Appellate

  • September 03, 2025

    NBCUniversal Again Defeats Claims It Shared Data With Meta

    A New York federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a proposed class action accusing NBCUniversal of sharing Today.com visitors' personal and video viewing information with Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., saying one website visitor in Missouri failed to meet the Second Circuit's newly adopted standard for what is considered personally identifiable information.

  • September 03, 2025

    7th Circ. Backs AbbVie's Win Against Ex-Sales Rep's FCA Suit

    The Seventh Circuit declined to revive a former AbbVie employee's False Claims Act retaliation suit alleging he faced repercussions for refusing to push Vraylar's off-label use to treat major depressive disorder, ruling Wednesday he didn't put AbbVie on notice that he reasonably believed it was defrauding the government. 

  • September 03, 2025

    Spain Says Justices Must Resolve $416M Arbitration Question

    Spain argued Tuesday that it is "imperative" the U.S. Supreme Court take up its case challenging a D.C. Circuit decision laying a path to enforce some $416.8 million in arbitral awards against it, as the parties await a certiorari decision that could come as soon as early October.

  • September 03, 2025

    Solicitor General Defends Supreme Court's NLRB Firing Order

    The federal government's top U.S. Supreme Court lawyer, speaking at a conference Wednesday, defended an emergency-docket ruling allowing the president to fire a member of the National Labor Relations Board.

  • September 03, 2025

    Atty's 'Highly Prejudicial Falsehood' Sparks Med Mal Retrial

    A Pennsylvania appellate panel has overturned a patient's trial win in a medical malpractice suit over a foot amputation, saying plaintiff's counsel's "highly prejudicial falsehood" to the jury during opening statements "tainted the trial at its inception" and warranted a new trial.

  • September 03, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Upholds Zynga PTAB Win Axing IGT Patent Claims

    The Federal Circuit on Wednesday backed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board finding that mobile game maker Zynga was able to show claims in an IGT patent were invalid, handing another loss to the gambling technology company.

  • September 03, 2025

    Trump's Refugee Admission Pause Looks Legal To 9th Circ.

    Two Ninth Circuit judges suggested on Wednesday that President Donald Trump had the authority to suspend U.S. refugee admissions in a January executive order, while also hinting that his administration went too far by pulling funding for resettlement support.

  • September 03, 2025

    4th Circ. Denies Injunction In Md. Cannabis Licensing Challenge

    A California cannabis entrepreneur lost her bid to upend Maryland's social equity licensing program Tuesday when the Fourth Circuit ruled that the state's policies seeking to address inequalities within the cannabis industry are not discriminatory.

  • September 03, 2025

    Dem Sens. Demand DOJ Fire Ex-FBI Agent Tied To Capitol Riot

    A man who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and previously worked at the FBI was hired to work in the "weaponization" group at the U.S. Department of Justice, and now Democrats are calling for his removal.

  • September 03, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Genentech Ex-Worker's 401(k) Suit

    The Ninth Circuit will not reconsider whether fiduciaries for the retirement plan of biotechnology company Genentech violated their duty to be prudent by keeping certain target date retirement funds in the company's retirement portfolio.

  • September 03, 2025

    Derivative Claim Miss Dooms Chancery Squeeze-Out Suit

    A minority stockholder suit alleging a $15 million "sham foreclosure" of storage venture Clutter Holdings Inc. — allegedly once worth $1.2 billion — was tossed Wednesday in Delaware's Court of Chancery, in a ruling that found the claims unsupportable or derivative and ineligible for direct investor recoveries.

  • September 03, 2025

    Texas Judges Revive Murder Case Despite 'Vindictive' DA

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday that prosecutors in El Paso may refile murder charges but may not seek the death penalty for a man who convinced the judges that prosecutors unfairly elevated charges against him in retaliation for asserting his right to a speedy trial.

  • September 03, 2025

    Bondi Raises Bar For Private-Violence, Family Asylum Claims

    Attorney General Pam Bondi has issued two new decisions reversing Biden-era attorney general precedents, raising the bar for asylum claims based on nonstate violence and tightening requirements for families to count as eligible social groups.

  • September 03, 2025

    Authority For Emergency Tariffs Poses Puzzle For Justices

    The U.S. Supreme Court faces a provocative puzzle over President Donald Trump's worldwide tariff regime that the Federal Circuit has found illegal, as the judges' positions didn't follow the usual political lines, leaving wide open how the high court may rule on the president's tariff powers.

  • September 03, 2025

    Enviro Groups Urge 11th Circ. To Keep Detention Center Shut

    Seven environmental groups filed an amicus brief Tuesday in the appeal of an order shutting down an Everglades immigration detention center, arguing that the district court was right to enjoin the center because the federal government failed to fulfill its obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act.

  • September 03, 2025

    3rd Circ. Says Preclusion Ends NJ Foreclosure Fight

    The Third Circuit affirmed a bankruptcy court's order allowing Nationstar Mortgage to proceed with a home foreclosure sale, finding that the homeowner was trying to relitigate the exact same issues she had already lost in state court.

  • September 03, 2025

    9th Circ. Upholds Ruling Against Wash. Tribe's Fishing Claims

    A Ninth Circuit panel Wednesday affirmed a lower court's ruling that determined a Washington tribe fell short of its evidentiary burden to establish that a 19th century treaty included its customary fishing grounds near the Puget Sound after vacating the dispute for further review last year.

  • September 03, 2025

    4th Circ. Says Md. Immunity Doesn't Apply In Tugboat Case

    The Fourth Circuit said Wednesday that a tugboat owner's petition seeking to limit its liability over a 2015 accident involving Maryland's Nanticoke River Memorial Bridge does not infringe on the state's sovereign immunity, so it can proceed in the district court.

  • September 03, 2025

    Mich. Atty Tells Appeals Court He's Worth $1,500 Per Hour

    A Michigan attorney told an appellate panel Wednesday that his track record and experience warrant the $1,500 hourly rate awarded by a trial court which found a city's breach-of-contract suit against his client, a former councilor, was frivolous.

  • September 03, 2025

    Investment Co. Founder's Life Insurance Award Dropped To $1

    The Fourth Circuit affirmed Wednesday that a jury did not have sufficient evidence to conclude that historian and investment firm founder Malcolm Wiener suffered $16 million in damages over a canceled life insurance policy, saying Wiener may only recover $1 in nominal damages.

  • September 03, 2025

    5th Circ. Asks How Many Policies Really Exist In Arb. Appeal

    Hearing separate appeals over a group of eight domestic insurers' bid to arbitrate hurricane damage claims from two Louisiana policyholders, a Fifth Circuit panel wrestled Wednesday with whether those policyholders' respective property insurance coverages constituted one single policy, separate policies with each insurer or something in-between.

  • September 03, 2025

    1st Circ. Doubts Eateries' Suit Over Outdoor Dining Limits

    The First Circuit appeared unlikely on Wednesday to revive a suit on behalf of restaurant owners in Boston's North End over the city's restrictions on outdoor dining, repeatedly questioning the basis for the plaintiffs' retaliation claims.

  • September 03, 2025

    7th Circ. Judge Probes FDIC's In-House Enforcement Powers

    A Seventh Circuit judge on Wednesday pushed counsel for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to address whether an Illinois community bank's ex-chairman alleging the agency's in-house proceedings are unconstitutional waived his Seventh Amendment right to trial by jury by virtue of working at an institution that participates in the FDIC's insurance program.

  • September 03, 2025

    9th Circ. Saves Tribes' Cultural Superfund Claims Against Teck

    The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday revived the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation's natural resource damages claims against Teck Cominco Metals Ltd. for the company's alleged pollution of the Columbia River.

  • September 03, 2025

    8th Circ. Cuts Down Challenge To Minn. Captive Audience Law

    A split Eighth Circuit panel on Wednesday reversed a decision letting proceed a challenge to Minnesota's law banning mandatory anti-union meetings, saying an employer coalition doesn't have a case because state enforcers have said they don't intend to enforce the law.

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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