Massachusetts

  • March 20, 2026

    How 1st Circ. Ruling Is Shaping Heck Rule In Probation Cases

    A First Circuit ruling that pretrial probation is not a conviction under the Heck doctrine is now shaping civil rights cases, allowing plaintiffs to pursue claims after criminal charges are dismissed without any guilty plea or admission.

  • March 20, 2026

    Mass. Court Mandates Higher Sentences For Gun Violations

    Two men convicted in Massachusetts in separate incidents of possessing high-capacity firearms or feeding devices were improperly sentenced, the state's highest court said, clarifying guidelines and requiring the pair to be sentenced to more time Friday.

  • March 20, 2026

    Groups Look To Block Interior's National Parks' Signage Order

    A coalition of nonprofits is asking a Massachusetts federal court to block a U.S. Interior Department order that instructed National Park Service staff to remove signage that gives information about slavery, Indigenous history and climate change, arguing that it imposes a broad campaign of censoring disfavored history and science.

  • March 20, 2026

    White House Pushes Congress To Override State AI Laws

    The White House directed Congress to preempt "burdensome" state laws on artificial intelligence in a legislative framework released Friday.

  • March 20, 2026

    Schools Back Delay Of Hasty Trump Admissions Data Demand

    A Trump administration demand for years of college admissions data on race and sex, with just a few months' notice, has "created a perfect storm" for schools scrambling to comply, a coalition of academic organizations has told a Massachusetts federal judge in support of a bid to delay implementation of the new survey.

  • March 20, 2026

    DOJ Threatens Harvard's Funding With Antisemitism Claims

    The Trump administration launched a fresh attack on Harvard University on Friday with a complaint claiming the university has allowed antisemitism to go unchecked on campus, violating Jewish students' rights.

  • March 19, 2026

    HHS Can't Block Trans Care Under Kennedy Edict, Court Says

    A coalition of 21 states and the District of Columbia prevailed on Thursday in their challenge to a Trump administration move to cut access to gender-affirming care for minors when an Oregon federal judge agreed to void a policy statement from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

  • March 19, 2026

    States Join Push To Revive EPA Climate Danger Finding

    A coalition of state and local governments on Thursday became the latest group to ask that the D.C. Circuit overrule the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's rescission last month of its long-held position on the danger greenhouse gases pose to public health.

  • March 19, 2026

    MLB Deals With Polymarket, CFTC For Sports Market 'Integrity'

    Major League Baseball said Thursday that it has struck an exclusive licensing deal with Polymarket to bolster the brand and promote the "integrity" of the baseball-focused prediction markets on the platform, and separately reached a first-of-its-kind information-sharing agreement with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

  • March 19, 2026

    Financial Firms Must Face Suit Over Adviser's Thefts

    A group of investors whose funds were stolen by a now-jailed financial adviser will get another chance to convince a judge the investment firms he worked for should be held civilly liable, a Massachusetts intermediate appellate court ruled Thursday.

  • March 19, 2026

    Live Nation CEO Says He Can't Recall 'Market Power' Remark

    Live Nation's longtime CEO sparred Thursday with states that say the $36 billion entertainment giant engages in monopolization, telling a Manhattan federal jury the business is a "better mousetrap" than rivals and saying he couldn't recall telling investors the company has "incredible market power."  

  • March 19, 2026

    Judge Tosses Bias Suit Over Boston School Admissions

    Three elite public schools in Boston dodged a challenge to their competitive admissions process Thursday, with a federal judge saying white students' theory of discrimination has been rejected by the courts before.

  • March 18, 2026

    13 State AGs Urge EPA To Walk Back 'Compliance First' Memo

    Attorneys general for New York, Massachusetts, Washington and 10 other states have called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to rescind a December memo unveiling a "compliance first" approach to enforcement, arguing the strategy sidelines staff expertise and creates "bureaucratic bottlenecks" that will ultimately enable polluters.

  • March 18, 2026

    EPA Pushes For Win In Solar Grant Fight

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told a Washington federal judge it reasonably terminated billions of dollars in grants for solar energy projects after Congress passed the 2025 federal budget bill, so a coalition of states can't challenge its decision.

  • March 18, 2026

    Ed. Dept. Flouting Mental Health Funding Order, States Claim

    The U.S. Department of Education is flouting orders that it fund K-12 mental health grants given to public schools by only partially funding the grants and threatening to withhold remaining funds, a group of state attorneys general told a Washington federal court.

  • March 18, 2026

    Philips, Fitbit End Fight Over Health Monitoring Patents

    Philips North America and Google-owned Fitbit have agreed to resolve their yearslong patent fight over health monitoring fitness-tracking technologies in wearable devices, according to a stipulation filed Tuesday in Massachusetts federal court. 

  • March 18, 2026

    Prior Counsel In Settled EBay Harassment Case Eyes Payment

    An attorney who previously represented a Massachusetts couple in a harassment lawsuit against eBay and three former executives has asked a federal judge to hold off on entering a dismissal in the now-settled case until she receives assurances she will be paid.

  • March 18, 2026

    Boston Firefighter Union's OT Win Vacated By Judge

    A Massachusetts state judge has ruled that Boston can limit the availability of overtime shifts for certain union employees in the fire department, finding the move is a staffing decision not subject to mandatory bargaining.

  • March 18, 2026

    Biotech Investor Blames Pierce Atwood For Messy Asset Sale

    A Ukrainian billionaire who was recently ordered to pay other investors in a failed genetic testing company more than $1.8 million in damages is blaming the Pierce Atwood LLP lawyers who advised him on what a court later found to be a "fundamentally unfair" forced asset sale.

  • March 18, 2026

    Wall Street Giants Challenge Chip Co. Stock Scheme Claims

    Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC and Interactive Brokers Group Inc. have asked a New York federal court to dismiss them from a stock manipulation suit filed by an investor in Israeli chipmaker Eltek Ltd., arguing the complaint's claims that they depressed the company's share prices are contradictory.

  • March 17, 2026

    1st Circ. Pauses 3rd-Nation Deportations Ruling During Appeal

    The First Circuit has granted the Trump administration a stay pending appeal of a Massachusetts federal court ruling that a class of noncitizens facing removal to countries to which they have no ties must receive meaningful notice and an opportunity to raise fears about being deported to those countries.

  • March 17, 2026

    Mich. AG Joins Fair Housing Laws Fight Against HUD Guidance

    Michigan's attorney general spoke Tuesday about joining 15 states and the District of Columbia in a California federal suit claiming the Trump administration undermines enforcement of fair housing laws by threatening to halt funding for local government programs protecting people discriminated against for gender and sexual orientation, among other things.

  • March 17, 2026

    Private School Founder Forged Letter Of Credit, Suit Says

    The now-suspended founder and director of a group of private primary schools in Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, used a bogus letter of credit to execute a $12.5 million lease, which the landlord discovered after the school abandoned its expansion plan amid public opposition, a lawsuit filed in Massachusetts state court alleges.

  • March 17, 2026

    Bimbo Bakeries Can't Steer Driver Suit To Arbitration

    A Massachusetts federal magistrate judge won't ship to arbitration a pair of New England drivers' claims that Bimbo Bakeries USA misclassifies them as independent contractors, finding that the drivers are covered by an exception to the federal arbitration statute.

  • March 17, 2026

    2nd Circ. Panel Not Sold On Ivy League Players' Antitrust Suit

    A Second Circuit panel seemed inclined Tuesday to uphold a Connecticut federal judge's dismissal of a challenge to the Ivy League's ban on athletic scholarships, though one judge suggested reviving the case to probe whether students properly pled antitrust injury.

Expert Analysis

  • AI Litigation Tools Can Enhance Case Assessment, Strategy

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    Civil litigators can use artificial intelligence tools to strengthen case assessment and aid in early strategy development, as long as they address the risks and ethical considerations that accompany these uses, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Attys Beware: Generative AI Can Also Hallucinate Metadata

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    In addition to the well-known problem of AI-generated hallucinations in legal documents, AI tools can also hallucinate metadata — threatening the integrity of discovery, the reliability of evidence and the ability to definitively identify the provenance of electronic documents, say attorneys at Law & Forensics.

  • How 9th Circ. Ruling Deepens SEC Disgorgement Circuit Split

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent decision in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Sripetch creates opposing disgorgement rules in the two circuits where the SEC brings a large proportion of enforcement actions — the Second and Ninth — and increases the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court will step in, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • When Atty Ethics Violations Give Rise To Causes Of Action

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    Though the Model Rules of Professional Conduct make clear that a violation of the rules does not automatically create a cause of action, attorneys should beware of a few scenarios in which they could face lawsuits for ethical lapses, says Brian Faughnan at Faughnan Law.

  • Series

    Practicing Stoicism Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Practicing Stoicism, by applying reason to ignore my emotions and govern my decisions, has enabled me to approach challenging situations in a structured way, ultimately providing advice singularly devoted to a client's interest, says John Baranello at Moses & Singer.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Texas, One Year In

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    A year after the Texas Business Court's first decision, it's clear that Texas didn't just copy Delaware and instead built something uniquely its own, combining specialization with constitutional accountability and creating a model that looks forward without losing touch with the state's democratic and statutory roots, says Chris Bankler at Jackson Walker.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Educating Your Community

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    Nearly two decades prosecuting scammers and elder fraud taught me that proactively educating the public about the risks they face and the rights they possess is essential to building trust within our communities, empowering otherwise vulnerable citizens and preventing wrongdoers from gaining a foothold, says Roger Handberg at GrayRobinson.

  • Federal Grantees May Soon Face More Limitations On Speech

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    If courts accept the administration’s new interpretation of preexisting case law, which attempts to graft onto grant recipients the existing limitations on government contractors' free speech, a more deferential standard may soon apply in determining whether an agency’s refusal or termination of a grant was in violation of the First Amendment, say attorneys at Venable.

  • What To Know About Interim Licenses In Global FRAND Cases

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    Recent U.K. court decisions have shaped a framework for interim licenses in global standard-essential patent disputes, under which parties can benefit from operating on temporary terms while a court determines the final fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms — but the future of this developing remedy is in doubt, say attorneys at Fish & Richardson.

  • 5 Crisis Lawyering Skills For An Age Of Uncertainty

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    As attorneys increasingly face unprecedented and pervasive situations — from prosecutions of law enforcement officials to executive orders targeting law firms — they must develop several essential competencies of effective crisis lawyering, says Ray Brescia at Albany Law School.

  • Opinion

    It's Time For The Judiciary To Fix Its Cybersecurity Problem

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    After recent reports that hackers have once again infiltrated federal courts’ electronic case management systems, the judiciary should strengthen its cybersecurity practices in line with executive branch standards, outlining clear roles and responsibilities for execution, says Ilona Cohen at HackerOne.

  • Series

    Writing Novels Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Writing my debut novel taught me to appreciate the value of critique and to never give up, no matter how long or tedious the journey, providing me with valuable skills that I now emphasize in my practice, says Daniel Buzzetta at BakerHostetler.

  • New Mass. 'Junk Fee' Regs Will Be Felt Across Industries

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    The reach of a newly effective regulation prohibiting so-called junk fees and deceptive pricing in Massachusetts will be widespread across industries, which should prompt businesses to take note of new advertising, pricing information and negative option requirements, say attorneys at Hinshaw.

  • SDNY OpenAI Order Clarifies Preservation Standards For AI

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    The Southern District of New York’s recent order in the OpenAI copyright infringement litigation, denying discovery of The New York Times' artificial intelligence technology use, clarifies that traditional preservation benchmarks apply to AI content, relieving organizations from using a “keep everything” approach, says Philip Favro at Favro Law.

  • State Paid Leave Laws Are Changing Employer Obligations

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    A wave of new and expanded state laws covering paid family, medical and sick leave will test multistate compliance systems, marking a fundamental operational shift for employers that requires proactive planning, system modernization and policy alignment to manage simultaneous state and federal obligations, says Madjeen Garcon-Bonneau at PrestigePEO.

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