Large law firms rode a strong 2024 on the back of broad demand and aggressive rate growth — but the model is wobbling. Expense pressure is up, realization risk is real, and AI is reshaping how clients assess value. Firms that treat their legal and client experience as structured data (and not as anecdotal story sharing at meetings) will plan faster, pitch smarter, cross-sell wider, bill more, and protect margins when market tailwinds fade.

       

"The charges as alleged in this case represent a breach of the public trust at an extraordinary level," President Donald Trump's newly appointed interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan of the Eastern District of Virginia said after securing an indictment charging former FBI Director James Comey with criminal offenses.

       

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit pushed back next month's oral arguments to Nov. 17 in the multidistrict litigation over acetaminophen after both sides submitted letters discussing Monday's announcement from President Donald Trump linking Tylenol to autism.

       

“To the extent a client holds substantial assets in crypto, lawyers should consider advising the client about these risks and how to address them, such as maintaining their holdings in a way that they are not visible on public blockchains," said Jared Lenow, a New York based partner at Friedman Kaplan who is not involved in the case.

       

The national class includes nearly 2.3 million members, potentially reaching damages of nearly $1.15 billion, as the TCPA provides a minimum of $500 per violation. The 27,000-member subclass could net a $13.544-million damages award under the same framework, according to Thomas A. Zimmerman Jr., one of the attorneys representing Anthony.

       

U.S. District Judge William Alsup granted preliminary approval to a $1.5 billion settlement resolving claims that Anthropic used authors' copyrighted works to train its AI chatbot Claude without consent. The deal is the largest copyright settlement ever, covering nearly 483,000 works and paying authors slightly more than $3,000 per infringed work.

       

Will Rosenzweig's firing over past anti-Trump posts sparked debate on politics, free speech, and the Department of Justice's independence.

       

Law firms are doing so well going into the fourth quarter that you wouldn't believe that some firms had existential crises earlier this year amid government upheaval.        

Paramount, which just did a big merger, now is mulling a bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, The Wall Street Journal reported.

       

Availability of top talent has been the driving force behind Simpson's D.C. office build, the firm said, as it sees less competition for top corporate talent here than in New York.

       

Mississippi College School of Law is the second law school to require first-year students to complete the Introduction to AI and the Law certification.

       

Henry Paulson, Alan Greenspan and other former high-ranking economic officials filed an amicus brief opposing President Donald Trump's request for permission to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook.

       

Under the pact, the company will refund $1.5 billion to customers and pay a $1 billion civil penalty the largest ever assessed for an FTC rule violation.

       

       

"As far as I know, it's the first environmental mesothelioma verdict for a plaintiff ever. It was also the largest verdict in the history of that county,” said Sam Iola, a partner at Iola Gross & Forbes-King, one of the attorneys who helped lead a landmark verdict in upstate New York.

       

The appellate panel remanded the case and instructed the district court to assess, with factual development, whether the Rhode Island statute significantly interferes with Citizens' banking powers under the updated preemption standard defined in the 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Cantero v. Bank of America .        

"They're going to learn a tough lesson if they don't get their device approved. They're kind of like Don Quixote tipping at a windmill right now," said Mark Gardner, principal of Gardner Law.

       

"This collision could have been avoided," counsel wrote in a wrongful-death lawsuit seeking damages in connection with the deadly American Airlines and U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crash that killed 67 people near Washington, D.C.

       

"This collision could have been avoided," counsel wrote in a wrongful-death lawsuit seeking damages in connection with the deadly American Airlines and U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter crash that killed 67 people near Washington, D.C.

       

The profession is beginning to train oratory back into relevance. Presence, connection, and advocacy—long treated as “soft —are once again becoming the hard edge of legal practice.