Today's Legal Pulse
Biden sues DOJ to block release of interview audio
President Joe Biden has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to prevent the Department of Justice from publishing an audio recording of his interview. The action, reported by Axios and TIME, aims to keep the interview confidential amid political controversy.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader clear final merger hurdles
FinCEN Proposes Major Revisions to AML/CFT Program Requirements
FinCEN issued a proposed rule on April 7 to overhaul AML/CFT program requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act. The revision shifts focus from mere procedural check‑lists to "effective" programs, demanding documented risk‑assessment processes and risk‑based resource allocation. It also expands FinCEN’s supervisory role, requiring agency notice before major enforcement actions. If adopted, banks, fintechs, MSBs and broker‑dealers will need to redesign governance and compliance frameworks.
Minnesota Extends PFAS in Products Reporting Deadline to September 15, 2026
Minnesota’s Pollution Control Agency pushed the first‑in‑the‑nation PFAS‑in‑products reporting deadline from July 1 to September 15, 2026, and released extension and waiver request forms. Manufacturers must still pay an $800 one‑time fee and disclose product details, PFAS concentrations, and supplier information through the...
Bloomberg Law: Tariff Challenges & NFL Antitrust Probe (Podcast)
In a Bloomberg Law podcast, trade lawyer Timothy Brightbill of Wily Rein outlines the legal arguments being presented in the U.S. Court of International Trade to overturn President Trump’s most recent tariff measures. Concurrently, NYU Law antitrust scholar Harry First...
Collective Action “More for Benefit of Lawyers and Funders”
The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) denied a collective proceedings order against alleged salmon‑price collusion, citing a £20 million (≈$25 million) cost budget that dwarfed the projected consumer recovery of less than $10 per person. The proposed class, estimated at 35‑44 million people, could...
Lawyers Resolve Most Complaints Themselves Under LeO Pilot
Law firms and a chambers group piloted the Legal Ombudsman’s Model Complaints Resolution Procedure (MCRP), handling 631 complaints across the top five legal service areas. Only 3% of those complaints were escalated to the Ombudsman, while 57% were settled through...
Partners At This Biglaw Firm Got Quite The Raise
According to ALM’s 2025 compensation survey, Kirkland & Ellis posted the steepest partner compensation increase among U.S. biglaw firms, with earnings rising more than 68% year‑over‑year. The surge reflects the firm’s record profitability, driven by high‑value transactions and a robust...
Vos: Legal Education Needs “Complete Rethink” In Age of Machine Justice
Sir Geoffrey Vos, the Master of the Rolls, warned that legal education must be overhauled for the "machine age" as AI tools begin to deliver free legal research and even routine judicial decisions. He argued that future lawyers will be...
How You Respond to Mistakes Matters More than the Mistakes Themselves
Legal firms face inevitable mistakes, but the decisive factor is how they respond. Pearl Moses argues that a culture of psychological safety—where staff can admit errors without fear—leads to earlier detection, faster learning, and stronger accountability. She warns that punitive,...
High Court Broadens Scope of Legal Advice Privilege
On 17 April 2026, the High Court ruled that legal‑advice privilege covers all internal client documents whose dominant purpose is to prepare for or identify issues for future legal counsel, even when those documents are never sent to a lawyer....
Sports Betting Regulator to House: I’m ‘No Expert’ on Betting Lines
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig told the House Agriculture Committee that he is not an expert on betting lines, yet defended the agency’s authority to regulate sports prediction markets. He argued that such markets provide hedging opportunities, citing the Commodity Exchange...
In Rare Move, Roper Greyell’s Non-Lawyer CEO Joins Firm's Partnership
Roper Greyell LLP has elevated its chief executive officer, Adam Garvin, to equity partner, making him the firm’s sole non‑lawyer partner and one of only five such partners in British Columbia. The move required LSBC approval for a multi‑disciplinary practice,...
Guangdong Explicitly Links Patent Pre-Examination With Patent Prosecution Highway Eligibility
On April 14, 2026 Guangdong’s Intellectual Property Protection Center issued a notice that formally links the province’s free patent pre‑examination service to eligibility for the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH). The pre‑examination can produce a Chinese patent in roughly two to...
Court Rejects Trump Administration Climate Lawsuit Against Hawaii
A federal judge in Hawaii dismissed a Trump‑era Justice Department lawsuit that sought to block the state from suing oil companies over climate change. The court found the DOJ had no standing because it could not demonstrate concrete harm, labeling...
‘Felony Charges Are Pending’: My Mother Set up a Trust for My Sibling Who Stole $100,000 From a Bank. Can...
A mother created an irrevocable discretionary (spendthrift) trust for a sibling who later defrauded a bank of $100,000. The trust’s design—being fully discretionary and irrevocable—generally shields its assets from ordinary creditors, but state statutes may carve out exceptions for certain...
Commission Postpones Western Spadefoot Decision to June Meeting
The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the California Fish and Game Commission to list the western spadefoot as threatened in its northern range and endangered in the south under CESA. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife found the petition...
Europe Plans Permanent Body to Pursue Russian War Crimes
Europe is likely to create a permanent office/organization to investigate/prosecute Russian acts against Ukraine. Even if that war were to resolve today, the impacts will linger for decades. https://youtu.be/sR5heFGlnIA?si=WUkOfdFRgiSfDKvK
Why MSOs Are A No Go For Solo And Small Law Firms
Management service organizations (MSOs) are private‑equity‑backed firms that buy a law firm’s non‑legal operations and run them under long‑term contracts, positioning themselves as a workaround to the prohibition on non‑lawyer ownership. The article reviews past MSO‑like experiments—Clearspire, Atrium, and foreclosure‑mill...
Hong Kong Banks Dependent on SWIFT Are Warned of New US Sanctions
The U.S. Treasury warned two Chinese banks that processed roughly $9 billion of Iran‑oil payments that flowed through Hong Kong, Oman and the UAE, threatening secondary sanctions. Hong Kong banks rely on SWIFT for global settlements and have already closed accounts linked to...
San José Residents Sue City, Saying Flock Safety Cameras Allow ‘Mass Surveillance’
San Jose residents have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the city’s deployment of roughly 470 Flock Safety automated license‑plate readers creates an unconstitutional mass‑surveillance system. The plaintiffs claim the cameras violate the Fourth Amendment by tracking vehicle movements without...
Lawmakers Propose Tax and IRS Bills as Filing Season Ends
On Tax Day, Senate leaders introduced three major tax bills aimed at overhauling IRS operations and closing loopholes. The bipartisan Improving IRS Customer Service Act would create an online dashboard, expand electronic refunds and add callback options for taxpayers. The...
Stop Celebrating the Live Nation Verdict
A Manhattan federal jury found Live Nation and Ticketmaster guilty of antitrust violations, confirming they overcharged fans $1.72 per ticket—roughly $1 billion over four years. The verdict highlighted Ticketmaster’s 86% share of primary ticketing and Live Nation’s 78% control of large...
Unintentional AI Adoption Is Already Inside Your Company. The Only Question Is Whether You Know It.
In‑house counsel are confronting AI that has already seeped into daily workflows through browsers, email extensions, and personal devices, often without any formal approval. This unintentional adoption creates a hidden layer of corporate memory built from prompts, scraped emails, and...
9th Circ. Copyright Ruling Highlights Doubts On Intrinsic Test
The Ninth Circuit upheld a jury’s noninfringement finding in Sedlik v. Von Drachenberg, but two judges used their concurrences to criticize the circuit’s intrinsic test for substantial similarity. The intrinsic test, which asks whether an ordinary observer perceives overall similarity, is...
FCPA Enforcement Action Against Drillmec Executive Unsealed
In March 2026 the U.S. Department of Justice charged Alfonso Wilson, CEO of Oil Technologies Consortium, with conspiring to bribe a senior PEMEX official to secure a December 2021 equipment contract for Texas‑based Drillmec. Wilson pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing...
DOJ Seeks Court Reset on Flawed Voter Roll Demands
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is asking courts in 13 voter roll data lawsuits for a mulligan on its original demands for states’ voter roll data. https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/doj-wants-do-over-for-legally-deficient-demand-for-state-voter-rolls/
Chaotic DMV ICE Raid, 'BS' Canadian CDLs: FMCSA's Non-Domiciled Ban, One Month Later
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s ban on issuing non‑domiciled commercial driver’s licenses took effect on March 16, 2026, targeting roughly 194,000 foreign‑licensed drivers. Within a month, an ICE raid at a Pennsylvania DMV underscored the heightened enforcement climate, with 13...
Super-Short Comment Period on Supersizing TPB-Ordered Sanctions
The Australian Treasury has issued a consultation paper proposing to broaden the Tax Practitioners Board's sanctioning powers. The draft adds five new offences for unregistered individuals who prepare and lodge tax returns for a fee, and expands penalties beyond current...
FCC’s Carr Concerned About Verizon-Contractor Commitments
FCC Chair Brendan Carr voiced concern that Verizon may be breaching its post‑merger commitments to contractors, a condition of the FCC’s approval of the $20 billion Frontier acquisition. The agreement with NATE requires transparent procurement and inflation‑adjusted pricing, but contractors allege...
Prediction Markets Face Intensified Congressional and Judicial Scrutiny
Today in Washington DC, the most prominent federal regulator overseeing prediction markets was grilled by lawmakers. At the same moment in San Francisco, a panel of judges seemed dismissive of the major operators' primary legal arguments. No one knows how...
Regulator: Bank Misled Veterans on VA Loan Refinances
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a consent order against The Federal Savings Bank, accusing it of false disclosures that steered veterans into costly VA cash‑out refinance loans between 2022 and 2024. Misleading ads and claims of...
Ruling Allows Link-Out, Not In-App Payments, Violates
This isn’t a valid interpretation of the most recent Epic Games v. Apple ruling and my belief is that CalAI was in violation of App Store policy: - the ruling forces Apple to allow link-out, not alternative payments in in-app webviews -...
FCC Defends Nexstar‑TEGNA Merger Amid Senate Inquiry
News: 🚨@FCC counsel filed this letter today with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. It is @BrendanCarrFCC response to @tedcruz and @SenatorCantwell March 30 letter regarding the agency's March 19 approval of the @NXSTMediaGroup -@TEGNA transaction. $NXST...
Still Striking After All These Years- What the Sixth Circuit’s Back-to-Back Rieth-Riley Decisions Mean for Employers
The Sixth Circuit affirmed two NLRB rulings against Indiana‑based Rieth‑Riley Construction, finding the company committed multiple unfair‑labor‑practice violations, including unlawful lockouts, unilateral wage increases, and a refusal to bargain. The court rejected the employer’s arguments that economic exigency or Davis‑Bacon...
Banks Claim Coinbase Coerced by Proposed Clarity Act
WATCH: Fox Business says banks are upset with Coinbase, saying they were effectively forced to accept terms under the proposed Clarity Act https://t.co/xYt3Hzy4Ye
CFTC Chair Faces Bipartisan Pushback Over Crypto Prediction Markets
"Sports and war prediction markets and crypto-backed perpetual futures came under fire during a House committee hearing Thursday." CFTC Chair Mike Selig Faces Bipartisan Pushback on Prediction Markets, Hyperliquid Perps https://t.co/eRt5FRHcd1
Discrimination, Retaliation Lawsuit Against Marriott Hotel Can Proceed, Judge Rules
A federal judge denied Shreeji Hotel Group's motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a former assistant general manager who claims retaliation after requesting leave for gender‑affirming surgeries. The court found the plaintiff presented plausible claims under Title VII, the ADA,...
NYC AV Permits Persist Despite Expired State Framework
“The city permit program still exists,” says NYCDOT’s Kelsey Taeckens on testing AVs. It’s basically as of right if you meet the requirements. But the state law framework under which the city issues the permits expired with the (now late)...
Ohio Sues Kalshi for Evading Sports Betting Rules
“How Is that not gambling?” Ohio Takes on Kalshi for dodging sports betting regulations https://t.co/3RWYMlEg4q
Judge Denies SHRM’s Request for a New Trial
A federal judge denied the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) request for a new trial in the Mohamed v. SHRM case, leaving an $11.5 million jury verdict intact. The plaintiff, a former SHRM employee, alleged that White colleagues received favorable...
Regulate AVs to Curb Externalities, Protect Privacy
AV regulation must focus on “curbing externalities” (congestion taxes), consumer protection, and the impact on the urban environment, says Prof Wansley. (He’s worried about privacy as an externality, eg companies’ full surveillance of everything that happens on the streets and...
Ninth Circuit Judges Question Sports Betting vs Casino Rules
"A three-judge panel pressed the exchanges on how sports betting differs from casino gambling." Online sports betting exchanges seek win before Ninth Circuit https://t.co/HmiCfIl3qq
Real-Time Revolution: How AI Is Changing the Deposition Game with Dean Whalen & John Skelton
In the Red Cave Law podcast, Dean Whalen of Readback (InforWare) and John Skelton of Seyfarth Shaw discuss AI‑driven deposition software that delivers real‑time, searchable transcripts. The platform uses a proprietary speech‑to‑text engine hosted in a secure environment, offering instant...
Appeals Court Warns of Threat to Prediction Markets
Appeals Judges Signal Potential Trouble for Prediction Markets in Key Case "It's sophistry to the nth degree." - CA9 Judge Ryan Nelson That pretty much sums it up. via @ButlerBets https://t.co/X7yeYmEMAp
Oral Arguments Usually Predict Appellate Decisions, Though Not Certain
Oral arguments are often a reliable indicator (but no guarantee) of where the appellate panel will ultimately come out. All of us who watched the CA3 oral argument had a pretty good idea how it would be decided. No surprises...
Click to Join, Hard to Leave: FTC Reopens Negative Option Rulemaking
The FTC reopened its rulemaking on negative‑option plans with an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking released on March 11, 2026. The agency is seeking comments on how to tighten rules around undisclosed terms, lack of affirmative consent, and difficult cancellation processes. It...
Decentralized Protocols Must Freeze Hacks, Not Wait for Courts
I hope there's some precedent set. Either you're a decentralized protocol and literally do not have the power to freeze or you're not and you should be freezing hacked funds. This middle ground hand wavy "only with a court order"...
Baltimore Luxury Tower Sees 50% Value Drop as Buyers Shun Harbor East Condos
The Four Seasons Private Residences tower in Baltimore’s Harbor East has seen a third of its 62 units stay unsold and listing prices tumble from $1 million to the $500,000s, a roughly 50% loss in value since its 2017 debut. Investors...
House Passes Bipartisan Bill Restoring Haitian Temporary Status
JUST IN: US House approved a bipartisan bill to restore temporary legal status for Haitian immigrants in the country.
Tesla Is Facing up to $14.5 Billion in Lawsuits — and It’s only Getting Worse
Tesla is confronting at least 21 active lawsuits spanning Autopilot crashes, false‑advertising, securities fraud, and workplace discrimination, with potential liabilities ranging from $2.7 billion to $14.5 billion. A landmark $243 million verdict in the Benavides Autopilot case has weakened the company’s "puffery" defense...
Freshfields Deploys Google Gemini AI to 5,000 Lawyers, Scaling Generative Tools Firmwide
Freshfields announced that more than 5,000 of its lawyers and staff are now using generative AI tools built on Google Gemini, a year after launching a strategic partnership with Google Cloud. The rollout includes bespoke legal platforms, NotebookLM Enterprise for...