Illinois

  • October 16, 2025

    Protests Aren't Rebellions Justifying The Guard, 7th Circ. Says

    The Seventh Circuit elaborated Thursday on its reasoning for denying the Trump administration's request to stay a ruling blocking the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago, noting that "spirited, sustained and occasionally violent actions" of protest demonstrators, without more, don't constitute a "rebellion" that would justify deploying the Guard.

  • October 16, 2025

    7th Circ. Affirms French Montana's Win In Copyright Case

    The Seventh Circuit on Thursday backed French Montana's win in a copyright case brought by a musician who alleged the rapper sampled his instrumental song to make the hit single "Ain't Worried About Nothin'," saying there wasn't evidence to show Montana duplicated the work "as opposed to merely imitating it."

  • October 16, 2025

    Fans Drop Biometric Privacy Suit Against Chicago Cubs

    Baseball game attendees who accused the Chicago Cubs of collecting, without consent, the biometric data of millions of fans at Wrigley Field have agreed to drop their proposed class action claims against the team and others.

  • October 16, 2025

    Songwriters Claim Udio AI Was Trained On Copyrighted Music

    A group of songwriters is suing artificial intelligence company Udio AI, claiming its music-generating AI models were trained using copyrighted music scraped from the internet.

  • October 16, 2025

    USDA Can't Curb SNAP Benefits As States Fight Data Demand

    A California federal judge on Wednesday preliminarily blocked the U.S. Department of Agriculture from withholding potentially billions of dollars in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit funds from states that refuse to turn over highly sensitive personal information on millions of SNAP food assistance benefit recipients.

  • October 16, 2025

    Insurer Didn't Owe Coverage To IT Co. In BIPA Violation Suit

    An insurer had no duty to defend or indemnify an information technology company in a class action alleging violations of Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act, a state appeals court affirmed, finding that underlying events occurred before the claims-made policy's retroactive date.

  • October 16, 2025

    States Battle Trump Admin To Recover Solar Program Funds

    Attorneys general from across the country are suing the Trump administration for allegedly violating the Constitution and federal law by canceling a $7 billion program providing solar equipment to low-income households.

  • October 16, 2025

    Trump Taps V&E's Swett As New FERC Chair

    President Donald Trump will appoint Vinson & Elkins LLP energy regulatory counsel Laura Swett as chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the White House confirmed to Law360 Thursday.

  • October 16, 2025

    Tech Co. Gets Ex-Employee's Bias Suit Shipped To Texas

    An information technology services company must face a Black former employee's lawsuit claiming she was fired for complaining about a supervisor's racist remarks, an Illinois federal judge ruled, but said the case should be sent to Texas based on the worker's employment agreement.

  • October 16, 2025

    Ill. Judge Tosses Law Firm's $36M Pandemic Loan Fraud Suit

    An Illinois federal judge dismissed a Michigan law firm's $36 million whistleblower suit against dozens of automotive dealerships, ruling that the information underpinning its claims of pandemic loan fraud was already publicly available.

  • October 15, 2025

    $60M Deal Gets Final OK Over Adviser's Role In Ponzi Scheme

    An Illinois state judge on Wednesday gave the final nod to a settlement deal that includes a $60 million judgment, ending investors' negligence claims against their investment adviser, though claims remain ongoing against a movie producer who allegedly misused their investment funds.

  • October 15, 2025

    Proposed Bill Could Stall NFL Bears' Suburban Stadium Plan

    A member of the Illinois General Assembly has introduced a bill that could delay the Chicago Bears' efforts to build a stadium in the suburbs by requiring a 30-day window to review any proposed state or local agreements on new or renovated pro sports stadiums.

  • October 15, 2025

    States Want To Keep Eye On $14B HPE-Juniper Deal Review

    The Justice Department is in the middle of trying to settle its challenge to Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks, but a dozen states are now trying to get involved and have asked a California federal judge to allow them to intervene in the litigation.

  • October 15, 2025

    Munchkin Wants $3.9M Sippy Cup Verdict Boosted To $8.2M

    Munchkin Inc. has asked an Illinois federal court to award it almost $8.2 million in damages after a jury last month said baby product maker TOMY International owes it $3.9 million for infringing a pair of patents on a spill-proof cup.

  • October 15, 2025

    Bankruptcy Can't End Caterpillar Privacy Suit, Ex-Worker Says

    A former Caterpillar employee urged an Illinois federal judge on Tuesday not to let his bankruptcy spell doom for his lawsuit claiming the machinery manufacturer illegally collects applicants' family medical histories, arguing he properly used a 'wildcard exemption' to shield his assets from creditors.

  • October 15, 2025

    Chief Judge Bars Civil Arrests In Cook County Courts

    Cook County's top judge issued an order Wednesday prohibiting the warrantless civil arrest of individuals attending court proceedings in Chicago-area state courthouses, as the federal government has ramped up immigration enforcement and arrests in the area.

  • October 15, 2025

    States Seek To Revive FEMA's Disaster-Mitigation Funding

    A group of 22 states and the District of Columbia urged a Massachusetts federal court Wednesday to block the Trump administration's termination of a disaster mitigation program under the Federal Emergency Management Agency, arguing such authority lies with Congress.

  • October 15, 2025

    Loan Originator Gets 1½ Years For $10M Mortgage Fraud

    An Illinois federal judge sentenced a loan originator to 1½ years in prison Wednesday for his role in a lengthy and complex mortgage fraud scheme that involved conning elderly victims out of an estimated $10 million in home equity.

  • October 14, 2025

    Mass. Judge Strikes Down Pentagon's Research Rate Cap

    A Massachusetts federal judge ruled that the U.S. Department of Defense unlawfully capped universities' indirect research cost reimbursements at 15%, calling the move a sudden break from six decades of agency practice that lacks justification and ignores federal regulations. 

  • October 14, 2025

    Ill. Jury Awards Record $104M For Construction Zone Crash

    A Chicago-area jury has awarded $104.6 million to a couple who were riding in a limo when it crashed due to the allegedly negligent design of a highway construction zone, handing up the largest road construction verdict in Illinois history, according to plaintiffs' counsel.

  • October 14, 2025

    State Farm Must Submit Underwriting Data, Ill. Regulator Says

    Illinois' director of insurance accused State Farm of failing to turn over nationwide data at a zip-code level relating to its homeowners insurance business, telling a state court that the insurance giant has relied on two "legally baseless objections" to avoid its data-sharing obligations.

  • October 14, 2025

    Hytera 'Can't Be Trusted,' Motorola Says In Push For Payment

    Motorola Solutions argued Tuesday that Chinese rival Hytera Communications Corp. should pay the full $371.7 million it still owes on a 2020 judgment and be permanently blocked from selling any mobile two-way radios using stolen source code so their long-running trade theft dispute in Illinois federal court can be brought to a just close.

  • October 14, 2025

    United Airlines Workers Ask Justices To Revive Vax Battle

    United Airlines workers urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their push to reinstate a suit over the company's COVID-19 vaccination mandate, arguing the justices should clarify whether federal law safeguards an employee's right to refuse drugs approved during national emergencies.

  • October 14, 2025

    Judge Slams Feds' 'Ham-Handed' Bid To Skirt DHS Aid Order

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies did "precisely" what a Rhode Island federal court forbade when they recently told states that they must agree to help with immigration enforcement in order to receive disaster and security funding, a judge ruled Tuesday.

  • October 14, 2025

    Ex-Illinois Privacy Chief Joins BakerHostetler In Chicago

    BakerHostetler has hired the former chief privacy officer in the data security unit of the Office of the Illinois Attorney General as a digital assets and data management partner in Chicago, the firm announced Tuesday.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • Managing Risks As State AGs Seek To Fill Enforcement Gap

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    Given an unprecedented surge in state attorney general activity resulting from significant shifts in federal enforcement priorities, companies must consider tailored strategies for navigating the ever-evolving risk landscape, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Skillful Persuasion

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    In many ways, law school teaches us how to argue, but when the ultimate goal is to get your client what they want, being persuasive through preparation and humility is the more likely key to success, says Michael Friedland at Friedland Cianfrani.

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