Washington

  • July 29, 2026

    Albertsons Pharmacy Work Was 'House Of Cards,' Judge Told

    Albertsons pharmacists in Washington state repeatedly warned supervisors that busy workloads and limited staffing were making it difficult to review prescriptions before filling them, a state judge in Seattle heard Monday, during a bench trial in Washington's case accusing Albertsons and its Safeway subsidiary of fueling the state's opioid crisis.

  • July 29, 2026

    9th Circ. Vacates Orrick Win In Stock Transfer Deal Dispute

    The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday reversed a lower court's finding that Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP can't be held liable in a battle over a stock transfer agreement gone awry, ruling that California law does allow a party to the transfer to pursue equitable indemnity in the case.

  • July 29, 2026

    BNSF Reaches Deal Over Ex-Conductor's Post-Injury Firing

    A former conductor has reached a deal with BNSF Railway Co. to end an employment retaliation lawsuit that claims the company wrongfully fired him based on an unsubstantiated rule violation after he sought compensation for a brake rigging accident that severely injured his hand.

  • July 29, 2026

    Trail Cam Co. Says T-Mobile Broke Tech Migration Promises

    T-Mobile is trying to plow forward with a plan to shift Tactacam-branded "trail cameras" that operate on cellular networks to a new technology even though all the tests have failed, which could make millions of cams useless, according to the company that owns those cameras.

  • July 29, 2026

    Wash. State Bar Calls Off NextGen Exam Due To Tech Issue

    Washington state's July 2026 NextGen bar exam was abruptly canceled Tuesday due to technical issues at the central Washington convention center where it was slated to begin, leaving 645 applicants unable to take the test, according to the state bar association.

  • July 29, 2026

    Securities Class Actions To Watch: Mid-Year Report

    A trio of circuit court appeals tied to the class certification process in shareholder suits and a U.S. Supreme Court appeal that also touches on certification are among the cases that securities litigators are keeping an eye on in the second half of 2026.

  • July 29, 2026

    Nexstar Says Tegna Board Members Don't Violate Injunction

    Nexstar Media Group told a California federal court that Tegna remains independent, despite concerns from DirecTV and a coalition of states that the companies violated an injunction preventing them from merging fully when Nexstar took over Tegna's board.

  • July 29, 2026

    9th Circ. Revives Biotech Worker's Pension Plan Suit

    The Ninth Circuit reopened a former Calbiotech Inc. scientist's lawsuit claiming the company unlawfully hid the existence of a pension plan, saying a trial court erred in concluding that a document specifying who was eligible to participate in the plan was legitimate.

  • July 29, 2026

    Planned Parenthood Lab's $6.1M Breach Deal Gets Initial OK

    A Washington federal judge has preliminarily approved a $6.1 million class action settlement in two challenges to a state-based diagnostics testing service for Planned Parenthood over a 2025 data breach that reportedly affected as many as 1.6 million people.

  • July 29, 2026

    Apple, Amazon Beat Bid To Revive IPhone Sales Antitrust Suit

    A Washington federal judge has declined to reinstate a proposed class action accusing Apple and Amazon of illegally limiting iPhone and iPad sales, standing by her previous conclusion that Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP failed to promptly seek the approval of two substitute plaintiffs after the original lead consumer abandoned the case.

  • July 29, 2026

    DOL Says Beekeeper Underpaid, Endangered H-2A Workers

    The U.S. Department of Labor sued a beekeeping business and its owner in Washington federal court Wednesday, alleging they underpaid H-2A workers, housed them in a rat-infested trailer and pressured an employee to conceal a workplace injury that nearly cost him a finger.

  • July 29, 2026

    DOJ Wants New Judge In Fired Court-Appointed US Atty's Suit

    A lawsuit from the Seattle U.S. attorney who was swiftly fired from his post by President Donald Trump shortly after being appointed to it by a federal court should be reassigned to a different judge, the administration has told a Washington federal court.

  • July 29, 2026

    Seattle Restaurant Owner Pleads Guilty In $1.4M Tax Case

    A Seattle restaurant owner pled guilty to willfully failing to pay more than $1.4 million in unemployment, Social Security and Medicare taxes, some of it withheld from his employees' paychecks, according to federal prosecutors and court documents.

  • July 29, 2026

    'Vibe Coding' Pushes Cos. To Rethink Copyright Protection

    As artificial intelligence takes on more software development projects, businesses embracing “vibe coding” are adapting to uncertain copyright protection by documenting engineers’ contributions, keeping humans involved in high-value projects and leaning more heavily on trade secrets.

  • July 29, 2026

    Amicus Briefs Back Decertification In Juul, Altria Antitrust Suit

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 14 states led by Iowa, and legal interest groups are urging the Ninth Circuit to throw out class certification in antitrust litigation against Altria and Juul, joining the companies in arguing that the trial court misapplied California law to apply to other states.

  • July 28, 2026

    DHS Can't Undo Order Halting TSA Union Deal Cancellation

    A federal judge in Seattle denied the Trump administration's bid on Tuesday to lift a court order blocking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from canceling a collective bargaining agreement covering thousands of Transportation Security Administration workers, saying the government failed to debunk two independent grounds for the injunction.

  • July 28, 2026

    Ed Dept. Can't Cancel K–12 Mental Health Grants Worth $1B

    A Washington federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration on Tuesday from terminating nearly $1 billion in K–12 mental health grants serving 15 states, finding that the plaintiff states are likely to prove the U.S. Education Department bypassed federal procedures when attempting to cut off the funds.

  • July 28, 2026

    Amazon To Pay $2M To End Suit Over Rest Breaks In Wash.

    Amazon will pay $2 million to resolve Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go store workers' accusations that the e-commerce giant failed to provide them with meal and rest breaks required under Washington state law, according to a settlement given final approval by a Pierce County judge.

  • July 28, 2026

    Wash. AG's Income Tax Repeal Ballot Language Challenged

    Political action committee Let's Go Washington on Monday launched a legal challenge to the Evergreen State attorney general's wording of a November ballot measure that would repeal a recently passed 9.9% tax on annual income above $1 million, claiming the summary is inaccurate and slanted in favor of the tax.

  • July 28, 2026

    States Back Guam Group In High Court Disposal Permit Fight

    A coalition of states has told the U.S. Supreme Court that the U.S. Air Force must comply with separate, complementary environmental laws over its permit renewal application to detonate expired munitions in Guam, arguing the laws have distinct aims.

  • July 28, 2026

    Calif. Warns SEC Against Preempting State REIT Registration

    California is urging the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission not to adopt a proposal that could free certain real estate investment trusts and business development companies from registering with the states, saying it could leave retirees and the elderly vulnerable to fraud.

  • July 28, 2026

    Wash. Panel Upholds DoorDash's $14.5M Insurance Penalty

    DoorDash must pay $14.5 million in taxes and penalties for failing to pay its Dashers' industrial insurance premiums each quarter from 2017 to 2019, Washington appellate judges ruled Tuesday, finding the Dashers were covered workers under state law since their personal labor was the essence of their contracts.

  • July 28, 2026

    Judge Mulls Pausing Medicaid Work Rule For 'Frail' Recipients

    A Massachusetts federal judge said Tuesday he anticipates deciding by the end of the week whether the Trump administration will have to pause part of a new rule states must follow in determining whether medically frail Medicaid recipients are exempt from new work or school requirements.

  • July 28, 2026

    340B Appellate Cases To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2026

    Drugmakers are pressing appellate judges in the back half of 2026 to strike down state laws blocking them from restricting 340B contract pharmacy arrangements. Law360 Healthcare Authority has the cases to watch.

  • July 28, 2026

    Teva Can't 'Literally Whine' Of Being Held To DOJ Admissions

    A Pennsylvania federal judge has taken Teva to task for trying to avoid being held to its admissions of price-fixing in a $225 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, ruling that Humana can use those admissions in one of the first bellwether trials in sprawling multidistrict litigation.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    NY Times Word Puzzles Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    Every morning I let The New York Times humble me with word games, which offer a chance to recalibrate my brain before the day's chaos arrives and remind me that a solution — whether to a puzzle or employment law issue — almost always exists once I find the right angle, says Amy Epstein Gluck at Pierson Ferdinand.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lesson: Diagnose Before Arguing

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    Law school often skips over explicitly teaching students how to determine what kind of problem a case presents before they commit to a particular doctrinal path, which risks building arguments that are internally coherent but externally misaligned, says Melanie Oxhorn at Kobre & Kim.

  • Becoming The Biz-Savvy GC That Portfolio Companies Need

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    Candidates for general counsel roles at private equity-backed portfolio companies should prioritize proving their sector-specific experience, commercial judgment and ease with uncertainty — and attorneys hoping to be candidates in five to 10 years should start working on those skills now, says Dimitri Mastrocola at Major Lindsey.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: How Courts Can Survive The Tech Revolution

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    Colorado Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Lino Lipinsky de Orlov discuss how artificial intelligence has already fundamentally altered the legal system and offer tips for courts navigating deepfakes, hallucinations and a gap in access to AI tools.

  • A Framework For Habeas Relief After 5th Circ. Bond Ruling

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    Following the Fifth Circuit’s recent Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi decision foreclosing statutory bond for detained nonimmigrants not deemed admitted to the U.S., lawyers should adopt a framework that requests habeas relief pursuant to the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause, says Kemal Hepsen at Mandamus Lawyers.

  • 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

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    The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • How 'Bundling' Enforcement Is Parsing Efficiency, Access

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    Recent antitrust enforcement actions have taken a selective view of companies' bundling of products or services — challenging it when it shuts out rivals, but tolerating it when it creates efficient scale — making the real test now less about lower prices than about whether competition is being blocked, says attorney Alan Kusinitz.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

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    Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

  • Key Tronic Case Shows SEC Isn't Ignoring Controls Violations

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's first nonfraud enforcement action against a public company during Chairman Paul Atkins' tenure reflects the commission’s willingness to bring enforcement actions that charge books and records and internal controls violations, despite deviating from policing technical violations, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Where The Preemption Fight Over Prediction Markets Stands

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    While the Third Circuit's recent ruling in Kalshi v. Flaherty remains a significant win for the federal government in its quest to regulate prediction markets, the Fourth, Sixth and Ninth Circuits appear more skeptical, indicating that this fight is likely headed for the Supreme Court, says Johnny ElHachem at Holland & Knight.

  • 4 Emerging Approaches To AI Protective Order Language

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    Over the last year, at least five federal district courts have issued or analyzed specific protective order provisions restricting the use of generative artificial intelligence platforms with protected materials, establishing that proactive AI-specific provisions are now standard practice and demonstrating that no single model works for every case, says Joel Bush at Kilpatrick.

  • Heppner Ruling Left AI Privilege Risk For Lawyers Unresolved

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    While a New York federal judge’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner resolved a privilege question surrounding client-side artificial intelligence use, it did not address how to mitigate the risks that can arise when confidential information enters the operative context of an AI system used by an attorney, says Jianfei Chen at Quarles & Brady​​​​​​​.

  • The Ethics And Practicalities Of Representing AI Agents

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    With autonomous artificial intelligence agents now able to take action without explicit instructions from — or the awareness of — their human owners, the bar must confront whether existing frameworks like informed consent and client privilege will be sufficient on the day an AI agent calls seeking counsel, say attorneys at Morrison Cohen.

  • Notable Q1 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    Notable insurance class action decisions from the first quarter of the year included reminders about the statute of limitations as a key defense for claims relating to allegedly deficient forms, the importance of focus on the specific contract at issue and further guidance on the contours of Rule 23, says Kevin Zimmerman at BakerHostetler.

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