Know What's Happening in Legal
Know What's Happening in Legal
Delaware Supreme Court lets insurers pursue contract claims against Blackbaud over ransomware breach
The Delaware Supreme Court reversed lower‑court dismissals, permitting insurers to bring breach‑of‑contract actions against Blackbaud for its 2020 ransomware incident. Blackbaud had previously paid a $3 million SEC fine and $49 million to state attorneys general for misleading breach disclosures.
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By the numbers: Oil majors acquire $164M of Alaska oil leases
The Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) adopted four new recommendations at its 84th plenary session. The recommendations provide best‑practice guidance on obtaining government records for agency proceedings, managing temporary rules, organizing adjudication offices, and collaborating with state, tribal, local, and territorial governments. They are designed to boost fairness, accuracy, efficiency, and intergovernmental coordination in federal decision‑making. ACUS will next develop proposals on agency agreements, regulatory preambles, monetary award effectuation, and interagency rulemaking communication.
Human Rights Watch warned that Angola’s new civil‑society bill, passed on Jan. 22 with a 106‑77 vote, grants authorities sweeping powers to control NGOs. The draft imposes a vague licensing regime, permits monitoring of finances, and allows license suspensions of up...
The White House is urging a “clean” reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which would extend the program without new warrant safeguards. Section 702 lets intelligence agencies collect foreign communications and incidentally sweep U.S. persons’ data, a practice...
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a district court injunction that had blocked Texas Senate Bill 12, a law restricting "sexually oriented performances" on public property and in the presence of minors. The appellate panel found the lower court...
The Federal Trade Commission issued a policy statement saying it will not pursue enforcement actions against websites that use age‑verification tools, provided they follow strict safeguards. The exemption applies only when age data is used solely for verification, is not...
New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against Valve, accusing the company of promoting illegal gambling through loot‑box mechanics in Counter‑Strike 2 and other Steam titles. The complaint seeks an injunction, disgorgement of profits and civil penalties, arguing...
UK Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner William Webster has submitted a 16‑page response to the Home Office’s consultation on a new legal framework for police use of facial recognition and other biometric technologies. He urges lawmakers to define “serious harm,”...
A Hawaii district court has upheld the state’s 340B contract‑pharmacy law, ruling that it is not preempted by federal regulations. The decision aligns with recent rulings in Minnesota and Louisiana that support state authority over 340B contract arrangements. The law...
In Wilson Aerospace LLC v. Boeing, the Western District of Washington held that Wilson waived attorney‑client privilege and work‑product protection by failing to demonstrate reasonable pre‑production safeguards. The court noted Wilson’s reliance on a vague “second‑layer” filter without specific search...
Former FAA rotorcraft director David Downey has petitioned the agency to amend Parts 121 and 135 so that airline and charter employees receive mandatory human‑trafficking recognition and response training, a requirement he says Congress already mandated but the FAA has not codified....
The FAS Center for Regulatory Ingenuity (CRI) is launching a transpartisan effort to modernize stagnant government institutions, beginning with climate policy. It creates high‑trust brainstorming environments and a "network of networks" to help policymakers update outdated laws for the clean‑technology...
The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld a child‑pornography conviction, finding that Google’s automated scan of a user’s Photos account did not constitute an illegal government search. The court applied the “totality of the circumstances” test and concluded Google acted for its...
In Wattenbarger v. City of Crossville, a Tennessee man displayed anti‑LGBTQ banners at a pride festival and was arrested after repeatedly parking his truck and horse trailer across multiple spaces in front of the courthouse. He sued the city for...
The U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is reported to hold about 328,372 BTC, valued at roughly $21.6 billion. Approximately 94,643 of those coins are tied to the 2016 Bitfinex hack and are subject to a court‑ordered restitution that could remove about 30 %...
Filing for personal bankruptcy is a federally‑mandated, deadline‑driven process that can be derailed by a single missed form or hearing. While individuals can represent themselves, data shows that pro se filers are less likely to achieve a full discharge than those...
Crypto is re‑entering startup discussions, but the focus has shifted from hype to regulation and infrastructure. At ETH Denver, low attendance underscored a market pause, while Washington’s GENIUS and Clarity Acts promise clearer stablecoin rules. Stripe is quietly assembling a...
In this episode of Legal Speak, Supreme Court litigator Adam Unikowski discusses the rapid adoption of AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude in high‑court advocacy. He describes experiments where AI generated oral arguments and answered justices’ questions, highlighting AI’s speed,...
Justice Thomas’s solo dissent in *Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump* argues that Congress’s legislative power is limited to a narrow “core” defined by the Fifth Amendment’s due‑process clause, while the remaining Article I powers are essentially presidential prerogatives. He contends that...
The IRS and Treasury announced they will issue proposed regulations under Section 987 to modernize how foreign currency gains and losses are calculated for qualified business units. Notice 2026‑17 introduces an election for the equity‑and‑basis pool method, mirroring a 1991 proposal, and...
Wegmans Food Markets released a statement clarifying that its facial recognition technology is deployed in only a small fraction of stores and is used exclusively for security purposes. The company emphasized that it does not collect retinal scans or voice...
The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a 2023 ruling that granted BMI a 138% increase in live‑concert licensing fees, deeming the 0.5% of gross revenue rate unreasonable. The court found BMI’s inclusion of secondary‑ticket sales, VIP packages, and...
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has released draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) detailing new clearing thresholds under EMIR 3. The proposal retains five threshold categories, clarifies calculation timing, and enhances the trigger mechanism’s stability. ESMA also suggests higher thresholds...
President Trump signed an executive order on Dec. 18, 2025 directing the DOJ to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, acknowledging its medical use. The rulemaking process is still pending, so federal drug‑testing obligations remain unchanged for now....
NetDocuments introduced seven new pre‑built ndMax applications designed to automate key legal workflows. The suite covers discovery response generation, contract analysis and review, and assistance with USPTO office‑action replies. By leveraging the low‑code ndMax platform, these apps can be deployed...
The State of the Union saw only four Supreme Court justices—Roberts, Kagan, Kavanaugh and Barrett—attend, while others stayed away by choice. President Trump used his speech to denounce a recent Supreme Court ruling on tariffs as “unfortunate” and “disappointing,” echoing...
Law firms have moved beyond chasing the perfect prompt and now face a deeper challenge: generative AI reasoning systems can produce fluent, persuasive answers that are subtly incorrect. The article argues that lawyers must treat every AI output as a...
2026 marks a turning point as a wave of regulations—DMCCA, the EU Digital Services Act, the upcoming Digital Fairness Act, the AI Act and others—target core game mechanics. Dark‑pattern practices, UI prompts, loot‑box disclosures, virtual‑currency pricing and player‑generated communication are...
Standard‑essential‑patent (SEP) litigation grew about 15% between 2020 and 2025, moving away from traditional cellular (ETSI) disputes toward Wi‑Fi and video‑codec standards. Litigated video‑codec SEPs jumped 263% and Wi‑Fi SEPs rose 71%, while ETSI‑declared cellular SEPs fell 32%. The surge...
Humanitarian NGOs operating in Gaza face an imminent deadline to hand over detailed staff and donor data to Israeli authorities or lose access to the territories. The December‑issued registration rules, set to take effect as early as Sunday, affect about...
CourtPilot, an AI‑powered legal platform, enables UK e‑commerce sellers to file small‑claims cases without a solicitor. For a one‑off £97 fee, users receive AI‑generated court documents, evidence analysis, and step‑by‑step guidance for claims up to £10,000. The service begins with...
On February 9 2026 the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the minimum wage for federal contractors covered by Executive Order 13658 will rise to $13.65 per hour effective May 11 2026, up from $13.30. EO 13658, issued in 2014, applies to contracts made, renewed or...
The European Commission is consulting on revised state‑aid rules that will replace the current framework before it expires on 31 December 2026. The proposal, embedded in the General Block Exemption Regulation, streamlines approvals and exempts climate‑related aid under €30 million per firm or...
Meta’s AI‑driven child‑abuse detection is flooding US ICAC task forces with low‑quality tips, doubling the volume from 2024 to 2025. Law‑enforcement officials describe many reports as “junk” because they lack essential evidence such as images or context. The surge follows...
A federal judge in Texas ruled that X (formerly Twitter) is not liable under the Non‑Consensual Intimate Image (NCII) statute for reposting a plaintiff's commercial pornographic material. The court emphasized that the NCII law expressly excludes commercial porn unless it...
The United States and the European Union are negotiating the Enhanced Border Security Partnership (EBSP), which would grant visa‑free travel to EU citizens in exchange for access to European biometric databases. The latest draft does not explicitly prohibit the use...
EU members of the European Parliament rallied behind former commissioner Thierry Breton after the United States imposed visa restrictions on him for his role in shaping the Digital Services Act. Breton, who oversaw the DSA and other digital regulations, used...
EU financial and non‑financial counterparties using ISDA SIMM must have filed an initial IM model application with their competent authority or the ECB, and those that have already applied need to submit an updated version by 31 March 2026. The update must reference...
The Northern District of California dismissed a plaintiff’s First Amendment claim after a park ranger ordered him to stop filming a private family barbecue in a public park. The court held that the First Amendment protects recording public officials performing...
A Montana federal judge dismissed the state’s TikTok ban on Feb. 20, 2026 after the law’s trigger clause was satisfied by ByteDance selling a majority stake to non‑Chinese investors. The sale, completed on Jan. 23, 2026, left ByteDance with a...
Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) seized nearly 2,000 doses of illegal weight‑loss drugs in raids on sites in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, marking its second major operation in four months. The confiscated products were labelled as containing tirzepatide...
CCLEAR, a unit of Crowdfund Capital Advisors, unveiled a Reg CF compliance dashboard that aggregates filing data for nearly 9,000 crowdfunding issuers. The tool reveals that 31.4% of issuers are non‑compliant and only 4.1% are fully up‑to‑date with mandatory annual...
PowerSchool and Chicago Public Schools have agreed to a $17.25 million settlement to resolve a class‑action lawsuit accusing the ed‑tech firm of covertly recording student communications. The fund will be divided among more than 10 million potential class members and obligates PowerSchool...
Archer Aviation has filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas accusing Vertical Aerospace of infringing multiple patents tied to Archer’s Midnight eVTOL design. The complaint alleges that Vertical’s new Valo aircraft copies patented V‑tail, fuselage, wing, and flight‑control...
For minority investors to include protective provisions within their purchase agreements is common practice, but one provision that founders should be particularly aware of is the right of first refusal (ROFR). A ROFR clause places an obligation on the company...
Interesting read: the thread and the story. A drug that was approved in Europe in 2022, which looked like it was on track for #FDA approval, instead is rejected. What changed at FDA? 🤔
Interesting that Bank Policy Institute and Independent Community Bankers of America pushed back to the OCC on trust charter apps from @coinbase @Ripple @circle -- but *NOT* from World Liberty Financial 🤔
The “distress” deadline for @AppealsCourtGA’s 2025 August Term cases is March 16th. You can learn more about the distress deadlines for Georgia’s appellate courts at this link. https://t.co/W4HXs4wZnZ
If you ever wondered why DC has so many apartments with windowless bedrooms … it’s the Height Act https://t.co/Axl6cvRgrf
The more reporting you put on banks, the more difficult it is to compete w/ digital assets. We report suspicious criminal activity & should be getting BSA relief not further requirements. The lift for small banks is extraordinary & we...
Jane Street is being sued by Terra Luna, accused of causing the 2022 crypto winter by manipulating USDT. Coincidence? Daily Bitcoin selling halted for the first time in 2 months as Jane Street hit the news. Is the selling finally...
