Illinois

  • January 10, 2025

    Blue State AGs Urge Walmart To Reinstate DEI Initiatives

    A group of Democratic state attorneys general sent a letter to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon on Thursday urging the retail giant to reconsider scrapping diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, saying such programs "are not just good policy, but in many cases are necessary to comply with the law."

  • January 10, 2025

    Health Co. Wants To Quit Nicotine Surcharge Suit

    Nonprofit health system Advocate Aurora Health is urging an Illinois federal judge to permanently toss former employees' lawsuit targeting an allegedly illegal tobacco-use surcharge in its health plan, arguing that after three tries they still have failed to bring a viable claim.

  • January 10, 2025

    7th Circ. Halts FDIC Enforcement Order Against Ex-Bank Chair

    The Seventh Circuit on Friday granted a request from an Illinois community bank's onetime chairman for an emergency stay of professional sanctions the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. ordered as part of an in-house proceeding the executive has alleged was unconstitutional.

  • January 10, 2025

    Stellantis Fights To Preserve Suit Over UAW's Strike Threat

    Stellantis' North American arm has asked a California federal judge to preserve its lawsuit accusing the United Auto Workers of making an unlawful strike threat, saying even though the union agreed to hold off on striking, the threat could still be a prosecutable contract violation.

  • January 10, 2025

    Illinois Adds 4 Conditions To Medical Pot Eligibility List

    The Illinois Department of Public Health has issued an order adding four conditions to the list of medical issues eligible for treatment with medical cannabis.

  • January 09, 2025

    Ill. Captive Meetings Ban Flouts 1st Amendment, Groups Say

    If Florida couldn't outlaw corporate diversity training without violating the First Amendment, then Illinois can't outlaw so-called captive audience meetings, a libertarian think tank and business group told an Illinois federal judge, saying Illinois' law restricts employers' freedom of speech as much as Florida's now-stricken statute did.

  • January 09, 2025

    Credit Card Case Should Have Been Remanded, 7th Circ. Says

    An Illinois district court faced with competing motions to remove a credit card receipt dispute from its docket should have returned the suit to state court rather than grant the Army and Airforce Exchange Service's bid to dismiss it, the Seventh Circuit said Wednesday.

  • January 09, 2025

    Ropes & Gray-Led Vistria Wraps Largest-Ever Fund At $3B

    Middle-market private equity shop The Vistria Group LP, advised by Ropes & Gray LLP, on Thursday said it clinched its largest-ever private equity fund after securing $3 billion of total investor commitments.

  • January 09, 2025

    Beer Sales Rep Can't Show Lasting Harm From Noncompete

    A former Boston Beer Co. sales employee challenging a one-year noncompete agreement has failed to show how she will suffer irreparable harm without a preliminary injunction, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled Wednesday, saying any damages are "readily calculable" if she ultimately wins the case.

  • January 09, 2025

    BakerHostetler Adds 3 Attys In DC, Chicago Offices

    A trio of attorneys have moved to BakerHostetler, two of whom work with immigration-related labor and employment matters in Chicago, and another based in the nation's capital, who focuses on trademark and copyrighted intellectual property matters, the firm announced Wednesday.

  • January 09, 2025

    Rooftop Owner Can't Strike Out Chicago Cubs' Ticket Suit

    A rooftop venue owner accused of selling tickets to Chicago Cubs games and other events without a license cannot ditch the lawsuit and redirect its claims to arbitration because he brought the wrong motion to do so, an Illinois federal judge said Tuesday.

  • January 09, 2025

    Kraft Heinz Set For March Trial Over Food Factory Overhaul

    Kraft Heinz Foods Co. and the Ohio contractor that accused it of failing to pay $7.6 million for the work and materials that went into overhauling a factory the company has near the Sandusky River are scheduled for a March 25 bench trial, according to a Wednesday order.

  • January 08, 2025

    Meta, Microsoft, Google Seek To Toss DNA Data-Sharing Suit

    DNA-testing platform Nebula Genomics, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Google urged a Chicago federal judge to toss a putative class action accusing the companies of surreptitiously misusing customers' genetic data through tracking software on Nebula's website, arguing that the complaint lacks specifics tying the defendants to alleged wrongdoing.

  • January 08, 2025

    Edward Jones Fined $17M Over Customer Transition Fees

    Edward Jones has agreed to pay $17 million to end an investigation into alleged supervisory failures that may have led it to overcharge customers who transitioned from its brokerage division to its advisory division, state regulators announced Wednesday.

  • January 08, 2025

    DraftKings Betting Promos 'Deceptive,' 3 Class Actions Claim

    DraftKings lures in customers for its sportsbook, casino and online gambling with misleading and deceptive offers that target young sports fans and turn them into gambling addicts, a trio of proposed class actions claim.

  • January 08, 2025

    Judge Reverses His Own Ruling In Chicago Hotel Zoning Fight

    An Illinois federal judge ruled against the owners of a historic Chicago hotel Tuesday, dialing back an earlier victory he had granted them last year in a zoning suit against the city.

  • January 08, 2025

    7th Circuit's Wood Gets Back To Hearing Cases At FedArb

    Former Seventh Circuit Judge Diane Wood, who left the court last year, told Law360 Tuesday that joining the dispute resolution firm FedArb lets her get back to her passion for settling controversies without forcing her to give up her post-retirement academic commitments. 

  • January 08, 2025

    Madigan Denies Extorting Developers For Law Firm Business

    Ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan testified Wednesday that he never wanted a Chicago alderman to leverage his chairmanship of a powerful city council committee to steer business to Madigan's law firm, saying he merely asked for introductions to developers and felt "surprise and concern" when the alderman referenced a quid pro quo deal.

  • January 08, 2025

    Jones Day, Ropes & Gray Build $795M Deal For Simple Mills

    Packaged bakery food producer Flowers Foods Inc., advised by Jones Day, on Wednesday announced plans to acquire better-for-you snack brand Simple Mills, led by Ropes & Gray LLP, in a $795 million cash deal.

  • January 08, 2025

    Abbott Beats UC Regents' Probiotic Patent Claims

    An Illinois federal judge has found that claims in a pair of patents owned by the University of California related to a baby probiotic were invalid, handing a win to Abbott Laboratories in a suit accusing the company of infringing the patents.

  • January 08, 2025

    Mortgage Cos. Fined $20M Over Cybersecurity Breach

    Bayview Asset Management LLC and three affiliates on Wednesday agreed to pay a $20 million fine and improve their cybersecurity programs to settle allegations from 53 state financial regulators that the mortgage companies had deficient cybersecurity practices and didn't fully cooperate with regulators after a 2021 data breach.

  • January 07, 2025

    Ex-Ill. Speaker Madigan Testifies In His Racketeering Trial

    Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan took the stand in his own defense Tuesday, testifying that he neither traded his public office for private gain nor demanded or accepted anything valuable in exchange for his official action, adding that he was "very angry" to learn that people who he'd recommended for jobs did little to no work.

  • January 07, 2025

    McDermott Hires Polsinelli Labor Attorney As Partner In DC

    McDermott Will & Emery has brought on a Polsinelli shareholder as a partner in its Washington, D.C., office, where he will specialize in representing healthcare companies as part of the firm's employment practice group. 

  • January 07, 2025

    Amazon Accused Of Secretly Slowing Delivery In Poorer Areas

    An Amazon Prime subscriber is accusing the company of secretly excluding "historically underserved communities" across the country from its promise to deliver packages in two days, in a proposed class action filed in Washington state court.

  • January 07, 2025

    Teachers Association Hit With Equal Pay, Gender Bias Claims

    The Computer Science Teachers Association's former financial director has sued the organization for gender discrimination in Illinois federal court, claiming it knowingly paid and treated her worse than male colleagues and blamed an unsupported "accounting error" on her mid-leave termination.

Expert Analysis

  • 7th Circ Joins Trend Of No CGL Coverage For Structural Flaws

    Author Photo

    The Seventh Circuit, which recently held potential structural instability did not count as property damage under a construction company's commercial general liability policy, joins a growing consensus that faulty work does not implicate coverage without tangible and present damage to the project, say Sarah Abrams at Baleen Specialty, and Elan Kandel and James Talbert at Bailey Cavalieri.

  • Opinion

    States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions

    Author Photo

    Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.

  • Navigating The Extent Of SEC Cybersecurity Breach Authority

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's broad reading of its authority under Section 13(b)(2)(B) of the Securities Exchange Act in the R.R. Donnelley and SolarWinds actions has ramifications for companies dealing with cybersecurity breaches, but it remains to be seen whether the commission's use of the provision will withstand judicial scrutiny, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • 7th Circ. Exclusion Ruling Will Narrow BIPA Coverage

    Author Photo

    The Seventh Circuit's recent decision in Thermoflex Waukegan v. Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, holding that the access or disclosure exclusion applies to insurance claims brought under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, departs from the majority rule and opens the door to insurers more firmly denying coverage under general liability policies, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • Series

    Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.

  • Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice

    Author Photo

    The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State

    Author Photo

    On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.

  • Opinion

    It's Time For Nationwide Race-Based Hair Protections

    Author Photo

    While 24 states have passed laws that prohibit race-based hair discrimination, this type of bias persists in workplaces and schools, so a robust federal law is necessary to ensure widespread protection, says Samone Ijoma and Erica Roberts at Sanford Heisler.

  • How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts

    Author Photo

    As law firms increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence tools to produce legal text, attorneys should be on guard for the overuse of cohesive devices in initial drafts, and consider a few editing pointers to clean up AI’s repetitive and choppy outputs, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Various Paths For Labor And Employment Law

    Author Photo

    Labor and employment law leans heavily on federal agency guidance, so the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to toss out Chevron deference will ripple through this area, with future workplace policies possibly taking shape through strategic litigation, informal guidance, state-level regulation and more, says Alexander MacDonald at Littler.

  • Series

    Boxing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Boxing has influenced my legal work by enabling me to confidently hone the skills I've learned from the sport, like the ability to remain calm under pressure, evaluate an opponent's weaknesses and recognize when to seize an important opportunity, says Kirsten Soto at Clyde & Co.

  • Opinion

    Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.

  • Justices' Bribery Ruling: A Corrupt Act Isn't Necessarily Illegal

    Author Photo

    In its Snyder v. U.S. decision last week, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a bribery law does not criminalize gratuities, continuing a trend of narrowing federal anti-corruption laws and scrutinizing public corruption prosecutions that go beyond obvious quid pro quo schemes, say Carrie Cohen and Christine Wong at MoFo.

  • 3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court clearly thinks it has done something big in overturning the Chevron precedent that had given deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, but regulated parties have to consider how agencies retain significant power to shape the law and its meaning, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • After Chevron

    Author Photo

    Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Chevron deference standard in June, this Expert Analysis series has featured attorneys discussing the potential impact across 37 different rulemaking and litigation areas.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Illinois archive.
Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!