DOJ's Pot Shift Leaves Key Questions For Cannabis Industry

By Sam Reisman

The Trump administration's recent moves to relax federal restrictions on marijuana through the administrative process will have unclear ramifications for all industry players unless Congress steps in to rewrite cannabis law, attorneys heard Wednesday.

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Tribe Can Take Cannabis Raid Loss To 9th Circ. After Judgment

By Jonathan Capriel

A California federal court has cleared the way for the Round Valley Indian Tribes and three tribal members to immediately appeal to the Ninth Circuit the dismissal of their claims that two counties' cannabis enforcement raids on their reservation violated federal law.

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Lender Says Co. Defaulted On $5M Loan, Tanked Pot Site Value

By Jonathan Capriel

A cannabis real estate company and an affiliate gutted a $27 million cultivation facility, stopped paying taxes on it and defaulted on a $4.6 million clean-energy loan, according to a federal lawsuit by the lender, which seeks a court-ordered sale of the property.

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Mich. Township Says Pot Shop Missed Permit Deadlines

By Susan Smiley

A west Michigan township has told a federal judge that a local cannabis business alleging the township improperly refused to issue it a permit and prevented it from opening in fact missed the deadline for the permit in question.

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Opinion

Rule Of Law Requires Gov't Engagement With Bar, Not Retreat

A federal agency's absence from national and local bar conferences, most recently illustrated by the U.S. Department of Justice's withdrawal from a New York City Bar Association white collar conference, disserves the bar, the government lawyers themselves and, ultimately, the administration of justice, says Muhammad Faridi at Linklaters.

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Judiciary Cites AI Deepfakes In Opposing Courtroom Cameras

By Courtney Bublé

Two bipartisan bills to bring cameras into federal courtrooms advanced Thursday, but the policymaking body for the federal judiciary continues to oppose them and raised the issue of deepfakes in the age of artificial intelligence.

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Trump Lawyer Advances In Senate Judiciary Noms Vote

By Courtney Bublé

The nomination of Matthew Schwartz to be a judge on the Second Circuit advanced out of committee Thursday.

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'Mortified' Atty Takes Blame For Fake Quotes In Taco TM Fight

By Ivan Moreno

A Connecticut attorney facing possible sanctions over fake case quotations in a taco restaurant trademark fight told a federal judge Thursday that he takes "full and unqualified responsibility" for the flawed filings, saying he is "mortified" and acknowledging that his verification process for AI-assisted legal work fell far short.

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Calif. Moves On Proposal To Allow Legal Aid By Nonlawyers

By Lynn LaRowe

The California Supreme Court has directed the state bar to solicit public comments on a proposed community justice worker program that would allow nonlawyers to provide limited legal assistance under the supervision of qualified legal aid organizations, according to a Thursday announcement.

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Analysis

Law Students Undeterred Under Trump's Immigration Climate

By Britain Eakin

In a climate where immigration lawyers are coming under the Trump administration’s scrutiny to tamp down on asylum fraud, law students are being ignited to enter the workforce early and rectify the injustices they see.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

General counsel may cringe at the news, but their chief financial officers will rejoice over a new study that shows the average spending by legal departments dropped to a six-year low in 2026. And two in-house Cigna lawyers are at the center of a finding of "improperly asserted privilege" over key company documents related to a payment lawsuit brought by three labs.

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Ford Says 'Lemon Law' Firm Faked Bills Using Overseas Staff

By Linda Chiem

Ford Motor Co. on Thursday accused California personal injury firm Quill & Arrow LLP of defrauding it out of more than $25 million in high-priced legal bills for work actually handled by virtual assistants overseas and non-lawyers in scores of product liability cases against the automaker.

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