Washington

  • May 04, 2026

    OCC Pushes Back On Ex-Rabobank Officer's $4M Fee Bid

    The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has told the Ninth Circuit a former Rabobank compliance officer is not entitled to $4 million in attorney fees and expenses over costs purportedly incurred during an abandoned enforcement proceeding, arguing the record "raises serious questions as to whether the request is excessive."

  • May 04, 2026

    Justices Urged Not To Take Up Macy's Thryv Challenge

    Macy's Inc.'s challenge to a Ninth Circuit ruling upholding a National Labor Relations Board order to reinstate strikers misstates the controlling precedent and mounts an "academic" attack on the board's heightened remedies, the operating engineers said Monday in a brief opposing U.S. Supreme Court review.

  • May 04, 2026

    Carpenters Trustees Reach Deal In Allianz Loss Suit

    A group of union carpenters and the trustees of their retirement plans have reached a proposed settlement in a class action accusing the fiduciaries of mismanaging pension assets by investing in risky hedge funds that lost more than $250 million.

  • May 04, 2026

    Justices Won't Hear Anti-Vaxxer Medical Board Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it will not review a petition brought by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on behalf of doctors who challenged a Washington state medical board's investigation into an alleged COVID-19 misinformation campaign.

  • May 01, 2026

    Real Estate Recap: Mapping The Affordability Crisis

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including a breakdown of federal and state efforts to expand affordable housing and how real estate attorneys are responding.

  • May 01, 2026

    Pharma Aims Torpedo At FCA After Bombshell 9th Circ. Ruling

    A burgeoning campaign against the False Claims Act's whistleblower mechanism is suddenly center stage at the Ninth Circuit, where pharmaceutical companies say a momentous new ruling "illustrates perfectly" the constitutional concerns of U.S. Supreme Court justices regarding FCA enforcement.

  • May 01, 2026

    Live Nation Beats Punitive Damages In Festival Shooting Suit

    Live Nation won't face punitive damages in a lawsuit over two concertgoers' shooting deaths at the 2023 Beyond Wonderland music festival, a Washington state judge has ruled, finding that the plaintiffs failed to show the entertainment giant's alleged conduct was malicious.

  • May 01, 2026

    9th Circ. Backs Tesla In Challenge To Race Bias Arbitration

    The Ninth Circuit rejected an appeal by a Black former Tesla employee who challenged the company's arbitration win over his claims of racial discrimination, agreeing with a California federal judge Friday that the plaintiff failed to meet the "high bar" to overturn the award.

  • May 01, 2026

    Amazon Accused Of Selling Kids Sunscreen With Lead

    Consumers on Thursday hit Amazon with a proposed class action in Washington federal court alleging that children's sunscreens it sells are contaminated with heavy metals such as lead and that its artificial intelligence shopping assistant Rufus doesn't disclose details about the product ingredients.

  • May 01, 2026

    Boeing, DOJ Say No Need For Full 5th Circ. Review Of NPA

    Boeing and the federal government have said the full Fifth Circuit doesn't need to revisit a panel's decision declining to upend the U.S. Department of Justice's nonprosecution agreement with Boeing closing out allegations the American aerospace giant conspired to defraud safety regulators about its 737 Max jets.

  • May 01, 2026

    Hospitals Say HHS Is Withholding Safety Net Reimbursements

    For more than 20 years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has failed to pay tens of millions in reimbursements to hospitals serving low-income populations by incorrectly factoring service days for patients enrolled in Medicare Part C, a coalition of 91 medical centers claimed in a D.C. federal lawsuit.

  • May 01, 2026

    Insurer Sanctioned For 'Willful' Discovery Defiance

    A Washington federal court on Friday said it would hold an auto insurer liable for bad faith, negligent claim handling, and violations of the state's Consumer Protection Act and Insurance Fair Conduct Act after the carrier willfully violated prior production orders in a dispute over underinsured motorist benefits.

  • May 01, 2026

    Boeing 737 Max Judge Delays Ruling On Punitive Damages

    A Washington state judge overseeing Boeing 737 Max passengers' consolidated lawsuit over the 2024 blowout of an aircraft door panel agreed Friday to delay ruling on the company's motion to preclude punitive damages, allowing the plaintiffs an opportunity to conduct further discovery into management's alleged role in the incident.

  • May 01, 2026

    5 Argument Sessions Benefits Attys Should Watch In May

    HP, Siemens and Honeywell will defend victories in 401(k) forfeiture suits at the Ninth and Third circuits, while union pensioners will battle over life insurance and early retirement benefits at the Tenth and Seventh circuits. Here, Law360 looks at five coming oral argument sessions that benefits attorneys may want to keep an eye on.

  • May 01, 2026

    Agricultural Supplier, Wash. Farm Resolve $5.4M Dispute

    An agricultural products supplier and a Washington farm have agreed to resolve a contract dispute over a $5.4 million unpaid debt, months after the supplier sued alleging the farm had stopped making payments on a years-old credit line, according to a federal court filing.

  • May 01, 2026

    SEC's Corp. Governance Shift Puts Onus On States, Cos.

    Lawyers who work with clients on corporate governance matters had a warm response to a recent pledge from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins to let states handle such issues, saying the shift marks a return to the agency's historical approach and may spur increased activity among state regulators.

  • May 01, 2026

    Potomac Law Grows In Texas With Lee & Desenberg Founder

    Washington, D.C.-headquartered Potomac Law Group PLLC announced Friday that it has opened its first Texas location with a Houston-based partner who joins from Lee & Desenberg PLLC, a firm she co-founded 15 years ago.

  • April 30, 2026

    5 States Join Bid To Block $6.2B Nexstar-Tegna Merger

    Five states on Thursday joined a coalition of others who sued to challenge Nexstar Media Group Inc.'s then-proposed $6.2 billion merger with Tegna Inc., alleging in an amended antitrust complaint that the currently frozen deal will eliminate consumers' choices for local news and diminish diversity in news coverage.

  • April 30, 2026

    Wash. Tribes Beat Big Oil's Bid To Dismiss Climate Suits

    A Washington state judge refused on Wednesday to dismiss two Native American tribes' lawsuits accusing ExxonMobil, Chevron and other major oil companies of concealing climate change risks related to fossil fuels, rejecting the companies' arguments that federal law blocks the tribes' claims.

  • April 30, 2026

    Wash. Justices Split Asbestos Claims Against Insulation Biz

    The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday said the estate of an oil refinery maintenance worker cannot bring certain construction-related claims against an insulation company over his asbestos exposure, yet it can still bring claims over the company's role as a seller of asbestos-containing products.

  • April 30, 2026

    Gov't Pauses Medicaid Data Use For ICE Amid Injunction Fight

    The Trump administration agreed at a hearing Thursday to temporarily halt the use of 22 states' Medicaid data for immigration enforcement purposes until a San Francisco federal judge clarifies the boundaries of an injunction that the largely Democratic-controlled states had accused the government of flouting.

  • April 30, 2026

    Delta Flyer Says She Was Injured In Fire Evacuation In Seattle

    A 61-year-old passenger of a Delta Air Lines flight was injured when an electrical fire forced an airplane evacuation at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to a suit filed Thursday in Washington state court.

  • April 30, 2026

    Debt Collectors Owe Charity Care Notice, Wash. Justices Say

    Just as hospitals must inform low-income patients they might qualify for financial assistance, so too must agencies collecting on medical debt, the Washington Supreme Court clarified Thursday.

  • April 30, 2026

    Walmart Wins Dismissal Of Wage Suit Over Sparse Claims

    A former overnight stocker's allegations against Walmart lacked enough detail to plausibly support claims for missed breaks, unpaid overtime and other violations, a Washington federal judge ruled Thursday, tossing the worker's proposed class action.

  • April 29, 2026

    Hanes Must Face Email Suit After State Law Declared Legal

    Hanes can't get out of a lawsuit accusing it of sending marketing emails that make untrue claims by arguing that a Washington state law banning commercial emails with false or misleading subject lines is unconstitutional, a Washington federal judge has found.

Expert Analysis

  • CFTC Chair's Speech Hints At Innovation-Friendly Policies

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    Remarks made by Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig at the Futures Industry Association's conference last month provided the most comprehensive articulation of his regulatory agenda and signaled a shift in the CFTC's regulatory posture, including a rare focus on agency coordination and support for digital asset innovation, say attorneys at Willkie.

  • 'Made In America' EO May Not Survive Section 230

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    President Donald Trump's recent executive order to combat fraudulent "Made in America" claims in advertising directs the Federal Trade Commission to deem online marketplaces' failure to verify third-party origin claims as unlawful, but such a rule would likely run into Section 230's publisher immunity doctrine, say attorneys at Blank Rome.

  • CFTC Actions Show Prediction Market Insider Trading Risks

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    It is a myth that insider trading law does not apply in prediction markets, as the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent enforcement actions illustrate that it has full authority to pursue such cases federally — and intends to, says attorney Gregg Goldfarb.

  • Prepping For White House's Proposed AI Framework

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    The artificial intelligence legislative framework issued by the White House last month reframes the policy landscape, creating a number of near-term developments for companies to track as congressional committees attempt to convert the framework into legislative text, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Opinion

    Apple Discovery Fight Could Revive DOJ's Antitrust Appetite

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    Winning discovery disputes in the ongoing federal antitrust litigation over Apple’s app store practices is a huge opportunity for the Justice Department to return to its once-vigorous pursuit of product tying by tech monopolies, catch up with foreign competition regulators and establish clear standards for digital markets, says Ediberto Roman at Florida International University.

  • Opinion

    State Bars Need To Get Specific About AI Confidentiality

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    Lawyers need to put actual client information into artificial intelligence tools to get their full value, but they cannot confidently do so until state bars offer clear, formal authority on which plan tiers of the three most popular generative AI tools are safe to use when sharing specific client details, says attorney Nick Berk.

  • What Justices' Review Of Guam Case Will Mean For Permitting

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    In U.S. Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guahan, the U.S. Supreme Court will address whether a federal agency's permit application is a final decision that courts can review — a question whose answer could reshape the timing and strategy of environmental litigation across the federal permitting landscape, say attorneys at Foley Hoag.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Restraint Anchors Constitutional Order

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    Contrasting opinions in two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings — Trump v. CASA and Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections — demonstrate how the judiciary’s constitutionally entrusted role can easily be preserved or disrupted, and invite renewed attention to the enduring importance of judicial restraint, says Ninth Circuit Judge J. Clifford Wallace.

  • Series

    Alpine Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Skiing has shaped habits I rely on daily as an attorney — focus, resilience and the ability to remain steady when circumstances shift rapidly — and influences the way I approach legal strategy, client counseling and teamwork, says Isaku Begert at Marshall Gerstein.

  • Telehealth Suit May Redraw Rules For Physician Classification

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    A new class action in California federal court, Cioppettini v. Mochi Medical, alleging a telehealth company misclassified providers as independent contractors, suggests that traditional markers of physician independence may not apply to telehealth, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

  • Opinion

    Wash. Amazon Ruling Should Reshape Suicide Liability

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    The Washington Supreme Court's reinstatement of negligence claims in Scott v. Amazon.com, brought by the families of people who died by suicide after purchasing chemicals online, signals a reckoning for digital commerce and the rejection of the defense that online marketplaces are merely passive technology platforms, says Donald Fountain at Clark Fountain.

  • Pivotal 6th Circ. Ruling Threatens Decades Of NLRB Decisions

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    The Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Brown-Forman v. National Labor Relations Board fundamentally challenged the NLRB's long-standing practice of establishing policies through adjudication rather than formal rulemaking, giving employers and unions a new avenue to procedurally attack the vast majority of its rules, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • What A Court Doc Audit Reveals About Erroneous Filings

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    My audit of 1,522 court documents from last month found that over 95% contained at least one verifiable error, with fewer than 1% showing clear indicators of artificial intelligence use — highlighting above all else that lawyers may want to focus most on strengthening their review processes, says Elliott Ash at ETH Zurich.

  • Pension Case Offers Entertainment Work Exception Insights

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    A recent Ninth Circuit decision clarified that any amount of entertainment work can satisfy the entertainment industry exception under the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act, reinforcing that statutory language, rather than evolving business models, dictates withdrawal liability outcomes, say attorneys at Seyfarth.

  • Justices' Ruling Stresses Quick Action Against Absconders

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    Following the U.S. Supreme Court's recent holding in Rico v. U.S. that a supervised release term is not automatically extended when a defendant absconds, probation officers and prosecutors risk being unable to address later violations if they don't act promptly to secure warrants, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.

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