A legislative arm of the European Union approved the bloc's free trade agreement with four South American countries Friday, taking steps to create the largest global free trade zone.
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International Trade
MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

EU Council Approves Trade Pact With 4 S. American Countries

By Dylan Moroses

A legislative arm of the European Union approved the bloc's free trade agreement with four South American countries Friday, taking steps to create the largest global free trade zone.

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DOD Unveils Nearly $15B In Arms Sales To 8 Nations

By Elaine Briseño

The U.S. Department of Defense filed notices detailing the sale of $14.9 billion in arms and other equipment to countries it called "major" non-NATO allies and "strategic" partners, including Morocco, the Philippines and Egypt.

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Brief

EU Clarifies Foreign Subsidies Regulation Guidelines

By Jack McLoone

The European Commission released an updated version of its foreign subsidies regulations to clarify how it determines competition distortions caused by such subsidies, among other aspects of the guidelines.

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ENFORCEMENT

SEC Drops Action Against Ex-Rio Tinto CFO After 8 Years

By Rae Ann Varona

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday dropped an enforcement action accusing Rio Tinto PLC's former chief financial officer of violating accounting and auditing rules, bringing a close to long-running litigation the regulator launched against the mining giant in 2017.

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LITIGATION

Cuban Co. Urges Justices To Affirm Property Seizure Ruling

By Caroline Simson

A Cuban state-owned entity is pressing the U.S. Supreme Court to find that a federal law allowing U.S. victims of property seizures by the Cuban government to seek damages does not automatically abrogate the sovereign immunity of state-owned agencies and instrumentalities targeted in such cases.

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PEOPLE

Akin Adds Ways And Means Committee Trade Staffer In DC

By Christine DeRosa

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP has expanded its international trade policy offerings with the addition of a former top Republican trade staffer to the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Why 'Baby Shark' Floundered In Foreign Service Waters

The Second Circuit recently ruled that the "Baby Shark" company couldn’t use email to serve alleged infringers based in China under an international agreement prohibiting such service, providing several important lessons for parties in actions involving defendants in jurisdictions unwilling or unable to effectuate efficient service, say attorneys at Greenspoon Marder.

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2025's Most Notable State AG Activity By The Numbers

State attorneys general were active in 2025, working across party lines to address federal regulatory gaps in artificial intelligence, take action on consumer protection issues, continue antitrust enforcement and announce large settlements on behalf of their citizens, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

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Opinion

The Case For Emulating, Not Dividing, The Ninth Circuit

Champions for improved judicial administration should reject the unfounded criticisms driving recent Senate proposals to divide the Ninth Circuit and instead seek to replicate the court's unique strengths and successes, says Ninth Circuit Judge J. Clifford Wallace.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Law Firms Closed 2025 With Continued 'Appetite For Hiring'

By Tracey Read

The legal sector continued to defy hiring expectations in spite of uncertainty in the U.S. economy as 2025 drew to a close.

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NY Courts Open To Attys Using AI To Prep Filings

By Andrea Keckley

Lawyers should not be barred outright from using artificial intelligence tools to prepare court documents, a New York court system advisory committee said in its annual report on Thursday.

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New Trade Group Joins Litigation Finance Lobbying Fight

By Ryan Boysen

A new trade group for litigation funders has launched with the aim of enlisting personal injury and mass tort attorneys in a fight against proposed federal laws that it says could threaten the $16 billion litigation finance industry.

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Bruce Fein Unauthorized To Represent Maduro, Atty Says

By Rachel Rippetoe

When constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein entered an appearance as counsel for former Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro on Tuesday, it was without having ever spoken to the client, according to a Thursday filing by Maduro's attorney Barry Pollack seeking to remove Fein from the case.

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Roundup

Up Next At High Court: Pollution Lawsuits & Trans Athletes

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will kick off the new year by hearing disputes over the constitutionality of state laws banning transgender female athletes from female-only sports and whether state or federal courts are the proper forum for lawsuits seeking to hold major oil companies accountable for harm caused by their oil production activities along Louisiana's coast. 

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Goldberg Segalla Fights Ex-IP Co-Chair's $4M Arbitration Bid

By Theresa Schliep

An arbitration fight Goldberg Segalla LLP initiated against a former co-chair of its intellectual property group over proceeds from transferred cases spilled into New York state court, where the firm is seeking relief from his counterclaims that it shorted him nearly $4 million in compensation.

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Jones Day To Help Restore David Bowie's Old London Home

By Jamie Lennox

Jones Day's charitable foundation will help to restore the childhood home of musical icon David Bowie before it opens to the public in late 2027, the historical trust leading the project said Friday.

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NJ Justices Nix Atty Registration Fee Hike After Bar Pushback

By Rose Krebs

The New Jersey Supreme Court has rejected a request to raise the annual registration fee for attorneys after the state's bar association complained that a proposed $27 hike for certain attorneys, following prior year increases, was too much at a time when they and their firms face "significantly increasing operational costs."

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Gov't Can't Use NYT Article As Evidence In Goldstein Trial

By Jared Foretek

A Maryland federal judge on Friday barred prosecutors from pre-admitting Thomas Goldstein's statements in a New York Times article as evidence in the SCOTUSblog co-founder's tax fraud trial, but she left open the possibility for the government to call either Jeffrey Toobin, the article's author, or a Times fact-checker, as a witness.

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Calif. Wage Suit Settles Months After Atty Admits To AI Mishap

By Emily Sawicki

A proposed wage and hour class action that drew the legal world's attention in November after the plaintiff's counsel admitted to using a half-dozen artificial intelligence tools to prepare a botched motion has now ended, with a Northern California federal judge granting a joint dismissal following a settlement agreement.

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Comey, James Fight DOJ Push To Combine Dismissal Appeals

By Jack Karp

Former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James are pushing back against federal prosecutors' effort to consolidate their currently separate appeals of the beleaguered prosecutions against the pair at the Fourth Circuit.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen a collapsed investment firm revive a $15 million dispute with a hedge fund, major Hollywood studios bring an IP claim against the U.K.'s largest internet providers over illegal streaming, and the Department of Health and Social Care sue the law firm and barrister representing it in a pharma competition damages case.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

In technology, the increasing use of artificial intelligence by legal departments will be a major concern for general counsel seeking to control costs in the New Year. And in labor matters, the National Labor Relations Board has a new general counsel along with a quorum and is ready to start deciding cases again.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a Ninth Circuit panel affirmed a ruling in which Apple beat claims it illegally blocked third-party access to Apple Watch medical data so it could create rival software.

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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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Promo that reads 2025 MVPs Promo that reads Law360 Pulse Compensation Report

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Addleshaw Goddard

Akin Gump

Baker Botts

Beale & Co. Solicitors

Block & Leviton

Brodies LLP

Capital Law Ltd.

Capsticks Solicitors LLP

Carmichael Ellis

Cleary Gottlieb

Clement & Murphy

Clifford Chance

Clyde & Co

Cohen Milstein

Cooley LLP

Covington & Burling

Crowell & Moring

DAC Beachcroft

DWF LLP

Debevoise & Plimpton

Dechert LLP

Devlin Law Firm PC

FBT Gibbons

Fox Rothschild

Gentry Locke

Gibson Dunn

Goldberg Kohn

Goldberg Segalla

Greenberg Traurig

Greenspoon Marder

Hach & Rose

Hach Rose Schirripa

Harris St. Laurent

Hickman & Rose

Hogan Lovells

Irwin Mitchell

Jenner & Block

Jones Day

Kennedys Law LLP

Keoghs LLP

King & Spalding

Kirkland & Ellis

Knight Law Group

Kropf Moseley

Latham & Watkins

Lester Aldridge

Lewis Silkin

Lieff Cabraser

Linklaters LLP

Lowell & Associates

Mandelbaum Barrett

Manning Gross

McGuireWoods

Morgan Lewis

Morrison & Foerster

Munger Tolles

Orrick Herrington

Paul Weiss

Peters & Peters Solicitors

Pinsent Masons

Quinn Emanuel

Rabinowitz Boudin

Radcliffes LeBrasseur

Schofield Sweeney

Schwartz White

Setfords Solicitors

Sheppard Mullin

Sidley Austin

Simmons & Simmons

Skadden Arps

Smith Gambrell

Squire Patton

Steptoe LLP

Sullivan & Cromwell

TLT LLP

Travers Smith

Troutman

Walker Morris LLP

Ward Hadaway

Watson Farley

Webster Szanyi

Weightmans LLP

Wiggin LLP

Wilson Sonsini

Winston & Strawn

Wirtz Law APC

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

AECOM

Akin's

Alivecor Inc.

Alpharma Inc.

Amazon.com Inc.

American Arbitration Association

American Civil Liberties Union

American Enterprise Institute

Anthropic PBC

Appian Corp.

Apple Inc.

Associated Press

Association of American Universities Inc.

Bank of America Corp.

Block Inc.

Bouygues

Carnival Corp. & PLC

Cash App

Chevron Corp.

Cogentrix Energy Power Management LLC

Colgate-Palmolive Co.

Consolidated Edison Inc.

Courthouse News Service Inc.

Daiwa Securities Group Inc.

EDF Energy PLC

Exxon Mobil Corp.

Fever Labs Inc.

Ford Motor Co.

Glencore PLC

Google LLC

Hatch Henderson Fivel LLC

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

International Legal Finance Association

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Juniper Networks Inc.

KPMG International

LinkedIn Corp.

Lloyd's America Inc.

London Stock Exchange Group PLC

Meta Platforms Inc.

NHK Spring

National Association of Attorneys General

Netflix Inc.

New Jersey State Bar Association

New Jersey Transit Corp.

New York University

NortonLifeLock Inc.

Norwegian Cruise Line

Novartis AG

Paramount Pictures Corp.

Paypal Holdings Inc.

Pegasystems Inc.

Purdue Pharma LP

Reddit Inc.

Rio Tinto Group

Robinhood Markets Inc.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Sky PLC

Solicitors Regulation Authority Ltd.

Stifel Financial Corp.

Tesla Inc.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

The New York Times Co.

The Walt Disney Co.

Trump Organization Inc.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

United Therapeutics Corp.

Virgin Media Inc.

Vistra Corp.

Vuori Inc.

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

WikiLeaks

Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions Inc.

Zillow Group Inc.

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Bureau of Labor Statistics

California Attorney General's Office

California Supreme Court

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Companies House

European Commission

European Parliament

European Union

Executive Office of the President

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Trade Commission

Judicial Conference of the United States

NATO

National Institutes of Health

National Labor Relations Board

National Security Agency

New Jersey Supreme Court

New York Attorney General's Office

New York Supreme Court, New York County

North Carolina Attorney General's Office

Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Secretary of State for Health and Others

State of Maryland

State of Michigan

Texas Attorney General's Office

Transport for London

U.S. Air Force

U.S. Army

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

U.S. Department of Agriculture

U.S. Department of Commerce

U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of State

U.S. Department of Transportation

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

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

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

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Supreme Court

UK High Court

US Office of Management and Budget