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
Trump Not Done Fighting Civil Fraud Case in New York
Donald Trump’s legal team filed an appeal to overturn a New York court ruling that found he inflated real‑estate values, ordering him to pay $355 million plus interest. The appeal follows a Substack post by former fixer Michael Cohen, who said he was coerced to testify for Attorney General Letitia James. A 2023 appeals court had already dismissed a $515 million civil‑fraud penalty as excessive, leaving only injunctive relief. The Department of Justice previously subpoenaed James, underscoring the political overtones of the dispute.
Ditching the Billable Hour: Law Firm Math, AI, and Subscriptions with Mathew Kerbis
Mathew Kerbis, founder of Subscription Attorney and co‑founder/CEO of Practi, explains how law firms can move from the traditional billable‑hour model to subscription‑based billing using AI and data analytics. He outlines the essential math lawyers need to run profitable practices,...
VA's Failure to Use Its New Authority to Boost Pay for Doctors Draws Bipartisan Criticism
Veterans Affairs doctors remain capped at $400,000 a year despite the Dole Act, a bipartisan law signed by President Biden that allows 300 pay‑waiver exceptions and retroactive compensation. The VA has not issued guidance to implement the authority, even though...
BoE and PRA Response On AI In Financial Services
The Bank of England and the Prudential Regulation Authority issued a joint letter to the Chancellor outlining a new supervisory framework for artificial intelligence in the UK financial sector. AI will be embedded as a 2026 supervisory priority, with heightened...
DOW’s Economic Defense Unit: Top Points for Defense and Defensetech Companies
The U.S. Department of War has launched the Economic Defense Unit (EDU) to channel roughly $200 billion into defense and dual‑use technology firms over the next three years. The EDU will issue a mix of grants, loans, equity investments and purchase...
First Circuit Confirms Mootness Limits Post‑Janus Union Dues Litigation
The First Circuit dismissed the First Amendment appeal in Ramos‑Ramos v. Jordán‑Conde, holding the case moot after the University of Puerto Rico stopped post‑resignation union dues, reimbursed employees, and revised its policies. The court emphasized that federal courts cannot issue...
Live Nation Antitrust Trial Nears End as Lawyer for 34 States Labels the Concerts Giant a Monopolist
Live Nation Entertainment and its Ticketmaster unit dominate the concert market, holding about 86 % of ticket sales and 73 % when sports events are included. A coalition of 34 states presented closing arguments in a Manhattan federal antitrust trial, accusing the...
UK FCA Confirms An Increase To FOS Award Limits
The UK Financial Conduct Authority has approved higher compensation caps for the Financial Ombudsman Service for 2026/27, tying the increase to CPI inflation. Effective 1 April, the maximum award for complaints arising on or after 1 April 2019 rises to £455,000 (about $578,000),...
Six Questions Federal Contractors Are Asking About the New DEI Executive Order
Executive Order 14398, issued to curb race‑based DEI practices among federal contractors, mandates a specific contract clause by April 25, 2026 that requires reporting, flow‑down to subcontractors, and subjects violators to False Claims Act liability. The order narrows the focus to race...
OpenAI Unveils Child‑Safety Blueprint to Shield Kids From AI‑Generated Abuse
OpenAI has published a child‑protection blueprint created with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Attorney General Alliance. The framework seeks to modernize laws, improve reporting of AI‑generated child sexual abuse material and build technical safeguards, a...
UK Grants Day‑One Paternity Leave Rights to 427,000 Fathers
Effective this week, UK law now lets fathers take paternity leave from their first day on the job, extending eligibility to roughly 427,000 working dads. The change also raises statutory pay to £194.32 a week (about $247) but awareness remains...
Florida AG Announces Investigation Into OpenAI over Shooting that Allegedly Involved ChatGPT
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced an investigation into OpenAI, alleging that the chatbot ChatGPT was used to plan the April 2025 mass shooting at Florida State University that left two dead and five injured. The victims' families have filed...
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Draws Coverage From “Inside the CFPB”: A First for Our Platform
The Consumer Finance Monitor podcast earned its first dedicated coverage from the industry publication Inside the CFPB, highlighting an April 2 episode on buy‑now‑pay‑later (BNPL) regulation. The article quoted Max Dubin of the New York State Department of Financial Services,...
On Final Approach: How the NC Supreme Court Case Can Ground Long-Tail Aviation Liability
The North Carolina Supreme Court in Warren v. Cielo Ventures upheld a one‑year contractual limitations period, rejecting the idea that statutory UDTPA claims automatically override contract terms. The decision rests on freedom‑of‑contract principles and prior case law, stating that parties...
Victims' Families Sue OpenAI Over ChatGPT’s Role in 2025 FSU Shooting
Lawyers for the families of Robert Morales and Tiru Chabba have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming the shooter used ChatGPT to plan the April 2025 Florida State University massacre. The suit alleges the AI provided tactical advice and highlights...
Paramount Global President Jeff Shell Resigns Amid $111 B Merger Talks
Paramount Global President Jeff Shell quit his role on Thursday to focus on a lawsuit with gambler R.J. Cipriani, just as the media giant finalizes a $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. The departure adds uncertainty to one of the...
Latitude Promotes Former GC Joan Blackwell to VP of Strategic Initiatives
Latitude, a global flexible legal staffing firm, announced the promotion of Joan Blackwell to Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. Blackwell, a former Indiana Attorney General’s Office general counsel and Big Law attorney, joins the newly created role after years shaping...
Judge Schedules Trial Between Jon Gruden, NFL for Mid-2027
Former Raiders coach Jon Gruden sued the NFL alleging a coordinated campaign to force his resignation, seeking more than $150 million in damages. After four years of procedural battles, a Las Vegas judge has set the civil trial for May 2027. The league...
No Charge, No Case: Employee’s Discovery Stonewalling Dooms Title VII Claim
A Texas federal court granted summary judgment to L3Harris in *Farlow v. L3 Communications* because the plaintiff refused to produce his EEOC charge during discovery. The court held that while the charge satisfied the exhaustion requirement at the pleading stage,...
Trump Sends DOJ After NFL To Avenge His Own Public Humiliation In The 80s
The Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation into the NFL’s media‑rights deals, scrutinizing whether the league’s reliance on cable and streaming subscriptions harms consumers. The probe arrives amid recent DOJ antitrust leadership turnover and a high‑profile Ticketmaster settlement, raising...
Lawfare Live: The Trials of the Trump Administration, April 10
Lawfare will host a live webinar on April 10 at 4 pm ET featuring editor Benjamin Wittes and senior editors Eric Columbus, Molly Roberts, and Roger Parloff. The discussion will focus on the D.C. Circuit’s denial of Anthropic’s motion to stay its supply‑chain...
Ex-First Brands Officer Says He Was Unaware of Alleged Fraud
Former First Brands chief strategy officer Michael Baker filed a motion to dismiss a civil lawsuit that implicates him in the auto‑parts supplier’s collapse. Baker alleges founder Patrick James and his brother concealed fraudulent accounting and used his Wall Street...
Mississippi 340B Law Upheld by Appeals Court in Two Cases
On April 9, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld Mississippi’s law that protects 340B drug pricing for contract‑pharmacy arrangements. The court affirmed district‑court rulings rejecting injunction requests from Novartis, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America...
Parkland Health Taps Chief Legal Officer
Dallas‑based Parkland Health announced that Brad Nitschke has been promoted to executive vice president and chief legal officer. Nitschke, who joined the system in August 2021 as associate general counsel for operations and regulatory matters, previously served as a trial and...
Interim Manager Sues Adient US over Racial Hair Harassment, Forced Exit
Saundria Walker, a Black supplier quality engineer at Adient US, filed a federal lawsuit alleging race, gender, and age discrimination, as well as retaliation after she was repeatedly passed over for a permanent Quality Manager role. She served twice as...
When Cyber Insurance Meets Cyber War, Coverage Becomes Conditional
The rise of state‑sponsored cyber attacks, highlighted by Iran’s recent operations, is reshaping cyber‑insurance contracts. Insurers now base payouts on attribution and geopolitical context rather than purely on technical breach details, turning war‑exclusion clauses into decisive triggers. This change forces...
FDA, Medtech Industry Near MDUFA VI Agreement
The FDA and the medical‑technology industry have reached an agreement in principle on the next five‑year user‑fee framework, MDUFA VI, which will govern 2027‑2032. The deal commits the agency to hiring more than 500 additional device‑review staff to address chronic understaffing...
Did the Solicitor General Misrepresent Flournoy Article in Birthright Citizenship Oral Argument
The Solicitor General (SG) argued before the Supreme Court that the Trump administration’s view on birthright citizenship reflects a long‑standing consensus, citing a 1921 article by State Department lawyer Richard W. Flournoy. Flournoy’s piece, however, acknowledges the narrow holding of...
813 Solos Signed Their Names While Biglaw And GCs Hid
Bloomberg reported that major law firms and Fortune 500 in‑house counsel filed amicus briefs opposing recent executive orders anonymously, while 813 solo and small‑firm attorneys signed the same brief openly. The anonymous filings came from partners earning seven‑figure salaries and large...
AI Judges Could Bridge Small Claims‑Arbitration Gap
Problem: The large gap in commercial dispute resolution between small claims court (capped at like $10k damages in CA) and arbitration (where you're going to spend $20k+ on legal, which you may or may not get back). Proposed solution: A neutral AI...
UBS Won’t Release Nazi Accounts Settlement Files Sought by Investigator After Court Setback
UBS Group AG announced it will not provide privileged documents related to Nazi‑linked accounts to investigator Neil Barofsky after a New York judge ruled the bank could not be shielded from future lawsuits. The decision follows UBS’s acquisition of Credit...
Employee Sues Shriners Hospital Alleging Racial Double Standard in Credential Demands
A Black/Asian orthopedic technician at Shriners Hospital for Children sued, alleging the hospital imposed a national board certification requirement on her that was never applied to non‑minority coworkers. After more than a decade of maintaining the credential, she was told...
Balancing the Right to Repair With Evidence Preservation in Construction Defect Litigation
Construction defect disputes force owners to juggle immediate safety actions with the legal duty to preserve evidence. When a defect threatens occupants, owners must secure expert inspections, document conditions, and notify potentially responsible parties. Simultaneously, they must establish a transparent...
"There Is No Constitutional Right to Possess a Cell Phone in Class"
In Brown v. Splendora Independent School District, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen held that students do not have a constitutional right to possess a cell phone during class, especially in a testing environment. The plaintiff, identified as RB, was suspended...
DOJ Probes NFL for Possible Antitrust Violations
The Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether the NFL has engaged in anticompetitive tactics that harm consumers - WSJ
Wisconsin Gets Mobile Sportsbooks, Major Brands Still Missing
Wisconsin sports bettors The good news: You'll soon have legal statewide mobile sportsbooks, probably by year's end The bad news: It may be years (if ever) until you see most major national sportsbook brands
Weakening the Equal Credit Opportunity Act Will Widen Inequality
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s November 2025 proposal would strip key protections from the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by eliminating disparate impact liability, narrowing discouragement claims, and banning race‑ and gender‑based Special Purpose Credit Programs. Those changes would make it...
FSD 14.3 Beats Humans; Regulation, Not Tech, Limits Deployment
Unsupervised is purely a legal / regulatory issue at this point. FSD 14.3 is already above human performance in most major metros
Legacy BlackBerry Patents Threaten Brother and Printer Industry
Patent firms are suing Brother using BlackBerry’s legacy patents, raising risks of damages, product redesigns, and wider disruption across the printer industry. https://t.co/YCPMuFKFfi
Judge Allows States’ Lawsuit over HHS Restructuring to Move Forward
A federal judge in Rhode Island denied the Department of Health and Human Services' motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by 19 states and Washington, D.C. The states allege that HHS's 2025 restructuring and the layoff of roughly 10,000 employees...
Minnesota Moves Toward Online Sweepstakes Casino Ban
A Minnesota legislative committee advanced an online sweepstakes casino ban bill today without opposition; Minnesota could join Maine, Indiana and several other states looking to pass similar bans this year
Taylor Swift Tickets Carry Hidden Terms, Court Rules
Taylor Swift concert tickets are expensive. They also contain terms that might surprise ticket buyers and are common in sports tickets, as a new court ruling shows: https://t.co/IKO7FlYT90.
Bill C-15 Raises Capital Gains Exemption to $1.25 Million, Blocks Corporate-Controlled Mutual Fund Corporations and Launches Stablecoin Regulation
Bill C‑15, the Budget 2025 Implementation Act, received Royal Assent on March 26, 2026, overhauling Canada’s financial‑services framework. It raises the lifetime capital‑gains exemption to $1.25 million and expands the exemption for cooperative and employee‑ownership business sales. The legislation bans corporate‑controlled mutual‑fund corporations, grants...
Judge Accused Of Driving ‘Super Drunk’ Takes No Contest Plea
Federal Judge Thomas L. Ludington, 72, entered a no‑contest plea to a misdemeanor drunken‑driving charge, allowing prosecutors to drop a higher‑level DWI count. A sentencing hearing is set for May 13, with expectations of probation and a substance‑abuse assessment. Despite...
PFAS in Biosolids: Expanding Regulation and Growing Litigation in 2026
Regulators and courts are intensifying focus on PFAS in biosolids as detections rise and states enact bans on land application. Waste‑management firms face operational hurdles and new lawsuits targeting both dischargers and biosolids processors. The shifting legal environment demands proactive...
A NO-CURSING EXPLANATION OF THE NYPHIL LAWSUITS
A New York State judge denied the motions to dismiss in the Wang and Muckey lawsuits against the New York Philharmonic and AFM Local 802, meaning the complaints will move forward. The judge noted that the plaintiffs’ core labor‑law claim –...
CIRO Puts Rulebook Harmonization, Complaint Timelines and Account Transfers at the Top of Its Final-Year Agenda
The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) unveiled its fiscal 2027 agenda, the final year of its 2025‑2027 Strategic Plan. The regulator will prioritize completing a single, harmonized rulebook that merges investment‑dealer and mutual‑fund‑dealer requirements, while also finalizing advisor‑compensation and dual‑registration...
Mexico Publishes Amendments to Intellectual Property Law
On 3 April 2026 Mexico published amendments to its Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property, introducing a suite of procedural tools aimed at greater flexibility and speed in patent prosecution. The changes allow restoration of priority rights within two months,...
Russia Criminalises Denial of ‘Soviet Genocide’ by Nazis During World War II
Russia has amended its criminal code to label Nazi atrocities against the Soviet population during World War II as genocide and to criminalize any denial of that classification. The law, signed by President Vladimir Putin, imposes up to three years in...
Augusta National Blazes a Trail to Registration of Its Iconic Green Jacket
Augusta National Golf Club has officially registered the iconic green‑and‑gold jacket color scheme as a federal trademark, covering both sponsorship promotion (International Class 035) and tournament organization (International Class 041). The registration, filed under application number 88310303, follows more than 70 years of...