Public Policy

  • July 20, 2026

    AGs Say DOJ Suit Would 'Upend' Atty Discipline System

    Attorneys general in 20 states have raised alarms over the U.S. Department of Justice's "unprecedented effort" to halt a disciplinary case in D.C. against former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Clark, warning the Trump administration is trying to "upend a centuries-old system of attorney discipline" and put federal government lawyers beyond the reach of local disciplinary authorities.

  • July 20, 2026

    Court Pauses Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal Amid Challenge

    A California federal court issued a temporary restraining order on Monday, preventing Paramount Skydance from moving ahead with its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery as state enforcers challenge the deal.

  • July 20, 2026

    NC Energy Efficiency Aggregator Hits Ch. 11 After $1B Penalty

    North Carolina-based energy efficiency aggregator American Efficient LLC has filed for bankruptcy, listing between $1 billion and $10 billion of estimated liabilities on its petition, three months after being hit with a penalty of more than $1 billion by federal energy regulators.

  • July 20, 2026

    Colo. Corrections Dept. Settles OT Pay Suit

    A Colorado state corrections agency and a group of criminal investigators who accused it of failing to pay them for time spent on call have reached a settlement in principle in federal court, ending a lawsuit that was headed toward trial.

  • July 20, 2026

    Top Gov't Contracting Cases To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2026

    Federal courts in the latter half of 2026 are expected to decide if the Trump administration overstepped by designating Anthropic a supply chain risk to national security and whether the False Claims Act's qui tam provisions pass constitutional muster, potentially affecting the government's ability to tackle fraud.

  • July 20, 2026

    Meet The Attys Vying For Position 1 On The Wash. High Court

    A civil rights litigator who left a top role at the Washington state attorney general's office last fall to step in for a retiring state Supreme Court justice is vying this election season to retain the seat for the next two years, drawing opposition from a Ballard Spahr LLP tax attorney and a longtime family law practitioner.

  • July 17, 2026

    Full 3rd Circ. Wipes Out New Jersey Assault Weapons Ban

    The full Third Circuit on Friday held that New Jersey's decades-long ban on semi-automatic firearms and high-capacity magazines is unconstitutional, though some judges said the way the weapons are now being used as well as recent technological advances couldn't have been foreseen by the Constitution's framers.

  • July 17, 2026

    Ruger Asked To Pay $90M To Settle Mass Shooting Claims

    The families of the victims of a 2021 mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado, have proposed that gunmaker Sturm Ruger & Co. Inc. pay $90 million to resolve a pair of suits, according to a global offer of compromise filed in Connecticut state court.

  • July 17, 2026

    Reexams Reach Record High As PTAB Reviews Hit Low

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's second quarter saw the agency receiving more requests for ex parte reexamination and fewer petitions for America Invents Act reviews than any quarter before, according to a new Unified Patents report.

  • July 17, 2026

    Calif. Air District Can Be Sued Under Clean Air Act, Judge Says

    A federal judge ruled Friday that the Clean Air Act allows a coalition of environmental groups to sue an agency that controls air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley even though it is a government regulator.

  • July 17, 2026

    Judge Says OMB Can't Change Grant Terms After Award

    A Massachusetts federal judge said Friday the Trump administration cannot rely on a shift in policy to retroactively change the terms of already awarded grants in order to justify canceling them.

  • July 17, 2026

    Pipeline Worker Engaged In Interstate Commerce, Court Says

    A Texas appeals court ruled that Energy Transfer LP cannot compel the family of a man who died in a pipeline explosion to arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act, finding Thursday that the FAA did not apply to his employment contract because he engaged in interstate commerce.

  • July 17, 2026

    Reexam Denial On Ex-BlackBerry Patent Cites Pre-Order Filing

    Pointing to a paper filed by patent owner Malikie Innovations Ltd. under a new policy put in place this spring, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected Unified Patents LLC's request for reexamination of a video coding patent originally issued to BlackBerry Ltd.

  • July 17, 2026

    Ex-Ga. Deputies Seek Immunity In 2017 Stun Gun Death Suit

    Three former Washington County, Georgia, sheriff's deputies asked a federal court to free them from a lawsuit filed by the sister of a man who died after being shot with a stun gun in a widely publicized July 2017 confrontation with police, citing qualified immunity.

  • July 17, 2026

    New Public Charge Rule Leaves Immigration Attys Guessing

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's new public charge rule will give immigration officers wide discretion to decide who will become dependent on government assistance, replacing clearly defined guidelines with a system attorneys say has no guardrails or objective standards.

  • July 17, 2026

    Mass. Court Tosses Evidence After Bodycams Show Coercion

    Massachusetts' highest court on Friday said a gun and drugs found in a car after police repeatedly searched and pressured the driver for the key must be thrown out as evidence in a case that one of the justices, in a concurrence, says highlights the value of police-worn body cameras.

  • July 17, 2026

    Generative AI Patents Booming Globally, World IP Org. Reports

    The number of patent families for generative artificial intelligence inventions more than doubled between 2024 and 2025, with mostly Chinese companies leading the pack, according to a report from a United Nations intellectual property agency.

  • July 17, 2026

    Judge Open To TRO Blocking Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal

    A California federal judge appeared open Friday to granting a group of states' bid for a temporary restraining order blocking Paramount Skydance's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, saying it appears the tie-up's anticipated market share presumptively violates the Clayton Act under U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

  • July 17, 2026

    9th Circ. Rekindles Idaho Logging Review Dispute

    The Ninth Circuit revived a conservation group's suit against the U.S. Forest Service over an environmental review of an Idaho logging project, ruling that the group should have been allowed to raise an argument it had not raised during an earlier administrative process.

  • July 17, 2026

    Md. Judge Stays Reforms Set To Shrink ACA Coverage Pool

    A Maryland federal judge stayed a set of Affordable Care Act marketplace reforms that were set to take effect Monday, finding several cities and groups representing doctors and small businesses were likely to succeed in their Administrative Procedure Act challenge against them.

  • July 17, 2026

    Drug Buyers' $62M Generic-Pricing Deal Gets Final OK

    A federal judge granted final approval to wholesalers on settlements worth a total of at least $62 million with Glenmark Pharmaceutical Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Pfizer subsidiary Greenstone LLC over claims the companies colluded with others to keep generic drug prices high, according to court orders.

  • July 17, 2026

    Conn. Says Reach Of Law Can't Stop $7.7M Ghost Gun Penalty

    Connecticut is again asking a state court to issue a $7.7 million civil penalty against an out-of-state seller of "ghost guns," arguing that the court needn't consider the geographical scope of Connecticut's unfair trade practices law, but that even if it does, the state can reach the seller, and the penalty is appropriate.

  • July 17, 2026

    Eye On ERISA: Jerry Schlichter Talks 401(k) Litigation, Theory

    Plaintiff-side litigation veteran Jerry Schlichter, founding and co-managing partner of Schlichter Bogard LLP, told Law360 that highlights among the firm's recent legal victories include a reported settlement to end 401(k) investment litigation against ADP, as well as a $150 million settlement in a toxic lead emissions case.

  • July 17, 2026

    6th Circ. Won't Rehear Mark Cuban-Backed FINRA Challenge

    A Sixth Circuit panel has declined to grant a full rehearing of a constitutional challenge of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's in-house disciplinary proceedings brought by the owner of a financial consulting company that had support from billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban.

  • July 17, 2026

    Conn. Justices Bar Town From Killing Errant Forest Tax Break

    A Connecticut municipal assessor did not have the authority to terminate a property tax break for forest use that was erroneously granted, the state Supreme Court said Friday, suggesting that state lawmakers could clarify the law on the matter.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The year's second quarter brought several notable banking law developments to New York, including a proposal to align state stablecoin rules with the federal Genius Act, fresh fair lending and cybersecurity guidance from state regulators, and a significant Second Circuit holding on preemption, say attorneys at Ashurst Perkins Coie.

  • How Reincorporating In Texas May Alter Earnout Disputes

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    While the DExit debate has focused on shareholder suits, far less attention has been paid to what reincorporating in Texas means for M&A disputes, making it particularly important to understand the nuances between Delaware and Texas earnout jurisprudence, say attorneys at Selendy Gay.

  • What To Know If DOL Raises Overtime Salary Floor

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    With the U.S. Department of Labor recently rescinding a 2024 rule that increased the minimum salary for the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime exemptions, employers should assess how a future increase would affect their workforce, paying particular attention to job duties requirements and state laws, says James Coleman at Constangy.

  • Roundup

    The Most Talked-About Supreme Court Decisions Of 2026

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

  • Structuring Space Nuclear Deals For Regulatory Risk

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    With the White House's recent focus on space nuclear power, a highly important question for companies that want to build orbital reactors, lunar surface systems or critical components is whether the transaction documents can handle foreign investment constraints, export controls and treaty-linked liability, says Kristie Blase at Frazer + Blase.

  • Proof, Not Just Timing, Will Decide Clean Energy Credits

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    For wind and solar projects that sprinted to begin construction before the accelerated placed-in-service deadline of July 4, project owners must now assemble and maintain documentation to qualify the project and defend against a potential clean energy credit audit, says Peter Lowy at Nelson Mullins.

  • Coordinating Life Sciences IP Strategies In The US And EU

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    As postgrant practice for life sciences patents is restructured in the U.S. and European Union simultaneously, patent owners will need to implement transatlantic coordination that treats international proceedings as components of a single intellectual property risk architecture, says Paul Calvo at Sterne Kessler.

  • Texas Business Court Rulings Show Deal Terms Paramount

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    As the courts within the Texas Business Court system have begun reaching the substantive merits of the cases before them, they are persuasively demonstrating they will not only enforce the terms of transactions as written, but will also embrace a holistic approach to complex transaction documentation interpretation, says Christopher Pace at Winston Taylor.

  • Series

    Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The year's second quarter brought several noteworthy financial services developments to California, including activity around a commercial finance oversight bill, the former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau head's appointment to lead a new consumer agency, and a ruling reinforcing viable bank-fintech partnerships, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • Trademark Law As A Tool To Bolster NIL Rights Against AI

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    The meteoric rise of artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes is prompting high-profile celebrities to protect their name, image and likeness rights using federal trademark law — a powerful yet limited supplement to traditional NIL claims, says Susan Natland at BakerHostetler.

  • What Ex-CFPB Head's Calif. Role May Foretell For Oversight

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    California Gov. Gavin Newsom's selection of former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra to lead a new consumer agency signals tougher state financial services oversight, especially for fintechs, as well as heightened enforcement activity and larger penalties, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Why SEC Climate Rule Rescission Wouldn't End Disclosure

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    If the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent proposal to rescind its 2024 climate-related disclosure rules is adopted, companies would no longer need to prepare for the rules' specific governance, emissions, attestation, financial statement and tagging requirements, but several important constraints would remain, say attorneys at Venable.

  • New Colo. Retainage Bonds Shift Construction Power Balance

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    A new Colorado law that can force property owners and developers to accept bonds from contractors in lieu of traditional cash retainage means owners’ practical leverage now derives from administering a risk-transfer mechanism, not from controlling cash, but key questions remain about who may assert a claim and how enforcing a bond actually works, say attorneys at Akerman.

  • Justices Stand On Statutory Specifics In Cisco And Landor

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    With its June 23 decisions in Cisco Systems Inc. v. Doe and Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety, the U.S. Supreme Court doubled down on the critical point that the statute invoked in a federal claim must authorize a private lawsuit and the remedy sought, says Patrick Judd at Phelps Dunbar.

  • Immigration Ruling Maps Alternative To Universal Injunctions

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    A Rhode Island federal court's decision in Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. USCIS vacating policies that froze key immigration adjudications for nationals of 39 countries, and paused asylum applications altogether, suggests how practitioners might press for the Administrative Procedure Act's bad faith exception to record review and seek vacatur as a viable alternative to universal injunctions, says Kemal Hepsen at Mandamus Lawyers.

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