Ex-Prosecutor Sues After Arrest During Protest Of Skadden

By Alison Knezevich

A retired prosecutor who protested Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP's deal with the Trump administration has sued New York City and others in federal court, alleging that his First Amendment rights were violated when he was arrested outside the BigLaw firm's headquarters in Manhattan.

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Analysis

4 Legal Ethics Matters That Rocked 2025

By Emily Sawicki

This year, judges across the country grappled with attorneys' use and misuse of generative artificial intelligence, and prominent federal prosecutor battles dominated headlines in some of the top legal ethics matters of 2025.

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Jury Deadlocks In Ex-NY Gov. Aide's Foreign Agent Case

By Stewart Bishop

A Brooklyn federal judge on Monday declared a mistrial in a case alleging a former top aide to two New York governors did the bidding of the People's Republic of China at the highest levels of state government in exchange for millions of dollars, after the jury deadlocked on all charges.

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DOI Pauses Work On East Coast Offshore Wind Projects

By George Woolston

Construction on five offshore wind projects along the Atlantic coast was paused Monday by the U.S. Department of Interior over national security concerns, according to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.

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Mercedes Inks $150M Deal In Emissions Cheating Claims

By Brian Steele

Mercedes-Benz USA LLC and Mercedes-Benz Group AG have reached a nearly $150 million national settlement with state attorneys general amid allegations that they sold and leased vehicles equipped with devices capable of defeating emissions tests.

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NY's James, 21 Other Dem AGs Say CFPB Defunding Unlawful

By Craig Clough

New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of nearly two dozen Democratic attorneys general in claiming the Trump administration's effort to defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is illegal, telling an Oregon federal court Monday the municipalities are statutorily entitled to the CFPB's resources

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Authors Push For OpenAI Counsel Talks On Pirated Books

By Elliot Weld

A class of authors suing OpenAI over copyright infringement claims has asked a Manhattan federal judge to leave in place a magistrate judge's order for the artificial intelligence startup to turn over its in-house attorneys' communications regarding the deletion of a set of pirated books that were allegedly used to train ChatGPT.

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OPM Must Face DOGE Data Access Suit

By Bonnie Eslinger

A New York federal judge has denied the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's bid to end a lawsuit claiming it unlawfully gave employment records to President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, saying its assertion that the alleged privacy law violation "effects" have been "eradicated" is unsupported by the record.

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JPMorgan Rips Javice Attys' 'Absurd' Bills For Candy, Booze

By Dorothy Atkins

JPMorgan has unveiled new details in its ongoing legal fee fight with Charlie Javice, accusing the convicted financial aid startup founder's Quinn Emanuel defense counsel and other firms of billing for "absurd" and "outrageous" expenses, including specialty cocktails, cellulite butter, a Cookie Monster toy and $530 on gummy bears.

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Hochul Signs AG James' Bill To Expand Consumer Law

By Sarah Jarvis

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed into law New York Attorney General Letitia James' legislation to expand the state's ban on deceptive business practices to also protect against unfair and abusive practices, in the first updates to the state's primary consumer protection law in 45 years.

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Hochul Signs Bill Barring Stay-Or-Pay Contracts In NY

By Irene Spezzamonte

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law that prohibits employers from requiring employees to pay them if they leave the job before a certain period of time through stay-or-pay contracts.

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2nd Circ. Says Arb. Exemption Covers Pacts Between Cos.

By Irene Spezzamonte

The contracts used by two food distributors who created their own entities to work for a food service business fall under the Federal Arbitration Act carveout, the Second Circuit ruled Monday, nixing a Connecticut federal court's decision that sent their misclassification case to arbitration.

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Physicist Takes No-Jail Deal To End 'Buffalo Billion' Saga

By Pete Brush

A New York physicist who over a decade ago allegedly defrauded the Empire State's "Buffalo Billion" development initiative while serving as president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute copped to a conspiracy count Monday in another step toward closing a case that wound its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Ex-NBA Players' Adviser Can't Break Out Of Fraud Case

By David Steele

A former Morgan Stanley financial adviser will still have to face charges of defrauding three NBA players of more than $5 million in schemes involving three former co-defendants, a New York federal judge has ordered.

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Ed Dept. Ordered To Restore $1B In Mental Health Grants

By Chris Villani

The U.S. Department of Education will not be allowed to cut more than $1 billion in mental health grants for schools after a Washington federal judge ruled that the agency acted illegally by citing new, undisclosed Trump administration priorities as a basis for slashing the funding.

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PayPal Pares Bias Suit Over Minority-Focused Economic Fund

By Rae Ann Varona

A New York federal judge trimmed down a venture capital firm CEO's lawsuit accusing PayPal of discriminating against Asian Americans in a $500 million economic opportunity fund for Black- and minority-led businesses in 2020, allowing two claims against the financial technology company to go forward while tossing a couple of others.

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New Class Action Claims CIBC, RBC Rigged Quantum Shares

By Katryna Perera

A Quantum Biopharma investor has filed a proposed class action against several major Canadian banks, accusing them of running a spoofing scheme for years that artificially drove down Quantum's stock price — flooding exchanges with fake sell orders to mislead the market and buy shares at deflated prices, costing ordinary shareholders millions.

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21 AGs Support Gun Ban For Cannabis Users

By Jonathan Capriel

A federal law that prohibits habitual drug users from possessing firearms is constitutional and necessary for public safety, a coalition of attorneys general from 20 states and Washington, D.C., told the U.S. Supreme Court, urging the justices to overturn a finding that the law violates the Second Amendment except when a user is actively intoxicated.

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4 Robbins Geller Attys To Join New Securities Boutique

By Daniel Connolly

The managing partner of the New York City office of midsized law firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP is leaving with three other securities partners to join a new securities boutique that was launched by a lawyer who recently left Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP in a contentious exit.

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Weil Adds Kirkland PE Ace In New York

By Andrea Keckley

Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP announced on Monday that it has added its ninth lateral partner to its private equity group this year, welcoming a former corporate attorney with Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

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The Major Securities Litigation Rulings And Trends Of 2025

The past 12 months saw increased regulator focus on disclosures concerning artificial intelligence, signs of growing judicial scrutiny at the class certification stage, and shifting regulatory priorities at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — all major developments that may significantly affect securities litigation strategy in 2026 and beyond, say attorneys at Debevoise.

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Bonus Spotlight

Haynes Boone, Seward & Kissel Announce Year-End Bonuses

By Aebra Coe

Haynes Boone is handing its associates year-end and special bonuses in line with those offered by a significant portion of BigLaw this year, largely adhering to a bonus scale first put forward by Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP in November, a firm spokesperson confirmed Monday.

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DOJ Challenges ABA's Standing In Law Firm Intimidation Suit

By Ryan Boysen

The Trump administration is not waging an intimidation campaign against U.S. law firms, the government said Friday, calling an American Bar Association lawsuit challenging its alleged "law firm intimidation policy" as total speculation that must be dismissed due to lack of standing.

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Ex-CIA Director's Lawyers Accuse DOJ Of Judge Shopping

By Carolina Bolado

Former CIA Director John Brennan's attorneys asked the chief judge for the Southern District of Florida on Monday to block prosecutors from trying to steer any potential charges against him for investigating Russia's 2016 election interference to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's courtroom.

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Analysis

2025 Was A Policy Year Like No Other For Immigration Attys

By Britain Eakin

This year brought nonstop immigration policy whiplash as the Trump administration ramped up enforcement, triggering panic among employers about I-9 compliance in a landscape of constantly shifting adjudication and work authorization policies. Here, Law360 looks at how policy shifted attorney practice in 2025.

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Calif. Atty Slams 'Protectionist' ABS Fee-Sharing Ban

By Emily Sawicki

A California attorney has pushed back on opposition from California's attorney general and the state's bar association amid his efforts to block enforcement of a ban on fee sharing with out-of-state law firms owned by nonattorneys, arguing the new state law is a "protectionist act, in defiance of the constitution."

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LawFirms.com Beats LegalForce's TM Suit After Bench Trial

By Ivan Moreno

A California judge has concluded that a company that operates LawFirms.com did not infringe a law firm's trademarks for LegalForce, saying that during a four-day bench trial in October the court found "no one was actually confused or misled."

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Schumer Pushes Senate To Sue Over Epstein File Release

By Courtney Bublé

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced a resolution on Monday that would direct the Senate to take legal action to force the Trump administration to fully comply with the law to release the files of the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

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Analysis

As US Executions Decline, Florida Surges

By Brandon Lowrey

During Florida's 1994 gubernatorial race, Republican candidate Jeb Bush accused Democratic incumbent Lawton Chiles of being too soft on crime; Chiles' immediate predecessor, Bush pointed out, had signed almost 10 times as many death warrants as Chiles had.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's justices threw the Court of Chancery in reverse big time last week, rescinding a decision by the state's chancellor that last year effectively canceled tech tycoon Elon Musk's multi-year, then-$56 billion stock-based compensation package. It was a decision that lit up the court's relatively low-key, pre-holiday wind-up. It also highlighted the endless, 3D tug of war over Delaware-chartered companies and the interests of boards, officers, controllers, stockholders and the corporate bar.

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