Massachusetts

  • March 18, 2024

    Ex-Immigration Judges Say Mistake Warrants Asylum Redo

    Dozens of former immigration judges pressed the First Circuit to grant a second shot at asylum for a Salvadoran woman fearing gang violence, saying an immigration judge had erred by not asking her if she belonged to an asylum-eligible community. 

  • March 18, 2024

    Battle Over Mass. Rezoning Law Headed To High Court In Fall

    The Massachusetts attorney general's lawsuit to force a Boston suburb to comply with an ambitious housing law was fast-tracked Monday to the state's high court later this year, as more than a hundred towns around Boston watch how the dispute plays out.

  • March 18, 2024

    Leerink Enticed Goldman Exec With False Promises, Suit Says

    An investment banker says she was lured away from a senior position at Goldman Sachs to Boston-based Leerink Partners with what turned out to be a meaningless job title and false promises of guaranteed bonuses, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Massachusetts state court.

  • March 18, 2024

    Tennis Job No Reason To Slice 'Varsity Blues' Term, Feds Say

    A tennis instructor job in New York is no reason to grant an early end to the home confinement portion of a sentence given to a former Georgetown University coach for his role in the "Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal, prosecutors told a Massachusetts federal judge Monday.

  • March 18, 2024

    Mass. Law Firm Can't Escape Ex-Client's Data Breach Case

    A small Massachusetts law firm will have to face an ex-client's class action claiming it was negligent and failed to protect her and others' personal information from hackers who breached the firm's computers and stole data, a Boston federal judge has ruled.

  • March 18, 2024

    Marriott Must Face Suit For Booting Kidswear Wholesalers

    Marriott International must face a suit by two clothing wholesalers who were kicked out of rooms at a Fairfield Inn just outside Boston for violating an undisclosed "non-solicitation" policy, a Massachusetts appellate court said Monday.

  • March 18, 2024

    Feds Want 12 Years For Ex-Broker In Fraud, Tax Case

    A former mortgage broker whose decadelong fraud scheme tricked more than a dozen people out of $8 million and caused more than $3 million in tax losses should spend 12 and a half years in prison, the government told a Rhode Island federal court.

  • March 18, 2024

    Mass. Condo Owners Didn't Prove Property Was Overvalued

    Two Massachusetts property owners failed to prove their condominium was overvalued in the 2022 tax year because they didn't account for differences in the comparable properties they offered, the state tax board said in a decision released Monday.

  • March 15, 2024

    Awning Maker Can't Shade Itself From CPSC Defect Lawsuit

    Awning maker SunSetter can't evade claims it concealed an allegedly deadly defect by arguing that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is unconstitutional, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled, leaning on a Fifth Circuit ruling that may not be long for this world.

  • March 15, 2024

    Harvard Enabled Anti-Asian Bias Against Professor, Suit Says

    Administrators at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design failed to take action after an associate professor from China complained about years of what she believed was discriminatory treatment by a colleague, a lawsuit filed Friday in Massachusetts state court alleges.

  • March 15, 2024

    Transit Agency Must Face Suit Over Driver's Alleged Assault

    A Massachusetts law that shields government agencies from liability in some situations doesn't give immunity to a transit authority for continuing to employ a bus driver who allegedly had a history of violence and went on to seriously assault a pedestrian, an intermediate state appellate court determined Friday.

  • March 15, 2024

    Feds Want 6 Years For 'Poster Boy' Of Mass. Police Corruption

    Boston federal prosecutors have recommended nearly 6 years in prison for a former Massachusetts trooper who they say is the living embodiment of police misconduct in light of his trial convictions for stealing overtime pay, lying on his taxes and cheating to get student financial aid for his son.

  • March 15, 2024

    Cannabis Sellers Want $6M Fees Refunded From Mass. Town

    A group of cannabis retailers are suing Great Barrington, Massachusetts, saying the town has illegally collected nearly $6 million in community impact fees, despite admitting in writing that the companies have caused virtually no costs to the town.

  • March 14, 2024

    Chancery Sends Drone-Maker's Claim To Sister Court

    A Delaware vice chancellor handed off to a regular civil court Thursday remaining claims in drone-maker Teal Drones Inc.'s suit accusing a software supplier and its owner of wrongly pulling the plug on Teal's license for autonomous-flight programming, after tossing claims against the supplier itself.

  • March 14, 2024

    Mass. Lobstermen Win Case Fighting Feds' Fishing Closure

    A Massachusetts federal judge ruled Thursday that the National Marine Fisheries Service illegally closed a 200-square-mile swath of ocean to protect the endangered North Atlantic Right Whales, backing a legal challenge by a lobster fishing industry group.

  • March 14, 2024

    Cannabis Cos. Say Federal Position On Pot Is Irrational

    The federal ban on marijuana is plainly irrational and negatively affects operators in state-regulated cannabis markets, depriving them of their constitutional rights, a group of marijuana companies told a Massachusetts federal judge on Friday.

  • March 14, 2024

    Mass. High Court Says Tufts Win In Tenure Case 'Premature'

    Tenured professors at Tufts University whose salaries were slashed under a newly enacted requirement that they bring in at least half their income through research grants will have another chance to prove those pay cuts undermine academic freedom, Massachusetts' highest court said Thursday.

  • March 14, 2024

    NLRB Certifies Dartmouth Men's Basketball Player Union

    Dartmouth College must bargain with its men's basketball team after the National Labor Relations Board certified the players' recent landmark vote to unionize with the Service Employees International Union on Thursday, but a legal challenge looms.

  • March 14, 2024

    Most States Fall Short In Disclosing Justices' Finance Reports

    The vast majority of state supreme courts make it exceedingly difficult for the public to get information about justices' financial entanglements, and the information they do give out is often scant at best, according to a report released Thursday.

  • March 14, 2024

    Ex-Mass. Pol Says Federalism Bars COVID Fraud Cases

    A former Massachusetts state senator charged with collecting CARES Act-funded unemployment benefits while being paid for consulting work said in a motion filed Thursday that the 10th Amendment prohibits the federal government from prosecuting him for actions that occurred at the state level.

  • March 14, 2024

    Feds Seek 20 Mos. For Aegerion Fraud 'Puppet Master'

    A pharmaceutical sales representative who gloated about being a "puppet master" for false insurance claims for Aegerion's cholesterol drug should serve 20 months in prison, the U.S. government has told a Boston federal judge.

  • March 13, 2024

    Mass. Gov. Announces Pardon Plan For Marijuana Possession

    Massachusetts Gov. Maura T. Healey on Wednesday announced plans for sweeping pardons of misdemeanor cannabis possession convictions, following the directive of President Joe Biden, who urged state executives to follow his lead in pardoning low-level marijuana offenses.

  • March 13, 2024

    Ex-NFLer Faced Racism As School Superintendent, Suit Says

    A former NFL player was subjected to racism as the first Black superintendent of schools in Wayland, Massachusetts, and was forced out of his job when he took steps to address it, according to a suit filed Wednesday in state court.

  • March 13, 2024

    IRobot, SharkNinja Settle Last Of Roomba Patent Fight

    IRobot and SharkNinja have reached a settlement in principle to resolve what remains of a long-standing patent dispute related to the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner.

  • March 13, 2024

    Mass. Justice Presses AG On Fast-Track Bid For Zoning Case

    A Massachusetts high court justice on Wednesday expressed concerns about the state attorney general's aggressive bid to fast-track the enforcement of a divisive housing law to the full court as soon as May.  

Expert Analysis

  • CSA Case Could Shift Intrastate Commercial Cannabis

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    In Canna Provisions v. Merrick Garland, cannabis companies argue that the Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to intrastate commercial cannabis activity; the Massachusetts federal court's eventual decision will be important to the cannabis industry for several reasons, including that the threat of federal enforcement would disappear overnight, says Hilary Bricken at Husch Blackwell.

  • What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks

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    Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.

  • Business Litigators Have A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment

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    As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.

  • What FTC's 'Killer Acquisition' Theory Means For Pharma Cos.

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent lawsuit to block Sanofi's acquisition of a pharmaceutical treatment developed by Maze Therapeutics builds on previous enforcement actions and could indicate the agency's growing willingness to use its so-called killer acquisition theory against perceived attempts to eliminate nascent competition, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Series

    Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    A lifetime of skiing has helped me develop important professional skills, and taught me that embracing challenges with a spirit of adventure can allow lawyers to push boundaries, expand their capabilities and ultimately excel in their careers, says Andrea Przybysz at Tucker Ellis.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC

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    The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Employer Pointers As Wage And Hour AI Risks Emerge

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    Following the Biden administration's executive order on artificial intelligence, employers using or considering artificial intelligence tools should carefully assess whether such use could increase their exposure to liability under federal and state wage and hour laws, and be wary of algorithmic discrimination, bias and inaccurate or incomplete reporting, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • The Pros And Cons Of Protecting AI As Trade Secrets

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    Despite regulatory trends toward greater transparency of artificial intelligence models, federal policy acknowledges, and perhaps endorses, trade secret protection for AI information, but there are still hurdles in keeping AI information a secret, say Jennifer Maisel and Andrew Stewart at Rothwell Figg.

  • How Firms Can Ensure Associate Gender Parity Lasts

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    Among associates, women now outnumber men for the first time, but progress toward gender equality at the top of the legal profession remains glacially slow, and firms must implement time-tested solutions to ensure associates’ gender parity lasts throughout their careers, say Kelly Culhane and Nicole Joseph at Culhane Meadows.

  • Regulatory Trends Offer 4 Lessons For Debt Relief Providers

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    A string of enforcement actions, including a New York lawsuit filed last month by seven states and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, underscore the regulatory scrutiny that debt relief and credit repair companies face and offer important lessons on telemarketing and deceptive practices compliance, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 7 Common Myths About Lateral Partner Moves

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    As lateral recruiting remains a key factor for law firm growth, partners considering a lateral move should be aware of a few commonly held myths — some of which contain a kernel of truth, and some of which are flat out wrong, says Dave Maurer at Major Lindsey.

  • 2 Emerging Defenses For Website Tracking Class Actions

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    Putative class actions premised on state wiretapping statutes that bar website activity tracking continue to be on the rise, but they are increasingly being dismissed on two procedural grounds, says Sheri Pan at ZwillGen.

  • Series

    Cheering In The NFL Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Balancing my time between a BigLaw career and my role as an NFL cheerleader has taught me that pursuing your passions outside of work is not a distraction, but rather an opportunity to harness important skills that can positively affect how you approach work and view success in your career, says Rachel Schuster at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 6 Pointers For Attys To Build Trust, Credibility On Social Media

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    In an era of information overload, attorneys can use social media strategically — from making infographics to leveraging targeted advertising — to cut through the noise and establish a reputation among current and potential clients, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.

  • 5 Lessons For SaaS Companies After Blackbaud Data Breach

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    Looking at the enforcement actions that software-as-a-service provider Blackbaud resolved with state attorneys general, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission in the past year can help SaaS companies manage these increasingly common forms of data breaches, say attorneys at Orrick.

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