The social equity chief of cannabis company Ascend Wellness Holdings testified Thursday that she faced no pressure to hold on to an allegedly critical partnership with a Massachusetts sheriff who is now on trial for extortion.
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SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2026 Law360 iOS App Law360 Android App Follow Law360 on Facebook Follow Law360 on LinkedIn Follow Law360 on Twitter

TOP NEWS

Cannabis Exec Says Sheriff Initiative Wasn't Key To License

By Carolyn Muyskens

The social equity chief of cannabis company Ascend Wellness Holdings testified Thursday that she faced no pressure to hold on to an allegedly critical partnership with a Massachusetts sheriff who is now on trial for extortion.

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Mass. Judge Nixes HUD's Changes To Fair Housing Grants

By Isaac Monterose

A Massachusetts federal judge has sided with two fair housing groups that sued the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development over grant funding changes to HUD's Fair Housing Initiatives Program, ruling that the planned revisions for fiscal year 2025 must be vacated, in part, because the federal government failed to justify them.

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Engineer Hits RTX With Age, Disability Bias Suit Over Ouster

By Julie Manganis

A former senior engineer for defense contractor RTX Corp. in Massachusetts says he was sidelined and then set up for termination after he disclosed he suffered from attention deficit disorder and later requested time off for surgery for another medical condition.

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States' Suit Says HHS Terms Threaten Family Planning Dollars

By Rachel Riley

Twenty-three states launched a lawsuit in Maryland federal court Thursday challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new conditions on federal funding for family planning services that they say would require recipients end support for "gender ideology," abandon diversity programming and drive patients toward parenthood and marriage.

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Developer Says Mass. City Can't Tie Permits To Rent Caps

By Julie Manganis

A developer seeking to build a mixed-use mid-rise in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says the city is unlawfully withholding its building permit unless the developer meets affordable-housing requirements and pays a $450,000 permit fee under an inclusionary housing ordinance, according to a complaint filed Thursday in state court.

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Mass. Judge Halts USPS Mail Ballot Rule Before Midterms

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge late Thursday temporarily blocked the U.S. Postal Service from implementing a new rule allowing it to deny delivery of mail-in ballots from voters whose names are not on citizenship lists the Trump administration is compiling ahead of November's midterms.

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LITIGATION

1st Circ. Won't Revisit Discretionary Immigration Relief Denial

By Ganesh Setty

The First Circuit said it lacks jurisdiction to review parts of a Jamaican citizen's bid to remain in the U.S. after entering as a tourist in 2004, noting he was later convicted of passport fraud and only sought asylum in 2016.

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Bank Says Late Notice Fumbled Data Breach Insurance Claim

By Gianna Ferrarin

An insurance services company caused a Milford, Connecticut, bank to lose insurance coverage for a data breach that affected nearly 12,000 of its customers by failing to timely report it, the bank says in a Wednesday complaint in Connecticut federal court.

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DEALS

JLL Arranges $856M In Loans For $1.3B Boston Tower

By Isaac Monterose

JLL Capital Markets has arranged $856 million worth of loans for its developer client Millennium Partners, which needed the financing for the residential and office areas of its $1.3 billion, 823,856-square-foot Winthrop Center skyscraper in downtown Boston, JLL announced.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Series

Taekwondo Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Taekwondo has taught me to recognize when to fight for a position and when to focus on finding a solution, and that the best outcomes are often achieved by solving problems — all of which has improved my work as a bankruptcy lawyer, mediator and Subchapter V trustee, says Amy Denton Mayer at Berger Singerman.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Exclusive

Inside The $150M Immigration Contract That Wasn't

By Daniel Connolly

The leader of a small Houston-based law firm says she was "blindsided" by an announcement from the federal government that her 24-attorney shop had won a $150 million no-bid contract to represent thousands of immigrant children in deportation proceedings.

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ABA Faces Uphill Battle To Remain As Law School Accreditor

By Emma Cueto

The American Bar Association council responsible for accrediting law schools is fighting on multiple fronts to retain its status as a nationwide accreditor, fending off challenges at both the federal and state levels.

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Dems Say DOJ Opinion Aims To Foil Oversight Of White House

By Courtney Bublé

With midterm elections right around the corner, Senate Democrats are worried the new legal opinion from the U.S. Department of Justice could let the Trump Administration obstruct congressional oversight of the White House.

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Google Users' Atty Fee To Be In 'Realm' Of $147M, Judge Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge indicated Thursday that he won't give the full $147 million in fees sought by lawyers who won a $425 million class action verdict against Google for unlawfully collecting user information, but he said their "really excellent lawyering" deserves an amount "within that realm."

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Womble Bond Asks To Drop Dutch Software Client Over Rift

By Hayley Fowler

Womble Bond Dickinson is looking to pull its representation of a Dutch software company after five years of a bitter trademark battle, citing a "fundamental disagreement" that has allegedly made it impossible for the firm to move forward as counsel of record.

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LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Akin Gump

Berger Singerman

Bernkopf Goodman

Blank Rome

Boies Schiller

Cooley LLP

David Boies

Ellis & Winters

Eversheds Sutherland

Herold Law Group PC

Hurwitz Sagarin

King & Spalding

Martin G. Weinberg PC

Morgan & Morgan PA

Patrick Long Law Firm

Susman Godfrey

Womble Bond

COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

American Bar Association

American Civil Liberties Union

American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts

Ascend Wellness Holdings

Asian Americans Advancing Justice

Brennan Center for Justice

Burke Inc.

California Western School of Law

Drummond

Google LLC

Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.

Microsoft Corp.

Millennium Management LLC

Morgan Stanley

NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund Inc.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

National Fair Housing Alliance

New York University

Nuveen LLC

RTX Corp.

State Bar of California

Texas Children's Hospital

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Executive Office of the President

Federal Trade Commission

New York Attorney General's Office

Superior Court of Massachusetts

Texas Supreme Court

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts

U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

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

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. Government Accountability Office

U.S. Postal Service

U.S. Supreme Court