Expert Analysis

• Opinion

  Judges Must Turn To Merits Earlier To Fix Civil Justice System

  

  The U.S. justice system is long overdue for a cultural shift that encourages judges to engage with the merits of a case from the outset, which would help to cut through procedural complexities and deliver high-quality justice efficiently and at lower cost, says Steven Kayman at Rottenberg Lipman.

• Series

  Open-Water Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Swimming long distances in open waters is not necessarily an escape from my intellectual property practice, but a complementary discipline that similarly rewards sustained attention, intellectual curiosity, resilience and the ability to pursue a distant objective without losing command of the immediate task, says Christina MacDougall at Morgan Lewis.

• Opinion

  The Invisible AI Danger That May Undermine Legal Profession

  

  A public database tracking cases involving hallucinations generated by artificial intelligence recently surpassed 2,200 entries, but the bigger risk underlying attorneys’ use of such tools is that they will slowly surrender their judgment to AI and lose analytical skills, says Massachusetts District Court Associate Justice Brian Palmucci.

• Patent Suits Highlight Risks Across Data Center Supply Chain

  

  Recent patent disputes involving technologies that support artificial intelligence data centers showcase the growing litigation risks that data center suppliers and operators face, and raise questions about how litigation responsibilities may be allocated between them, say attorneys at Katten.

• The Patent Circuit: Minding Patents' Family Histories

  

  The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Epic Tech v. Pen-Tech highlights the relevance of patent families in determining whether to maintain an ongoing patent infringement litigation, and the sanctions risk that may stem from failing to account for patent relatives, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

• How AI Could Help Judges Spot Their Own Biases

  

  In close cases where there’s room for discretion, artificial intelligence could challenge judges’ implicit biases by running counterfactual tests at scale — but any judicial use of such tools would need guardrails, say Arnold Peter at Peter Law and Nancy Rapoport at University of Nevada.

• Tracking Texas: When Counterclaims Start The Removal Clock

  

  The Texas Business Court's recent decision in Bakery v. Naterra International clarifies that, when the original claims do not meet the court's amount-in-controversy threshold, a presuit threat to bring high-value counterclaims does not itself make those unfiled claims part of the action, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.

• Coinbase Ruling Showcases A Texas Reincorporation Benefit

  

  The Texas Business Court's recent decision in Guillaume v. Armstrong, finding that a shareholder's claims against Coinbase, originally incorporated in Delaware, are nonetheless subject to Texas presuit demand law if made after reincorporation, provides a procedural advantage for companies that have made the move, say attorneys at Cleary.

• Right-To-Repair Laws Create Manufacturer Compliance Maze

  

  Without existing precedent to help interpret new right-to-repair laws, original equipment manufacturers must make careful judgments about how best to comply with conflicting state statutes — but several principles related to documentation, replacement products and more emerge from the patchwork, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

• 3 Strategies To Reduce AI Sycophancy In Legal Work

  

  The tendency of generative artificial intelligence models to tell users what they want to hear can reinforce attorneys’ confirmation bias when testing the strength of arguments, and it can’t simply be prompted away — but a few practices can help mitigate it, says Michael Ott at Ice Miller.

• Open Issues After 2nd Circ.'s Airport Phone Search Ruling

  

  While the Second Circuit’s recent U.S. v. Alisigwe decision confirms border agents' broad authority to conduct routine manual cellphone searches at ports of entry, significant questions remain about more wide-ranging forensic searches at the border, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

• 2nd Circ. EFAA Ruling Shifts Employer Litigation Strategy

  

  In Diaz-Roa v. Hermes Law, the Second Circuit recently held that, under the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, employers can't carve out nonharassment claims and send them to arbitration, which has implications for discovery, litigation costs and resolution strategy in EFAA-covered disputes, say attorneys at Krevolin Horst.

• Balancing Independence And Costs In Ch. 11 Investigations

  

  A dispute in the Hughes Satellite Systems Chapter 11 case, pending in Texas bankruptcy court, raises a recurring issue in corporate restructurings: preserving the value of an independent corporate investigation and the investigative authority the Bankruptcy Code gives other constituencies, without making the estate pay twice for the same work, says attorney Kenneth Rosen.

• Series

  Being In The Peace Corps Made Me A Better Lawyer

  

  When I served in the Peace Corps, the people of the West African village where I was stationed helped me acclimate to my new surroundings and enabled me to develop problem-solving, teamwork and empathy skills that have bolstered my legal practice far beyond the ability to offer technical advice, says Brian Bewley at McGuireWoods.

• What's At Stake As Justices Rethink Sentencing Commentary

  

  Tuesday’s oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in Beaird v. U.S. highlighted the tension between preserving sentencing consistency and limiting the authority of sentencing guidelines commentary, and a decision favoring the latter could significantly reduce sentencing exposure for white collar defendants, say attorneys at Baker Donelson.