Today's Legal Pulse
UK pushes commonhold reform to boost housing supply
The Draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill proposes abolishing leasehold and mandating new homes be sold as commonhold, tying the change to a target of delivering 1.5 million homes annually—the highest since 1968. The model remains untested, with fewer than 25 developments and unresolved issues around dispute resolution.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader clear final merger hurdles
New Conn. Law Bars LE From Sharing LPR Data for Immigration Enforcement
Governor Ned Lamont signed a law that restricts Connecticut police from sharing automated license‑plate reader (ALPR) data with out‑of‑state agencies for immigration enforcement. The rule limits data exchange to Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island, provided those states agree not to use the information for immigration, reproductive‑care or gender‑affirming health investigations. It also imposes retention limits, requires usage reporting, and empowers the attorney general to enforce compliance. The legislation follows a CT Insider expose that showed thousands of queries to a national network for ICE‑related searches.
How to Choose an Online LLC Formation Service
Choosing an online LLC formation service is more than picking the lowest price; it involves separating immutable state filing fees from the provider’s service charge and understanding each state’s unique compliance rules. Services like ZenBusiness, Inc Authority and Swyft Filings...
Navigating the Intersection of AI-Driven 4D Printing and Intellectual Property Law
The piece outlines how artificial intelligence is accelerating 4D printing, especially for biomedical devices, by solving the inverse‑design problem that predicts how printed structures will morph over time. Shape‑memory polymers and programmable hydrogels now act as active hardware, turning flat‑packed...
How Founders Use Trademark Registration to Secure Their Brand
Founders often launch brands without legal protection, leaving them vulnerable to copycats and platform disputes. Registering a trademark with the USPTO legally secures the name, logo, and domain, signaling legitimacy and building consumer trust. With over 3.58 million active trademarks as...
EU Kicks AI Act's Strictest Regs Down the Road
The European Parliament and Council have agreed to push back the EU AI Act’s high‑risk provisions from August 2026 to December 2027 and to defer rules for AI embedded in products, such as toys, to August 2028. Tech Commissioner Henna...
Colorado Advances a Measure to Eliminate Interchange Fees on Sales Tax
Colorado's legislature has passed a bill that would remove sales‑tax amounts from the interchange fee calculation for credit and debit card transactions. The measure, which mirrors aspects of Illinois’ Interchange Fee Prohibition Act but limits its scope to banks with...
Rave Sues Apple in Five Countries Over App Store Removal
Rave Inc., the developer of a cross‑platform co‑viewing app with 225 million downloads, has filed antitrust lawsuits against Apple in the United States, Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands and Russia. The suits allege Apple removed Rave from the App Store and blocked...
SCOTUS Gutted the Voting Rights Act and Sent Southern States Sprinting to Gerrymander
The Supreme Court’s recent decision gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, making it virtually unenforceable. Within hours, Republican‑led states such as Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina moved to redraw congressional maps, aiming to eliminate majority‑Black districts. The...
The FDA's One-Day Inspection Pilot Is Already Running
The FDA launched a one‑day inspection pilot announced by Commissioner Marty Makary, with roughly 46 screening assessments completed since April across food, biologics, medical devices and clinical research sites. Most assessments resulted in a No Action Indicated outcome, though a...
Fed to Launch Roundtable to Fight Payment Fraud
The Federal Reserve, the FCC and the U.S. Treasury are creating a public‑private roundtable to tackle the growing threat of payment fraud, Vice Chair Michelle Bowman announced. The forum will review fraud‑prevention efforts, data‑sharing practices and cross‑sector solutions, drawing on...
CMS Rate Cuts Spark Medicare Billing Confusion Over CPT 64582
$INSP (neg)- oppenheimer note now - rates being reduced at CMS, big hinderance We believe that this will lead to further confusion within Medicare billing as INSP has stated to use CPT code 64582 without the 52 modifier. Having...
Nexstar CEO Details Legal Battle Over Tegna Acquisition
Nexstar CEO Lays Out Next Steps in Legal Fight Over Tegna Deal, Including ‘Complete Laundry List of All Threatened and Pending Litigation That We’re Aware Of’ https://t.co/B30GbP9ew9 via @variety
EU Strikes Deal to Ban Sexualized AI Deepfakes
European Union lawmakers and member states reached a deal to explicitly ban AI systems that create sexualized deepfakes, often called "nudifier" applications, after the Grok chatbot controversy sparked global outrage. The prohibition will be woven into the AI Act amendments,...
Dina Khemlani Hetherington: A DSAR Just Landed in Your Inbox. Now What?
A data subject access request (DSAR) arrives in a founder’s inbox, triggering a legal clock under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. The request can come from any individual whose personal data a business processes—customers, employees, applicants, or...
How a Pet Insurance Lawyer Handles Past Medical Claims
Pet‑insurance lawyers are revealing that many past veterinary claims remain viable because policies often allow filing windows of 90 days, 180 days, or even a full year. By dissecting policy definitions, enrollment materials, and prior approvals, attorneys construct arguments that...
Info Session - Call for Proposals Digital Solutions for Regulatory Compliance Through Data
The European Commission’s DG CONNECT is hosting an online info session on June 8, 2026 to detail the DIGITAL‑2026‑AI‑DATA‑10‑COMPLIANCE call under the Digital Europe Programme. The call seeks consortia to develop AI‑driven digital tools that automate regulatory reporting and data management across...
Former Biglaw Attorney Allegedly Turned His Résumé Into A Decade-Long Insider Trading Operation
The U.S. Department of Justice indicted 30 attorneys and financial professionals in a massive insider‑trading conspiracy that allegedly ran for a decade and harvested tens of millions of dollars from confidential M&A information. At the core was former Biglaw lawyer...
Hanzo: A Guide to Marketing Compliance for Law Firms 2026
Hanzo’s 2026 guide highlights how law‑firm marketing has moved from traditional ads to a nonstop digital presence across websites, social media and AI‑driven interfaces. This digital shift makes content permanently visible and easily examined by regulators, competitors and the public....
Chuck Kellner and Kevin Clark, Everlaw: The Comprehensive Guide to Second Requests
Everlaw’s new guide explains how modern e‑discovery technology reshapes Hart‑Scott‑Rodino (HSR) Second Requests, which can stall multi‑billion‑dollar mergers. The piece highlights that traditional compliance timelines of weeks are now being compressed into days thanks to AI‑driven analytics and cloud‑based platforms....
EDiscovery AI: AI in eDiscovery: Speed, Scale, and a Defensible Path Forward
eDiscovery AI’s latest article argues that artificial intelligence can move insight to the front of the eDiscovery workflow, delivering faster, scalable analysis while remaining defensible in court. Traditionally, teams wait until after massive data collection to identify key facts, inflating...
BIPA Exclusions Gaining Traction: What Policyholders Need to Know
A wave of recent lawsuits is forcing insurers to tighten Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) exclusions in liability policies. Courts are increasingly scrutinizing whether standard commercial general liability (CGL) coverage applies to biometric claims, and many rulings are siding with...
As Deepfake Evidence Spreads, Rulemaking Efforts Stay Stuck in Development
U.S. federal courts' advisory committee on evidence rules voted against moving forward with a proposed amendment that would bar AI‑generated deepfakes from trial admission. The decision leaves the legal community without a uniform standard as deepfake technology becomes increasingly sophisticated...
LexisNexis Announces New Security, Agentic AI Updates to Lexis+ With Protégé
LexisNexis unveiled a suite of security enhancements and agentic AI features for its Lexis+ platform, integrating the Protégé AI engine. The upgrades include multi‑factor authentication, end‑to‑end encryption, and AI‑driven document drafting tools. They arrive just months after Lexis+ launched its...
Clerks to Shadow SNAP Shoppers Under New Rule
Rollins will soon issue a rule requring grocery store clerks to walk around stores with all 40 million SNAP recipients to see what they are putting in their shopping carts. #SNAPNanny
EU E‑commerce De‑minimis Reform Unlikely by July 1
I sincerely doubt the EU removal of de minimis (e-commerce reform) will go ahead on 1 July. At least not in full. Or not in a harmonised way. There simply isn't enough time.
Trump Pardon Recipients Face Congressional Investigation over “Pay-to-Play” Questions – CBS News
Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have opened an inquiry into whether President Donald Trump’s pardons and commutations were exchanged for financial or political favors. The probe focuses on high‑profile recipients such as crypto billionaire Changpeng Zhao, nursing‑home operator...
Italian Welfare Barrier for Refugees Fails in Europe’s Top Court
The EU Court of Justice ruled that Italy cannot deny welfare benefits to protected migrants solely because they have not lived in the country for ten years. The judgment overturned a 2021 decision that stripped KH, a subsidiary‑protected migrant, of...
Lawfare Live: The Supreme Court’s Long Shadow (with Kate Klonick and Steve Vladeck)
In this Lawfare Live episode, Kate Klonick and Georgetown Law professor Steve Vladeck dissect the Supreme Court’s expanding “shadow docket” – the body of emergency orders and summary reversals that bypass full opinions. They explain how recent New York Times...
NY Budget Deal Adds NYC Second-Home Tax, Dilutes Climate Law
New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced a tentative deal on a $268 billion state budget, with legislative leaders agreeing to impose a tax on second homes in New York City and weaken the state climate law https://t.co/zxwzelWz27
Let's Do This: Two Concrete Steps You Can Take to Fight Back Against Recent Terrible Court Decisions
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked a nationwide ban on mailing the abortion pill mifepristone, while the Supreme Court weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, prompting redistricting efforts in Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee. In Georgia, three state...
Regulators' Scary Demand on Insurance AI
Regulators are no longer satisfied with AI accuracy metrics; they now require insurers to identify a specific human who reviewed each high‑stakes AI decision. Under frameworks such as the EU AI Act, OSFI B‑15 and SR 11‑7, auditors will demand documented evidence...
Yet Another Private Credit Firm Hit With Securities Suit
FS KKR Capital Corp., a publicly traded business development company that makes private, non‑bank loans, was hit with a securities class‑action filed on May 4, 2026. The complaint alleges the firm overstated the value of its loan portfolio, exaggerated the success of...
The Extraordinary Power Sought by the Trump Administration in the TPS Case Isn’t Anything New in Immigration Law
The Supreme Court is poised to decide Trump v. Miot, a case that asks whether the Department of Homeland Security can terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti and Syria without any judicial review. The Trump administration argues that the...
Sh290m West Pokot Bursary Corruption Case Stalls Again After Third Adjournment
A Kenyan court has postponed for the third time the trial of four senior West Pokot County officials accused of siphoning roughly $2.1 million in bursary funds. The defendants claim earlier hearings were unfair because their lawyers were absent, and have...
NBI Receives Sworn Statements Alleging Baligod Influenced Selection of Lawmakers in PDAF Probe
The National Bureau of Investigation has received sworn affidavits from two DOJ‑protected witnesses alleging that lawyer Levito Baligod helped shape which lawmakers would be targeted in later phases of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) corruption probe. The statements also...
Judge Challenges Self‑certified Compliance Under Rule 40.11
Judge Benjamin: "Rule 40.11 prohibits 'gaming' contacts. So how is it that you say that you self-certify that you are in compliance?
Smarsh Advances Compliance with AI Technologies That Cut Noise and Expose Risk Earlier
Smarsh unveiled a suite of AI‑driven tools that trim compliance noise, speed risk detection, and scale supervision for financial firms. The Professional Archive adds an AI Assistant, a Noise Reduction Agent that cuts false positives by 60%, and a beta...
Canada May Not Be Prepared for World Cup Betting Rush, New Analysis Finds
Canada will co‑host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, sparking massive betting interest. Research from CasinoCanada shows Ontario’s regulated market is robust, with nearly 50 licensed operators and over 80% of bettors staying on‑shore. Outside Ontario, provinces such as Saskatchewan, Alberta...
Using AI Models May Risk Copyright Infringement
when a company uses anthropic’s models (and openai’s and googles’s too) are they indirectly infringing because the data those models are trained with include copyrighted materials, pirate libraries and their competitor’s data? i guess we’re going to find out.
Judge Questions Absence of Rules for Sports Contracts
Judge Gregory: "Any idea why there are no rules [for sports-event contracts] at this point?"
Wawa Fired Her at 57 After Age Bias Complaints, Lawsuit Alleges
Lori Graff, a 57‑year‑old senior quality‑assurance professional at Wawa, filed a federal lawsuit alleging age discrimination and retaliation after reporting bias to HR. She claims the company sidestepped its own disciplinary procedures, denied her a food‑safety certification, and issued undocumented...
Product Placement in Unscripted Programs: A Growing Debate
Product placement remains prohibited in all French television formats except cinematic works, audiovisual fiction, and music videos. On April 30, Jérôme Caza, a producer at 2P2L and president of the Syndicate of Producers and Creators of Audiovisual Programs (SPECT), published...
Worker Sues Booz Allen, Says Firm Denied Transfer and Faked a Threat
Christy J. Seelie, a senior knowledge manager at Booz Allen Hamilton, filed a $1 million lawsuit alleging disability discrimination, harassment, failure to accommodate, and retaliatory discharge under the ADA and Virginia Human Rights Act. She requested a temporary transfer to a...
Tractor Supply Pulled Back Light Duty, Then Fired Injured Worker, Suit Alleges
Former Tractor Supply warehouse employee Barbara Collins filed a federal lawsuit alleging disability discrimination after the retailer allegedly pushed her out despite providing a light‑duty assignment following a back injury. The complaint details that HR told her not to report...
The Shadow Docket, #MeToo, and the Power of Reporting (with Jodi Kantor)
Jodi Kantor, Pulitzer‑winning New York Times journalist, joins Preet Bharara on the Stay Tuned podcast to dissect the Supreme Court’s “shadow docket” and its secretive fast‑track rulings. She reveals 16 pages of private justices’ deliberations, exposing how the Court makes decisions without public...
PNC Fired Her over a One-Letter Typo. Now She's Suing for Retaliation
Belinda Chambers, a senior internal support specialist at PNC, was fired four days after a one‑letter misspelling on a bereavement form. She alleges the termination was retaliation for her protected FMLA leave and a pending ADA accommodation request for medication...
Whistleblower Says Bank Fired Him After He Flagged Alleged Fraud on Fed
A former quality‑assurance associate at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. alleges he was fired after reporting material fraud in the bank’s KYC testing that allegedly masked fails to meet a 90% pass‑rate target. His internal whistleblower complaint triggered an external investigation...
HVAC Manufacturers Face Second Suit over Price-Fixing Allegation
A second federal lawsuit in Michigan accuses the seven largest U.S. HVAC manufacturers—Bosch, Carrier, Trane, Daikin, Lennox, Rheem and AAON—of colluding to fix and stabilize prices from 2020 onward. The plaintiff, Florida contractor Richard Isom, seeks class‑action status, alleging the...
USTR Launches Section 301 Hearings on Global Manufacturing Overcapacity
The U.S. Trade Representative launched Section 301 hearings to examine structural excess capacity across 16 foreign economies, including China, the EU and several Asian nations. The investigations will assess whether overproduction and subsidies constitute unreasonable or discriminatory practices that harm...
Delta Capita Report Hub Extends Controls Into Post-Reporting Assurance
Delta Capita has completed the full integration of its Report Hub platform, migrating legacy reporting jurisdictions and DTCC portal access into its broader post‑trade services suite. The company is now promoting a managed‑services model that handles data preparation, submission, and...