Know What's Happening in Legal
Know What's Happening in Legal
Irish ministers warned of delays in transposing EU directives ahead of presidency
Ireland faces potential setbacks as ministers are cautioned about lagging implementation of EU rules before the country assumes the EU Council presidency in July. The European Commission has opened 48 infringement cases against Ireland, down from 60, covering water quality, habitats and anti‑money‑laundering regulations. Junior Minister Thomas Byrne has launched an early‑warning system to flag compliance gaps.
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By the numbers: Oil majors acquire $164M of Alaska oil leases
The High Court upheld a £204,000 (≈ $260,000) debt owed by former tax manager Andrew Lynch after he failed to refer criminal‑fraud and money‑laundering work to his ex‑law firm Bark & Co. The 2017 Tomlin order required such referrals to offset over‑payments, but the Solicitors Regulation Authority bans referral fees in criminal cases. Justice Moody applied the blue‑pencil test, striking the illegal clauses while preserving the admission of debt. The remaining settlement was deemed enforceable, confirming the firm’s right to recover the cash amount.
The U.S. Treasury Department has assumed responsibility for the federal student loan portfolio previously managed by the Education Department, signaling a sweeping policy change. The move, announced on March 24, 2026, could reshape financing for higher‑education and workforce‑training programs and...
A senior solicitor, Victoria Mary Burdett, signed a deed as a witness despite not being present, a breach of deed execution rules. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) classified her act as "spontaneous and momentary" dishonesty and imposed a six‑month suspension...
State and local prosecutors in Minnesota filed a renewed lawsuit against the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security, demanding evidence related to the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, and the leg‑shot of Julio Sosa‑Celis. The complaint alleges...
Zhou Liang, vice minister of China's National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), was placed under investigation on March 24 for suspected serious violations of discipline and law. The probe, launched by the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the...
Half of UK law‑firm clients believe AI could replace a solicitor for routine matters, with 36 % confident AI can handle such tasks and another 14 % thinking it could manage most issues. Yet 46 % maintain that a qualified solicitor must always...
Automation is now entrenched in personal injury law firms, with software reading medical reports to manage high caseloads. The 2021 whiplash tariff reforms shifted evidential weight to medical evidence, assuming static report formats. In 2025, over 60,000 reports were auto‑assessed,...
Australia’s extension of time (EOT) provisions for patents are praised for flexibility, but a recent Australian Patent Office (APO) decision underscores that applicants must demonstrate a genuine error or omission, not a deliberate choice, to qualify. The case of MossHydro AS...
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled 4‑3 that the state constitution does not restrict the General Assembly from redrawing congressional districts at any time, upholding a 2025 law that replaces the 2022 map with a GOP‑favored configuration ahead of the 2026...
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South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority’s Independent Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) arrested 12 police officers for their role in a R360‑million (≈ $19 million) health‑services contract awarded to Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala’s company Medicare 24. The contract, covering wellness screenings and injury‑on‑duty assessments for the...
Two immigration judges, Megan Jackler and Brandon Jaroch, were terminated by the Justice Department in February 2025 and appealed their dismissals to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). The MSPB ruled that the judges are "inferior officers" whose appointments and...
The ABA‑IPT seminar highlighted how state income‑tax rules are increasingly activity‑based, meaning even modest business actions can create nexus and trigger liability. Courts are focusing on where the economic benefit occurs, not where a company is headquartered, reshaping sourcing rules...
The Federal Trade Commission and CVS Caremark have reached a settlement that resolves all claims alleging the pharmacy‑benefit manager inflated insulin prices through anticompetitive rebate practices. Court filings on March 23 indicate the agreement ends the FTC’s lawsuit in its...
A Gosford court ordered Crowne Plaza Terrigal Pacific to pay over $53,000 AUD (≈$35,000 USD) in fines after a Salmonella outbreak linked to a December 2022 conference. Forty of the 76 affected guests were confirmed with Salmonella, and 33 required hospital...
Thailand will tighten controls on nominee shareholders starting April 1, requiring managing partners or authorized directors to certify that all shareholders have genuinely invested their own funds. The new Order 1/2026 expands registration rules, forwarding high‑risk individuals to the Central Investigation Bureau...
The French startup Pleias has expanded its Common Corpus, an open‑source multilingual training dataset, to over 2.267 trillion tokens. The collection now covers more than 30 languages, with eight languages exceeding 10 billion tokens each, and includes government, scientific, cultural, web, and...
San Francisco immigration judges ordered more than 800 individuals for removal in absentia during a single week, a dramatic spike compared with the usual five to ten missed appointments. The court's staff has been slashed from 21 judges at the...
E-moto "bikes" may be regulated in Minnesota soon. A new bill defines what an e-moto is and then requires licensing and insurance; sets an age limit of 15 and above; restricts where they can operate; requires a driver's license; and...
The article poses a quiz based on the 2025 ALM Go‑To Law Schools ranking, revealing that a top‑tier law school sent 71.85% of its 2024 graduates into Biglaw firms. The statistic underscores the school’s exceptional employment pipeline and highlights the...
Pop Mart’s Labubu plush, a viral collectible, has driven sales past $4 billion in 2025, but a China Labor Watch investigation uncovered forced‑labor indicators at Shunjia Toys, the sole factory producing the doll. Workers reported excessive overtime—up to 145 hours a month—extremely...
Lawfare Live hosted a live hearing on Anthropic's motion for a preliminary injunction, but technical difficulties forced the Substack stream to end early. The session was promptly moved to YouTube, where viewers could continue watching the proceedings. Anthropic is seeking...
Texas regulators voted unanimously to bar undocumented immigrants from obtaining or renewing occupational licenses, a rule change that takes effect on May 1. The policy overturns a 2001 provision that allowed licenses without Social Security numbers, affecting roughly 18,000 existing licenses—about...
The U.S. House approved the Muhammad Ali Boxing Revival Act by voice vote, marking the first boxing‑related legislation to clear the chamber in 26 years. The bipartisan bill creates unified boxing organizations, introduces higher minimum fighter pay, and strengthens health‑safety...
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned that the proposed SAVE America Act could disenfranchise more than 20 million Americans. Republicans counter that the voter registration and ID legislation would not prevent legitimate voters from casting ballots. Election experts note the bill...
Four provincial premiers—Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec—sent a joint letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney demanding a formal role in selecting judges for superior and appellate courts. They argue the current federal‑centric process fails to reflect regional diversity and cite...
Title IX requires colleges to accommodate pregnant, lactating, and postpartum students without discrimination. Institutions must provide standard accommodations—such as lactation spaces, flexible break schedules, and larger workstations—without demanding medical documentation for each request. When students return from pregnancy‑related leave, schools must...
Anthropic is nearing final court approval of a landmark settlement that resolves the Bartz v. Anthropic copyright case. The company will pay $1.5 billion, distributing $3,000 to each qualifying author, after nearly 100,000 claims were filed. The agreement requires Anthropic to...
If you think you hired the wrong lawyer for your case and you are worried they won’t get the job done… it’s never too late for a second opinion 👀
Doesn't anyone take responsibility for their own actions anymore? After a month of testimony, 12 jurors will decide whether Meta and Google-owned YouTube should be held liable for a young woman’s #SocialMedia addiction. (KTLA 5) https://t.co/nxWcgbgjn9
The Texas Business Court ruled it has subject‑matter jurisdiction over Alamo Title’s claim against WFG National Title, interpreting the statute’s plain language to include actions “relating to” intellectual property. The court also held that future damages count toward the $5 million...
A new HCD advisory memo clarifies various aspect of SB 79's coverage. In a new blog post, we explain some of the key details. The law takes effect on July 1. https://t.co/72OC7L9k4K
The N.Y. Times filed a motion to compel compliance with Judge Friedman's court order, seeking to strike down a new interim policy announced yesterday: "The intent is obvious: The Interim Policy is an attempted end-run around this Court’s ruling." https://t.co/PrGj4NDOIB https://t.co/EpcMrmhFR7
Baltimore filed a municipal lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI, accusing the company of violating the city’s Consumer Protection Ordinance by marketing its Grok AI assistant without warning about deep‑fake risks. The suit follows reports that Grok’s image generator produced roughly...
Boom. Accountability domino number one. And this isn’t Los Angeles which is imminent. Facebook/Instagram = Big Tobacco, a menace, has been the case to these juries of everyday Americans. 1/2 https://t.co/OwSwmKSMeX
The article clarifies how general‑conditions costs are evaluated in builder’s risk claims, separating truly incremental expenses from fixed or duplicated overhead. It presents three typical claim scenarios—repair‑period costs, delay‑only costs, and combined repair‑and‑delay costs—and explains why only incremental or extended...
The Swiss Federal Supreme Court granted American gymnast Jordan Chiles a review of the Court of Arbitration for Sport award that stripped her 2024 Olympic bronze medal. The court applied Swiss arbitration law and invoked Article 190(a) of the Swiss Private...
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has opened consultations on draft guidelines and regulatory technical standards (RTS) for authorising internal initial‑margin models under EMIR 3. The proposals target counterparties whose monthly average non‑centrally cleared OTC derivatives exceed €750 billion (about $818 billion USD), requiring...
Seyfarth Shaw’s Wage and Hour Litigation team released its 2025 FLSA litigation metrics, highlighting a 12% rise in federal wage‑and‑hour cases and a 9% increase in settlements compared with 2024. The report notes a surge in remote‑work overtime disputes and...
Recent attacks on Gulf LNG facilities, including Qatar's Ras Laffan plant, have driven JKM prices above $25 per MMBtu and tightened supply for Asia, which absorbs 86% of Hormuz‑transiting cargoes. In Europe, TTF prices have surged past $64 per MWh,...
The March 31, 2026 deadline closes the window for filing real‑property tax complaints in Ohio for tax year 2025. Nine counties must reappraise their 2025 assessments, while eleven are required to update values. These assessments, dated January 1, 2025, determine the property‑tax bills paid throughout...
On March 18, 2026 the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued an Area Identification Recommendation covering more than 69 million acres offshore the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, effectively doubling the original 35.5‑million‑acre request for information. The recommendation advances Executive...
A wave of early‑2026 decisions reshapes trademark and AI copyright law. A federal judge blocked OpenAI from using the name “Cameo” on its Sora video‑generation feature, underscoring the need for rigorous trademark clearance. The Supreme Court declined to review a...
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Nationwide Biweekly Administration’s appeal, leaving a $7.93 million civil penalty and permanent injunction imposed by the Ninth Circuit. The CFPB had accused the former biweekly mortgage‑payment firm of deceptive marketing, claiming it collected about...
The Trump administration is being sued by the creators of the EyesUp app and the Facebook group “ICE Sightings – Chicagoland,” who allege the government coerced Apple and Meta to remove their platforms in October. Apple cited Guideline 1.1.1, while...
Ally Financial will pay a $500,000 civil penalty after the SEC found its robo‑advisor cash‑enhanced accounts concealed a conflict of interest. The accounts allocated 30% of client assets to cash, generating interest rebates that offset the loss of advisory fees,...
The Trump administration issued a 60‑day Jones Act waiver covering 659 product categories, permitting foreign‑flagged vessels to operate on U.S. domestic routes. The waiver’s authority is limited to navigation and vessel‑inspection laws, leaving open whether other U.S. statutes such as...
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas dismissed Random Chat LLC’s patent infringement case with prejudice, finding the asserted claims ineligible under Section 101. Judge Rodney Gilstrap ruled that the patent merely covers the abstract idea of initiating...
The Trump administration entered a 10‑year consent decree in Missouri v. Biden, prohibiting federal agencies from pressuring major social‑media platforms to censor protected speech. The decree bars the Surgeon General, CDC, and CISA from threatening legal, regulatory, or economic sanctions...
The Turkish Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change clarified temporary registration pathways under KKDIK, allowing companies with pre‑registered substances but no lead registrant to file a temporary individual registration. All substances must have a full or temporary registration by...
The Littler Lounge podcast episode breaks down OSHA’s role, detailing what employers can expect during inspections and why written safety policies matter. Hosts Claire Deason and Nicole LeFave, joined by OSHA practice leader Alka Ramchandani‑Raj, explore emerging issues such as...
