Law firm leaders expect "robust" billing rate increases to continue into 2026, according to a new report, but such a consensus could hint that rate growth will be more "flat" or "contained" in the next few years.

       

The appeals court rejected the U.S. Justice Department's argument that a Supreme Court emergency docket decision from May was a predictor that the government would defeat the legal challenge on the merits.        

“To the extent the right of access is a fundamental right, we have already determined that it does not extend to insurance conservations. A rational relationship clearly exists between the classification of insurers by the Insurance Code and the legitimate state interest of regulating them, and the confidentiality provisions therefore are not unconstitutional special legislation, Appellate Court of Illinois Justice Raymond W. Mitchell said.

       

“Rather, [the evidence] suggests that [the doctors] engaged legal counsel to navigate a complicated legal landscape, Associate Justice Melissa Countway wrote in Tuesday's opinion, disagreeing that physicans' communications with a lawyer fell under the crime-fraud exception.