Appellate

  • February 07, 2025

    5th Circ. Pauses Suit Over CFPB's Small Biz Lending Rules

    The Fifth Circuit on Friday paused a case challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new small business minority data rule after the bureau's counsel was unable to argue its case following a directive ordering the agency to stop much of its work to "promote consistency with the goals of the administration."

  • February 07, 2025

    Fla. Atty Couple Can't Escape Verdict Over Abandoning House

    A Florida state appeals court has reinstated the original verdict against an attorney husband and wife team for breaching a lease agreement on a rental house and leaving it in disrepair, ruling that a reasonable jury could find that the landlord performed his expressly authorized duties to preserve the property.

  • February 07, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Backs Ventria Cell Culture Patent Win At ITC

    In a precedential decision, the Federal Circuit said Friday that the U.S. International Trade Commission's domestic industry requirements have no "threshold dollar value" and that "small market segments" operated by biotech developer Ventria Bioscience can qualify, upholding the ITC's finding that a Chinese maker of vaccine ingredients infringed Ventria's cell culture patent.

  • February 07, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Considers Some Testing For Avadel Sleep Drug

    Judges on the Federal Circuit seemed open to modifying a district court's injunction barring specialty drugmaker Avadel Pharmaceuticals from marketing its on-market narcolepsy drug for use in treating another sleep disorder Friday.

  • February 07, 2025

    5th Circ. Upholds High School's Win In Gym Fire Suit

    The Fifth Circuit on Thursday upheld a Louisiana high school's win in its suit claiming that a flooring company caused a gym fire, holding that the high school has a right of action for property damage to the gymnasium.

  • February 07, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs Ex-Bank Auditor's $1.5M Retaliation Suit Win

    The Ninth Circuit upheld a $1.5 million jury verdict in favor of a former bank auditor who claimed he was fired for flagging evidence of wrongdoing, finding evidence suggesting he was treated differently from other workers was enough to back up the jurors' decision.

  • February 07, 2025

    Del.'s Quiet Ambition To Tweak Chancery, Stem Feared DExit

    Anxious over claims that stockholder-tilted decisions by Delaware's Court of Chancery will trigger more companies to follow Tesla, SpaceX, Meta and Dropbox to other states, Delaware policymakers are taking a hard look at the venerable business court's processes, hoping to slow a feared rush to DExit.

  • February 07, 2025

    Meta's $725M Deal Downplays Potential Liability, 9th Circ. Told

    A group of objectors urged the Ninth Circuit on Friday to vacate Meta Platform Inc.'s $725 million settlement resolving privacy claims over the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal, arguing the trial judge failed to fully consider the minimum $250 billion statutory damages award that could have been awarded if class counsel won at trial.

  • February 07, 2025

    Trump Drops High Court Opposition To Transgender Care Ban

    The federal government on Friday changed course in a U.S. Supreme Court case challenging a Tennessee ban on transgender care for minors, telling the court that the Trump administration's position is that the statute does not deny equal protection on the basis of sex.

  • February 07, 2025

    Fla. Atty Disbarred For Fund Mishandling, Cover-Up, Contempt

    A lawyer in Florida has been disbarred over uncontested allegations of misconduct, including not filing a lawsuit on behalf of a client, fabricating a settlement amount and paying the client out of her personal bank account using commingled funds from an unrelated settlement.

  • February 07, 2025

    GEO Group Urges Full 9th Circ. To Weigh $23.2M Wage Case

    A Ninth Circuit panel decision holding GEO Group to Washington state's minimum wage standards discriminated against the federal government, the private prison giant argued, urging the full court to mull a case that has the company on the hook for $23.2 million.

  • February 07, 2025

    Prosecutors Urge Ga. Justices To Revive Trump Charges

    Prosecutors have called on the Georgia Supreme Court to undo a state appellate decision that affirmed the dismissal of six counts in the state's election interference case against President Donald Trump, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and others.

  • February 07, 2025

    Appellate Group Of The Year: Williams & Connolly

    Williams & Connolly's appellate team led Starbucks to a Supreme Court victory that changed the standard for NLRB officials seeking injunctions against employers, and convinced it to overturn a former Indiana mayor's conviction by narrowing a federal bribery law's scope, earning the firm recognition as one of the 2024 Law360 Appellate Groups of the Year.

  • February 07, 2025

    4th Circ. Says LeClairRyan Founder May Duck Tax Liability

    Defunct law firm LeClairRyan PLLC's operating agreement did not bar founder Gary LeClair from jumping ship in time to potentially dodge massive tax bills tied to the firm's collapse, the Fourth Circuit ruled Friday.

  • February 07, 2025

    Meet The Texas Atty Who Tried To Decode An NBA Megadeal

    The Dallas Mavericks decision to trade 25-year-old superstar Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers shocked the NBA ecosystem, and within hours, an elaborate yet superficially plausible theory from Dallas-based Dykema LLP appellate partner Christopher Kratovil went megaviral. Here, Law360 speaks to Katovil about his theory, what the story can teach sports and political junkies about media literacy, and more.

  • February 07, 2025

    2nd Circ. Doubts Police Misused 'Sense-Enhancing' iPhone

    Judges of the Second Circuit sounded highly skeptical Friday that police in Connecticut had illegally searched a suspect's car by using an Apple iPhone's camera function to peer through his tinted windows, comparing the technology to commonplace methods of enhancing vision like flashlights.

  • February 07, 2025

    9th Circ. Says State Farm Unit Owes No More For Leaks

    A State Farm unit owes no additional payment to a California medical center for lost income from water damage, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled, agreeing with a lower court that the insurer paid the amount due under the policy.

  • February 07, 2025

    Justices Deny Trump DOJ's Bid To Delay Three Energy Cases

    The U.S. Supreme Court denied the Trump administration's request to pause three cases so the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can review Biden-era regulatory decisions that may alter the government's legal positions.

  • February 07, 2025

    NJ Supreme Court Snapshot: Paterson Police, Immigrant Pay

    The New Jersey attorney general's takeover of the embattled Paterson police department and a dispute over how undocumented migrants are treated under the state's wage law are among the matters the Garden State high court recently agreed to tackle.

  • February 07, 2025

    Goldstein's Pro Se Filing Irks Feds Amid Murky Atty Situation

    Prosecutors have asked a Maryland federal judge to strike a pro se motion from Tom Goldstein in his tax evasion case, saying the U.S. Supreme Court attorney and SCOTUSblog publisher shouldn't be allowed to personally make arguments to the court when he is represented by several experienced lawyers.

  • February 07, 2025

    Oakland Appeals To Keep 'San Francisco Bay' In Airport Name

    The Port of Oakland has asked the Ninth Circuit to reverse a magistrate judge's order barring it from using "San Francisco Bay" in its airport name, arguing that the court's decision placed too much weight on travelers' potential confusion about who owns the airport when buying a flight.

  • February 06, 2025

    Courts Are Getting Alice Wrong, Google Foe Tells Justices

    A tech startup that lost an advertising technology patent case against Google is the latest party to tell the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its legal precedent covering patent eligibility.

  • February 06, 2025

    Fla. Panel Rules Atty Imposter Scam Suit Had Invalid Service

    A Florida appellate court has reversed a judgment against a New Jersey real estate agent who was accused in a lawsuit of posing as an attorney and intercepting a $930,000 wire transfer meant to close on a Miami-area property, saying service was invalid.

  • February 06, 2025

    SEC's Dealer Suit May Criminalize Major Investors, Funds Say

    The hedge fund industry has urged the Eighth Circuit on to overturn a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission victory against a penny stock trader, arguing that the SEC's case threatens to "make a felon of every institutional investor" by declaring them unregistered securities dealers.

  • February 06, 2025

    In Microchip Feud, Fed. Circ. Says PTAB Error Was 'Harmless'

    The Federal Circuit handed down a precedential decision Thursday finding that a claim construction error made by patent board judges was "harmless," declining to breathe new life into claims asserted against Microchip Technology.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Coaching Little League Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    While coaching poorly played Little League Baseball early in the morning doesn't sound like a good time, I love it — and the experience has taught me valuable lessons about imperfection, compassion and acceptance that have helped me grow as a person and as a lawyer, says Alex Barnett at DiCello Levitt.

  • UK Lawyers Can Access Broad US Discovery To Win Cases

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    Given its breadth, U.S. discovery can be a powerful tool in litigation in the U.K. and other jurisdictions outside the U.S., and a survey of recent cases indicates that discovery requests made in the U.S. are likely to be granted — with many applications even proceeding without contest, say lawyers at Miller & Chevalier.

  • 7 Employment Contracts Issues Facing DOL Scrutiny

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    A growing trend of U.S. Department of Labor enforcement against employment practices that limit workers' rights and avoid legal responsibility shines a light on seven unique contractual provisions that violate federal labor laws, and face agressive litigation from the labor solicitor, says Thomas Starks at Freeman Mathis.

  • Ruling Shows High Court Willing To Limit Immigration Review

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Bouarfa v. Mayorkas is the latest demonstration of the court’s readiness to limit judicial review in the immigration space, a notable break from other recent decisions that expanded judicial review of agency decisions in other areas, says Mark Fleming at WilmerHale.

  • 5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2025

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    Lawyers and their clients must be prepared to navigate an evolving litigation funding market in 2025, made more complicated by a new administration and the increasing overall cost of litigation, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.

  • Managing Litigation Side-Switching During 2nd Trump Admin

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    Now that the new presidential administration is in place, the government will likely switch positions in a number of pending cases, and stakeholders should employ strategies to protect their interests, say attorneys at Covington.

  • High Court Unlikely To Expand FSIA In Holocaust Asset Fight

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    Not surprisingly for a court where the majority are strict textualists, the U.S. Supreme Court justices appear poised to rule in favor of Hungary in Republic of Hungary v. Simon, reaffirming the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act as a narrow exception to jurisdiction, say attorneys at Lewis Baach.

  • The Fed. Circ. In 2024: 5 Major Rulings To Know

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    In 2024, the Federal Circuit provided a number of important clarifications to distinct areas of patent law – including design patent obviousness, expert testimony admissions and patent term adjustments – all of which are poised to have an influence going forward, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Rethinking Litigation Risk And What It Really Means To Win

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    Attorneys have a tendency to overestimate litigation risk before summary judgment and underestimate risk after it, but an eight-stage litigation framework can clarify risk at different points and help litigators reassess what true success looks like in any particular case, says Joshua Libling at Arcadia Finance.

  • Mass Arbitration Procedures After Faulty Live Nation Ruling

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    Despite the Ninth Circuit's flawed reasoning in Heckman v. Live Nation, the exceptional allegations of collusive conduct shouldn't be read to restrict arbitration providers that have adopted good faith procedures to ensure that consumer mass arbitrations can be efficiently resolved on the merits, says Collin Vierra at Eimer Stahl.

  • Lessons From Two New Year's Eve Uptier Exchange Decisions

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    On the last day of 2024, two different courts issued important decisions relating to non-pro rata uptier exchanges — and while they differ, both rulings highlight that transactions effected in reliance on undefined terms in debt agreements come with increased risk, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Public Corruption Enforcement In 2024 Has Clues For 2025

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    If 2024 activity is any indication, the U.S. Supreme Court will likely continue to rein in expansive prosecutorial theories of fraud in the year to come, but it’s harder to predict what the new administration will mean for public corruption prosecutions in 2025, says Cathy Fleming at Offit Kurman.

  • Issues To Watch In 2025's ERISA Litigation Landscape

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    Whether 2024’s uptick in new Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases will continue this year will likely depend on federal courts’ resolution of several issues, including those related to excessive fees, defined contribution plan forfeitures, and pleading standards for ERISA-prohibited transaction claims, say attorneys at Groom Law.

  • Patent Ruling Sheds Light On Printed Matter Doctrine

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    Patent attorneys should pay attention to the claim language highlighted in Ioengine v. Ingenico, where the Federal Circuit held that program code was not printed matter, but essentially instructions or content, and therefore not subject to the printed matter doctrine for patent challenges, says Irah Donner at Manatt.

  • Calif. Justices' Options In Insurance Exhaustion Case

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    Fox Paine v. Twin City Fire Insurance may serve as the California Supreme Court's opportunity to firmly establish precedent with respect to a strict adherence to excess insurance policies' exhaustion provisions when the language is clear and explicit, says Aiden Spencer at Langsam Stevens.

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