Washington

  • June 13, 2025

    Microsoft Settles Email Encryption Patent Case Ahead Of Trial

    Microsoft reached a deal to end a software developer's 2022 patent infringement lawsuit targeting its email encryption feature, the parties have told a federal judge in Washington state, a few days before the case was set to reach trial Monday.  

  • June 13, 2025

    9th Circ. Renews Copyright Claims In Software Cos. Fight

    A Ninth Circuit panel has partially revived an intellectual property dispute between software companies Cloanto Corp. and Hyperion Entertainment, ruling that the lower court erred in tossing Cloanto's copyright claims while correctly axing its breach of contract claim.

  • June 13, 2025

    Calif. State Bar Is Immune From Atty's ADA Suit, 9th Circ. Says

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday declined to revive an attorney's claims alleging the California State Bar violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by not granting extra time to respond to disciplinary action based on outstanding debt, finding the bar, as an arm of the state, is entitled to sovereign immunity.

  • June 13, 2025

    Trump Ends Protections, Funding For Columbia River Basin

    President Donald Trump has pulled the U.S. from a Biden-era agreement with two Pacific Northwest states and three tribal nations to restore salmon populations in the Columbia River Basin and increase clean energy production, saying his administration is committed to protecting the country from "radical green agenda policies."

  • June 13, 2025

    Wash. High Court Suspends Atty Amid Delays In Bar Probe

    The Washington State Supreme Court has suspended an Evergreen state attorney's legal license, at the state bar association's request, for allegedly stalling disciplinary investigations into her work representing student families in two federal lawsuits against school districts.

  • June 13, 2025

    Oregon Takes Cannabis Labor Peace Row To 9th Circ.

    Oregon officials will appeal a federal judge's order barring enforcement of a voter-approved law that required licensed cannabis businesses to enter into labor peace pacts with their workers.

  • June 12, 2025

    Ex-UPS Workers Urge 9th Circ. To Revive State Law Claims

    An attorney for some former United Parcel Service workers urged a Ninth Circuit panel Thursday to undo a decision barring them from proceeding with some state employment claims because the workers memorialized them on union grievance forms, telling the panel the claims aren't preempted by federal law.

  • June 12, 2025

    Air India Crash — Boeing 787 Dreamliner: What Do We Know?

    The Boeing Co. is bracing for renewed scrutiny after Thursday's deadly crash of an Air India flight with 242 people onboard as another line of its jets — this time, its 787-8 Dreamliner — is involved in an overseas aviation disaster just as the company was eyeing a fresh chapter following its 737 Max crisis.

  • June 12, 2025

    Fantasy Sports Site Claims Ex-Director Took IP To DraftKings

    Fantasy sports platform PrizePicks is suing its former social media director in Washington federal court over his lateral move to DraftKings, accusing him of taking the company's "most closely guarded" marketing trade secrets to the competitor by downloading those documents to his personal ChatGPT account before his departure.

  • June 12, 2025

    Wash. Justice Doubts Both Sides In Election Law Fight

    A Washington Supreme Court justice said Thursday he believed a political action committee and county auditor are both wrong about the disputed meaning of a state law governing city charter amendment elections, as he and his colleagues flagged discrepancies in the parties' arguments.

  • June 12, 2025

    High 5 Can't Slash $7M Enhanced Damages In App Case

    A Washington federal judge denied High 5 Games' post-trial bid to toss or lower a $7.2 million enhanced damages award for operating illegal casino-style mobile apps, finding that the amount was properly decided by a jury and complied with limits under Evergreen State consumer protection law. 

  • June 12, 2025

    'Bad Faith': Valve Accused Of Thwarting Arbitration It Sought

    Valve Corp. is blocking consumers from arbitrating antitrust claims against the gaming company by refusing to pay $20 million in arbitration fees, a "bad faith" move that flouts a court order granting Valve's bid to compel arbitration, a game buyer told a Washington federal judge in a motion for sanctions.

  • June 12, 2025

    Calif. Sues Trump Over 'Wildly Partisan' EV Waiver Repeal

    The California attorney general and 10 other states sued the Trump administration in federal court Thursday, minutes after President Donald Trump signed resolutions repealing California's Clean Air Act waiver that allowed the state to establish its own vehicle emissions standards, slamming the resolutions as unconstitutional, irrational and "wildly partisan."

  • June 12, 2025

    9th Circ. Says Brazilian Didn't Get Fair Shake In Asylum Request

    The Ninth Circuit has revived a Brazilian woman's asylum claim, saying neither the Board of Immigration Appeals nor an immigration judge appropriately considered how the danger she faced in her home country stopped her from practicing her religion freely.

  • June 12, 2025

    Protego Ends $200M Suit Alleging Failed Crypto Bank Promise

    Protego Holdings Corp. has agreed to drop a lawsuit accusing a Texas-based firm of failing to deliver on a $200 million investment pledge in its launch of a cryptocurrency bank, which never materialized because rare conditional approval from the U.S. government lapsed over financing concerns.

  • June 12, 2025

    Redfin Investor Seeks $450K In Fees In Merger Disclosure Suit

    A Redfin investor asked a Washington federal judge to award $450,000 in legal fees to Monteverde & Associates PC and Wohl & Fruchter LLP, claiming his lawsuit was beneficial to shareholders despite the court's decision to deny his preliminary injunction request to postpone an investor vote.

  • June 11, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs Reddit Win In WallStreetBets Creator's TM Suit

    The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday refused to revive WallStreetBets subreddit founder Jaime Rogozinski's lawsuit accusing Reddit Inc. of hijacking his creation and infringing his right to trademark the brand, saying in an unpublished opinion that Rogozinski failed to adequately plead ownership over the brand mark.

  • June 11, 2025

    Seattle Hospital Hit With Class Suit Over 'Diverted' Pain Meds

    A Seattle-based hospital system has been slapped with a proposed class action in Washington state court over claims that hundreds of patients suffered unwarranted pain and risk of infection because a staff member may have been pocketing painkillers.

  • June 11, 2025

    CFPB's Fee Brief May Be Gone But Not Forgotten, Judge Says

    A Seattle federal judge has allowed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to pull back its Biden-era amicus support for a consumer fee class action against Nationstar Mortgage, but she said she may still take the agency's prior legal arguments into account.

  • June 11, 2025

    Wash. Panel Grills Worker Family On $5M Asbestos Win Basis

    A Washington appellate panel seemed skeptical Wednesday that a family's $5.5 million win against an industrial manufacturer could stand when it never made the asbestos-containing equipment at issue in the product liability case, with one judge also remarking the company had raised a "hard argument" on appeal.

  • June 11, 2025

    VA Contractor To Pay $4.3M To Resolve Overbilling Claims

    Healthcare technology company Omnicell Inc. has agreed to pay more than $4.3 million to settle allegations it fraudulently overcharged the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for medical products and software, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

  • June 11, 2025

    AGs Press Meta To Do More To Stop Pump-And-Dump Scams

    Attorneys general from states and territories around the country, as well as the District of Columbia, sent an open letter to Meta Platforms Inc. Wednesday urging the social media giant to help stem the tide of widespread investment scams across Facebook and WhatsApp that they said have caused people to lose "life-changing" amounts of money.

  • June 11, 2025

    NFL Tells 9th Circ. $4.7B Sunday Ticket Verdict Rightly Nixed

    The National Football League has told the Ninth Circuit that a lower court was right to toss a $4.7 billion jury verdict for claims that the league colluded to raise the price of the Sunday Ticket broadcast package on DirecTV, after the court found testimony from a pair of experts during trial was unreliable.

  • June 10, 2025

    9th Circ. Weighs Bids To Revive 3 Website Wiretapping Suits

    A Ninth Circuit panel Tuesday appeared skeptical of a trio of consumers' bids to resurrect separate proposed class actions accusing Papa John's, Converse and Bloomingdale's of unlawfully tracking website visitors, questioning whether the plaintiffs' claims fit within the scope of California's wiretapping and eavesdropping protections.

  • June 10, 2025

    States Sue To Block 23andMe From Selling DNA Data In Ch. 11

    A bipartisan coalition of 28 attorneys general has sued 23andMe Inc. in Missouri bankruptcy court seeking to block the genetic-testing company from auctioning off its 15 million customers' personal genetic information without their explicit consent in its ongoing Chapter 11 proceeding.

Expert Analysis

  • How Trump Energy Order May Challenge State Climate Efforts

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    Even if the Trump administration's recent executive order targeting state and local environmental, climate and clean energy laws, regulations and programs doesn't result in successful legal challenges to state authority, the order could discourage state legislatures from taking further climate action, say attorneys at Foley Hoag.

  • Notable Q1 Updates In Insurance Class Actions

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    The first quarter of 2025 was filled with the refinement of old theories in the property and casualty space, including in vehicle valuation, time to seek appraisal and materials depreciation, says Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler.

  • Series

    Power To The Paralegals: The Value Of Unified State Licensing

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    Texas' proposal to become the latest state to license paraprofessional providers of limited legal services could help firms expand their reach and improve access to justice, but consumers, attorneys and allied legal professionals would benefit even more if similar programs across the country become more uniform, says Michael Houlberg at the University of Denver.

  • 10 Soft Skills Every GC Should Master

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    As businesses face shifting regulatory and technological uncertainty, general counsel will need to strengthen certain soft skills to succeed, from admitting when they make a mistake to maintaining a healthy dose of dispassion, says Douglas Brown at Manatt.

  • An Unrestrained, Bright-Eyed View Of Legal AI's Future

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    Todd Itami at Covington offers a bright-eyed, laughing-all-the-way, skydive look at what the legal industry could look like after an artificial intelligence revolution, which he believes may happen much sooner and more dramatically than we expect.

  • Tracking The Evolution In Litigation Finance

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    Despite continued innovation, litigation finance remains an immature market with borrowers recieving significantly different terms as lenders learn to value cases, which firms need a strong handle on to ensure lending terms do not overwhelm collateral value, says Robert Wilkins at Lightfoot Franklin.

  • Addressing Antitrust Scrutiny Over AI-Powered Pricing Tools

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    Amid multiple recent civil complaints alleging antitrust violations by providers and users of algorithmic pricing tools, such as RealPage and Yardi, digital-era measures should feature prominently in corporate compliance programs, including documentation of pro-competitive benefits and when to use disclosures, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Series

    Volunteer Firefighting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    While practicing corporate law and firefighting may appear incongruous, the latter benefits my legal career by reminding me of the importance of humility, perspective and education, says Nicholas Passaro at Ford.

  • What's At Stake As 9th Circ. Eyes Cultural Resource Damages

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    In Pakootas v. Teck Cominco, the Ninth Circuit is faced with the long-unresolved question of whether cultural resource damages are recoverable as part of natural resource damages under the Superfund law — and the answer will have enormous implications for companies, natural resource trustees and Native American tribes, says Sarah Bell at Farella Braun.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: The Perils Of Digital Data Protocols

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    Though stipulated protocols governing the treatment of electronically stored information in litigation are meant to streamline discovery, recent disputes demonstrate that certain missteps in the process can lead to significant inefficiencies, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Preparing For Corporate Work

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    Law school often doesn't cover the business strategy, financial fluency and negotiation skills needed for a successful corporate or transactional law practice, but there are practical ways to gain relevant experience and achieve the mindset shifts critical to a thriving career in this space, says Dakota Forsyth at Olshan Frome.

  • A Cold War-Era History Lesson On Due Process

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    The landmark Harry Bridges case from the mid-20th century Red Scare offers important insights on why lawyers must be free of government reprisal, no matter who their client is, says Peter Afrasiabi at One LLP.

  • Series

    Improv Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Improv keeps me grounded and connected to what matters most, including in my legal career where it has helped me to maintain a balance between being analytical, precise and professional, and creative, authentic and open-minded, says Justine Gottshall at InfoLawGroup.

  • How BigLaw Executive Orders May Affect Smaller Firms

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    Because of the types of cases they take on, solo practitioners, small law firms and public interest attorneys may find themselves more dramatically affected by the collective impact of recent government action involving the legal industry than even the BigLaw firms named in the executive orders, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Opinion

    Lawsuits Shouldn't Be Shadow Assets For Foreign Capital

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    Third-party litigation financing amplifies inefficiencies from litigation and facilitates national exposure to foreign influence in the U.S. justice system, so full disclosure of financing arrangements should be required as a matter of institutional integrity, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

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