Today's Legal Pulse
Biden sues DOJ to block release of interview audio
President Biden filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the Department of Justice from publishing an audio interview, arguing the release would be improper. The action has sparked political commentary, including remarks from former President Trump.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader clear final merger hurdles
Saudi Arabia Arrests 21,000 for Residency and Work Violations
Saudi Arabia intensified its labour compliance drive, arresting more than 21,000 individuals in a single week across construction sites, housing compounds and transport hubs. The crackdown targets undocumented foreign workers, Saudi citizens who shelter them, and firms that fail to verify sponsorship transfers. Indian officials warned nationals to keep digital copies of Iqama and contracts, while a new hotline offers limited assistance for those on visit visas. Multinational employers now face heightened liability, prompting stricter vendor vetting and compliance documentation requirements.
Private Equity Commits to Fletchers and Backs Higgs’ First Acquisition
Sun Capital has extended its ownership of serious‑injury firm Fletchers through a continuation fund, committing another four to five years of capital. The firm’s EBITDA surged from £8 m to £38 m and case volume rose 60%, prompting a large recruitment drive...
Coroner Struck Off for Underplaying Allegations Made Against Him
Senior solicitor‑coroner Chinyere Inyama was struck off after the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found he deliberately downplayed rape and sexual assault allegations, describing them as “touching up”, to the Chief Coroner’s Office. The tribunal labeled his conduct the “most serious form...
Peers Back Widening Eligibility to Become Crown Prosecutors
On 16 February 2026 the House of Lords voted to scrap the statutory ‘general’ legal qualification for Crown prosecutors, allowing CILEX lawyers and other non‑solicitor practitioners to apply. Justice Minister Baroness Levitt described the previous rule as an unnecessary barrier...
Legal Services Board Urged to Ratchet up Focus on SRA
The Law Society has urged the Legal Services Board (LSB) to tighten oversight of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) after the collapses of Axiom Ince and SSB Group exposed regulatory gaps. It highlighted concerns about the SRA’s ability to supervise...
ERA Measures Risk Being a ‘Further Handbrake on Hiring’
CIPD’s Labour Market Outlook warns that the Employment Rights Act 2025 will curb permanent hiring, with 37% of UK employers planning to reduce such recruitment. Overall hiring intentions are at their lowest level since the pandemic, while 74% foresee higher...
Legal Director: An Alternative to Partnership
SA Law introduced the legal director role in 2025 as a formal alternative to partnership, with Clare Mackay becoming its first appointee. The position provides seniority, strategic influence, and professional gravitas while avoiding the capital investment and personal risk associated...
Elias's Warnings Proved Right; Act Against Trump
"I’ve wanted Marc Elias to be wrong for seven years, or six years, for as long as he’s been coming on my show. I have wanted his warnings to be wrong, but every single one of them has been either...
How Satisfied Are Companies After Integrating NHIs in Compliance Frameworks?
The episode explores how companies are evaluating the integration of Non‑Human Identities (NHIs) into their compliance frameworks, highlighting the benefits of reduced risk, improved regulatory adherence, and operational efficiency. It outlines best‑practice steps such as discovery, automated secret rotation, behavioral...
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Unclear if Gains Stem From Profit or Restructuring
Unsure whether this will be because they're in the money or via an out-of-court restructuring
Texas Freezes Filing of New H-1B Petitions by State Agencies and Public Institutions of Higher Education
Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered state agencies and public universities to halt all new H‑1B visa petitions until May 31, 2027, pending written permission from the Texas Workforce Commission. The directive also requires these entities to submit detailed sponsorship data by March 27, 2026....
ZeroDrift Announces $2M Round to Automate Compliance
ZeroDrift emerged from stealth with a $2 million pre‑seed round led by a16z speedrun, aiming to automate compliance for financial‑services communications. The AI‑native platform acts as a real‑time firewall that encodes SEC, FINRA and firm‑specific policies into machine‑readable rulepacks. By integrating...
Europe Is Coming After Infinite Scroll – TikTok's Endless Feed Is Now a Legal Problem
The European Commission has formally accused TikTok of designing its endless‑scroll feed to be addictive, especially for minors, and is treating this as a systemic risk under the Digital Services Act. The preliminary ruling targets infinite scroll, algorithmic recommendations and...
Ed Lee Forecasted AI Class-Action Lawsuits in 2023
shout-out to @edleeprof for totally calling the class-action angle for AI lawsuits ahead of the curve in 2023! https://t.co/MwA9eSRAua
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: February 9, 2026 to February 13, 2026
The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on media ownership in the digital age, zeroing in on the FCC’s 39% national TV ownership cap as the Nexstar‑TEGNA merger moves forward. FCC Commissioner Gomez publicly objected to an investigation of ABC’s...
AI, the SEC, and the 2026 Reporting Season | The D&O Diary
The SEC announced an AI Task Force led by a newly appointed Chief AI Officer to centralize responsible AI integration across the agency, backed by a 2025 AI Compliance Plan aligned with OMB guidance. This internal effort signals a durable,...
Bytedance's Seedance 2.0 Is so Good at Copying Disney Characters the Company Calls It a "Virtual Smash-and-Grab"
Bytedance’s new AI video generator, Seedance 2.0, can recreate Disney, Marvel and Star Wars characters with photorealistic fidelity, prompting Disney to issue a cease‑and‑desist letter that calls the practice a “virtual smash‑and‑grab.” The tool is already flooding social media with short...
Republicans Urge Supreme Court to Restore New York Congressional Map
Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and election official Peter Kosinski petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to stay a New York state court ruling that barred the 2026 congressional map for District 11. The state trial court found the current boundaries diluted...
UN Member States Urged to Fulfil Climate Change Obligations Following Vanuatu Draft Resolution
Amnesty International has called on all UN member states to honor their climate‑change obligations under international law, following Vanuatu’s draft UNGA resolution. The resolution references the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 advisory opinion, urging adoption of enhanced nationally determined contributions,...
Gift High‑basis Assets Now, Transfer Low‑basis at Death
I can think of half a dozen reasons why it is NOT a mistake to gift a house to a child before passing. Why? Because these decisions are fact and portfolio dependent, and always/never advice is rarely reliable when it...
Enjoyed Insightful, Entertaining Chat on The Good Judge‑ment Podcast
It was truly my pleasure to spend some time with my dear friends and colleagues, Judge Wade Padgett and Judge Tain Kell on their highly informative and entertaining “The Good Judge-ment” podcast. This is a link to the first part...
EDPB and EDPS Weigh In on the Digital Omnibus: Personal Data, Breach Reporting, and AI Governance
The European Data Protection Board and the European Data Protection Supervisor issued a joint opinion on the EU’s Digital Omnibus, endorsing its goal to ease administrative burdens while flagging key concerns. They warn that a narrower, controller‑specific definition of personal...
German Court Denies Copyright Protection for AI-Generated Logos
A German district court ruled that three logos generated by AI are not eligible for copyright protection, emphasizing that only works reflecting the prompter’s personality qualify. The judges clarified that extensive prompting, subscription fees, or iterative selection do not satisfy...
Employee Compensation Case Trundles On
The English High Court continues hearing Parsons v Convatec, an employee claim for patent‑related compensation under section 40 of the Patents Act 1977. The claimant seeks roughly £366 million, equivalent to 10‑15% of the product’s estimated sales. A recent ruling set a...
Hard Landing
The episode examines President Trump’s EPA rule revoking the Obama-era "endangerment finding," which could dismantle federal climate regulation and spark years of litigation. It then shifts focus to California, where Governor Gavin Newsom is scrambling to mitigate the fallout from...
The Contents of Journal of International Arbitration, Volume 42, Issue 5 (October 2025)
The October 2025 issue of the Journal of International Arbitration presents five scholarly contributions that examine pivotal developments in arbitration law. Darren Leow argues that state‑immunity questions arise only at the execution stage of ICSID awards, not during recognition. Kanishka...
The FREEDOM Act and Permit Certainty
The House has introduced the FREEDOM Act to tackle "permit certainty" by streamlining judicial review of unreasonable permitting delays or revocations and offering compensation to affected developers. The bill emerges amid Democratic resistance to any reform that doesn’t materially boost...
FTC Digs Deeper Into Microsoft’s Bundling and Licensing Practices
The FTC has intensified its antitrust investigation into Microsoft by issuing civil investigative demands to at least six competing firms in the business‑software and cloud markets. Regulators are probing Microsoft’s practice of bundling AI, security and identity tools with Windows,...
Who Remembers When Section 230 Was Something?
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act turned 30, marking three decades of legal immunity for online hosts. The provision let early legal message boards and listservs operate without fear of publisher liability, fostering user‑generated discourse. Over time, that shield...
Friday Footnotes: Italian Tax Cops Go Sniffing Around KPMG’s Office; Depreciation Is AI’s Latest Victim | 2.13.26
The latest Friday Footnotes roundup highlights three intertwined trends reshaping accounting and finance. Big‑tech firms’ $3 trillion cap‑ex plans are prompting aggressive depreciation adjustments, as Meta’s $2.6 billion earnings boost shows the earnings‑management risk. Meanwhile, Italian tax authorities have raided Amazon managers’...
DOJ Press Conference on Charges Announced Against Chinese Nationals Involved in Sham Marriages
The Department of Justice announced an indictment of eleven individuals accused of operating a marriage‑fraud and bribery ring that targeted U.S. service members, primarily at Jacksonville Naval Air Station. The scheme paired Chinese nationals with servicemen to secure permanent residency,...
Banks Effectively Deputized in Trump's Immigration Fight
President Trump’s Treasury Department has launched an aggressive AML campaign targeting Minnesota and U.S.–Mexico border regions, using new Geographic Targeting Orders and high‑performance data analytics to flag cartel, fraud and immigration‑related transactions. FinCEN now requires banks and money‑service businesses to...
Licenses at Risk in Michigan, Georgia for Unpaid FCC Fees
The FCC has issued pay‑or‑show‑cause orders to two broadcasters over unpaid regulatory fees. In Michigan, Sovereign Communications faces potential revocation of six stations for roughly $37,000 in delinquent fees, though it can apply a $9,200 overpayment credit. In Georgia, Core...
Senate Committee Advances FCC Satellite Licensing Bill After Changes
The Senate Commerce Committee voted to advance a revised Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act, softening the original bill's automatic‑approval clause for satellite licenses. The amendment, crafted by Ranking Member Maria Cantwell and Chairman Ted Cruz, requires the FCC to develop...
What Does UUD Mean?
The Interior Department’s August secretarial order introduced a “capacity density” test that compares the land footprint of energy projects to their output, effectively targeting renewable projects on federal lands. The order invokes the “unnecessary and undue degradation” (UUD) standard from...
Key Development in the Nonstatutory Labor Exemption to the Antitrust Law
A Colorado district court dismissed antitrust claims in Morgan v. Kroger, holding that the employers' informal coordination during parallel collective‑bargaining fell within the nonstatutory labor exemption. The ruling distinguished the case from the Ninth Circuit’s Safeway decision by noting simultaneous...
Sean Duffy Orders Airlines to Halt DEI Pilot Hiring Or Face Enforcement Action
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy directed the FAA to issue an Operations Specification that bars U.S. airlines from using diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) criteria when hiring pilots. The order, framed as a merit‑based safety measure, applies to all Part 121...
District Court Vacates FTC Changes to Premerger Notification Rules
On February 12, a U.S. District Court in Texas vacated the Federal Trade Commission’s final rule that altered pre‑merger notification requirements under the Hart‑Scott‑Rodino Act. The rule had expanded the HSR filing form and imposed additional reporting obligations on merging firms....
Metaprompting for Lawyers: The Smart Way to Craft Smarter Prompts
The article introduces metaprompting, a technique where lawyers use AI to help craft the very prompts they feed back into the model. It outlines a step‑by‑step process for building prompts from scratch, refining existing ones, and extracting a personal writing...
Federal Court Rules Employee Health Mentions Don't Automatically Trigger ADA Protections
The Eighth Circuit ruled that merely mentioning a medical condition does not automatically trigger ADA protections. In the Stephens case, the court found his heart condition did not constitute a disability because it did not limit his work activities. The...
Indiana University Wins Case After Firing Employee Who Emailed Executives Complaints
The Seventh Circuit upheld Indiana University’s termination of online instructional designer Jennifer Shirk, who was fired after sending critical emails to senior executives despite having approved FMLA leave and most requested accommodations. The court distinguished retaliation claims from discrimination claims,...
Editor Sues Emerson Collective for Retaliation After LGBTQ+ Complaint
Emerson Collective, the Laurene Powell Jobs‑founded organization, is being sued by former editor Andrew Giambrone for alleged retaliation after he raised a discrimination complaint over the removal of LGBTQ+ Pride Month content. Giambrone claims the Office of the President deemed...
Senior Manager Sues Walmart over Alleged Retaliation for Disability Accommodation
A senior Walmart manager, Scott Carrasquillo, filed a federal lawsuit alleging retaliation after requesting disability accommodations following a workplace injury. He claims his supervisor dismissed his injury, issued inaccurate performance reviews, and placed him on a Performance Improvement Plan despite...
MKS Enterprise, LLC - 624478 - 07/01/2022
The FDA issued a warning letter to MKS Enterprise, LLC after laboratory analysis revealed that its product Vital Honey contained the prescription drug tadalafil, an undeclared active pharmaceutical ingredient. The agency determined the honey is both a prohibited food adulterated...
Reading the Room: How Stand-Up Comedy Made This Antitrust Lawyer a Sharper Advocate
In this episode of Legal Speak, antitrust and class‑action lawyer Alex Barnett explains how his experience performing stand‑up comedy and writing screenplays sharpened his courtroom advocacy. He discusses the parallels between comedy timing, audience reading, and crafting persuasive arguments, noting...
Austin Bond-Related Cases Seek Texas High Court Rulings
Austin’s $1.6 billion convention‑center replacement, financed mainly through revenue bonds, has entered a legal showdown at the Texas Supreme Court. Petitioners seeking to halt demolition argue the city clerk’s signature count fell short, while the city maintains the count was accurate....
Who Wins If the Debit Fee Cap Limit Gets Raised?
The episode examines a bipartisan bill to raise the Durbin amendment’s $10 billion asset threshold for debit interchange fee caps, indexing it to inflation and potentially expanding the exemption to banks with assets over $15 billion. Senators Ted Cruz and Katie Britt...
Binance’s AML Tools Debunk Alleged Misconduct,
I don't know any details or who, but just reading the article, it's self contradicting 👇. One could also make a narrative "maybe they were fired because they didn't prevent it?" IF it were even true. It would also mean...
EPA Retracts 2009 Vehicle Endangerment Finding, Admits Standards Fall Short
Here's EPA's undoing of its 2009 Endangerment Finding wrt to vehicles. EPA's finding is based on a new reading of the Clean Air Act. EPA also finds that its vehicle emission standards do not and could not mitigate the climate risks...