonprofit
I co-founded the Legal Mentor Network with the goal of providing free legal mentoring to law students and early career attorneys, and the experience has highlighted how nonprofits can grow with the help of strong sponsorships and volunteers who all operate from a positive place, says Chrystal Mauro at the Legal Mentor Network.
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How 1Ls Can Plan For Sped-Up Summer Associate Hiring
The ever-earlier recruiting of summer associates sets high stakes before new law students may even realize, but 1Ls can better land a good 2L summer fit if they hit their first semester focused on the hiring timeline and ready to ask important questions about their would-be firms, says Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey.
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How GCs Can Help Build A Geopolitical Command Center
In the face of sustained regulatory and economic uncertainty, general counsel can help businesses move from reactive to proactive management by building a clear, cross-functional geopolitical command center that monitors and coordinates responses to a wide spectrum of issues, says Lars Faeste at FTI Consulting.
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For Some Lawyers, Building A New Practice Makes Perfect
Leaving an established law firm to start a boutique business of your own requires not only vision and resilience but also a solid business plan to help mitigate risks and increase your chances of unparalleled personal and professional success, says Rebecca Palmer at the Rebecca L. Palmer Law Group.
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Beyond Billable Hours: The Unseen Labor Of Women In Law
The legal profession has a critical role to play in reducing attrition of women lawyers by addressing the disproportionate burden of the mental load — the often-unseen work of managing tasks and anticipating needs in both personal and professional realms, says Michelle Browning-Coughlin at Northern Kentucky University’s Chase College of Law.
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10 Key Strategies For Successful Lateral Partner Integration
To help ensure new partners and practice groups are successfully integrated, firms should embrace specific structured practices that recognize each lateral's distinct value, personalize their integration plans and proactively address transition complexities long after onboarding ends, say Elizabeth Kennedy at NewEdge BD and Erika Steinberg at CMO2Go.
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How Firms Can Manage DEI Commitments Amid Headwinds
By recalibrating how they structure and communicate their inclusion efforts, law firms can reduce legal exposure and preserve their values, says Angela Vallot at VallotKarp Consulting.
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Key Ingredients For Effective Law Firm Strategic Planning
As the legal industry faces political turmoil and economic uncertainty, the time is ripe for firms to revisit their strategic plans, ensuring they contain a few essential elements — from accountability systems to broad-based input — to achieve sustainable growth and profitability, says Joe Calve at Calve Communications.
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AI-Powered Biz Development Can Democratize Rainmaking
As fluency in artificial intelligence becomes a competitive imperative in the legal industry, the next generation of rainmakers likely won’t be defined by their Rolodexes or club memberships, but by their ability to leverage AI business development tools effectively, says Jessica Aries at By Aries.
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How Law Students Can Effectively Use AI In Their Job Search
Law students can use artificial intelligence tools strategically throughout the job application process to review materials, prepare for interviews and navigate employers’ use of similar tools, but there are several key missteps they should be careful to avoid, says Lauren Wong at University of San Diego School of Law.
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An After-Placement Plan Maximizes Legal Content's Potential
Before landing a published quote, feature or interview, law firms should articulate the content’s purpose and develop a strategic plan for repurposing it to ensure they’re aligning public relations efforts with measurable business outcomes, says John Hellerman at Hellerman Communications.
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Ask A Mentor: How Should I Coordinate Pro Bono Projects?
Julie LaEace at Perkins Coie offers tips for attorneys acting as pro bono coordinators, including how to choose appropriate projects, how to encourage participation and why it is important to keep in touch with legal aid partner organizations.
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6 Strategies For Navigating Legal Leadership Transitions
Amid uncertainty in the legal job market, attorneys who are considering a transition to a leadership role must fundamentally reimagine their approach to value creation and develop a new set of skills, say Stacy Bratcher at Cottage Health and Michael Watkins at Genesis Advisers.