Illinois

  • January 16, 2026

    'Egregious' Judge Shopping Sanctioned In Ill. TM Case

    An Illinois federal judge has permanently thrown out a "Schedule A" trademark case, chastising the plaintiff for once again trying to lump together defendants that multiple judges have already held cannot be lumped together in one suit, calling it "an egregious form of forum shopping."

  • January 16, 2026

    7th Circ. Scraps 'Pizza Puff' TM Block Against Little Caesars

    The Seventh Circuit reversed a ruling Friday that blocked Little Caesars from using the term "pizza puff" to describe its "Crazy Puffs" muffin-pizza products, finding that a Chicago food-maker failed to show "Pizza Puff" is not generic term, or that it could beat Little Caesars fair use defense.

  • January 16, 2026

    White House Backs State Govs In Push For PJM Changes

    The Trump administration on Friday joined an effort by 13 state governors to force the nation's largest regional grid operator, PJM Interconnection, to fix the issue of escalating power prices amid data center-fueled increases in electricity demand.

  • January 16, 2026

    Flight Attendant Fights Southwest's Bid To Toss OT Suit

    An Illinois federal judge should preserve a proposed class action accusing Southwest Airlines of systematically depriving flight attendants at Chicago Midway International Airport of overtime pay, a former flight attendant said, fighting Southwest's argument that the Railway Labor Act preempts the claims because the flight attendants are unionized.

  • January 16, 2026

    7th Circ. Won't Revive Investment Cos.' VIX-Fix Claims

    The Seventh Circuit on Thursday affirmed the dismissal of two investment companies' volatility index manipulation claims against Barclays, Morgan & Stanley Co. and other financial institutions, agreeing with a lower court that one lacked standing and the other missed a statutory deadline.

  • January 15, 2026

    Ill. Biz Owner Gets 6 Years For $55M Bank Scams, PPP Fraud

    An Illinois businessman has been sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay over $23.3 million in restitution in connection with claims that he defrauded banks through applications for commercial loans, lines of credit and the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program.

  • January 15, 2026

    ICE Facility Suit Could Be 'Tightened Up,' Ill. Judge Says

    An Illinois federal judge urged immigrant detainees on Thursday to give "serious consideration" to streamlining their complaint over a Chicago-area holding facility's allegedly inhumane conditions, saying "there's something to" the government's argument that their current pleading is too long to advance.

  • January 15, 2026

    Ill. Judge Halts Policy Conditions DOJ Tied To Safety Grants

    An Illinois federal judge on Thursday halted the Trump administration's renewed effort to tack allegedly unlawful immigration and other policy-related conditions onto certain public safety grants for sanctuary cities, and blocked the government from enforcing the conditions while two cities' legal challenge plays out.

  • January 15, 2026

    Dems Push SEC To Pursue Crypto Case Against Justin Sun

    Three House Democrats on Thursday pressed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to reinvigorate its paused enforcement case against Tron founder Justin Sun and address their concerns that the agency's wave of crypto case dismissals coincided with considerable industry donations to President Donald Trump.

  • January 15, 2026

    Trump Admin Defies Funding K-12 Mental Health Grants

    The Trump administration is fighting an effort by a coalition of U.S. states to preserve at least six months of funding for K-12 mental health grants meant to help students process gun violence, arguing that an earlier court ruling doesn't require the feds to fund the grants.

  • January 15, 2026

    Trump Admin Open To Settling Ill. National Guard Case

    An Illinois federal judge agreed to stay forthcoming deadlines in a suit over the deployment of National Guard troops to Illinois, with the parties exploring a possible settlement after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled President Donald Trump can't federalize the Guard to aid in immigration enforcement.

  • January 15, 2026

    PTAB Denials, Reexams & New Patent Suits Rose In 2025

    The volume of Patent Trial and Appeal Board petitions dropped last year, while requests for ex parte reexaminations surged with a 66% increase from those in 2024, according to a new report from Unified Patents.

  • January 15, 2026

    7th Circ. Backs $22M Restitution For Convicted Fraudster

    The Seventh Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a lower court's order that a man convicted of a fraudulent investment scheme causing investors to lose roughly $23 million must fork over $21.6 million in restitution, finding he had waived his challenge to the amount the district judge credited for what had already been recovered.

  • January 15, 2026

    Ambulance Co. Will Pay $225K To Settle OT Suit

    An Illinois ambulance services company will pay $225,000 to end a suit alleging it violated wage law by only paying employees overtime when they worked more than 80 hours in a two-week period, according to a federal judge's order approving the deal.

  • January 14, 2026

    Call Vendors Skirt Wiretap Suit Over AI Transcription Tool

    An Illinois federal judge has released dental support organization Heartland Dental LLC and its contractor from a proposed class action accusing them of illegally using an artificial intelligence-powered note-taking tool to record and analyze patient calls, finding that they couldn't be held liable because their alleged electronic interceptions were made for legitimate business purposes.

  • January 14, 2026

    Dover Launches RICO Suit Over Skyrocketing Insulin Prices

    Manufacturing conglomerate Dover Corp. hit insulin manufacturers including Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk and several pharmacy benefit managers with civil racketeering claims in Illinois federal court, accusing them of participating in an illegal scheme that allowed prices to rise dramatically in exchange for preferential treatment on the benefit managers' formularies.

  • January 14, 2026

    University Of Phoenix Must Face Student's Pixel Tracking Suit

    An Illinois federal judge on Tuesday refused to release the University of Phoenix from a proposed class action claiming it uses third party tracking tools to share students' video-viewing behavior with Meta, finding it plausibly alleges that third parties can intercept those communications in real-time directly from students who visit the school's site.

  • January 14, 2026

    Freight Broker Tells Justices Negligence Claims Preempted

    Broker and logistics giant C.H. Robinson told the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday that federal law unequivocally shields freight brokers from state-based negligence and personal injury claims, saying the plaintiffs bar is pushing for patchwork liability standards that would upend interstate commerce and the supply chain.

  • January 14, 2026

    Trump Admin Drops Appeal In Transportation Funds Suit

    The Trump administration has dropped its First Circuit appeal of an order blocking it from tying billions of dollars in federal transportation funding to states' cooperation with its immigration crackdown.

  • January 14, 2026

    Software Co. Loses Trade Secrets Appeal At 7th Circ.

    The Seventh Circuit has refused to revive claims that an energy management services company stole trade secret information from an appointment booking software application and incorporated its features into a new platform.

  • January 14, 2026

    Boeing Settles Latest 737 Max Ethiopian Air Case Before Trial

    Boeing has agreed to settle the wrongful death case of a man who lost his parents and sister in the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 crash of 2019, striking a deal following the selection of a jury and just ahead of planned opening arguments in the Chicago trial on Wednesday morning.

  • January 14, 2026

    High Court Says Candidate Has Standing In Ill. Ballot Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday revived an Illinois congressman's suit challenging the state's policy of counting certain ballots after Election Day, finding that candidates for public office have standing to bring prospective challenges to election laws.

  • January 13, 2026

    States Lose Bid To Freeze EPA Solar Grant Funds, For Now

    A Seattle federal judge Tuesday denied a coalition of states' bid to preliminarily block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from cutting solar power grant programs as they challenge the agency's termination of its $7 billion Biden-era "Solar for All" program.

  • January 13, 2026

    Credit-Card Fight Heats Up As Trump Backs Swipe Fee Bill

    Bankers moved swiftly Tuesday to push back on President Donald Trump's late-night endorsement of legislation that he said will stop "out of control" credit-card swipe fees, his latest broadside against the credit card industry that has lenders on the defensive over costs.

  • January 13, 2026

    Ex-Duane Morris Tax Partner Charged With Murdering Wife

    A former tax partner at Duane Morris LLP's Chicago office has been charged with killing his wife a little more than a year ago, according to an announcement made Tuesday by Illinois prosecutors.

Expert Analysis

  • Previewing State Efforts To Regulate Mental Health Chatbots

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    New York, Nevada and Utah have all recently enacted laws regulating the use of artificial intelligence to deliver mental health services, offering early insights into how other states may regulate this area, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Relevance Redactions

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    In recent cases addressing redactions that parties sought to apply based on the relevance of information — as opposed to considerations of privilege — courts have generally limited a party’s ability to withhold nonresponsive or irrelevant material, providing a few lessons for discovery strategy, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Opinion

    Section 1983 Has Promise After End Of Nationwide Injunctions

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down the practice of nationwide injunctions in Trump v. Casa, Section 1983 civil rights suits can provide a better pathway to hold the government accountable — but this will require reforms to qualified immunity, says Marc Levin at the Council on Criminal Justice.

  • Series

    Playing Soccer Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Soccer has become a key contributor to how I approach my work, and the lessons I’ve learned on the pitch about leadership, adaptability, resilience and communication make me better at what I do every day in my legal career, says Whitney O’Byrne at MoFo.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Learning From Failure

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    While law school often focuses on the importance of precision, correctness and perfection, mistakes are inevitable in real-world practice — but failure is not the opposite of progress, and real talent comes from the ability to recover, rethink and reshape, says Brooke Pauley at Tucker Ellis.

  • Midyear Rewind: How Courts Are Reshaping VPPA Standards

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    The first half of 2025 saw a series of cases interpreting the Video Privacy Protection Act as applied to website tracking technologies, including three appellate rulings deepening circuit splits on what qualifies as personally identifiable information and who qualifies as a consumer under the statute, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • Trans Bias Suits Will Persist Despite EEOC's Shifting Priorities

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    In U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Sis-Bro, an Illinois federal court let a transgender worker intervene in a bias suit that the EEOC moved to dismiss, signaling that the agency's pending gender identity-related actions will carry on even as its priorities shift to align with the new administration, say attorneys at Venable.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From ATF Director To BigLaw

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    As a two-time boomerang partner, returning to BigLaw after stints as a U.S. attorney and the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, people ask me how I know when to move on, but there’s no single answer — just clearly set your priorities, says Steven Dettelbach at BakerHostetler.

  • 4 In-Flux Employment Law Issues Banks Should Note

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    Attorneys at Ogletree provide a midyear update on employment law changes that could significantly affect banks and other financial service institutions — including federal diversity equity and inclusion updates, and new and developing state and local artificial intelligence laws.

  • New DOJ Penalty Policy Could Spell Trouble For Cos.

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    In light of the U.S. Department of Justice’s recently published guidance making victim relief a core condition of coordinated resolution crediting, companies facing parallel investigations must carefully calibrate their negotiation strategies to minimize the risk of duplicative penalties, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Influencer Marketing Partnerships Face Rising Litigation Risk

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    In light of recent class actions claiming that brands and influencers are misleading consumers with deceptive marketing practices — largely premised on the Federal Trade Commission's endorsements guidance — proactive compliance measures are becoming more important, say attorneys at Olshan Frome.

  • 7 Ways Employers Can Avoid Labor Friction Over AI

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    As artificial intelligence use in the workplace emerges as a key labor relations topic in the U.S. and Europe, employers looking to reduce reputational risk and prevent costly disputes should consider proactive strategies to engage with unions, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Trump Air Emissions Carveouts Cloud The Regulatory Picture

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    President Donald Trump's new proclamations temporarily exempting key U.S. industries from air toxics standards, issued under a narrow, rarely-used provision of the Clean Air Act, will likely lead to legal challenges and tighter standards in some states, contributing to further regulatory uncertainty, say attorneys at GableGotwals.

  • Series

    Playing Baseball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing baseball in college, and now Wiffle ball in a local league, has taught me that teamwork, mental endurance and emotional intelligence are not only important to success in the sport, but also to success as a trial attorney, says Kevan Dorsey at Swift Currie.

  • APA Relief May Blunt Justices' Universal Injunction Ruling

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    The Administrative Procedure Act’s avenue for universal preliminary relief seems to hold the most promise for neutralizing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. CASA to limit federal district courts' nationally applicable orders, say attorneys at Crowell.

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