"I would assume that they'll keep ramping up the sanctions until this gets resolved. Again, this is an error that there might have been an excuse for previously, but as we go further and further along, there'll be less and less of an excuse for," one litigator told Law.com.

       

The case, called Durnell v. Monsanto, could resolve thousands of lawsuits alleging the pesticide Roundup causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma.        

Regarding U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer's independence from President Donald Trump, Rutgers Law School professor Thea Johnson said, "You need a US Attorney's Office that can prosecute crime effectively. I'm hopeful that maybe we can get back to a US Attorney's Office that can do that, but I also think we have absolutely no idea how it will play out until we've had some opportunity to see what kinds of decisions [Frazer] makes and how the president responds to those decisions."

       

In this Legal Speak episode, co-hosts Cedra Mayfield and Patrick Smith interview Haystack ID Executive Vice President of Data Intelligence, Esther Birnbaum, live from the Legalweek 2026 Conference in New York.

       

An Illinois appellate court ruled that summary judgment was improper because questions remain about whether the chief of orthopedic surgery at St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago abused qualified immunity privilege about false accusations against another surgeon.

       

During oral arguments in the high-profile case Wednesday, a majority of the court expressed skepticism of the Trump administration's argument that the children of undocumented and temporary immigrants are not covered by the citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

       

Sephora filed more than a dozen California lawsuits seeking to head off a wave of consumer arbitration demands claiming its opt-in “Chosen For You and “Your Picks recommendations, built using customers' self-reported “age range and “skin color, violate the Unruh Civil Rights Act. The company argues the tools do not limit access, pricing or terms of sale and therefore do not deny “full and equal accommodations.

       

The agency's staff said the ABA's standards for law school accreditation "impose an elitist model of legal education, driving up the cost of legal education and thereby limiting the supply of lawyers."

       

The Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District revived a contract and fraud dispute between St. Louis medical%E2%80%91device developers Kogent Surgical and Katalyst Surgical and global medical technology company Carl Zeiss Meditec, amidst allegations that the defendant deliberately stalled product development to avoid paying most of the contingent milestone money promised.

       

"Take opportunities as they come up. It can be hard to balance billable work with non-billable leadership and firm-building activities, but those things matter and contribute to the development of the firm. When an opportunity presents itself, take it—even if it feels overwhelming—because it's important to your growth and to the firm."

       

The large volume of employee suits over mandatory vaccine policies show the importance of trying hard to accommodate workers' disabilities, rather than firing them, said Amanda Fugazy, an employment lawyer at Ellenoff Grossman & Schole in New York.

       

Judge Ali says that the ABA's complaint "details at length the chilling effect the alleged policy has had on firms and lawyers."

       

After juries hit Meta Platforms with two verdicts in New Mexico and California, social media companies face similar trials this year involving a teenager, a school district and another state.

       

Catch up on the latest data from across the Law.com newsroom, including how non-traditional markets have become a critical battleground for Big Law.

       

A preliminary analysis of Am Law 200 firm data shows that the number of clients that firms billed last year fell. At the same time, more revenue was concentrated among their top clients.

       

"Although the harm caused by the States' improper disclosure is largely irreparable, the Court should enforce its Protective Order to show that the violation will not be tolerated and to mitigate further harm," U.S. Department of Justice attorneys wrote in a joint letter after state attorneys general mistakenly filed highly confidential materials on the public docket regarding Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.'s acquisition of Juniper Networks and HPE's nonpublic communications.

       

It is that time of year again! We are excited to again begin the process to honor in-house legal departments and legal department leaders in our Best Legal Departments issue.

       

Before Musk can appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, post-trial motion practice must be completed at the district court level.

       

Last week's $375 million verdict against Meta Platforms in New Mexico, and $6 million jury award against Meta and YouTube, owned by Google, were the first to use new legal theories to blame social media on harm to children.

       

The school will be renamed the Donald P. Klekamp College of Law at the University of Cincinnati, after Klekamp, a 1957 law school graduate.