Appellate

  • May 20, 2026

    9th Circ. Tough On HP 401(k) Forfeiture Suit Revival Bid

    The Ninth Circuit appeared reluctant Wednesday to revive a suit alleging that HP Inc. violated federal benefits law by using forfeited 401(k) funds to defray employer-side contribution obligations, with judges questioning whether plan participants backed up allegations that the tech company hadn't been sufficiently loyal or prudent.

  • May 20, 2026

    9th Circ. Questions Jack Daniel's' TM Win Over 'Bad Spaniels'

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Wednesday questioned whether Jack Daniel's proved that any mark beyond its name was famous enough to support a tarnishment ruling against VIP Products' poop-themed "Bad Spaniels" dog toy, while pressing both sides on whether courts should compare the parties' marks alone or also consider the toy's bottle-like design and crude humor.

  • May 20, 2026

    FERC Erred Over Utility's Tax Deferral Method, DC Circ. Told

    Wholesale transmission customers of American Electric Power Co. Inc. units told the D.C. Circuit this week that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission wrongly allowed the utility giant to depart from an established method to allocate carried-forward tax allowances, increasing those customers' rates.

  • May 20, 2026

    Gas Co. Asks Court Review Agency's Allowances Decision

    Colorado Natural Gas Inc. urged a Colorado state judge to review a state agency's decision that the company says improperly expanded a 2023 statute intended to eliminate incentives for establishing gas service.

  • May 20, 2026

    7th Circ. Weighs If Abbott Warning Would Change NEC Care

    A Seventh Circuit judge on Wednesday pushed counsel for a mother asking to revive her lawsuit claiming Abbott Laboratories' infant formula caused her premature daughter to develop a fatal gut disease to address whether the mother had a burden to identify a more adequate warning that would have prompted her baby's treating physicians to act differently.

  • May 20, 2026

    NC Tenants Fight For $9.5M Asset Freeze In Landlord Row

    A class of tenants at a multifamily property in Durham, North Carolina, urged a state appellate court to uphold an order barring their landlord from transferring proceeds from the possible sale of the property out of state, while they litigate a $9.5 million suit over conditions at the property.

  • May 20, 2026

    Ballot Group Backs Ark. In 8th Circ. Gaming Permit Dispute

    A ballot group at the center of a voter referendum that revoked an Arkansas gaming permit for Cherokee Nation Entertainment is backing the state's right to enforce the ballot measure in the Eighth Circuit, arguing that state and Prohibition-era Supreme Court precedent confirms there's no protectable property interest in the license.

  • May 20, 2026

    8th Circ. Asked To Reconsider Video In Murder Appeal

    A man convicted along with his mother of murdering another man on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation has asked the Eighth Circuit to rehear his case, arguing that footage of the killing shouldn't have been admitted due to gaps in the recording.

  • May 20, 2026

    Gang 'Type' Crimes Don't Link To Activity, Ga. Justices Say

    The Georgia Supreme Court has vacated a state appellate court ruling against a man convicted under a state gang prevention law, finding that a jury in his case was given an incorrect instruction on a central element of the law and how his conduct could be related to gang activity.

  • May 20, 2026

    Pa. AG Aims To Revive Ban On Medicaid-Paid Abortions

    Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday plans to fight an appellate panel's ruling that Medicaid-funded abortions are a fundamental right to reproductive autonomy in the state.

  • May 20, 2026

    Immigration Board Says Late Venue Shift Lacked Good Cause

    The Board of Immigration Appeals shifted a case involving Brazilian nationals back to Boston after finding the immigration judge granted a change of venue without proper consideration and should have limited off-the-record discussions.

  • May 20, 2026

    Conn. Justices Let Energy Cos. Challenge $1M Order

    A Connecticut trial court was wrong to dismiss a declaratory judgment claim from a group of electricity suppliers that a state regulator ordered to pay more than $1 million for missing renewable energy targets, the state's highest court held Wednesday in partially restoring the companies' case.

  • May 20, 2026

    2nd Circ. Pick Questioned At Hearing On Role As Trump Lawyer

    Matthew Schwartz, a nominee for the Second Circuit, was questioned by Democratic senators Wednesday about whether his current job as the president's personal attorney while his nomination process is underway poses a conflict of interest.

  • May 20, 2026

    Atlanta Law Firm Beats Attempt To Revive RE Malpractice Suit

    The Georgia Court of Appeals rejected an attempt to revive a malpractice suit filed against an Atlanta-based law firm for allegedly shoddy work on a title search in connection with a real estate property purchase, saying Wednesday the suit came too late.

  • May 20, 2026

    Aerospace Co.'s Bid Revived To Bar Alleged Secrets Use

    The Sixth Circuit has disagreed with a lower judge who declined to issue an injunction against an engineer accused of stealing trade secrets just before he left his old company for a rival, saying the facts "clearly weigh in favor of granting injunctive relief."

  • May 20, 2026

    Georgia Supreme Court Justices Fend Off Challengers

    Georgia Supreme Court Justices Sarah Hawkins Warren and Charlie Bethel persuaded state voters to give them new six-year terms on the state's highest court, withstanding bids to unseat them from former state Sen. Jen Jordan and attorney Miracle Rankin. 

  • May 20, 2026

    Uber Signals Appeal Of NC Bellwether Loss In Assault MDL

    Uber will appeal the verdict in a second bellwether case in which a jury found one of its drivers committed a battery against a North Carolina woman who claimed he sexually assaulted her during a trip in 2019, court records show.

  • May 20, 2026

    Cannabis Co. Founders Challenge Equity Ruling In Del.

    Attorneys for two ousted co-founders of a cannabis accessories startup told the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday that a lower court made a legal error when it handed their clients back shares in the company that wrongfully took them, arguing that cash damages, not a return of stock, are the only recognized remedy when corporate shares are converted.

  • May 20, 2026

    Mass. Justices Say Tax Law Not Basis To Block Bog Sale

    A Massachusetts law that lowers property tax rates on agricultural land does not grant standing to abutters seeking to unwind the sale of a Cape Cod cranberry bog to a developer, the state's highest court said Wednesday.

  • May 19, 2026

    VLSI Tells Fed. Circ. To Allow Whistleblower Report After FOIA

    VLSI Technology LLC urged the Federal Circuit Tuesday to unseal at least part of an anonymous whistleblower report that allegedly shows a connection between Intel Corp. and Patent Quality Assurance LLC, now that a copy has become public though the Freedom of Information Act.

  • May 19, 2026

    Shoppers Seek Fees At 9th Circ. For Kroger, Albertsons Fight

    Counsel for grocery store consumers urged the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to find they substantially prevailed in their proposed class action challenging Kroger's since-abandoned $24.6 billion bid for Albertsons and are entitled to attorney fees, arguing that the lower court wrongly concluded the case was mooted by other federal actions blocking the merger.

  • May 19, 2026

    9th Circ. Leans Toward FCC In Appeal Over SIM Card Beef

    The Ninth Circuit seemed to have its doubts Tuesday that the Federal Communications Commission made the wrong call in finding it had no say over a Haitian mobile carrier's decision to deactivate SIM cards that were brought into the United States and used to evade international calling rates. 

  • May 19, 2026

    7th Circ. Questions Bid To Revive Wis. Reverse Bias Suit

    A Seventh Circuit panel seemed skeptical Tuesday of four former Infosys Technologies employees' argument that a lower court should have considered their name-recognition expert's opinions before it issued a class certification denial and summary judgment ruling that tanked their reverse discrimination case.

  • May 19, 2026

    Concrete Co. Loses Challenge To Worker Wage Classification

    A concrete services company lost its challenge Tuesday to the way the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries classified its employees, with a state appeals court holding that L&I properly classified the workers as construction site surveyors who were owed higher wages.

  • May 19, 2026

    6th Circ. Rejects Mich. City Dispensary Co.'s Due Process Claim

    A cannabis investment company can't sue a city within metro Detroit for refusing to allow it to open a dispensary, the Sixth Circuit ruled, saying a local official's alleged promise to "grandfather" the company in, despite a ban on new retailers, can't supersede a city ordinance.

Expert Analysis

  • Tracking Tech Suit Is A Risk Management Reminder For Cos.

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    The Fifth Circuit recently heard oral argument in Rand v. Eyemart Express — an appeal that could reshape the legal landscape for businesses that deploy tracking tech on their websites — underscoring the importance of proactive risk management for companies across multiple industries, say attorneys at Blank Rome.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lesson: Diagnose Before Arguing

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    Law school often skips over explicitly teaching students how to determine what kind of problem a case presents before they commit to a particular doctrinal path, which risks building arguments that are internally coherent but externally misaligned, says Melanie Oxhorn at Kobre & Kim.

  • A Fed. Circ. Blueprint For Drafting Medical Device Patents

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    The Federal Circuit's decision in Constellation Designs v. LG last month, among other recent rulings, underscores the importance of emphasizing engineering, rather than clinical goals, when drafting patent claims for medical devices and software as a medical device, says Brandon Theiss at Volpe Koenig.

  • Decoding Arbitral Disputes: EU's Arb. Defense From Russia

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    The EU's latest package of restrictive measures against Russia marks a significant shift from merely resisting Russian jurisdictional tactics to proactively protecting arbitration and exclusive jurisdiction agreements, elevating the procedural importance of dispute resolution clauses, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray's Inn Square.

  • Becoming The Biz-Savvy GC That Portfolio Companies Need

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    Candidates for general counsel roles at private equity-backed portfolio companies should prioritize proving their sector-specific experience, commercial judgment and ease with uncertainty — and attorneys hoping to be candidates in five to 10 years should start working on those skills now, says Dimitri Mastrocola at Major Lindsey.

  • Nielsen Appeal Tests Antitrust Limits Of Pricing And Bundling

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    In Cumulus v. Nielsen, the Second Circuit is considering a structural pattern in which a monopolist exploits upstream market power to foreclose downstream competition, which could potentially offer broad insight into how courts will assess exclusionary bundling and pricing defenses under antitrust law, says Luke Hasskamp at Bona Law.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: How Courts Can Survive The Tech Revolution

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    Colorado Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Lino Lipinsky de Orlov discuss how artificial intelligence has already fundamentally altered the legal system and offer tips for courts navigating deepfakes, hallucinations and a gap in access to AI tools.

  • 'Skinny Label' Arguments Spotlight Induced Infringement Risk

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    Recent oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in Hikma Pharmaceuticals v. Amarin Pharma highlight the uncertain boundary between lawful generic competition through so-called skinny labels and induced patent infringement, with potential implications for patent holders’ communication, enforcement and causation strategies across industries, says Anton Hopen at Trenam.

  • A Framework For Habeas Relief After 5th Circ. Bond Ruling

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    Following the Fifth Circuit’s recent Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi decision foreclosing statutory bond for detained nonimmigrants not deemed admitted to the U.S., lawyers should adopt a framework that requests habeas relief pursuant to the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause, says Kemal Hepsen at Mandamus Lawyers.

  • 4th Circ. Ruling Will Rewrite Class Action Litigation Strategies

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    The Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Oliver v. Navy Federal Credit Union is the first from a federal circuit court to hold that motions to strike are inappropriate vehicles for challenging class allegations at the pleading stage, invalidating a tactic that had been used for decades, says Jim Francis at Francis Mailman.

  • Startup Founder Disputes Increasingly Turn On Governance

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    Recent Delaware developments suggest that as courts place increasing emphasis on board process, independence and oversight in founder-led startups, the growing intersection of governance, technology risk and investor oversight is accelerating both the emergence and escalation of founder disputes, says mediator Frank Burke.

  • 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.

  • Salt-N-Pepa Suit May Shake Up Music Copyright Issue

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    James v. UMG Recordings is a copyright termination rights case that provides an opportunity for the Second Circuit to make concrete choices about grant language, authorship, work-for-hire status and survival of derivative works, says attorney Abdul Abdullahi.

  • Opinion

    5th Circ.'s Abortion Pill Order Is Shaky On Multiple Grounds

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    The Fifth Circuit's recent order in Louisiana v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, reinstating an in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion medication mifepristone, seems to turn federalism upside-down, and is also questionable for several other reasons, says Gregory Curtner at Curtner Law.

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