Pennsylvania Pulse

  • Supreme_Court_Gorsuch_44925.jpg

    Justice Gorsuch Calls Colleagues 'Best Writers' In History

    Justice Neil Gorsuch recently sat down for a keynote conversation during the 25th annual Burton Awards in Washington, D.C., where he reflected on his approach to writing opinions, his originalist method to interpreting the Constitution and the civility that exists between his fellow justices.

  • iStock-1271192514.jpg

    Orrick Leads List Of Top Law Firms For Women, Diversity

    Talent strategies firm Seramount released its latest list of the 45 best law firms for women and diversity this week, with the 2024 cohort of winners showing strides over previous years in representation, advancement and benefits for lawyers who are women or from other underrepresented groups.

  • Jennifer P. Richnafsky.png

    Steptoe Adds To Employment Department In Pittsburgh Office

    A commercial litigator's plan to refocus her practice on employment law prompted a recent move to Steptoe & Johnson PLLC's Pittsburgh office after more than eight years with Sherrard German & Kelly P.C.

  • LegalLions.png

    Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Brewer Attorneys & Counselors, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and attorneys Eugene Volokh and Alan Morrison lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the National Rifle Association can proceed with certain claims in the gun rights group's lawsuit against a former New York state official.

  • Don't Fear AI Hallucinations, Embrace Them, Scholar Says

    When it comes to artificial intelligence, most early adopters fear the so-called hallucinations that the systems can produce. However, one scholar says the creativity those hallucinations represent is a valuable feature lawyers should embrace.

  • iStock-1218883720.jpg

    Why So Many GCs Are Jumping To Law Firm Partnerships

    What started as a trickle of general counsel retiring and then finishing out their careers at law firms has expanded into a growing number of senior in-house counsel leaving their companies for private practice. And not only in part-time, of counsel positions, but often as full partners.

  • Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz

    The end of May marked another action-packed week for the legal industry as BigLaw firms made headlines and Donald Trump became the first former U.S. president convicted of a felony. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse’s weekly quiz.

  • iStock-1054011982.jpg

    Ballard Spahr Faces Claim It Fired Worker Over Sick Husband

    A former legal assistant at Ballard Spahr LLP claims the firm fired her in retaliation for using the Family and Medical Leave Act to take time away from work to care for her cancer-stricken husband, according to a complaint filed in Pennsylvania federal court.

  • iStock-1091284110.jpg

    Law Firm Real Estate Report

    "Reduce" is the buzzword for May, as law firms Lathrop GPM LLP, Winstead PC, Sullivan & Worcester LLP and Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP shaved some square footage off their office footprints in Texas, New York and California, respectively.

  • 4_up_meet.png

    Meet The Attys In Margolis Edelstein Malpractice Fight

    Counsel representing Margolis Edelstein and an insurer that has accused the firm of malpractice are gearing up for a July oral argument so the Delaware Supreme Court can decide if the firm can escape the suit.

  • iStock-1065952684.jpg

    More Law Firms Are Relocating, Signing New Leases In 2024

    More law firms have relocated or renewed their office leases in the first quarter of 2024 than during the same period over the last four years, continuing a post-pandemic trend that began late last year as more firms made moves, according to a recent report by real-estate services company Savills.

  • iStock-637878666.jpg

    Once A Standard, US News Rankings Now 'Entirely Irrelevant'

    Once "the bellwether of the legal academy," the annual law school rankings published by U.S. News & World Report don't matter to today's prospective law students, a pair of law professors say in a new study.

  • iStock-1034363776.jpg

    Efforts To Improve Diversity On State High Courts Stagnating

    A lack of publicly available data is hampering efforts to make state Supreme Courts more representative of the populations they serve and diversity pushes appear to have stalled out, according to a recent report.

  • iStock-2047069291.jpg

    Pa. Seeks New Bankruptcy Judge As Vacancies Increase

    Two vacancies and a third open seat coming at the end of July in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has led the Third Circuit to announce this week it is accepting applications to fill the court's bench.

  • iStock-1652451957.jpg

    4 Ways Young Attys Can Balance Pro Bono And Billable Hours

    Pro Bono work is an ideal way for young associates to learn new skills while helping others. Here, Law360 Pulse asks experts the best practices on how lawyers can commit to meaningful volunteer work while keeping up with their regular responsibilities.

  • Free_Agency_Hits_and_Misses_Football_42722.jpg

    Seeger Weiss Secures Latest Fee Bid In NFL Concussion Case

    A Pennsylvania federal judge on Tuesday granted Seeger Weiss LLP's latest fee request for close to $1.9 million in attorney fees and costs for its ongoing work implementing an agreement settling former National Football League players' concussion-linked disability claims.

  • Mich. Atty Can't Have Dominion Info, Pa. Court Told

    Dominion Voting Systems told a Pennsylvania state court Tuesday that information copied from election machines as part of a county's fraud probe was "fruit of the poisonous tree" and can't be shared with a Michigan attorney who has been in hot water for allegedly accessing other states' machine data and releasing the privileged information.

  • Pa. Debt Collector Missed Window To Appeal Customer's Win

    A debt collection firm's late appeal of a judge's ruling that dismissed its claim against a Pittsburgh-area woman constitutes harassment and violates several consumer protection statutes, according to a new complaint filed by the woman in Allegheny County court.

  • Feds Push Back At Hunter Biden's 2nd Bid To Ditch Gun Case

    Special counsel for the government urged the Third Circuit to deny Hunter Biden's second attempt to appeal a Delaware federal judge's refusal to dismiss his felony firearm charges, stating Biden's interpretation of guiding precedent would "swallow the final judgment rule whole."

  • iStock-1497792544.jpg

    Law Firms Split On Tech Offerings For Business Dissolution

    While some law firms refer clients to new tools that help founders wind down their companies, other law firms remain steadfast in their traditional approach to handling business dissolution services.

  • Diane Humetewa.jpg

    Approach The Bench: Judge Humetewa Talks Tribal Relations

    Before she joined the federal bench in Arizona, Judge Diane Humetewa worked as a jurist on a relatively young court, where she regularly set new legal precedent.

  • 2_up_meet.png

    Meet Biden's Latest Pennsylvania Picks For District Court

    President Joe Biden has continued his trend of nominating public defenders to the federal bench, this time selecting two longtime defense attorneys to occupy vacancies in Pennsylvania.

  • Law360 Pulse Spotlight On Mid-Law Work

    Berger Montague's work on a suit over fallout from a $1.8 billion SPAC transaction and Benesch's representation of a North American joint venture with ABB lead this edition of Law360 Pulse's Spotlight On Mid-Law Work, recapping the top matters for Mid-Law firms from May 10 to 24.

  • 2_up_tyson.png

    Tyson & Mendes Taps New Leaders For Northeast And Florida

    Tyson & Mendes LLP announced that a pair of experienced attorneys have been appointed regional managing partners of the civil defense firm's Northeast and Florida office locations.

  • Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    It was a week of mammoth wins for petite law firms, with two intellectual property boutiques — Lex Lumina PLLC and Irwin IP LLP — leading off this week's Law360 Legal Lions list with an explosive win at the Federal Circuit throwing out "rigid" tests for design patents.

Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Pennsylvania Pulse archive.

Expert Analysis

  • AI Is Reshaping Lawyering: What To Expect In 2024 Author Photo

    The future of lawyering is not about the wholesale replacement of attorneys by artificial intelligence, but as AI handles more of the routine legal work, the role of lawyers will evolve to be more strategic, requiring the development of competencies beyond traditional legal skills, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

  • Embrace Active Voice In Legal Writing — In Most Cases Author Photo

    Legal writers should strive to craft sentences in the active voice to promote brevity and avoid ambiguities that can spark litigation, but writing in the passive voice is sometimes appropriate — when it's a moral choice and not a grammatical failure, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Help Associates Turn Down Work? Author Photo

    Marina Portnova at Lowenstein Sandler discusses what partners can do to aid their associates in setting work-life boundaries, especially around after-hours assignment availability.

  • How AI Legal Research Tools Are Shifting Law Firm Processes Author Photo

    Although artificial intelligence-powered legal research is ushering in a new era of legal practice that augments human expertise with data-driven insights, it is not without challenges involving privacy, ethics and more, so legal professionals should take steps to ensure AI becomes a reliable partner rather than a source of disruption, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.

  • Data Source Proliferation Is A Growing E-Discovery Challenge Author Photo

    With the increased usage of collaboration apps and generative artificial intelligence solutions, it's not only important for e-discovery teams to be able to account for hundreds of existing data types today, but they should also be able to add support for new data types quickly — even on the fly if needed, says Oliver Silva at Casepoint.

  • Bracing For A Generative AI Revolution In Law Author Photo

    With many legal professionals starting to explore practical uses of generative artificial intelligence in areas such as research, discovery and legal document development, the fundamental principle of human oversight cannot be underscored enough for it to be successful, say Ty Dedmon at Bradley Arant and Paige Hunt at Lighthouse.

  • Why I Use ChatGPT To Tell Me Things I Already Know Author Photo

    The legal profession is among the most hesitant to adopt ChatGPT because of its proclivity to provide false information as if it were true, but in a wide variety of situations, lawyers can still be aided by information that is only in the right ballpark, says Robert Plotkin at Blueshift IP.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Use Social Media Responsibly? Author Photo

    Leah Kelman at Herrick Feinstein discusses the importance of reasoned judgment and thoughtful process when it comes to newly admitted attorneys' social media use.

  • Yada, Yada, Yada: The Magic Of 3 In Legal Writing Author Photo

    Attorneys should take a cue from U.S. Supreme Court justices and boil their arguments down to three points in their legal briefs and oral advocacy, as the number three is significant in the way we process information, says Diana Simon at University of Arizona.

  • How Firms Can Stop Playing Whack-A-Mole With Data Security Author Photo

    In order to achieve a robust client data protection posture, law firms should focus on adopting a risk-based approach to security, which can be done by assessing gaps, using that data to gain leadership buy-in for the needed changes, and adopting a dynamic and layered approach, says John Smith at Conversant Group.

  • 5 Life Lessons From Making Partner As A Solo Parent Author Photo

    Laranda Walker at Susman Godfrey, who was raising two small children and working her way to partner when she suddenly lost her husband, shares what fighting to keep her career on track taught her about accepting help, balancing work and family, and discovering new reserves of inner strength.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Turn Deferral To My Advantage? Author Photo

    Diana Leiden at Winston & Strawn discusses how first-year associates whose law firm start dates have been deferred can use the downtime to hone their skills, help their communities, and focus on returning to BigLaw with valuable contacts and out-of-the-box insights.

  • Resume Gaps Are No Longer Kryptonite To Your Legal Career Author Photo

    Female attorneys and others who pause their careers for a few years will find that gaps in work history are increasingly acceptable among legal employers, meaning with some networking, retraining and a few other strategies, lawyers can successfully reenter the workforce, says Jill Backer at Ave Maria School of Law.

  • Law Firm Guardrails For Responsible Generative AI Use Author Photo

    ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools pose significant risks to the integrity of legal work, but the key for law firms is not to ban these tools, but to implement them responsibly and with appropriate safeguards, say Natalie Pierce and Stephanie Goutos at Gunderson Dettmer.

  • Opinion

    We Must Continue DEI Efforts Despite High Court Headwinds Author Photo

    Though the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative action in higher education, law firms and their clients must keep up the legal industry’s recent momentum advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the profession in order to help achieve a just and prosperous society for all, says Angela Winfield at the Law School Admission Council.

×

Law360

Law360 Law360 UK Law360 Tax Authority Law360 Employment Authority Law360 Insurance Authority Law360 Real Estate Authority Law360 Healthcare Authority Law360 Bankruptcy Authority

Rankings

Social Impact Leaders Prestige Leaders Pulse Leaderboard Women in Law Report Law360 400 Diversity Snapshot Rising Stars Summer Associates

National Sections

Modern Lawyer Courts Daily Litigation In-House Mid-Law Legal Tech Small Law Insights

Regional Sections

California Pulse Connecticut Pulse DC Pulse Delaware Pulse Florida Pulse Georgia Pulse New Jersey Pulse New York Pulse Pennsylvania Pulse Texas Pulse

Site Menu

Subscribe Advanced Search About Contact