Illinois

  • March 14, 2024

    Kirkland Associate Is Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade Queen

    Kirkland & Ellis corporate associate Grace O'Connor will be reigning over the 69th annual Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade on Saturday as parade queen, in an event she described as "honoring the rich heritage of my ancestors and embracing the dynamic spirit of [the] Irish American community that you can see everywhere in the city."

  • March 14, 2024

    EPA Slashes Ethylene Oxide Emissions Levels For Sterilizers

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday finalized new Clean Air Act standards that it said will reduce emissions of ethylene oxide from commercial sterilization facilities by 90%, an action the agency said is necessary to help reduce the impact of the carcinogen on communities.

  • March 13, 2024

    AI Auto Damage-Assessing Giant Accused Of Monopoly

    Tractable Inc. is hitting back at CCC Intelligent Solutions with counterclaims in an ongoing trade secrets spat, alleging in a new motion CCC has leveraged its dominant share of the auto collision-assessment market to stifle consumer choice and increase prices in violation of antitrust laws.

  • March 13, 2024

    HP Says It's Upfront About Blocking Ink Cartridges

    HP has urged an Illinois federal judge to throw out consumers' claims that it has a monopoly over the replacement-ink cartridge market and used software updates to block consumers from using cheaper rival cartridges in HP printers, saying it "goes to great lengths" to disclose that its printers are intended to work only with cartridges that have an HP security chip.

  • March 13, 2024

    FTC Bid To Block Kroger's $25B Albertsons Deal Set For Aug.

    An Oregon federal court has scheduled an August hearing on the Federal Trade Commission's challenge of Kroger's planned $24.6 billion purchase of fellow grocery store giant Albertsons, a deal also under attack by state enforcers in Washington and Colorado.

  • March 13, 2024

    FERC Can't Change Power Auction Results, 3rd Circ. Rules

    The Third Circuit has wiped out the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's tweak to the results of an electricity capacity auction run by the nation's largest regional grid operator, saying it amounted to retroactive rate-making in violation of the filed-rate doctrine.

  • March 13, 2024

    Kirkland-Led Wind Point Closes Its Largest Ever Fund At $2.3B

    Chicago-based private equity shop Wind Point Partners, advised by Kirkland & Ellis LLP, on Wednesday said that it closed its latest fund after securing $2.3 billion in commitments, marking the firm's largest fund raised to date.

  • March 13, 2024

    New Co.'s Lack Of Records Dooms Bid For H-2B Truck Drivers

    A U.S. Department of Labor appeals board has upheld the denial of a transportation company's request for drivers under the H-2B visa program, ruling the company's payroll records and sales summaries did not prove a need for foreign, temporary workers.

  • March 12, 2024

    Geico Policyholders Lose Cert. Bid In Pandemic Premium Suit

    An Illinois federal judge on Tuesday denied class certification in litigation claiming that Geico profited off the COVID-19 pandemic by charging excessive car insurance premiums, ruling that the policyholders who filed the lawsuit had not shown that their damages model could be calculated on a classwide basis.

  • March 12, 2024

    Quaker Hit With False Ad Suit Over Pesticide In Oat Products

    The Quaker Oats Co. faces a proposed class action in Illinois federal court alleging it markets its oat-based foods as being safe, healthy and nutritious while touting its commitment to high quality standards, despite omitting the risk of a toxic chemical pesticide in its products.

  • March 12, 2024

    Ill. High Court Hopeful Wants More Transparent Bench

    An intermediate appellate judge vying to join Illinois' highest court says sitting justices need to be far more transparent and take an active role in combating actual and perceived conflicts of interest.

  • March 12, 2024

    Hytera Can't Go To Chinese Court In $540M Motorola IP Fight

    An Illinois federal judge on Tuesday granted Motorola's request for an order blocking major Chinese radio company Hytera from pursuing a bid in China to keep Motorola from shutting down a Chinese case in which Hytera claimed it doesn't use Motorola's intellectual property.

  • March 12, 2024

    Walgreens, Kenvue Unit Sued Over Benzene In Acne Products

    Walgreens, Kenvue unit Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. and Genomma Lab face a trio of proposed consumer fraud class actions in California federal court by customers who alleged their acne treatment products contain unsafe levels of benzene, but that each of the companies failed to disclose its presence in their labeling.

  • March 12, 2024

    ERISA Preempts Part Of Ill. Law Amedment, Judge Rules

    The portion of an amendment to an Illinois law regulating temporary labor forces agencies to modify their Employee Retirement Income Security Act plans, a federal judge ruled, granting a group of staffing associations and agencies' bid for an injunction.

  • March 12, 2024

    DOJ Tells Justices Bribery Law Covers Gratuities

    The U.S. Department of Justice urged the nation's top court Monday to find that a federal law prohibiting public officials from taking bribes also extends to illegal gratuities that don't require a quid pro quo, arguing that "context and history" backs its position in a closely watched case that has put multiple criminal corruption cases on ice in Illinois.

  • March 12, 2024

    DC Circ. Questions MPLX Alternatives In FERC Decision

    D.C. Circuit judges on Tuesday pressed attorneys for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on the agency's decision allowing crude oil transportation company MPLX to charge market rates on its Ozark Pipeline, questioning in particular how much capacity would be available on other lines if shippers needed an alternative to supracompetitive pricing.

  • March 12, 2024

    Ill. Judge Confirmed As Progressives Seek Faster Approvals

    The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm a U.S. magistrate judge to the Northern District of Illinois and a vice president at Capital One Financial to the Western District of Virginia as a large progressive legal organization wants the Senate to ramp up its judicial confirmations.

  • March 12, 2024

    Sheppard Mullin Adds Ex-Latham & Watkins Atty In Chicago

    Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP has hired as a partner in its Chicago office an attorney who formerly worked for accounting firm KPMG and also spent 18 years at Latham & Watkins LLP.

  • March 11, 2024

    White Male Law Student Claims Bias From Chicago Bears

    A law student on Monday lodged race and sex discrimination claims against the Chicago Bears in Illinois federal court, claiming that the NFL team wrongly refused to hire him as a "legal diversity fellow" because he's white and a man.

  • March 11, 2024

    Ill. Pizzeria, Md. Pizza Chain Get Partial Wins In 'Ledo' TM Row

    Family-owned Illinois pizzeria Ledo's Inc. and Maryland-based Ledo Pizza chain scored partial victories in a four-year-old trademark fight after a federal judge issued an order that partially granted both sides' summary judgment bids over the eateries' use of the name "Ledo" for their respective businesses.

  • March 11, 2024

    Ill. Court OKs $48M Award In Brain Damage Med Mal Suit

    An Illinois state appeals court has affirmed a $48.1 million award in a suit accusing an emergency medicine physician and a hospital of improperly placing a breathing tube in a patient and causing permanent brain damage, saying certain jury instructions given by the trial court were not erroneous.

  • March 11, 2024

    Jury Hears 'This We'll Defend' Shirts Infringed T-Shirt Co.'s TM

    Chicago-based T-shirt company Grunt Style on Monday urged an Illinois federal jury to hold a California competitor liable for selling shirts featuring the slogan, "This We'll Defend," asserting the competitor's sales constitute willful infringement of a trademark held for more than a decade.

  • March 11, 2024

    Tech, Retail Industries Say No To Patent Eligibility Reforms

    A coalition of tech companies, retailers and tech activist groups lined up on Monday in opposition to the latest legislative effort to limit patent invalidation in the courts, warning that unseating legal precedents over eligibility would lead to a coming "wave of crippling litigation."

  • March 11, 2024

    7th Circ. Won't Reinstate Ex-Cops' Retaliation Suit

    The Seventh Circuit refused to revive allegations that an Illinois city pushed out a police officer who complained about a colleague's sexual comments and a lieutenant who asked for a different shift because of sleep apnea, saying a trial court was right to toss the claims.

  • March 11, 2024

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Delaware's Court of Chancery became a hot topic in New Orleans last week as litigators and judges at an annual convention acknowledged the First State's corporate law preeminence is under scrutiny. Back home, the court moved ahead on disputes involving Meta Platforms, Abercrombie & Fitch and Donald Trump.

Expert Analysis

  • A Closer Look At The Federal Criminal Enforcement Slump

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    Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, now at King & Spalding, explains that the U.S. Department of Justice’s statistical reports reveal that federal authorities are considerably less productive today than in the past, as criminal prosecutions fell in 2022 in every major category, for reasons that are not entirely clear.

  • 5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2024

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    Over the next year and beyond, litigation funding will continue to evolve in ways that affect attorneys and the larger litigation landscape, from the growth of a secondary market for funded claims, to rising interest rates restricting the availability of capital, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.

  • Ill. Justices Set New Standard For Analyzing Defect Claims

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    The Illinois Supreme Court's recent ruling in Acuity v. M/I Homes of Chicago has effectively changed the landscape for how insurers may respond to construction defect claims in the state, so insurers should carefully focus their coverage analysis on whether the business risk exclusions are applicable, say Bevin Carroll and Julie Klein at Kennedys.

  • A Look At Consumer Reporting In 2023, And What's To Come

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    The legal landscape of consumer reporting is evolving as courts, federal regulators and state legislatures continue to weigh in — and while last year may have seen a slight downtick in the overall volume of Fair Credit Reporting Act litigation, 2024 is set to be a watershed year for this area of the law, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • 4 Legal Ethics Considerations For The New Year

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    As attorneys and clients reset for a new year, now is a good time to take a step back and review some core ethical issues that attorneys should keep front of mind in 2024, including approaching generative artificial intelligence with caution and care, and avoiding pitfalls in outside counsel guidelines, say attorneys at HWG.

  • Ill. BIPA Ruling May Spark Violation-Of-Law Exclusion Fight

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    An Illinois appeals court's recent holding in National Fire Insurance v. Visual Pak that a violation-of-law exclusion didn't preclude coverage for an underlying Biometric Information Privacy Act suit contradicts an earlier Seventh Circuit decision that aligns with long-standing insurance law principles — which may lead the state's high court to weigh in, says Tae Andrews at Pasich.

  • What The Law Firm Of The Future Will Look Like

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    As the legal landscape shifts, it’s become increasingly clear that the BigLaw business model must adapt in four key ways to remain viable, from fostering workplace flexibility to embracing technology, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.

  • 4 PR Pointers When Your Case Is In The News

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    Media coverage of new lawsuits exploded last year, demonstrating why defense attorneys should devise a public relations plan that complements their legal strategy, incorporating several objectives to balance ethical obligations and advocacy, say Nathan Burchfiel at Pinkston and Ryan June at Castañeda + Heidelman.

  • Law Firm Strategies For Successfully Navigating 2024 Trends

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    Though law firms face the dual challenge of external and internal pressures as they enter 2024, firms willing to pivot will be able to stand out by adapting to stakeholder needs and reimagining their infrastructure, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants.

  • The Most-Read Legal Industry Law360 Guest Articles Of 2023

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    A range of legal industry topics drew readers' attention in Law360's Expert Analysis section this year, from associate retention strategies to ethical billing practices.

  • Attorneys' Busiest Times Can Be Business Opportunities

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    Attorneys who resolve to grow their revenue and client base in 2024 should be careful not to abandon their goals when they get too busy with client work, because these periods of zero bandwidth can actually be a catalyst for future growth, says Amy Drysdale at Alchemy Consulting.

  • In The World Of Legal Ethics, 10 Trends To Note From 2023

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    Lucian Pera at Adams and Reese and Trisha Rich at Holland & Knight identify the top legal ethics trends from 2023 — including issues related to hot documents, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity — that lawyers should be aware of to put their best foot forward.

  • Lessons Learned From 2023's Top ADA Decisions

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    This year saw the courts delving into the complexities of employee accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act in the post-pandemic workplace, going beyond bright-line rules with fact-intensive inquiries that are likely to create uncertainty for employers, says Linda Dwoskin at Dechert.

  • How Attorneys Can Be More Efficient This Holiday Season

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    Attorneys should consider a few key tips to speed up their work during the holidays so they can join the festivities — from streamlining the document review process to creating similar folder structures, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • 10 Steps To Reduce Risks From AI Employment Tools

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    In light of the White House’s recent executive order on responsible use of artificial intelligence, companies using AI tools to make employment decisions should take steps to understand and mitigate the legal risks posed by these products and keep up with the rapidly evolving regulations that govern them, say attorneys at Cooley.

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