Washington

  • February 11, 2025

    9th Circ. Doubts X Plaintiff Can Revive Phone Data Suit

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday questioned whether a lawsuit targeting X could be revived and remanded to state court, with one judge suggesting circuit precedent established a privacy right that keeps the case in federal court, and another saying the lower court had "broad discretion" in deciding to dismiss the case.

  • February 11, 2025

    Monsanto PCB Appeal Seems To Divide Wash. High Court

    Thorny choice-of-law issues seemingly divided the Washington State Supreme Court during oral arguments Tuesday, with one justice suggesting that the teachers who brought suit are relying on "forum-shopping" to reinstate a $185 million win against Monsanto, and another saying the company's stance violates state law intended to hold corporations accountable for harming citizens.

  • February 11, 2025

    Seattle Beats White Ex-Worker's Bias Suit Over DEI Program

    The city of Seattle defeated a former employee's lawsuit claiming the municipality's diversity, equity and inclusion programs discriminated against him as a white man, with a Washington federal judge ruling he failed to show that the city created an adversarial work environment for white people.

  • February 10, 2025

    Trump's Firing Of Watchdog Office Head Paused By Judge

    The recently fired head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel will remain in his position, at least for a few more days, after a D.C. federal judge on Monday ordered a short pause on his termination the same day he sued to challenge the allegedly "unlawful" removal.

  • February 10, 2025

    Refugee Program In Peril With Suspension, Suit Warns

    A group of refugees and nonprofits sued President Donald Trump on Monday in Washington federal court for suspending the U.S. refugee program and withholding federal funding for refugee services, calling it "an unprecedented attack on refugee resettlement infrastructure."

  • February 10, 2025

    Apple Urges 9th Circ. Not To Revive Web App Antitrust Suit

    Apple asked the Ninth Circuit on Friday to affirm a lower court's dismissal of a case from iPhone buyers accusing it of violating antitrust law by preventing iPhones from running web-based apps, saying the suit alleges a "highly indirect and speculative" harm that's not even an antitrust injury.

  • February 10, 2025

    9th Circ. Affirms Officers' Immunity For Getting Phone Contents

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday upheld a summary judgment win for a sheriff and county prosecutor accused of illegally obtaining the contents of a drug arrestee's phone, ruling that they unlawfully got copies of the phone's contents but that the prosecutor who requested them was entitled to qualified immunity.

  • February 07, 2025

    DOGE Access To Treasury Payment System Blocked By Judge

    A Manhattan federal judge blocked the access of Elon Musk and staffers of his temporary Department of Government Efficiency to U.S. Department of the Treasury payment systems Saturday and ordered them to destroy data already obtained, after state attorneys general sued, calling that access "dangerous" and unlawful.

  • February 10, 2025

    Amazon Used App Toolkit To Harvest User Data, Suit Says

    Amazon has used Candy Crush Saga, Subway Surfers and other mobile apps as a "Trojan Horse" to ingrain secret tracking mechanisms in hundreds of millions of consumers' smartphones through a software development kit for developers, according to a new proposed class action in Seattle federal court.

  • February 10, 2025

    Nevada Lithium Mine Violates Indigenous' Rights, Report Says

    The federal government's approval of an 18,000-acre open-pit lithium mine in northern Nevada is a violation of Indigenous' rights, according to a recent report, which says at least six tribes have ties to the site where they've experienced violations against their religion, culture and ancestral lands.

  • February 10, 2025

    Wash. Justices Won't Review Workers' $3.3M Meal Break Win

    A class of hospital workers can keep a $3.3 million award in a closely watched case over uncompensated meal breaks, after the Washington Supreme Court decided it won't take on a hospital's bid to overturn a lower state appellate court's ruling that rejected the argument that the workers had already been paid.

  • February 10, 2025

    Morgan Lewis Adds 5 Knobbe Martens IP Attys On West Coast

    Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP continues expanding its intellectual property team, announcing Monday it is bringing in a team of five Knobbe Martens IP litigators as partners in its West Coast offices.

  • February 10, 2025

    Mass. Judge Temporarily Blocks NIH Funding Cuts

    A Massachusetts federal judge issued a temporary hold Monday on a Trump administration plan to slash grant funding provided by the National Institutes of Health after 22 states sued to block the cuts.

  • February 10, 2025

    NH Judge Latest To Block Trump's Birthright Citizenship Order

    A third federal district judge has blocked President Donald Trump's executive order limiting birthright citizenship, as a New Hampshire judge on Monday issued a preliminary injunction from the bench during an early morning hearing.

  • February 10, 2025

    9th Circ. Tosses Slack Investor Suit After High Court Battle

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday released Slack Technologies Inc. from an investor dispute that was previously ruled on by the U.S. Supreme Court, with the circuit court going a step further than the high court in ruling that none of the suing investors' claims were salvageable due to the unique way that Slack went public. 

  • February 07, 2025

    Trump Isn't Obeying Order To Unfreeze Funds, States Say

    The Trump administration is not complying with a temporary restraining order barring a freeze on funding for federal grant and aid programs, a coalition of states told a Rhode Island federal judge Friday, asking the court to enforce its order and to enter a stiffer injunction blocking the funding freeze.

  • February 07, 2025

    Real Estate Recap: Evolving CRE Finance, Tariffs, PFAS

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including how modern commercial real estate financing has changed the way real estate lawyers practice, as well as insights from Big Law attorneys on two major topics of 2025: tariffs and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a.k.a. "forever chemicals."

  • February 07, 2025

    Amazon Beats 'Flawed' Suit Over Prime Video Ads, For Now

    A Washington federal judge Friday tossed a putative class action over Amazon's recent introduction of commercials on its Prime Video streaming service, saying the lawsuit rests on a "flawed premise" that subscribers ever purchased an ad-free viewing package.

  • February 07, 2025

    Kroger Chain Says Strike Is Bid To Force 'Multi-Union' Talks

    The Kroger-owned grocery chain King Soopers sued the union representing Colorado workers on Friday in federal court, alleging strikes at King Soopers stores in the state are a pressure tactic to "force multi-union bargaining" on the company and other employers.

  • February 07, 2025

    Jury Awards Players $25M In High 5 Mobile Gambling Case

    A Washington federal jury on Friday awarded nearly $25 million to a class of players who said they were injured by game developer High 5 Games' social casino-style mobile apps that targeted gambling addicts as "whales."

  • February 07, 2025

    Stables Launch $6M Suit Over Late Stud's Spoiled Semen

    An Oregon horse farm has claimed that a Washington-based equine vet practice and its breeding program partnership destroyed $6.4 million worth of frozen semen from a champion Arabian stallion after the collections thawed during shipment, according to a new lawsuit in Seattle federal court.

  • February 07, 2025

    Judge Won't Transfer Apple IP Fight, Warns Of Circuit Split

    A Texas federal judge has denied Apple's request to relocate Oregon startup Proxense LLC's patent suit against it, saying the case "would not be clearly more convenient to try in the Northern District of California."

  • February 07, 2025

    Excess Insurer Says $50M Bad Wine Claims Not Covered

    An excess insurer told a Washington federal court that it should not have to contribute to a settlement after an underlying lawsuit asserted more than $50 million in claims against a vineyard for allegedly damaging over 300,000 cases of wine, because there was no coverage.

  • February 07, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs Ex-Bank Auditor's $1.5M Retaliation Suit Win

    The Ninth Circuit upheld a $1.5 million jury verdict in favor of a former bank auditor who claimed he was fired for flagging evidence of wrongdoing, finding evidence suggesting he was treated differently from other workers was enough to back up the jurors' decision.

  • February 07, 2025

    Meta's $725M Deal Downplays Potential Liability, 9th Circ. Told

    A group of objectors urged the Ninth Circuit on Friday to vacate Meta Platform Inc.'s $725 million settlement resolving privacy claims over the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal, arguing the trial judge failed to fully consider the minimum $250 billion statutory damages award that could have been awarded if class counsel won at trial.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Judge Should Not Have Been Reprimanded For Alito Essay

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    Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor's New York Times essay critiquing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for potential ethical violations absolutely cannot be construed as conduct prejudicial to the administration of the business of the courts, says Ashley London at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.

  • Lights, Camera, Ethics? TV Lawyers Tend To Set Bad Example

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    Though fictional movies and television shows portraying lawyers are fun to watch, Hollywood’s inaccurate depictions of legal ethics can desensitize attorneys to ethics violations and lead real-life clients to believe that good lawyers take a scorched-earth approach, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

  • Perspectives

    Accountant-Owned Law Firms Could Blur Ethical Lines

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    KPMG’s recent application to open a legal practice in Arizona represents the first overture by an accounting firm to take advantage of the state’s relaxed law firm ownership rules, but enforcing and supervising the practice of law by nonattorneys could prove particularly challenging, says Seth Laver at Goldberg Segalla.

  • AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex

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    Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.

  • When Innovation Overwhelms The Rule Of Law

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    In an era where technology is rapidly evolving and artificial intelligence is seemingly everywhere, it’s worth asking if the law — both substantive precedent and procedural rules — can keep up with the light speed of innovation, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Likely Doomed CFPB Contract Rule Still Has Industry Pointers

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    While the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's January proposal on consumer financial contract provisions is unlikely to be finalized under the new administration, its provisions are important for industry to recognize, particularly if state attorneys general decide to take up the enforcement mantle, say attorneys at Saul Ewing.

  • Imagine The Possibilities Of Openly Autistic Lawyering

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    Andi Mazingo at Lumen Law, who was diagnosed with autism about midway through her career, discusses how the legal profession can create inclusive workplaces that empower openly autistic lawyers and enhance innovation, and how neurodivergent attorneys can navigate the challenges and opportunities that come with disclosing one’s diagnosis.

  • Series

    Documentary Filmmaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Becoming a documentary filmmaker has allowed me to merge my legal expertise with my passion for storytelling, and has helped me to hone negotiation, critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are important to both endeavors, says Robert Darwell at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Litigation Funding Disclosure Debate: Strategy Considerations

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    In the ongoing debate over whether courts should require disclosure of litigation funding, funders and plaintiffs tend to argue against such mandates, but voluntarily disclosing limited details about a funding arrangement can actually confer certain benefits to plaintiffs in some scenarios, say Andrew Stulce and Marc Cavan at Longford Capital.

  • State AG Enforcement Is Poised For Another Pivot In 2025

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    Backed by a Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, the Trump administration intends to make substantial policy changes, and attorneys general of both parties around the country are preparing their response playbooks, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Del. Dispatch: Lessons From Failed Albertsons-Kroger Merger

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    The allegations in Albertsons' lawsuit against Kroger following the grocery stores' blocked merger demonstrate how a target company can best ensure that a buyer timely and effectively complies with its obligations to pursue the necessary regulatory approvals for a deal, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

  • Series

    Adventure Photography Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Photographing nature everywhere from Siberia to Cuba and Iceland to Rwanda provides me with a constant reminder to refresh, refocus and rethink the legal issues that my clients face, says Richard Birmingham at Davis Wright.

  • Opinion

    Commercial Tree Thinning Should Be Part of Wildfire Control

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    The devastating wildfires currently afflicting California make it clear that the U.S. Forest Service should step up its use of methods including commercial tree removal to lower fire risk — but litigation that drags on for years stymies many of these efforts and endangers the public, says Jeffrey Beelaert at Givens Pursley.

  • High Court Could Further Limit Deference With TCPA Fax Case

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    The Supreme Court's decision to hear McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, a case involving alleged junk faxes that centers whether district courts are bound by Federal Communications Commission rules, offers the court a chance to possibly further limit the judicial deference afforded to federal agency interpretations of statutes, says Samantha Duke at Rumberger Kirk.

  • 5 Ways To Create Effective Mock Assignments For Associates

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    In order to effectively develop associates’ critical thinking skills, firms should design mock assignments that contain a few key ingredients, from messy fact patterns to actionable feedback, says Abdi Shayesteh at AltaClaro.

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