The U.S. Department of Labor's work to finalize a 401(k) investment selection safe harbor and plans for a new mental health parity rule are among the top employee benefits policy issues that attorneys are watching for in the latter half of 2026. Here, Law360 looks at four that practitioners say they're keeping an eye on.
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MONDAY, JULY 13, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

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Analysis

4 Benefits Policy Issues To Watch In 2026's 2nd Half

By Kellie Mejdrich

The U.S. Department of Labor's work to finalize a 401(k) investment selection safe harbor and plans for a new mental health parity rule are among the top employee benefits policy issues that attorneys are watching for in the latter half of 2026. Here, Law360 looks at four that practitioners say they're keeping an eye on.

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Fla. High Court Backs Broad Reading Of Workers' Comp Law

By Grace Elletson

Florida's Supreme Court rejected an appeals court's narrow take on the state's workers' compensation law that shut down a manager's bid for benefits after he was shot while walking out of work, ruling he can get paid if he shows his work environment increased his risk of assault.

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JPMorgan Workers Defend ERISA Suit Over High Drug Costs

By Sydney Price

JPMorgan employees urged a New York federal judge on Friday not to end their Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit alleging they paid too much for prescription drugs, arguing JPMorgan still has not shown that its contract with its pharmacy benefit manager was reasonable.

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AT&T Inks $184M Deal To End Pension Mortality Data Suit

By Grace Elletson

AT&T has brokered a $184 million deal to close a 300,000-member proposed class action claiming the telecommunications company used outdated mortality data to calculate pension payments, causing some employees to see less in benefits than others.

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LITIGATION

Conservative Investors Ask To Drop Airbnb Investor Suit

By Sydney Price

Two right-leaning institutional shareholders who alleged Airbnb wrongly excluded shareholder proposals from proxy materials have asked a Delaware federal court to dismiss their dispute.

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Oura Health Swaps In Sidley For Quinn After Ex-CEO's DQ Bid

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal judge granted Oura Health's request to swap in Sidley Austin LLP for Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP in breach-of-contract litigation by the fitness tracker company's former CEO after the ex-executive sought to disqualify Quinn Emanuel for purportedly having access to his confidential data.

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NFL Plan Wants Ex-Players' Latest Class Cert. Bid Denied

By Kellie Mejdrich

The National Football League's disability plan urged a Maryland federal judge not to certify a class of former NFL players who say they were wrongly denied benefits in violation of federal law, arguing there were too many disparities between their claims to warrant the court's signoff.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

A New Regulatory Environment For PE In Calif. Healthcare

The California Office of Health Care Affordability's proposed revisions to its cost and market impact review regulations, amid broader state scrutiny of private equity-backed healthcare arrangements, represent a qualitative shift in California's regulatory posture toward institutional healthcare investment, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

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Roundup

The Most Talked-About Supreme Court Decisions Of 2026

This term, 11 U.S. Supreme Court decisions quickly became hot topics among Law360's guest writers.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Over 2,600 Attys, Professionals Urge Blocking Blanche As AG

By Emma Cueto

More than 2,600 lawyers and legal professionals on Friday urged lawmakers to oppose the nomination of Todd Blanche for attorney general, saying Blanche's dismissal of the idea that the U.S. Department of Justice should be independent from the White House and his record as interim attorney general make him unfit for the role.

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HHS' Ex-GC Committed Ethics Violations, Watchdog Says

By Craig Clough

A watchdog organization filed a complaint Thursday with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General seeking an investigation into former HHS general counsel Michael Stuart over alleged federal ethics violations, saying it appears he failed to divest from prohibited financial holdings and made prohibited investment purchases after taking office.

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Atty's 'Fabricated Quotes,' 'Reliance on AI' Panned By Judge

By Craig Clough

A New York magistrate judge struck a brief Friday filed by an attorney representing a client suing Roc Nation after finding that it included numerous fabrications that may have resulted from artificial intelligence hallucinations, noting that the attorney has been "repeatedly" sanctioned or warned by multiple courts for the same behavior. 

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11th Circ. Refers Atty For Discipline Over Suspected AI Entries

By Katherine Smith

The Eleventh Circuit on Friday referred an attorney for potential discipline over a brief he filed in a client's retaliation lawsuit against the Florida Department of Corrections, ruling that the attorney failed to explain how several defective quotes and citations ended up in the brief.

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Baker Donelson Wins $45K From Tenn. Firm Over AI Misuse

By Lynn LaRowe

Tennessee personal injury firm Reaves Law Firm PLLC must pay more than $45,000 in attorney fees to Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC over Reaves Law's misuse of artificial intelligence in a federal malpractice suit against Baker Donelson.

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Davis Wright Atty Hit With Sanctions After Winning Sanctions

By Jeff Overley

After defending six-figure sanctions of plaintiffs lawyers for "a reckless course of prolonging litigation," a Davis Wright Tremaine LLP attorney is facing his own six-figure sanctions, with a California magistrate judge finding he "unnecessarily burdened" opposing counsel despite warnings dating back years about "improper litigation tactics."

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NY Nonprofits Want ICE Docs On Courthouse Arrest Policies

By Stewart Bishop

Nonprofit groups suing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over courthouse arrest policies pressed a Manhattan federal judge to force the agency to produce documents and testimony concerning arrests it conducts outside immigration courts after the agency's revised policy concerning such arrests in Manhattan was put on hold.

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Brooklyn Legal Aid Provider's Union Sets Strike Deadline

By Andrea Keckley

The union for the Brooklyn Defender Services has voted to authorize a strike if it doesn't reach an agreement with managers by the morning of July 16.

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11th Circ. Upholds Airline's Win In COVID Discrimination Case

By Irene Spezzamonte

A group of workers for a commercial airline and a related entity failed to support their claims that the companies' COVID-19 pandemic-era policies discriminated against their religious beliefs, the Eleventh Circuit ruled Friday, while sharply criticizing their attorney for his misuse of artificial intelligence.

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UChicago Law Takes On AI With Phone And Laptop Ban

By Matt Perez

The University of Chicago Law School will prohibit the use of electronic devices such as laptops, tablets and phones in all first-year law school sections and courses as part of new policies dictating the use of artificial intelligence at the school.

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4 Takeaways From Probe Of Feb. 2025 Calif. Bar Exam Fiasco

By Emily Sawicki

Poor implementation of the February 2025 California Bar Exam resulted in millions of dollars in extra costs and negatively affected "a significant portion" of test-takers, according to a new report by the California State Auditor.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen lawyer Ian Rosenblatt launch legal action against music mogul Simon Cowell, Boohoo face a fresh investor claim after previously facing allegations that it feigned ignorance of labor abuses in its supply chain, and an ex-Tory MP and his chief of staff sued by their former employer. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week: The SEC chair said this year's corporate proxy season saw none of the "dire predictions" some had forecast, and in a recent survey, hundreds of law firm leaders said they're increasingly losing clients, citing problems in delivering their legal services.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Greene Broillet & Wheeler LLP and Ludd & Ludd lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a San Diego jury ordered Hyatt to pay $15.5 million over the death of a guest who was left uncontacted for a day after failing to check out.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Advocate Law Group PC

Arnold & Porter

Athlaw LLP

Aylstock Witkin

Baker Botts

Baker Donelson

Barack Ferrazzano

Bayard PA

Benesch

Blank Rome

Boyden Gray

Brownstein Hyatt

Bursor & Fisher

CM Law LLP

Charles Russell Speechlys

Cleary Gottlieb

Cohen & Gresser

Cohen Milstein

Cole Scott & Kissane

Colson Hicks

Covington & Burling

Crowell & Moring

DAC Beachcroft

DLA Piper

Davis Polk

Davis Woolfe

Davis Wright Tremaine

Debevoise & Plimpton

Dovel & Luner

Dynamis LLP

Emery Celli

Fairmark Partners LLP

Feinberg Jackson

Fox Williams

Freeths LLP

Gibson Dunn

Goodwin Procter

Greene Broillet

Groom Law Group

HSF Kramer

Harris Solicitors

Hill Dickinson

Hogan Lovells

Holland & Knight

Jenner & Block

Jones Day

Joseph Greenwald & Laake

Katsky Korins

Kennedys Law LLP

King & Spalding

Kirkland & Ellis

Knobbe Martens

Kopecky Schumacher

Kuit Steinart

Lankler Siffert

Latham & Watkins

Logan Vance

MSB Solicitors

Mayer Brown

McCarter & English

McDermott Will & Schulte

Memery Crystal

Migliaccio & Rathod

O'Melveny & Myers

Patterson Belknap

Paul Weiss

Phelps Dunbar

Pinsent Masons

Quinn Emanuel

Quintairos Prieto

Reaves Law Firm PLLC

Reed Smith

Reichman Jorgensen

Reynolds Porter

Richards Layton

Ropes & Gray

Rosenblatt Solicitors

Rosing Pott

Ross Aronstam

Sabatini Law Firm PA

Saul Ewing

Seeger Weiss

Seward & Kissel

Seyfarth Shaw

Sidley Austin

Smith Krivoshey

Snell & Wilmer

Squire Patton

Stephens Scown

Stephenson Harwood

Stinson LLP

Stris & Maher

T. A. Blackburn Law PLLC

TLT LLP

Tacopina Seigel

Veale Wasbrough

Venable LLP

Ward Hadaway

Wiley Rein

Williams Leininger

Winer Law Group

Winston Taylor

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AT&T Inc.

AbbVie Inc.

African Communities Together

Airbnb Inc.

Alliance Defending Freedom

American Civil Liberties Union

Ankura Consulting Group LLC

Anthropic PBC

Apple Inc.

Applied Medical Resources Corp.

AstraZeneca PLC

Atlas Air Inc.

Big Lots Inc.

BigHand Ltd.

Boyer Co.

British American Tobacco PLC

Brooklyn Defender Services

CRA International Inc.

CVS Health Corp.

Campaign Legal Center

Center for Family Representation Inc.

Cisco Systems Inc.

Cisneros

Compass Lexecon LLC

Cornell University

Cox Communications Inc.

Gerson Lehrman Group Inc.

Google LLC

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

LVMH Moet Hennessy

Learning Resources Inc.

LinkedIn Corp.

Make the Road New York

MasterCard Inc.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. SA

Medtronic PLC

Monsanto Co.

NFL Enterprises LLC

New York Civil Liberties Union

North American Securities Administrators Association

Pfizer Inc.

ROC Nation LLC

Radisson Hotels International

Red Bull GmbH

SentencingStats.com Inc.

SoftBank Group Corp.

Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

State Bar of California

StoneTurn Group LLP

The District of Columbia Bar

The Hain Celestial Group Inc.

The Kroger Co.

TikTok Inc.

Trafigura Group Pte. Ltd.

United Airlines Holdings Inc.

United Auto Workers

Verizon Communications Inc.

Visa Europe

Walmart Inc.

Wells Fargo & Co.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Bureau of Industry and Security

California Attorney General's Office

City and County of San Francisco, California

Competition Appeal Tribunal

Delaware Court of Chancery

Employee Benefits Security Administration

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Executive Office for Immigration Review

Federal Communications Commission

Florida Department of Corrections

Florida Supreme Court

Internal Revenue Service

New York State Department of Health

Texas Supreme Court

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Labor

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

UK High Court