Illinois

  • August 21, 2025

    Ex-Northwestern Coach Settles Firing Suit Over Hazing Probe

    Northwestern University's former football coach Pat Fitzgerald has settled his contract breach and defamation suit alleging he was fired without cause amid an investigation into hazing claims, with the school announcing Thursday that evidence revealed during discovery showed Fitzgerald never condoned or directed any hazing, and no player reported hazing to Fitzgerald. 

  • August 21, 2025

    Fertility Co. Says Deception Suit 'Mischaracterizes' Test

    A fertility clinic chain is urging a Colorado federal judge to toss a proposed class action accusing it of deceptively marketing genetic tests of embryos, saying the claims are time-barred, lack required expert backing and specificity, and don't identify any actionable misstatements.

  • August 21, 2025

    GTCR Deal A 'Smokescreen' For Coatings Merger, FTC Says

    GTCR BC Holdings LLC's $627 million bid to buy the nation's largest medical device coatings company is a blatant attempt to overwhelmingly dominate an already highly concentrated market, and the "smokescreen" of a partial divestiture shouldn't convince anyone otherwise, the Federal Trade Commission told an Illinois federal judge Thursday.

  • August 21, 2025

    Ex-Player Says Chicago Bears Mishandled His Knee Injury

    A former player for the Chicago Bears has sued the NFL team and its medical staff, claiming they discouraged surgery after he injured his knee in a preseason game despite MRI results showing significant cartilage damage, delaying adequate treatment and derailing his professional football career.

  • August 21, 2025

    DOJ Gets Backing In Fight Over Public Benefits

    A group that fights to restrict immigration into the U.S. is urging a Rhode Island federal court to let the Trump administration narrow noncitizens' access to programs like Head Start, homeless shelters and food banks, arguing Thursday that a coalition of 20 states is trying to obstruct immigration enforcement and give benefits to "illegal aliens."

  • August 21, 2025

    Ill. AG 'Deputized' Firms To Go After Power Cos., Suit Says

    Two retail power suppliers have asked a federal judge to block enforcement actions taken by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, claiming his office has unconstitutionally deputized plaintiffs law firms to pursue consumer fraud enforcement cases against the industry.

  • August 20, 2025

    17 States, DC Urge FDA To Lift Mifepristone Restrictions

    Seventeen states and the District of Columbia Wednesday joined four others in urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to lift restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone, saying that data their health departments collected overwhelmingly back the drug's safety.

  • August 20, 2025

    United, Delta Flyers Sue Over Windowless 'Window' Seat Fees

    United and Delta on Tuesday were hit with a pair of proposed breach of contract class actions in California and New York federal courts by customers who accused the airlines of charging premium fees for windowless seats that are misleadingly advertised as having windows. 

  • August 20, 2025

    Judge Grills Feds On Upending 30-Year Noncitizen Benefits

    A Rhode Island federal judge seemed perplexed Wednesday by a government attorney's contention that for nearly 30 years, various administrations across the political spectrum have wrongly interpreted a law the Trump administration now says requires immigration status checks for additional federal benefits.

  • August 20, 2025

    Masimo Targets CBP Over Latest Apple Watch Import Ruling

    Masimo sued U.S. Customs and Border Protection in D.C. federal court Wednesday, arguing the agency defied the law by issuing a ruling that found a newly redesigned version of Apple's smartwatches is not subject to an import ban in the companies' patent dispute.

  • August 20, 2025

    PPP Loan Fraudster Gets 1.5 Years For $2M Scheme

    A former Chicago resident was sentenced to 18 months in prison Wednesday for his role in submitting false applications to the federal government to secure nearly $2 million in paycheck protection and economic injury loans.

  • August 20, 2025

    7th Circ. Backs JPMorgan Traders' Fraud, Spoofing Convictions

    The Seventh Circuit on Wednesday refused to throw out the convictions of three former JPMorgan traders for manipulating the market with fake orders for precious metals, saying there was "ample evidence" backing the jury's verdicts and that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision doomed one of their key arguments on appeal.

  • August 20, 2025

    Schools Say Fee Concerns Doom Financial Aid Fixing Class

    Universities accused of conspiring to limit financial aid offerings told an Illinois federal court that concerns raised by an attorney for the students about potential ethical violations involving attorney fees should prevent the court from certifying the class.

  • August 20, 2025

    In Illinois, Public Defender Welcomes Sea Change In Structure

    Illinois is set to receive the first overhaul of its public defense system in 75 years, and Champaign County Chief Public Defender Elisabeth Pollock is "very much looking forward" to it, she told Law360.

  • August 20, 2025

    Boeing Eyes Exit From Retooled 737 Max Securities Fraud Suit

    Boeing told an Illinois federal judge that equity funds cannot stuff their amended securities fraud lawsuit with vague and overblown allegations the American aerospace giant defrauded investors by downplaying the 737 Max jets' safety flaws after two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019.

  • August 20, 2025

    DOJ's Suit Over Ill. E-Verify Restrictions Gets Tossed

    An Illinois federal judge on Tuesday denied a bid by the U.S. Department of Justice to block provisions of a recently amended Illinois law restricting the use of systems such as E-Verify to check prospective workers' employment eligibility and dismissed the case outright, calling the DOJ's interpretation of the relevant preemption clause "broad to the point of absurdity."

  • August 20, 2025

    FCC Denies Carrier's Bid To Avoid Rural Fund Clawback

    The Federal Communications Commission denied a Midwest broadband provider's request to waive a $24 million penalty for defaulting on its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund commitments, saying the company's due diligence was inadequate when it decided to pursue fund money for buildouts in areas that were already served by others.

  • August 19, 2025

    CFPB Ends 'Biased' Investigation Of Gun-Financing Fintech

    Credova, a fintech firm specializing in buy-now, pay-later financing for firearms and outdoor recreational goods purchases, is no longer facing what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau now says was a "politically motivated" investigation on its part, the firm's parent company announced Tuesday.

  • August 19, 2025

    Nurses Say They Were Underpaid, Overworked At Hospital

    A Chicagoland hospital network pressured its nurses to work late and through their breaks without pay because it was so understaffed, a group of current and former nurses claimed in Illinois federal court, looking to recoup the pay they say they lost through a wage and hour lawsuit.

  • August 19, 2025

    Nonprofits, Union Fight Withholding Of AmeriCorps Funds

    A group of nonprofits and a union added claims to their suit in Maryland federal court aiming to stop the Trump administration from dismantling AmeriCorps, accusing the Office of Management and Budget of unlawfully withholding millions of dollars appropriated by Congress for grant programs.

  • August 19, 2025

    Family Alleging Firm's Girardi Conflict Denied Partial Win

    A Los Angeles judge Tuesday denied a family's motion seeking judgment on declaratory relief claims in a $1.8 million malpractice lawsuit against a firm that represented it in recovering millions lost in Girardi Keese's embezzlement scandal, saying disputed facts remain in the "unusual" case.

  • August 19, 2025

    Ex-Girardi Keese Atty Pleads Not Guilty To Chicago Charges

    Former Girardi Keese attorney Keith Griffin pled not guilty Tuesday to a Chicago indictment accusing him of helping Tom Girardi violate court orders to disburse settlement funds to certain plane crash clients and concealing the theft of those funds.

  • August 19, 2025

    Chicago Suburb Sued Over Medical History Probes

    The city of Evanston, Illinois, was hit with a state court lawsuit by job applicants who allege its questions about their family medical histories violated an Illinois law barring employers from asking about genetic information and using it to make employment decisions.

  • August 19, 2025

    Alcoa Retirees Ask 7th Circ. To Back Lifetime Benefits Order

    A group of retirees and the United Steelworkers urged the Seventh Circuit not to pause a lower court's order requiring Alcoa USA Corp. to reinstate lifetime access to a healthcare plan, raising concerns about elderly retirees dying and not receiving benefits.

  • August 18, 2025

    HHS Says Layoffs, Reorganization Are Within Its Authority

    The Trump administration urged a Rhode Island federal judge to toss claims that massive cuts to the Health and Human Services Department violate the U.S. Constitution and usurp congressional authority, arguing the state plaintiffs don't have the authority to dictate how the executive branch manages its personnel.

Expert Analysis

  • Breaking Down The Proposed Hemp Bill

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    A proposed bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, recently approved by the House Appropriations Committee, contains a rider that would significantly change the definition of hemp and dramatically reshape the current hemp-derived product market, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • Series

    Quilting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Turning intricate patterns of fabric and thread into quilts has taught me that craftsmanship, creative problem-solving and dedication to incremental progress are essential to creating something lasting that will help another person — just like in law, says Veronica McMillan at Kramon & Graham.

  • What 2 Profs Noticed As Transactional Law Students Used AI

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    After a semester using generative artificial intelligence tools with students in an entrepreneurship law clinic, we came away with numerous observations about the opportunities and challenges such tools present to new transactional lawyers, say professors at Cornell Law School.

  • Ill. Toxic Tort Jurisdiction Law Raises Constitutional Concerns

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    Illinois' S.B. 328, purporting to broaden state courts' jurisdictional reach over out-of-state corporations, is presented as a measure aimed at facilitating recovery in toxic tort cases, but the legislation raises significant due process and dormant commerce clause issues, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • Rebuttal

    BigLaw Settlements Should Not Spur Ethics Deregulation

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    A recent Law360 op-ed argued that loosening law firm funding restrictions would make BigLaw firms less inclined to settle with the Trump administration, but deregulating legal financing ethics may well prove to be not merely ineffective, but counterproductive, says Laurel Kilgour at the American Economic Liberties Project.

  • Environmental Justice Is Alive And Well At The State Level

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    Even as the Trump administration has rolled back federal environmental justice policies, many states continue to prioritize it, with new regulations, strengthened enforcement of existing rules and ongoing private litigation — so companies must stay alert to how state-level EJ enforcement may affect their operations, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • 5 Ways Lawyers Can Earn Back The Public's Trust

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    Amid salacious headlines about lawyers behaving badly and recent polls showing the public’s increasingly unfavorable view of attorneys, we must make meaningful changes to our culture to rebuild trust in the legal system, says Carl Taylor at Carl Taylor Law.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: August Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses key takeaways from federal appellate decisions involving topics including antitrust, immigration, consumer fraud, birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment, and product defects.

  • Notable Q2 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    Vehicle valuation challenges regarding the use of projected sale adjustments continued apace in insurance class actions this quarter, where insurers have been scoring victories on class certification decisions in federal circuit courts, says Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler.

  • Series

    Hiking Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    On the trail, I have thought often about the parallels between hiking and high-stakes patent litigation, and why strategizing, preparation, perseverance and joy are important skills for success in both endeavors, says Barbara Fiacco at Foley Hoag.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Negotiation Skills

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    I took one negotiation course in law school, but most of the techniques I rely on today I learned in practice, where I've discovered that the process is less about tricks or tactics, and more about clarity, preparation and communication, says Grant Schrantz at Haug Barron.

  • Opinion

    Bar Exam Reform Must Expand Beyond A Single Updated Test

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    Recently released information about the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ new NextGen Uniform Bar Exam highlights why a single test is not ideal for measuring newly licensed lawyers’ competency, demonstrating the need for collaborative development, implementation and reform processes, says Gregory Bordelon at Suffolk University.

  • How States Are Regulating Health Insurers' AI Usage

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    The absence of a federal artificial intelligence framework positions states as key regulators of health insurers’ AI use, making it important for payors and service providers to understand the range of state AI legislation being passed in California and elsewhere, and consider implementing an AI-focused compliance infrastructure, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • A Simple Way Courts Can Help Attys Avoid AI Hallucinations

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    As attorneys increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence for legal research, courts should consider expanding online quality control programs to flag potential hallucinations — permitting counsel to correct mistakes and sparing judges the burden of imposing sanctions, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert & Wohl and Connors.

  • Surveying The Changing Overdraft Fee Landscape

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    Despite recent federal moves that undermine consumer overdraft fee protections, last year’s increase in fee charges suggests banks will face continued scrutiny via litigation and state regulation, says Amanda Kurzendoerfer at Bates White.

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