Expert Analysis

• Making The Pitch To Grow Your Company's Legal Team

  

  In a compressed economy, convincing the C-suite to invest in additional legal talent can be a herculean task, but a convincing pitch — supported by metrics and cost analyses — may help in-house counsel justify the growth of their team, say Elizabeth Smith and Roger Garceau at Major Lindsey.

• Data Privacy Landscape After Mass. Justices' Wiretap Ruling

  

  In Vita v. New England Baptist Hospital, Massachusetts’ highest court recently ruled that the state’s wiretap law doesn’t prohibit all tracking of website user activity, but major financial and reputational risks remain for businesses that aren't transparent about customer’s web data, says Seth Berman at Nutter.

• Opinion

  Justices Rightly Corrected Course In Nvidia And Facebook

  

  By dismissing both the Nvidia and Facebook class actions, over investors' ability to hold corporations accountable for fraud, the U.S. Supreme Court was right in refusing to favor corporations over transparency, and reaffirmed its commitment to corporate accountability, investor protection and the rule of law, says Laura Posner at Cohen Milstein.

• Del. Dispatch: The 2024 Corporate Cases You Need To Know

  

  The Delaware Court of Chancery in 2024 issued several decisions that some viewed as upending long-standing corporate practices, leading to the amendment of the Delaware General Corporation Law and debates at some Delaware corporations about potentially reincorporating to another state, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

• When US Privilege Law Applies To Docs Made Outside The US

  

  As globalization manifests itself in disputes over foreign-created documents, a California federal court’s recent trademark decision illustrates nuances of both U.S. privilege frameworks and foreign evidentiary protections that attorneys must increasingly bear in mind, say attorneys at Hunton.

• Notable 2024 Trademark Cases And What To Watch In 2025

  

  Emerging disputes between established tech giants and smaller trademark holders promise to test the boundaries of trademark protection in 2025, following a 2024 marked with disputes in areas ranging from cybersquatting to geographic marks, says Danner Kline at Bradley Arant.

• Why Class Cert. Is Unlikely In Cases Like Mattel 'Wicked' Suit

  

  A proposed class action recently filed in California federal court against Mattel over the company's "Wicked" doll boxes accidentally listing a pornographic website illustrates the uphill battle plaintiffs face in certifying a class when many consumers never saw or relied on the representation at issue, says Alex Smith at Jenner & Block.

• What 2024 Trends In Marketing, Comms Hiring Mean For 2025

  

  The state of hiring in legal industry marketing, business development and communications over the past 12 months was marked by a number of trends — from changes in the C-suite to lateral move challenges — providing clues for what’s to come in the year ahead, says Ben Curle at Ambition.

• Opinion

  How The Onion Could Still Buy InfoWars

  

  While a Texas bankruptcy judge nixed the sale of InfoWars to The Onion on Tuesday, a slight tweak to the novel mechanism proposed could make the sale approvable, says Christopher Hampson at the University of Florida.

• Series

  Group Running Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  The combination of physical fitness and community connection derived from running with a group of business leaders has, among other things, helped me to stay grounded, improve my communication skills, and develop a deeper empathy for clients and colleagues, says Jessica Shpall Rosen at Greenwald Doherty.

• Opinion

  6 Changes I Would Make If I Ran A Law School

  

  Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner identifies several key issues plaguing law schools and discusses potential solutions, such as opting out of the rankings game and mandating courses in basic writing skills.

• From Football To Pickleball, Sports Investing Evolved In 2024

  

  The NFL's decision to allow private-equity investments in football franchises capped off a transformative year in U.S. sports that also included landmark PE transactions in emerging sports ranging from women's soccer to pickleball, say attorneys at Weil.

• Using Data To Inform Corporate Disclosure Decisions

  

  With today’s market volatility and regulatory factors requiring public companies to confront competing transparency and protection demands, incorporating stock price reaction analysis of company-specific news into the controller's role could be beneficial for disclosure determinations, say Liz Dunshee at Fredrikson & Byron and Nessim Mezrahi at SAR.

• How White Collar Attys Can Use Mythic Archetypes At Trial

  

  A careful reading of a classic screenwriting guide shows that fairy tales and white collar trials actually have a lot in common, and defense attorneys would do well to tell a hero’s journey at trial, relying on universal character archetypes to connect with the jury, says Jack Sharman at Lightfoot Franklin.

• Firms Still Have The Edge In Lateral Hiring, But Buyer Beware

  

  Partner mobility data suggests that the third quarter of this year continued to be a buyer’s market, with the average candidate demanding less compensation for a larger book of business — but moving into the fourth quarter, firms should slow down their hiring process to minimize risks, say officers at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.