Public Policy

  • October 31, 2024

    Beverly Hills Agrees To Abortion-Rights Training In Settlement

    The city of Beverly Hills will develop training materials and take other steps to comply with California's reproductive health laws, as part of a stipulated judgment resolving the state's allegations that it illegally pressured an abortion clinic to stay out of the city, the parties announced Thursday.

  • October 31, 2024

    Judge Says White Worker's Seattle DEI Suit Lacks 'Specifics'

    A Washington federal judge hinted Thursday a former municipal employee's suit claiming Seattle's workplace diversity training discriminated against him as a white man might not have enough detail to survive, as the city's attorneys accused the plaintiff of trying to dismantle its racial justice initiative.

  • October 31, 2024

    Erie County Grappling With Missing, Mismatched Mail Ballots

    Election officials in Erie County, Pennsylvania, may open satellite offices and offer extended hours in the final days before the election to deal with an anticipated influx of voters who never got the mail-in ballots they requested or got someone else's ballot, a problem the county blamed on an Ohio-based vendor and the vendor pinned on the post office.

  • October 31, 2024

    Chicago Cubs To Boost Wheelchair Access To End DOJ Probe

    The Chicago Cubs and the U.S. government told an Illinois federal judge Thursday they have entered into a consent decree that will bring more accessible seating to Wrigley Field, ending litigation over claims that the ball field's $575 million renovation gave the worst seats to wheelchair users.

  • October 31, 2024

    Valero To Pay 'Historic' $82M Fine For Bay Area Air Pollution

    Valero Refining Co. will pay a record $82 million penalty to settle claims that it failed to report cancer-causing emissions from its Northern California petroleum refinery for nearly two decades, state and Bay Area air pollution regulators announced Thursday, saying nearly all of the fine will fund local community projects.

  • October 31, 2024

    Copyright Office Says Rest Of AI Report To Come By Year End

    The U.S. Copyright Office plans to submit the remainder of a report on the intersection of artificial intelligence and copyright law by the end of the year, the office told House lawmakers who expressed concern over what they said were late submissions.

  • October 31, 2024

    FCC's Senior Republican Blasts Bulk-Billing Restrictions

    One-half of the Federal Communicatiions Commission's Republican minority is coming out strong against the majority's plans to restrict bulk billing for broadband services, saying that the commission was under pressure by the Biden administration to "raise the price of Internet service for Americans living in apartments by as much as 50%."

  • October 31, 2024

    Enviros Call On EPA To Address Petcoke Plant Water Pollution

    A dozen environmental groups filed a petition Thursday demanding the EPA implement national water pollution standards for petroleum coke processing plants, which they said have slipped through the Clean Water Act's protections.

  • October 31, 2024

    Judge Trims Retaliation Suit Against Miami After Settlement

    A Florida federal judge on Thursday trimmed a suit brought by two businessmen accusing top-level Miami officials of weaponizing city resources against them after the city agreed to settle related claims in a similar lawsuit.

  • October 31, 2024

    Texas Says It Has Right To Stop Drivers Transporting Migrants

    The state of Texas told an El Paso federal judge that an executive order allowing officers to pull over drivers suspected of transporting unauthorized migrants is within the state's authority and doesn't conflict with federal law.  

  • October 31, 2024

    Exxon Entitled To Interest Deduction On Qatar Deal

    Exxon Mobil is entitled to an interest expense deduction on payments to Qatar under a natural gas deal, a Texas federal judge ruled, rejecting the U.S. government's classification of an underlying transaction as a royalty rather than a loan.

  • October 31, 2024

    Philly DA's Suit Over Musk's $1M Voter 'Lottery' Goes Federal

    A Pennsylvania federal judge is set to decide whether Elon Musk's $1 million daily giveaway to battleground state voters who sign a pledge from his PAC is an illegal lottery, as Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner claimed in a suit transferred to federal court on Thursday.

  • October 31, 2024

    Oversight GOP Reps. Take Big Swing At FTC Chair

    House Republicans on Thursday accused Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan of becoming a "political tool" of the Biden administration, which they say has undermined the independent nature of the agency.

  • October 31, 2024

    FERC Unlawfully Rewrote Grid Hookup Policy, DC Circ. Told

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's revised policy on hooking up new power projects to the grid unlawfully imposes a punitive, one-size-fits-all system on transmission owners, regional grid operators and transmission companies told the D.C. Circuit Wednesday.

  • October 31, 2024

    Airbnb Insurance Providers Sued Over Undisclosed Fees

    A proposed class of Airbnb users sued two insurers for the rental platform in Washington federal court, alleging the providers violate state law by charging consumers who buy their travel insurance with an unavoidable "assistance fee."

  • October 31, 2024

    Ga. Election Worker Ties Firing To Accessible Voting Concerns

    White County, Georgia, was sued Thursday in federal court by a former elections supervisor, who alleged he was fired for repeatedly raising concerns that local polling locations weren't compliant with state and federal disability accessibility laws and regulations.

  • October 31, 2024

    Suit Against Indicted NJ Power Broker Sent To Biz Court 

    A New Jersey state court on Wednesday granted indicted Garden State power broker George E. Norcross III's request to transfer the civil racketeering suit brought against him and his attorney brother by a Philadelphia developer to the state's complex business litigation program.

  • October 31, 2024

    Pro Services Contract Nixes NJ Public Defender's Pension

    A New Jersey appellate court backed the Public Employees' Retirement System board's finding that a former municipal public defender is ineligible to receive pension benefits from 2008 onward, ruling that there was enough evidence to show the attorney's services were procured through a professional services contract.

  • October 31, 2024

    EU Expected To Close Final Digital VAT Deal Next Week

    The European Union is close to a final deal on its plan to bring the bloc's value-added tax rules more in line with the digital economy after representatives reached an agreement in principle, the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU confirmed Thursday.

  • October 31, 2024

    SBA Cries Foul On Globetrotters' $10M COVID Grant Suit

    The U.S. Small Business Administration has defended its denial of a $10 million COVID-19 relief grant to the Harlem Globetrotters, telling a D.C. federal judge that it had no legal obligation to hand over the money to the basketball entertainment organization.

  • October 31, 2024

    The 2024 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard

    Check out the Law360 Pulse Leaderboard to see which firms made the list of leaders in all-around excellence this year.

  • October 31, 2024

    Firms' Hiring Strategies Are Evolving In Fight For Top Spot

    Competition for top talent among elite law firms shows no signs of slowing down, even amid economic uncertainty, with financially strong firms deploying aggressive strategies to attract and retain skilled professionals to solidify their market position.

  • October 31, 2024

    IFC Projects Must Do More On Emissions, Report Says

    An accountability arm of the International Finance Corp. is encouraging it to bolster its methods to identify and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from financed projects, saying its current approaches are not fully up to date and limit its effectiveness in addressing global warming.

  • October 31, 2024

    Meta Says CFPB Mulling Enforcement Action Over Advertising

    Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said Thursday that it is facing a potential Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforcement action following an agency probe into financial-related advertising on its platform.

  • October 30, 2024

    5th Circ. Keeps Most No Surprises Act Provisions Intact

    The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday upheld several provisions for calculating qualifying payments under a federal law aimed at protecting Americans from surprise medical bills, saying in a published opinion that the provisions were neither inconsistent with the law nor arbitrary and capricious.

Expert Analysis

  • Smith's New Trump Indictment Is Case Study In Superseding

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    Special counsel Jack Smith’s recently revised Jan. 6 charges against former President Donald Trump provide lessons for prosecutors on how to effectively draft superseding indictments in order to buttress or streamline their case, as necessary, says Jessica Roth at Cardozo Law School.

  • Opinion

    FDIC's Foray Into Index Fund Rules Risks Regulatory Chaos

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    A proposed Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. rule concerning control over passive index fund investments in banks is outside the agency's remit, clashes with an existing Federal Reserve process and would inhibit competition in the index fund sector, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University.

  • Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys

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    Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.

  • Opinion

    Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code

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    As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.

  • What To Make Of Dueling Corporate Transparency Act Rulings

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    Although challenges to the Corporate Transparency Act abound — as highlighted by recent federal court decisions from Alabama and Oregon taking opposite positions on its constitutionality — the act is still law, so companies should comply with their filing requirements or face the potential consequences, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Perspectives

    Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

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    Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.

  • California's AI Safety Bill Veto: The Path Forward

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    California Gov. Gavin Newsom's veto of a bill that sought to impose stringent regulations on advanced artificial intelligence model development has sparked a renewed debate on how best to balance innovation with safety in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, say Bobby Malhotra and Carson Swope at Winston & Strawn.

  • Staying Off The CFPB's Financial Services Offender Registry

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's soon-to-launch registry of financial services companies that have faced public enforcement orders is designed to ratchet up long-term scrutiny of entities that could become repeat offenders, so companies should take their new compliance and filing requirements seriously, say Andrea Mitchell and Chris Napier at Mitchell Sandler.

  • New TCPA Rule Faces Uncertain Future Post-Loper Bright

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    The Federal Communications Commission's new rule aiming to eliminate lead generators' use of unlawful robocalls is now in doubt with the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, and the Eleventh Circuit's Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC is poised to be a test case of the agency's ability to enforce the Telephone Consumer Protection Act post-Chevron, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • A Look At Calif.'s New AI Law For Health Insurers

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    A newly enacted California law prohibits artificial intelligence tools from making medical necessity determinations for healthcare service plans or disability insurers, addressing core questions that have arisen around AI's role in coverage decisions, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • New HHS Research Misconduct Rules Bring Seismic Changes

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    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new rule regarding research misconduct investigations brings significant changes that focus on remediation, appeals and confidentiality, while other changes could result in institutions causing undue harm to scientists accused of such misconduct, say attorneys at Cohen Seglias.

  • To Report Or Not To Report Others' Export Control Violations

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    A recent Bureau of Industry and Security enforcement policy change grants cooperation credit to those that report violations of the Export Administration Regulations committed by others, but the benefits of doing so must be weighed against significant drawbacks, including the costs of preparing and submitting a report, says Megan Lew at Cravath.

  • Earned Wage Access Laws Form A Prickly Policy Patchwork

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    Conflicting earned wage access laws across the country, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recently issued rule, mean providers must adopt a proactive compliance approach and adjust business models where needed, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • What FDIC Expansion Of Change In Bank Control Could Mean

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    A recent Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposal pertaining to the Change in Bank Control Act has the potential to create uncertainty around investments by mutual fund complexes in banking organizations, which represent a stable source of capital for the banking industry, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • HSR Amendments Intensify Merger Filing Burdens, Data Risk

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    The antitrust agencies' long-awaited changes to premerger notification rules under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act stand to significantly increase the time and cost involved in preparing an initial HSR notification, and will require more proactive attention to data issues, says Andrew Szwez at FTI Technology.

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