Appellate

  • February 06, 2025

    FERC Tells DC Circ. Revised Grid Hookup Policy Is Sound

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission defended the penalty framework in its revised policy on hooking up new power projects to the grid, telling the D.C. Circuit it reasonably balanced competing interests and imposed a variety of safeguards. 

  • February 06, 2025

    SL Green, RXR To Appeal NYC Office Renovation Funds Fight

    A joint venture between SL Green Realty Corp. and RXR Realty plans to appeal a New York state court finding that an affiliate of the mostly defunct New York REIT can do what it wants with a $90.7 million pot set aside for major renovations of the jointly owned Worldwide Plaza.

  • February 06, 2025

    US To Appeal Block On Corporate Transparency Act

    The federal government plans to challenge an order preventing it from enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act's reporting requirements for businesses, following the U.S. Supreme Court's pause of another nationwide block on the law in a separate case, according to a notice filed in a Texas federal court.

  • February 06, 2025

    'Novel' Kia, Hyundai Theft Liability Theory Faces 6th Circ. Test

    A Sixth Circuit panel wrestled Thursday with whether to endorse a theory that automakers Kia and Hyundai could be liable for victims' injuries from crashes involving vehicles stolen during a TikTok-spurred wave of car thefts.

  • February 06, 2025

    NY Court Puts A Limit On Child Welfare Agency Surveillance

    A New York appellate court ruled that child welfare agencies lack the authority to surveil a parent just because their child's other parent was charged with abuse or neglect, banning a statewide practice that lasted for decades, an attorney told Law360 on Thursday.

  • February 06, 2025

    Tort Report: Kiss Death Suit Must Be Axed, Band Says

    A bid to escape a suit accusing legendary rock band Kiss of causing a guitar technician's coronavirus death and the $8.5 million settlement of a convoluted medical malpractice case lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

  • February 06, 2025

    Ga. Judge Resigns Amid Ethics Probe Over Communications

    The chief magistrate of the Haralson County Magistrate Court in Georgia has resigned amid an ethics investigation involving his ex parte communications, telling an official in a letter that he will not "seek appointment or election to any judiciary position in the future."

  • February 06, 2025

    Appellate Group Of The Year: Gibson Dunn

    Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP notched critical wins as the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an Eighth Amendment challenge to a city's public camping law and gave insurers a voice in mass tort bankruptcies, making it one of the 2024 Law360 Appellate Groups of the Year.

  • February 06, 2025

    Former US Atty Leigha Simonton To Join Dykema In Dallas

    After nearly two decades of government service and over two years as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Leigha Simonton is entering private practice with Dykema Gossett PLLC, where she will help launch a Dallas-based white collar defense and investigations practice to serve the Texas region.

  • February 06, 2025

    Convicted Atty Disbarred In NJ Over LA Utility Billing Scandal

    The New Jersey Supreme Court disbarred an attorney this week who orchestrated a sham lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles on behalf of plaintiffs suing the local water utility and who later made $24 million off contracts with the city reached through a number of bribery schemes.

  • February 06, 2025

    2nd Circ. Clears Up 'Blurry' Trade Dress Standard

    The Second Circuit on Thursday revived a dispute between motorcycle helmet designers as it clarified a key legal standard in trade dress infringement cases.

  • February 06, 2025

    Farm Can't Unravel $2.5M Severed-Foot Verdict, 4th Circ. Told

    A North Carolina farmworker who lost his foot in an auger accident and won $2.5 million at trial said he gave the Fourth Circuit a reliable recitation of the case in his opening brief, arguing his former employer is "picking apart" his statement in a "misguided attempt to discredit" him and have the verdict thrown out.

  • February 05, 2025

    Cuomo Faces Skeptical Panel In AG Document Lawsuit

    Counsel for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced a doubtful appellate panel Wednesday, who questioned whether the disgraced executive had jumped the gun in suing Attorney General Letitia James for records from the state's sexual harassment investigation against him that are still being reviewed and produced.

  • February 05, 2025

    5th Circ. Tight-Lipped At NLRB Constitutionality Arguments

    A Fifth Circuit panel gave little indication of its leanings during arguments Wednesday in a key challenge to the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board, as an agency attorney urged the appeals court to find SpaceX and other companies had not shown the harm necessary to block agency proceedings against them.

  • February 05, 2025

    $12M Medical Fraud Suit Doesn't Need Retrial, 5th Circ. Told

    A Fifth Circuit panel seemed disinclined to do away with a retrial for a suspect in a multimillion-dollar healthcare fraud scheme after alleged prosecutorial misconduct sank an earlier trial, saying Wednesday that the trial judge's reasoning carries weight.

  • February 05, 2025

    Justices Asked If Fact Dispute Bars Patent Eligibility Rulings

    The Federal Circuit has made a habit of taking fact disputes into its own hands in patent cases instead of leaving those questions to a jury, and a company that recently lost its patent suit against Amazon is hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will take up its case.

  • February 05, 2025

    Toyota Urges NC High Court To Reverse 'Abusive' Ruling

    Toyota and Subaru Corp. are looking to the North Carolina Supreme Court to pull them out of an "impossible corner" they were pushed into by a trial judge overseeing a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from a fatal car crash, arguing on Wednesday that his orders "incentivize" widespread "tactical abuse of discovery."

  • February 05, 2025

    'Dog Eat Dog' Contract Raises Connecticut Justice's Hackles

    A Connecticut Supreme Court justice on Wednesday challenged private equity firm members fighting a former member's trial court victory in a breach suit over the partnership, suggesting that the winner may have had a viable fiduciary duty claim over the "dog eat dog" operating agreement that apparently allows members to "screw" a minority shareholder.

  • February 05, 2025

    GOP Sens.' Bill Ups Penalty For Protesting Justices' Homes

    Five Republican senators introduced a bill on Wednesday that would increase maximum prison sentences for individuals who illegally protest outside the homes of U.S. Supreme Court justices, from the current one-year limit up to five years.

  • February 05, 2025

    Realty Co. Petitions High Court Over Copyright Fee Dispute

    A Florida real estate broker that was sued for copyright infringement has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether a defendant can recover attorney fees when a plaintiff voluntarily dismisses an action with prejudice.

  • February 05, 2025

    Crypto Expert Witness Ruling Flouts Precedent, Justices Told

    The founder of cryptocurrency service Tornado Cash has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to undo what he called an "unprecedented" order from a Manhattan federal judge to disclose whom he might call as an expert witness at his upcoming money laundering and sanctions-dodging trial.

  • February 05, 2025

    'Dreamers' Tell 8th Circ. ND Can't Challenge Health Coverage

    Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients have urged the Eighth Circuit to reverse an order blocking a Biden administration rule expanding their rights to Affordable Care Act health insurance coverage, arguing that a lower court erred in finding that North Dakota has standing to sue in the state.

  • February 05, 2025

    'Pay-To-Pay' Fees Are Unfair Debt Practice, 11th Circ. Rules

    The Eleventh Circuit said a mortgage servicing company illegally charged borrowers fees for online and phone payments, upholding a Florida federal court's decision that it improperly collected so-called pay-to-pay convenience fees that were not expressly allowed by underlying loan agreements.

  • February 05, 2025

    6th Circ. Won't Revisit Home Depot Data Breach Coverage Suit

    The Sixth Circuit refused Wednesday to review its January finding that an electronic data exclusion in Home Depot's commercial general liability policies barred coverage for the retail giant's $50 million claim for defense and settlement costs over a 2014 data breach.

  • February 05, 2025

    Penn Hospital Says $200M Judgment Imperils Local Care

    The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania implored the Pennsylvania Superior Court on Wednesday to upend a purportedly historic $200 million medical malpractice judgment, arguing that the jury's award in the birth injury case was greater than the economic output of some nations and could seriously impact the hospital's operations.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    6 Changes I Would Make If I Ran A Law School

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    Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner identifies several key issues plaguing law schools and discusses potential solutions, such as opting out of the rankings game and mandating courses in basic writing skills.

  • Using Data To Inform Corporate Disclosure Decisions

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    With today’s market volatility and regulatory factors requiring public companies to confront competing transparency and protection demands, incorporating stock price reaction analysis of company-specific news into the controller's role could be beneficial for disclosure determinations, say Liz Dunshee at Fredrikson & Byron and Nessim Mezrahi at SAR.

  • Firms Still Have The Edge In Lateral Hiring, But Buyer Beware

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    Partner mobility data suggests that the third quarter of this year continued to be a buyer’s market, with the average candidate demanding less compensation for a larger book of business — but moving into the fourth quarter, firms should slow down their hiring process to minimize risks, say officers at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

  • 5th Circ. Crypto Ruling Shows Limits On OFAC Authority

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    The Fifth Circuit's recent decision that immutable smart contracts on the Tornado Cash crypto-transaction software protocol are not "property" subject to Office of Foreign Assets Control jurisdiction may signal that courts can construe OFAC's authority more restrictively after Loper Bright, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Risk Disclosure Issue Remains After Justices Nix Meta Case

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    After full briefing and argument, the U.S. Supreme Court recently dismissed Facebook v. Amalgamated Bank as improvidently granted, leaving courts with the tricky endeavor of determining when the failure to disclose a past event in an Item 105 risk disclosure is materially misleading, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: 1 Type Of Case Complexity Stands Out

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    In contrast to some cases that appear complex due to voluminous evidence or esoteric subject matter, a different kind of complexity involves tangled legal and factual questions, each with a range of possible outcomes, which require a “sliding scale” approach instead of syllogistic reasoning, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • The Malpractice Perils Of Elder Abuse Liability

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    Recent cases show that the circumstances under which an attorney may be sued for financial elder abuse remain unsettled, but practitioners can avoid these malpractice claims altogether by taking proactive steps, like documenting the process of evaluating a client's directives under appropriate standards, says Edward Donohue at Hinshaw & Culbertson.

  • Fed. Circ. Ruling Shows Importance Of Trial Expert Specificity

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    The Federal Circuit’s recent ruling in NexStep v. Comcast highlights how even a persuasive expert’s failure to fully explain the basis of their opinion at trial can turn a winning patent infringement argument into a losing one, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Note 3 Simple Types Of Legal Complexity

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    Cases can appear complex for several reasons — due to the number of issues, the volume of factual and evidentiary sources, and the sophistication of those sources — but the same basic technique can help lawyers tame their arguments into a simple and persuasive message, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Justices Mull Sex-Based Classification In Trans Law Case

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in U.S. v. Skrmetti this week, it appears that the fate of the Tennessee law at the center of the case — a law banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender adolescents — will hinge on whether the majority read the statute as imposing a sex-based classification, says Alexandra Crandall at Dickinson Wright.

  • Corporate Liability Issues To Watch In High Court TM Case

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    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a trademark dispute between Dewberry Group and Dewberry Engineers next week, presenting an opportunity for the court to drastically alter the fundamental approach to piercing the corporate veil, or adopt a more limited approach and preserve existing norms, say attorneys at Bracewell.

  • Trending At The PTAB: Collateral Estoppel Continues Evolving

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    We are starting to see brighter lines on collateral estoppel involving Patent Trial and Appeal Board proceedings, illustrated by two recent cases that considered whether collateral estoppel should apply to factual findings on prior art from the PTAB in a later district court litigation, say attorneys at Finnegan.

  • Series

    Gardening Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Beyond its practical and therapeutic benefits, gardening has bolstered important attributes that also apply to my litigation practice, including persistence, patience, grit and authenticity, says Christopher Viceconte at Gibbons.

  • Takeaways From DOJ's Intervention On Pricing Algorithm Use

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    A recent U.S. Justice Department amicus brief arguing that a Nevada federal judge wrongly focused on the nonbinding aspect of software company Cendyn Group's pricing algorithm underscores the growing challenge of determining when, if ever, pricing algorithms are legal, say attorneys at Rule Garza.

  • ERISA Ruling Is A Win For DOL Regulatory Authority

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    In Rappaport v. Guardian Life Insurance, a New York federal court recently issued a notable disability benefits ruling in finding that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright opinion does not affect how existing U.S. Department of Labor regulations apply in Employee Retirement Income Security Act litigation, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.

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