Washington

  • September 08, 2025

    Morgan Lewis Brings On 3 More Knobbe Martens IP Attys

    Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP has continued expanding its intellectual property team, announcing Monday it is bringing in another team of IP litigators from Knobbe Martens as partners in its West Coast offices in Seattle and Orange County, California.

  • September 08, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs Trump Donor's Tax, Foreign Agent Convictions

    A venture capitalist whose 12-year prison term for evading taxes and making illegal campaign contributions through foreign clients was commuted by President Donald Trump did not plead guilty to the crimes involuntarily, the Ninth Circuit found in affirming his convictions, rejecting his claim that his attorney hid information from him.

  • September 08, 2025

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Last week at the Delaware Court of Chancery, a bankruptcy administrator for a generic drugmaker formerly known as Teligent was told he can proceed with duty of oversight claims against most former officers and directors of the company, who the administrator said was complicit in the company's collapse. In an opinion, the Court of Chancery cites its 1996 decision In re Caremark International Inc. Derivative Litigation, which refined director duties of care and oversight.

  • September 08, 2025

    Ex-Judge Says Wash. DA, Court Sabotaged Election Bid

    A Washington state attorney and former pro tem judge in Seattle has filed a lawsuit alleging she was racially discriminated against when a county prosecutor's office had her disqualified from hearing cases due to rulings she made from the bench.

  • September 05, 2025

    Feds Say Supreme Court Trumps 9th Circ.'s UC Grant Ruling

    The Trump administration has urged the Ninth Circuit to reconsider a panel decision that upheld an order to reinstate University of California research grants terminated by the White House, saying the U.S. Supreme Court subsequently contradicted the panel's holding in a "materially identical" case.

  • September 05, 2025

    Alaska Airlines Pilot Pleads Guilty After Mid-Flight Crisis

    A former Alaska Airlines pilot pled guilty to felony charges in Oregon state and federal court on Friday in connection with an October 2023 flight, when he tried to shut off a jet engine from the cockpit in the midst of a mental health crisis.

  • September 05, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Pause $26M Fraud Ruling For Co.'s Appeal

    The Ninth Circuit has denied a New Jersey pipe importer's request to pause a decision affirming a $26 million fraud judgment while it appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • September 05, 2025

    Real Estate Recap: Investor Power Plays

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including what attorneys have been seeing when it comes to the power dynamic between fund managers and their investors.

  • September 05, 2025

    9th Circ. Revives Ex-DLA Worker's Disability Bias Suit

    The Ninth Circuit revived a suspended Defense Logistics Agency employee's lawsuit that accused the agency of disability discrimination, saying in a published opinion that the agency's "numerous errors" warranted pushing back the former employee's deadline for filing suit.

  • September 05, 2025

    Judge Doubts DOE Stance On Ending Mental Health Grants

    A Seattle federal judge hinted on Friday that 16 states have valid claims against the U.S. Department of Education for arbitrarily discontinuing mental health funding for public schools, expressing frustration with the federal government's argument that it could terminate grant funding the same way it could fire a landscaper under contract.  

  • September 05, 2025

    9th Circ. Deems COVID Jobless Pay Constitutionally Protected

    A Ninth Circuit panel has ruled a Washington state resident has standing to bring a proposed class action against the Washington State Employment Security Department for allegedly underpaying COVID-era benefits, declaring the plaintiff's property interest in the benefits is constitutionally protected.

  • September 05, 2025

    Merck Shakes Off Some Claims From Cholesterol Drugs Suit

    A New Jersey federal judge has partly granted a request from Merck & Co. to dismiss claims brought by Humana over an alleged anticompetitive scheme to control distribution of cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin, tossing several proposed theories of monopolization but allowing unjust enrichment claims and state law antitrust claims to survive.

  • September 05, 2025

    9th Circ. Affirms Irrigation Exemption For Calif. Water Project

    The Ninth Circuit on Friday rejected fishing industry groups' demand that the federal government require a Clean Water Act permit for a California agricultural water runoff project that's been operating without one for decades.

  • September 05, 2025

    Anthropic Agrees To Pay $1.5B To Settle AI Copyright Fight

    Leading artificial intelligence developer Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a case brought by a group of authors who accused the company of illegally using their works to train its flagship large language model, the authors told a California federal court on Friday.

  • September 04, 2025

    18 States Fight Trump Admin's Bid To End Haitian Protections

    A coalition of 18 states led by Massachusetts, California and New York has thrown its weight behind immigrants challenging the Trump administration's effort to remove temporary protected status for more than 250,000 Haitians in D.C. federal court, arguing TPS-eligible Haitians contribute $4.4 billion annually to the U.S. economy.

  • September 04, 2025

    Colo. Developer Says Wash. Atty Botched Bankruptcy Case

    A Colorado company has hit a law firm and one of its former bankruptcy attorneys with a legal malpractice suit in Washington federal court, alleging that the defendants' "negligence" caused the business to lose properties worth more than $5 million in its Chapter 11 case.

  • September 04, 2025

    Philip Morris Gets Wash. Tobacco Deal Fight Sent To Arbitrator

    A Washington state judge has ordered R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to arbitrate rival Philip Morris USA Inc.'s claims that it breached a 2017 deal delineating billions of dollars in annual payments owed to states for Big Tobacco's public health toll by signing a new $277 million agreement with Washington in April.

  • September 04, 2025

    Seattle Police Free From Federal Oversight After 13 Years

    Seattle police have demonstrated "sustained compliance" with a federal consent decree put in place more than 13 years ago in response to the department's allegedly unconstitutional use of force, a Washington federal judge has ruled, returning full control of the department to city leaders.

  • September 04, 2025

    Wash. PFAS Contamination Suit Sent Back To State Court

    A Washington federal judge has remanded to state court a refinery operator's suit alleging that firefighting foam containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, made and sold by The Chemours Co., Tyco Fire Products and others has contaminated the refinery.

  • September 04, 2025

    Wash. Justices Endorse Broad View Of Pay Transparency Law

    Washington state's high court held in a 6-3 ruling Thursday that a job applicant may sue a prospective employer for violating a state law requiring job postings to include wage scales without proving they are a "bona fide" or "good faith" applicant, rejecting employers' bid to narrow that definition amid a wave of lawsuits.

  • September 04, 2025

    Albertsons Says Kroger CEO Docs Fair Game In Del. Suit

    An attorney for Albertsons Companies Inc. told a Delaware vice chancellor Thursday the food and drugstore giant should get access to The Kroger Co.'s documents related to CEO Rodney McMullen's abrupt exit from the job months after the collapse of the two companies' planned $25 billion merger.

  • September 04, 2025

    Judge Questions Defense Dept. Cap On Research Costs

    A Massachusetts federal judge weighing whether to vacate a U.S. Department of Defense cap on administrative costs for research funding programs said Thursday that the government appeared to have ignored a series of injunctions in similar challenges to Trump administration grant cuts and terminations when it imposed the across-the-board limits.

  • September 04, 2025

    BCLP Appoints New Office Managing Partner In Seattle

    A medical malpractice, product liability and tort law attorney who joined Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP just last year is the firm's new office managing partner in Seattle.

  • September 04, 2025

    Washington Powerhouse: Perkins Coie

    Perkins Coie LLP is one of the highest-flying firms in Washington and its reputation as a one-stop shop for clients continued to soar this past year, as it helped longtime client Amazon fight off litigation alleging broken delivery promises and represented OctoAI in its $250 million sale to Nvidia.

  • September 04, 2025

    Apple Affiliate Wants To Untie Classes After Wage Verdict

    A Fourth Circuit decision undoing classes of Bojangles managers is a significant change of law that should dismantle five classes in a wage and hour suit that snagged $839,000 from an Apple-affiliated repair company, the company told a North Carolina federal court.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Section 1983 Has Promise After End Of Nationwide Injunctions

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down the practice of nationwide injunctions in Trump v. Casa, Section 1983 civil rights suits can provide a better pathway to hold the government accountable — but this will require reforms to qualified immunity, says Marc Levin at the Council on Criminal Justice.

  • Series

    Playing Soccer Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Soccer has become a key contributor to how I approach my work, and the lessons I’ve learned on the pitch about leadership, adaptability, resilience and communication make me better at what I do every day in my legal career, says Whitney O’Byrne at MoFo.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Learning From Failure

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    While law school often focuses on the importance of precision, correctness and perfection, mistakes are inevitable in real-world practice — but failure is not the opposite of progress, and real talent comes from the ability to recover, rethink and reshape, says Brooke Pauley at Tucker Ellis.

  • AI Infrastructure Growth Brings Unique IP Considerations

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    The explosive rise of artificial intelligence has triggered an equally dramatic transformation in the supporting infrastructure required to meet growing AI demand, and the technology used in these data centers has its own intellectual property considerations to navigate, says Vincent Allen at Carstens Allen.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From ATF Director To BigLaw

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    As a two-time boomerang partner, returning to BigLaw after stints as a U.S. attorney and the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, people ask me how I know when to move on, but there’s no single answer — just clearly set your priorities, says Steven Dettelbach at BakerHostetler.

  • Reverse Bias Rulings Offer Warning About DEI Quotas

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    Several recent holdings confirm that targeted or quota-based diversity programs can substantiate reverse discrimination claims, especially when coupled with an adverse action, so employers should exercise caution before implementing such policies in order to mitigate litigation risk, says Noah Bunzl at Tarter Krinsky.

  • New DOJ Penalty Policy Could Spell Trouble For Cos.

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    In light of the U.S. Department of Justice’s recently published guidance making victim relief a core condition of coordinated resolution crediting, companies facing parallel investigations must carefully calibrate their negotiation strategies to minimize the risk of duplicative penalties, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Series

    Playing Baseball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing baseball in college, and now Wiffle ball in a local league, has taught me that teamwork, mental endurance and emotional intelligence are not only important to success in the sport, but also to success as a trial attorney, says Kevan Dorsey at Swift Currie.

  • APA Relief May Blunt Justices' Universal Injunction Ruling

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    The Administrative Procedure Act’s avenue for universal preliminary relief seems to hold the most promise for neutralizing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. CASA to limit federal district courts' nationally applicable orders, say attorneys at Crowell.

  • Managing Risks As State AGs Seek To Fill Enforcement Gap

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    Given an unprecedented surge in state attorney general activity resulting from significant shifts in federal enforcement priorities, companies must consider tailored strategies for navigating the ever-evolving risk landscape, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Skillful Persuasion

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    In many ways, law school teaches us how to argue, but when the ultimate goal is to get your client what they want, being persuasive through preparation and humility is the more likely key to success, says Michael Friedland at Friedland Cianfrani.

  • Litigation Inspiration: How To Respond After A Loss

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    Every litigator loses a case now and then, and the sting of that loss can become a medicine that strengthens or a poison that corrodes, depending on how the attorney responds, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • Wash. Law Highlights Debate Over Unemployment For Strikers

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    A new Washington state law that will allow strikers to receive unemployment benefits during work stoppages raises questions about whether such laws subsidize disruptions to the economy or whether they are preempted by federal labor law, says Daniel Johns at Cozen O'Connor.

  • The Metamorphosis Of The Major Questions Doctrine

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    The so-called major questions doctrine arose as a counterweight to Chevron deference over the past few decades, but invocations of the doctrine have persisted in the year since Chevron was overturned, suggesting it still has a role to play in reining in agency overreach, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • What 9th Circ. Ruling Shows About Rebutting SEC Comments

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    The Ninth Circuit's June opinion in Pino v. Cardone Capital suggests that a company's lack of pushback to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission comment may be evidence of its state of mind for evaluating potential liability, meaning companies should consider including additional disclosure in SEC response letters, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.

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