Washington

  • August 20, 2026

    Sephora Denied Wash. Workers Breaks, Class Action Says

    Sephora is facing a proposed class action from a former employee who claims the beauty retailer deprived Washington state workers of legally required meal and rest periods and failed to compensate them for missed breaks.

  • August 20, 2026

    9th Circ. Revives Can-Am Fuel Claims Against Sinclair, Glovis

    A unanimous Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday revived Can-Am Fuel Distribution LLC's federal franchise claims against Sinclair Oil LLC and Glovis America Inc., holding the companies' licensing agreements are covered by the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act despite an "unusual variation" in the parties' relationship.

  • August 20, 2026

    9th Circ. Sides With NLRB In Wash. Terminal Union Work Fight

    The full Ninth Circuit Thursday backed the National Labor Relations Board's decision in a union battle for work on a Seattle marine cargo terminal, ruling the International Longshore and Warehouse Union can't use the "work-preservation defense" to defeat accusations that it illegally pressured an employer for disputed work.

  • August 20, 2026

    Nintendo Customer Fights To Keep Tariff Refund Suit Alive

    A Washington federal court should deny Nintendo's attempt to escape a proposed class action seeking reimbursement of costs that customers paid toward President Donald Trump's since-invalidated global tariff regime now that the company is pursuing refunds, a customer told the court.

  • August 20, 2026

    Trade Groups Back Apple In 9th Circ. Class Decert. Fight

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other trade and advocacy groups backed Apple Wednesday with amicus briefs telling the Ninth Circuit to reject an appeal from consumers looking to undo the decertification of a class of roughly 200 million people in an antitrust case targeting App Store policies.

  • August 20, 2026

    Costco Drops Chicken Drippings Slip-And-Fall Coverage Row

    Costco has agreed to dismiss claims seeking coverage for an underlying suit from a man who was injured when he slipped on rotisserie chicken drippings in a California store, according to a joint motion to dismiss Wednesday.

  • August 20, 2026

    Wash. Judge Trims Claims In Construction Wage Suit

    A Washington federal judge has narrowed a carpenter apprentice's amended complaint alleging that a Seattle construction company shorted employees on wages for off-the-clock work, ruling that the claims involving missed rest and meal breaks were preempted by federal law.

  • August 20, 2026

    9th Circ. Widens Arbitration Split, But Will High Court Step In?

    The Ninth Circuit issued a decision last week foreclosing the use of the legal concept that a dispute over the enforcement of an international arbitral award might be better heard elsewhere, contributing to a circuit split that could result in the U.S. Supreme Court finally addressing an issue it has previously eschewed.

  • August 19, 2026

    Amazon Wants Full 9th Circ. To Rethink Block On Perplexity AI

    Amazon is pressing the full Ninth Circuit to consider a lower court's injunction preventing Perplexity's "uniquely reckless" artificial intelligence tool from purchasing items for users on Amazon, arguing that a panel erred in lifting the block earlier this month.

  • August 19, 2026

    CFPB Pursues Early Win In Hagens Berman Lender Docs Suit

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking to beat Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP's suit accusing the agency of illegally withholding information about any investigations into mortgage lender Veterans United, arguing that acknowledging any such probe could thwart the bureau's law enforcement efforts.

  • August 19, 2026

    9th Circ. Sides With PennyMac In Fixed LIBOR Fallback

    The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday rejected a shareholder's claim that PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust was required to replace discontinued LIBOR with a newer floating rate when calculating preferred-share dividends, holding that the federal LIBOR Act allowed for a contractual fixed fallback rate.

  • August 19, 2026

    Albertsons Says Wash. Failed To Prove Opioid Claims At Trial

    Albertsons Cos. Inc. urged a Seattle judge on Tuesday to throw out Washington state's lawsuit accusing the chain and its subsidiary Safeway Inc. of fueling Washington's opioid crisis, arguing that the state failed to prove wrongdoing by the companies after nearly five weeks of an ongoing bench trial.

  • August 19, 2026

    Scribd To Pay $3M To End Wash. Wage Scale Class Action

    Document hosting service Scribd Inc. will pay $3 million to resolve a class action accusing the tech company of violating Washington state law by failing to include pay information on job postings, according to a settlement agreement given preliminary approval by a King County Superior Court judge.

  • August 19, 2026

    Ex-US Attys Protest Trump's Swift Firing Of Rogoff In Seattle

    Thirty former U.S. attorneys backed Roger Rogoff's bid for reinstatement as Seattle's top federal prosecutor after President Donald Trump fired him on the heels of his court-ordered appointment, arguing Tuesday that Trump is trying to "sidestep the Senate's advice-and-consent role and sideline the judiciary" by letting unappointed individuals play such roles.

  • August 19, 2026

    9th Circ. Says Initial Arbitration No Obstacle To EFAA

    A split Ninth Circuit panel ruled Wednesday that a fired biopharmaceutical executive could quit arbitration and file a suit claiming her boss subjected her to gender-based harassment, finding the pivot was fair game under a law that shields sex misconduct disputes from out-of-court resolutions.

  • August 19, 2026

    Paramount Judge Urges Parties To Be 'More Reasonable'

    A California federal judge overseeing the challenge to Paramount Skydance's $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition brought by the Writers Guild of America and state attorneys general urged the parties Wednesday to be "much more reasonable" with discovery disputes, warning that if they aren't, "you will find yourself asked to engage a special master."

  • August 19, 2026

    Feds Urge Wash. Court To Back Axing Dam Workers' CBA

    The Trump administration urged a Washington federal court to deny a labor union's bid to block the government from terminating a collective bargaining agreement covering hydropower dam workers, arguing that appellate courts have rejected similar injunction requests from other unions.

  • August 18, 2026

    Uber Eats To Pay $4.4M To End Seattle Wage Theft Claims

    Uber Eats will again fork out millions of dollars to settle allegations from Seattle officials that the food delivery giant failed to pay its couriers what they're owed under municipal app-based worker laws, the Seattle Office of Labor Standards announced Tuesday.

  • August 18, 2026

    Amazon Shoppers' $309M Returns Class Deal Gets Initial OK

    A Washington federal judge gave a tentative green light Tuesday to a $309.5 million class action settlement to end allegations that Amazon shortchanged consumers on refunds for returned items, with the e-commerce giant pledging to improve its return policies to prevent future problems.  

  • August 18, 2026

    Boeing Is Pressed For Financial Records In NASA IP Row

    Wilson Aerospace LLC asked a Washington federal judge to compel the Boeing Co. Inc. to turn over financial materials and other documents that have information relevant to their dispute over technology used in NASA's moon program.

  • August 18, 2026

    Bot Errors Doom Expert's Credibility In Tainted-Supplement Suit

    A Washington federal judge Tuesday disposed of a U.S. Army nurse's lawsuit claiming supplement maker Thesis Nootropics sold products tainted with amphetamines, concluding that a key expert destroyed his credibility by submitting a report containing bot-generated false citations — much like errors for which the plaintiffs' counsel was recently sanctioned.

  • August 18, 2026

    Microsoft Harvests K-12 Student Data, Class Action Claims

    Microsoft Corp.'s partnerships with K-12 schools in Washington have allowed the technology giant to collect and profit from swaths of personal student data in violation of state and federal law, according to a proposed class action filed by four minor students who attend public schools in Spokane, Washington.

  • August 18, 2026

    Property Management Co. Hit With Suit Over Data Breach

    A proposed class of consumers accused property management company Cambridge Management Inc. on Tuesday of failing to protect their personally identifiable information from hackers who breached the company's systems.

  • August 18, 2026

    Prudential Beats Accidental Death Benefits Exception Suit

    Prudential Insurance and an aviation company defeated a lawsuit alleging they unlawfully denied death benefits to the wives of two pilots who died in a 2024 plane crash, with a federal judge rejecting the widows' argument that the insurance policy's aviation exception was unenforceable.

  • August 18, 2026

    Alaska Airlines Gets Initial OK For $500K Military Leave Deal

    Alaska Airlines Inc. has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a class action accusing it of denying vacation accrual to pilots during qualifying military leaves, according to a Washington federal judge's preliminary approval order.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • 9th Circ.'s Silence Prolongs Uncertainty On Cemex Framework

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    By affirming a bargaining order in Cemex Construction Materials v. National Labor Relations Board without opining on the NLRB’s 2023 expansion of its authority to issue such orders, the Ninth Circuit avoided direct conflict with the Sixth Circuit’s rejection of the same framework, prolonging uncertainty for employers facing union elections, say attorneys at Dinsmore & Shohl.

  • Surveying The CFTC Campaign To Control Prediction Markets

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is simultaneously asserting exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets and signaling aggressive enforcement within them, a combination that will reshape the regulatory landscape for event contract platforms — pending the outcome of several court cases throughout the country and a likely circuit split, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • Series

    Speed Jigsaw Puzzling Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My passion for speed puzzling — I can complete a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle in under 50 minutes — has sharpened my legal skills in more ways than one, with both disciplines requiring patience, precision and the ability to keep the bigger picture in mind while working through the details, says Tazia Statucki at Proskauer.

  • How Oregon Ruling Affects Federal Gender Care Crackdown

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    In a favorable development for healthcare providers, an Oregon federal court recently vacated certain U.S. Department of Health and Human Services restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors, but the government's broader campaign against this care, including proposed rulemaking and agency investigations, leaves significant uncertainty, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • A Core Weakness In The Challenge To Birthright Citizenship

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    The government’s recent oral arguments against birthright citizenship in Trump v. Barbara would have the Supreme Court use modern immigration classifications as markers for a constitutional boundary that is not expressed in the Fourteenth Amendment, making the theory easier to administer but weaker as a matter of text and history, says attorney Tara Kennedy.

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