Washington

  • August 31, 2026

    Domino's Seeks To Deliver Noncompete Suit To Arbitration

    Domino's Pizza asked a Washington state court to compel individual arbitration of a former yard driver's proposed class claims alleging the company's conflict-of-interest policy illegally restricted workers from taking second jobs, arguing the worker signed a binding arbitration agreement when he was hired that includes a class action waiver.

  • August 31, 2026

    9th Circ. Faults Notice Errors In Jamaican's Deportation Case

    A Jamaican citizen's due process rights were violated when the federal government failed to properly notify him about its appeals of decisions granting him withholding of removal, the Ninth Circuit ruled, noting that he's been in immigration detention since 2021.

  • August 31, 2026

    Feds Say New USPS Mail-In Ballot Rule Isn't A 'Takeover'

    A new U.S. Postal Service rule compelling states to submit voters' names to the federal government and redesign envelopes in order to have mail-in ballots delivered in November imposes "modest" requirements and is not a "federal takeover of elections," the Trump administration told a Massachusetts federal judge in a weekend filing.

  • August 28, 2026

    Wash. Paper Mill Tank Called Unfit Ahead Of Deadly Collapse

    An inspector warned Nippon Dynawave Packaging that a storage tank at its paper mill in Washington state was unfit for service and at high risk of failure roughly 10 months before the vessel ruptured in May and flooded the plant with corrosive liquid that left 11 employees dead, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board reported Friday.  

  • August 28, 2026

    AbbVie 'Concocted' Cancer Drug IP Claims, Biotech Firm Says

    Biotech firms ProfoundBio and Genmab urged a Seattle federal judge Thursday to throw out rival AbbVie's lawsuit accusing two of its former employees of taking trade secrets on cancer therapies to ProfoundBio, arguing AbbVie's claims are time-barred, and the information wasn't a protectable trade secret.

  • August 28, 2026

    Concora Credit Flouted FCRA When Hiring, Applicant Says

    Oregon-based financial services company Concora Credit violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by not providing its prospective and current employees with consumer reports it obtained for background checks, according to a proposed class action filed in Washington federal court.

  • August 28, 2026

    ConocoPhillips Can't Dodge Climate Torts, Wash. Tribes Say

    Two Native American tribes urged a Washington state judge Friday to preserve their climate change tort claims against ConocoPhillips, contending there's a "clear connection" between the oil company's Washington ties, its alleged actions downplaying the dangers of burning fossil fuels and the tribes' purported injuries.

  • August 28, 2026

    9th Circ. Rules Against Kalshi In Sports Wager Circuit Split

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday backed a Nevada federal court decision that cleared the way for the state's gambling regulators to pursue Kalshi's sports offerings, creating a circuit split in the sprawling litigation over prediction market regulation.

  • August 28, 2026

    Wilmington Trust Forecloses On $3M Wash. Townhome Loans

    Investment manager Wilmington Trust North America is suing an apartment owner to foreclose on $3.3 million in loans for a group of 11 townhomes, according to a suit removed to Washington federal court.

  • August 28, 2026

    Medical Marijuana Industry Grapples With DEA's New Role

    After years of allowing the state-sanctioned medical marijuana industry to operate without interference, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is stepping in to regulate a drug it once treated exclusively as contraband, but attorneys and regulators say the cannabis industry's interactions with the agency are off to a rocky start.

  • August 28, 2026

    Judge Reduces Sealy Worker's 'Excessive' Harassment Win

    A Washington federal judge reduced a $5 million verdict awarded to a worker who claimed mattress company Sealy Inc. subjected her to sexual harassment, ruling she is owed only $1.25 million in damages after calling the original award "grossly excessive."

  • August 28, 2026

    Real Estate Recap: Back To School

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including the latest higher-education projects driving legal work, as well as an interview with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP's new real estate practice group leader. 

  • August 27, 2026

    Mass. Judge Halts USPS Mail Ballot Rule Before Midterms

    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.

  • August 27, 2026

    Albertsons Loses Bid For Midtrial Win In Wash. Opioid Case

    Albertsons can't escape the state of Washington's lawsuit accusing the pharmacy chain and its Safeway subsidiary of contributing to the state's opioid crisis, a state judge ruled Thursday in denying the company's bid to dismiss the case midtrial.

  • August 27, 2026

    States' Suit Says HHS Terms Threaten Family Planning Dollars

    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.

  • August 27, 2026

    Wash. Mill Faces 35 Violations After Tank Collapse Killed 11

    The Washington State Department of Ecology cited Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. on Wednesday with 35 water quality, air quality and hazardous waste violations tied to a May chemical storage tank collapse that flooded a pulp and paper mill with caustic white liquor and led to 11 employee deaths.

  • August 27, 2026

    Enviro Groups Seek More Time To Fight Roadless Rule Repeal

    Environmental groups have asked the U.S. Forest Service to extend a public comment period for its proposal to scrap a 25-year-old "Roadless Rule" that bars logging and road construction on tens of millions of acres of national forest around the country.

  • August 27, 2026

    DOJ Targets 4 More States Over Immigrant Tuition Benefits

    The U.S. Department of Justice sued Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington on Thursday over their laws allowing unauthorized immigrants to pay in-state tuition, arguing the measures amount to unconstitutional discrimination against U.S. citizens.

  • August 27, 2026

    Boeing Calls Moon Tech Discovery Demand A 'Goose Chase'

    The Boeing Co. has pushed back against Colorado-based Wilson Aerospace's bid to force the disclosure of nearly 12 years' worth of financial records in an intellectual property dispute over technology used in a NASA moon exploration program, calling the discovery request "overbroad and unduly burdensome."

  • August 27, 2026

    Boeing Says Bid To Depose Ex-Exec In 737 Suit Is Off Base

    The Boeing Co. is urging a Washington federal judge to toss a motion by Norwegian Air subsidiaries to depose a former senior executive in a suit over their purchase of 737 Max airplanes, saying it has no control over him, and he wouldn't have unique information relevant to the case anyway.

  • August 26, 2026

    Top Takeaways From Meta's $17B Kid Safety Deal

    A $17.1 billion deal with 29 states and Meta Platforms Inc. that includes reforms to Facebook and Instagram to protect children is seen as a benchmark for other settlements with social media companies as litigation and public pressure mounts over mental health harms to youth.

  • August 26, 2026

    9th Circ. Backs Google Privacy Deal With No Class Payouts

    A split Ninth Circuit panel Wednesday affirmed approval of a location data privacy deal that requires Google to pay $62 million to plaintiffs' counsel and third-party organizations but gives no money to individual class members, agreeing the structure was appropriate because direct distribution to all class members would be "infeasible."

  • August 26, 2026

    Iowa, Montana Ask Justices To Stop Paramount Merger Case

    Iowa and Montana are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop California and other state enforcers from challenging Paramount Skydance Corp.'s planned purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, calling the effort "a partisan enforcement action" that targets a procompetitive deal.

  • August 26, 2026

    Chemical Co. Reps Can't Dissolve $1.9M Trade Secret Verdict

    A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a request by three chemical sales representatives to undo a $1.9 million jury verdict for their former employer in a trade secret dispute, ruling that Silver Fern Chemical Inc. clearly demonstrated that they took confidential customer information that was valuable and not readily accessible elsewhere.

  • August 26, 2026

    9th Circ. Panel Won't Revisit Boeing's $72M Trade Secret Loss

    A Ninth Circuit panel has rejected Boeing's bid for a panel rehearing of its August 2025 decision reinstating a $72 million jury verdict for electric jet startup Zunum Aero Inc. in a trade secret dispute, spurning the aerospace giant's fresh argument that the case belongs in the Federal Circuit because of the patent counterclaims involved.

Expert Analysis

  • Asylum Ruling Signals Larger Separation Of Powers Battle

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado that border officials may turn away asylum-seekers without inspection is part of a broader conversation about the reach of institutional safeguards that subject governmental authority to legal constraint, says Dree Collopy at American University's Washington College of Law.

  • Series

    Being A Magician Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The skills I've developed as a lifelong magician have translated directly into tangible benefits in the courtroom because performing magic and trying cases both live at the intersection of psychology, storytelling, timing and disciplined rehearsal, says Mark Dombroff at Fox Rothschild.

  • Opinion

    Shareholder Derivative Litigation Needs A Better Framework

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    Uncoordinated, multiforum shareholder derivative litigation is a growing issue for corporate defendants that have little to no recourse for organizing and consolidating actions, but several commonsense steps should be utilized to preempt such disputes, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • 2 AI Washing Rulings Apply Familiar Securities Fraud Rules

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    Two recent federal court decisions to allow AI washing complaints to proceed begin to clarify the line between nonactionable optimism and actionable misstatements by framing the core issue as not overstating the promise of artificial intelligence, but misrepresenting the current state of a company's products, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Series

    Bass Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Landing a trophy striped bass and closing a big deal both require cultivating the patience to finesse — not force — your way to desired outcomes, changing course when your old approach isn’t working and learning from the ones that got away, says Jon Ruiss at Alston & Bird.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • How Maine's Expanded Health Deal Reviews Complicate M&A

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    A pair of recently approved Maine competition laws establish notice and approval requirements for certain healthcare transactions and expand state antitrust oversight, creating new hurdles for dealmakers as states take a more aggressive role in policing healthcare consolidation, especially involving private equity, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Series

    Choral Singing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Singing in the New York City Bar Chorus — a hobby partly inspired by the late U.S. District Judge Richard Owen, who infused my clerkship year with opera music — has improved my legal career by refining my abilities to listen, exude confidence and develop emotional intelligence, says Bonnie Baker at Friedman Kaplan.

  • Attorney Mental Health Is An Ethical Obligation In The AI Era

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    As attorneys cope with the increasing unpredictability that artificial intelligence and constant policy changes have created, particularly in practice areas where they carry the emotional weight of clients’ most consequential life events, otherwise soft discussions about self-care are a matter of professional competence, says attorney Jack Jrada.

  • Series

    Power To The Paralegals: Burnout As A Structural Problem

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    Law firm leadership can best retain their paralegals not by encouraging self-care, but by seeking top-down structural solutions for the quiet proliferation of responsibilities and the vicarious exposure to client trauma that particularly drive burnout in this vital role, says Erika Sneeringer at Brockstedt Mandalas.

  • Ill. Law Firm MSO Bill Clashes With Court Power, Ethics Rules

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    An Illinois bill prohibiting law firms from certain business arrangements with management service organizations, sent to the governor for signature last week, encroaches upon the courts' constitutional powers and goes beyond the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct in regulating investment in law-related services, says Matthew O’Hara at Smith Gambrell.

  • Google Antitrust Case Puts Spotlight On De Facto Exclusivity

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    Mozilla's recent amicus filing in U.S. v. Google arguing that its agreement to make Google the default search engine did not amount to de facto exclusivity highlights the growing debate over traditional indicators of exclusivity, with implications for any business that uses rebates, preferred contracts or volume incentives, says Chris Gowen at WilmU Farnan School of Law.

  • 3rd Circ. Decision Sheds Light On BIPA Bank Exemption

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    The Third Circuit's recent decision in McGoveran v. Amazon illuminates how courts are extending the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act's financial institution carveout beyond banks and insurers to technology vendors and other businesses handling biometric data, a defendant-friendly shift that still casts uncertainty around BIPA's enforcement, say attorneys at Dorsey & Whitney.

  • Opinion

    State Courts Must Be Gatekeepers Of Expert Testimony

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    Based on my experience in the state judiciary, emulating federal courts' role as gatekeepers of expert witness testimony would help state court judges maintain the appearance of impartiality and assist juries, thus enhancing the overall confidence people have in their justice system, says Lorie Gildea at Greenberg Traurig.

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