Appellate

  • August 25, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Overbroad In Hip Joint Implant Suit, High Court Told

    A German medical supplier wants the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its appeal of the Federal Circuit's refusal to revive its trade dress protections for the color pink in a hip joint implant part, saying a circuit split warrants the justices' review.

  • August 25, 2025

    Epic Says Google Ought To Pay Up For Play Store Fight

    While Google is busy appealing a ruling mandating that it open up its Play store, Epic Games isn't waiting to ask a California federal judge to order the technology titan to pay the $180 million in legal bills it racked up over the course of the five-year court battle.

  • August 25, 2025

    Right-To-Work Dooms Worker's THC Firing Suit, 8th Circ. Says

    A Peco Foods' employee who claims he was wrongfully fired when he tested positive for marijuana after using a CBD oil for back pain cannot get his job back, the Eighth Circuit ruled Monday, finding he was an at-will employee at the Arkansas company and made an untimely retaliation argument.

  • August 25, 2025

    4th Circ. Rejects CEO's Bid To Toss Wire Fraud Guilty Plea

    The Fourth Circuit has upheld the conviction of web hosting company Micfo and its chief executive on charges that he fraudulently obtained IPv4 addresses from the American Registry for Internet Numbers, rejecting a challenge that CEO Amir Golestan would not have taken a plea deal if he'd been warned of denaturalization risks.

  • August 25, 2025

    Google, Samsung Tell Fed. Circ. To Reject USPTO Extension

    Google and Samsung urged the Federal Circuit on Monday to reject the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office acting director's request for an extra month to address their challenge to her discretionary denial practices.

  • August 25, 2025

    Pa. Worker Who Quit After Public Insults Can Get Benefits

    A Pennsylvania township supervisor's verbal abuse of an employee and her husband at an open meeting was harsh enough that the employee's resignation did not disqualify her from getting state unemployment benefits, a split Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court panel has ruled.

  • August 25, 2025

    NC Justices Say It's Golfer's Own Fault He Was Hit By Ball

    The North Carolina Supreme Court won't let a golfer revive his suit alleging that another golfer and the city that owned a driving range are liable for injuries he sustained when he was hit in the eye with a ball, saying his claims are blocked because of his own negligence and failure to see to his own safety.

  • August 25, 2025

    Supervised Release Violators Can Be Jailed, 2nd Circ. Says

    The Second Circuit on Monday ruled that federal judges have the authority to detain criminal defendants who are awaiting a hearing to determine whether they violated the terms of their supervised release.

  • August 25, 2025

    5th Circ. Nixes SEC's Biden-Era Short-Selling Rules

    The Fifth Circuit on Monday vacated a pair of Biden-era regulations aimed at bolstering transparency in the short-selling market, ruling that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had failed to consider the economic impact of adopting both rules at once.

  • August 25, 2025

    Epic's 9th Circ. Case Against Apple Draws Amicus Support

    Epic Games has received backing from state enforcers, Microsoft, Spotify and others as the Fortnite developer opposes Apple's Ninth Circuit appeal challenging an order blocking commissions on purchases made outside of Apple's own app payment system.

  • August 25, 2025

    Ill. Panel Says Phone Search Went Too Far In Shooting Case

    An Illinois appeals court has ruled police improperly uncovered evidence of a shooting while searching the phone of a man accused of another unrelated crime, determining this evidence should have been suppressed at his trial.

  • August 25, 2025

    Perkins Coie Grows Litigation Group With Ex-Calif. Deputy SG

    Perkins Coie LLP has continued expanding its litigation team with former state and federal prosecutors, announcing Monday it is bringing in the former deputy solicitor general of California as a partner in its San Diego office.

  • August 25, 2025

    Judge Flags Possible Conflict In Foley & Lardner Client Spat

    A Texas appellate court told Foley & Lardner LLP and two of its former clients that one of its judges might have a conflict of interest precluding him from deciding the parties' dispute over the firm's alleged failure to disclose conflicts of interest.

  • August 25, 2025

    Ga. Judge Admits He 'Dropped The Ball' In 7-Year Ruling Delay

    A Georgia county judge facing the prospect of removal from the bench over charges of lengthy case delays told a judicial ethics panel Monday that he "absolutely dropped the ball" in a matter where he failed to issue a ruling for seven years but pinned much of the problems with his office on a deluge of work and a shortfall of resources.

  • August 25, 2025

    Wyden Urges Independent Review Of Courts' Cybersecurity

    U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a cybersecurity hawk, urged Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday to commission an independent study of the federal judiciary's cybersecurity practices in light of two significant hacks in the last five years.

  • August 25, 2025

    Generic-Drugs Group Asks 9th Circ. To Nix Pay-For-Delay Law

    A trade group for generic drugmakers urged the Ninth Circuit to fully scrap a California law banning brand pharmaceutical companies from paying to delay generics competition, in a brief targeting both the law's in-state features upheld by a district court and the extraterritorial reach the state wants revived.

  • August 25, 2025

    Advocate Orgs. Ask DC Circ. To Stop IRS Sharing Info With ICE

    Immigrant advocacy groups urged the D.C. Circuit to stop the IRS from sharing taxpayer addresses with immigration authorities, saying the court should consider the substance of their challenge to an unprecedented information sharing deal rather than toss their case on procedural grounds put forward by the government.

  • August 25, 2025

    11th Circ. Won't Rehear Lodge Shooting Coverage Dispute

    The Eleventh Circuit refused Monday to review its April finding that a jury should decide whether an insurer acted in bad faith by not settling an estate's claim over a fatal shooting that occurred at a Florida lodge.

  • August 25, 2025

    Connecticut Court Backs Ouster Of Tax Atty Over Rogue Email

    Connecticut's former tax legal director was properly terminated after she used her work computer to send unauthorized draft legislation from her personal email account to a lobbyist who assumed that it was the state tax department's official position, a Connecticut appeals panel has ruled.

  • August 25, 2025

    3rd Circ. Again Rejects Atty's Fee Row With Pierce Bainbridge

    The Third Circuit on Monday denied Philadelphia attorney Bruce Chasan a third chance to litigate a long-running fee dispute with Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP over a client who unsuccessfully sued Microsoft over allegedly stealing his image for a video game.

  • August 25, 2025

    Judge Pauses CWA Suit Over Chemours' Ohio River Pollution

    A West Virginia federal judge put a Clean Water Act citizen suit nearing trial on hold as Chemours appeals a preliminary injunction ruling holding that an environmental group can challenge its allegedly excessive discharges of a "forever chemical" into the Ohio River.

  • August 25, 2025

    Apparel Co. Urges Justices To Review Foreign-Word TM Rule

    An apparel company has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Federal Circuit ruling that found "Vetements" cannot be a registered trademark because it's generic as the French word for clothes, telling justices that a non-English mark's protectability should be dictated by consumer perception rather than its translation.

  • August 25, 2025

    Hicks Johnson Adds Arnold & Itkin Appellate Head In Houston

    Hicks Johnson PLLC announced Monday that it has named a new appellate practice leader in Houston who formerly helmed the appellate group at Arnold & Itkin LLP.

  • August 25, 2025

    Trump Says He'll Sue Over Blue Slips

    President Donald Trump said on Monday he would file a lawsuit to counter the blue-slip policy, the de facto veto for home state senators on district court and U.S. attorney nominees.

  • August 25, 2025

    Former SG Prelogar Rejoins Cooley In DC As Practice Leader

    Former U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar has returned to Cooley LLP to lead its U.S. Supreme Court and appellate practice as the firm continues to expand its litigation group, telling Law360 Pulse on Monday it is a firm that shares her values.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    4 Former Justices Would Likely Frown On Litigation Funding

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    As courts increasingly confront cases involving hidden litigation finance contracts, the jurisprudence of four former U.S. Supreme Court justices establishes a constitutional framework that risks erosion by undisclosed financial interests, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

  • Quantifying Trading-Based Damages Using Price Impact

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will likely increasingly rely on price impact analyses to demonstrate pecuniary harm from trading-related misconduct, meaning measuring price impact will be helpful in challenging SEC disgorgement, determining appropriate remedies, and assessing loss causation and damages in private litigation, says Vyacheslav Fos at Boston College and Erin Smith at Compass Lexecon.

  • How Attys Can Use AI To Surface Narratives In E-Discovery

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    E-discovery has reached a turning point where document review is no longer just about procedural tasks like identifying relevance and redacting privilege — rather, generative artificial intelligence tools now allow attorneys to draw connections, extract meaning and tell a coherent story, says Rose Jones at Hilgers Graben.

  • How McKesson Ruling Will Inform Interpretations Of The TCPA

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    Amid the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, we can expect to see both plaintiffs and defendants utilizing the decision to revisit the Federal Communications Commission's past Telephone Consumer Protection Act interpretations and decisions they did not like, says Jason McElroy at Saul Ewing.

  • Justices Rethink Minimum Contacts For Foreign Entities

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    Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Devas v. Antrix and Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization, suggest that federal statutes may confer personal jurisdiction over foreign entities that have little to no contact with the U.S. — a significant departure from traditional due process principles, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.

  • Opinion

    High Court Must Overrule Outdated Patent Eligibility Doctrine

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    A certiorari petition should directly ask the U.S. Supreme Court to correct its 1972 patent decision in Gottschalk v. Benson, the critical point where patent eligibility law veered from the statutory text toward judicial policymaking, says Robert Greenspoon at Dunlap Bennett.

  • Examining TCPA Jurisprudence A Year After Loper Bright

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    One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, lower court decisions demonstrate that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act will continue to evolve as long-standing interpretations of the act are analyzed with a fresh lens, says Aaron Gallardo at Kilpatrick.

  • Gauging The Risky Business Of Business Risk Disclosures

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    With the recent rise of securities fraud actions based on external events — like a data breach or environmental disaster — that drive down stock prices, risk disclosures have become more of a sword for the plaintiffs bar than a shield for public companies, now the subject of a growing circuit split, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

  • How Justices' Ruling Limits Options To Challenge DHS Orders

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    In Riley v. Bondi, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a 30-day deadline for challenging deportation orders begins when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issues a final administrative review order, opening the door for the government to effectively bar circuit court review in future similar cases, says Kevin Gregg at Kurzban Kurzban.

  • Series

    Playing The Violin Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing violin in a string quartet reminds me that flexibility, ambition, strong listening skills, thoughtful leadership and intentional collaboration are all keys to a successful legal practice, says Julie Park at MoFo.

  • Purdue Case Could Transform Patent Obviousness Analyses

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    If accepted for review by the U.S. Supreme Court, Purdue Pharma v. Accord Healthcare — concerning whether Purdue's abuse-deterrent opioid formulation patents were invalid as obvious — could significantly shift how courts weigh secondary considerations in patent obviousness analyses, say attorneys at Lathrop.

  • NM Cyber Ruling Will Spur Litigation As Coverage Remedy

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    In Kane v. Beazley, the New Mexico Court of Appeals recently found that a cyber liability provision insuring security breaches included coverage for funds transfer fraud, implicitly and incorrectly motivating policyholders to commence litigation to avoid contractual limitations on cyber coverages, say attorneys at Zelle.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Self-Care

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    Law schools don’t teach the mental, physical and emotional health maintenance tools necessary to deal with the profession's many demands, but practicing self-care is an important key to success that can help to improve focus, manage stress and reduce burnout, says Rachel Leonard​​​​​​​ at MG+M.

  • Texas' Cactus Ruling Clarifies 'Produced Water' Rules

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    The Texas Supreme Court's decision in Cactus Water Services v. COG Operating, holding that mineral interest lessees have the rights to water extracted alongside oil and gas, should benefit industry players by clarifying the rules — but it leaves important questions about royalties unresolved, say attorneys at Yetter Coleman.

  • ABA Opinion Makes It A Bit Easier To Drop A 'Hot Potato'

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    The American Bar Association's recent ethics opinion clarifies when attorneys may terminate clients without good cause, though courts may still disqualify a lawyer who drops a client like a hot potato, so sending a closeout letter is always a best practice, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

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