DC Pulse


  • States Urge Justices To Back Med Mal Laws In Federal Court

    Tennessee and 26 other states on Wednesday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hold that state statutes requiring an expert affidavit in all medical malpractice suits may be applied in federal court, arguing that overriding these laws under federal procedure rules would undermine state authority.

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    How Feeder Judges 'Gatekeep' Supreme Court Clerkships

    In the last 50 years, U.S. Supreme Court clerkships have transmogrified from a simple secretarial job for enterprising young lawyers to the legal profession's ultimate status symbol, access to which is controlled by a tiny handful of "feeder judges" who serve as "hidden gatekeepers," according to a new study.

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    Retired Sidley White Collar Head Launches DC Pro Bono Firm

    The former head of Sidley Austin LLP's white collar practice has come out of retirement to launch a nonprofit boutique filled with former federal prosecutors and BigLaw vets aiming to "defend the rule of law."

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    Some Law Firms Feel Secure Despite Persistent Cyberthreats

    Some firms feel secure from cybersecurity threats like ransomware, even though law firms remain prime targets for cyberattacks, according to a new report by cyber disaster recovery company Fenix24 and the International Legal Technology Association.

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    Which GCs Sold Stock In July? MicroStrategy, Palantir & More

    General counsel Wei-Ming Shao, who's been with MicroStrategy Inc. for over 25 years, cashed in some $31 million worth of stock in July. An active trader, Shao has sold over 200,000 shares of the company since 2021 for an estimated $78.6 million, according to Quiver Quantitative, which tracks stock trades.

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    Troutman Adds Former Fannie Mae Associate GC In DC

    The former associate general counsel at the Federal National Mortgage Association, who spent the past decade as a tax partner with Morris Manning & Martin LLP, has joined Troutman Pepper Locke LLP in the nation's capital, the firm announced Wednesday.

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    Thompson Hine Adds Trio In Key Markets In 3 States

    The former branch chief of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission office in D.C. dedicated in part to reviewing mutual fund filings, a former Latham & Watkins LLP associate based in Chicago, and a securities lawyer from an Orange County boutique all have joined Thompson Hine LLP.

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    Law, Medical School Orgs Face Application Fee Antitrust Suits

    The Law School Admission Council and the Association of American Medical Colleges have each been hit with a proposed class action in Pennsylvania and D.C. federal courts, respectively, by candidates who said the nonprofits conspired with their member schools to charge excessive application fees that have been fixed at the same price regardless of the school.

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    Meet FDA Chief Counsel Sean Keveney

    The new top attorney at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, described as a "tremendous technical lawyer," rose through the ranks as a federal prosecutor before helping lead President Donald Trump's confrontation with elite universities this year.

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    Covington Hires Top Biden Commerce Dept. Int'l Trade Atty

    Covington & Burling LLP has hired the former assistant secretary of commerce for global markets, who simultaneously served as director general of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service at the International Trade Administration, to its Washington, D.C., team, the firm recently announced.

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    Husch Blackwell Hires First Business Development Chief

    Husch Blackwell LLP has hired a C-suite executive with more than 20 years of experience in legal marketing as its first chief business development officer.

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    Willkie Adds Int'l Arbitration Pro From Boies Schiller In DC

    Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP has strengthened its international arbitration offerings in the nation's capital with an attorney from Boies Schiller Flexner LLP.

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    Bots, AI And Fake Leads: Attys 'Besieged' By Recruiter Tactics

    Off-base mass emails, incessant robocalls, and fake exclusive application offers are just a few of the unsavory tactics some report having seen more often in the attorney recruitment market in recent years.

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    Ex-Supreme Court Clerk, AG Counselor Joins Haynes Boone

    Haynes Boone announced Tuesday that it has added a partner who has clerked for two U.S. Supreme Court justices and served as counselor to the U.S. attorney general.

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    ABA Eyes Reducing Board Size, Trimming Diversity Seats

    The American Bar Association proposed reducing the size of its board of governors and proportionally cutting the number of seats reserved for women, people of color and other underrepresented groups, as the organization's president Monday reiterated a commitment to "rule of law, due process, access to justice, fairness and diversity."

  • Judge Newman Contests Suspension Renewal At DC Circ.

    The Federal Circuit's recent recommendation to continue U.S. Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's suspension makes clear her colleagues are looking to permanently remove her, the judge's attorney told the D.C. Circuit Monday.

  • DOJ Fights Md. Judges' Bid To Ax Suit Over Habeas Orders

    The Department of Justice is standing by its lawsuit challenging a standing order in the District of Maryland that temporarily blocks the deportation of detained noncitizens who file habeas petitions, saying a recent dismissal bid misses the mark because "even a small delay" is "irreparable harm to sovereign interests."

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    Barnes & Thornburg Adds Leader Of FDA Practices At 2 Firms

    Barnes & Thornburg LLP has hired the former leader of both Husch Blackwell LLP and Michael Best & Friedrich LLP's U.S. Food and Drug Administration-focused practices who brings a perspective to its Washington, D.C., office that includes working at the agency for more than a decade.

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    More AI-Generated Filings Could Be Coming To State Courts

    As generative artificial intelligence tools get better at legal tasks, some court watchers are raising concerns about a possible surge in AI-generated legal filings overwhelming state judicial systems.

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    Ex-FDA Chief Of Staff Joins Hogan Lovells' Pharma Team

    The former chief of staff at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who most recently was a senior policy adviser there in the commissioner's office, has joined Hogan Lovells' Washington, D.C., team as a partner, the firm announced Monday.

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    Willkie Taps Chicago Leader For New Americas Chair Role

    Craig C. Martin, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP's chief for its Americas operations, told Law360 on Friday that he is excited to serve in the newly created post to help steer the continued growth of the firm and ensure that the best services are being provided to clients.

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    Politics And Privacy Laws Collide 5 Years After Salas Shooting

    Five years after a disgruntled litigant killed a New Jersey federal judge's son at their home, experts and judges disagree over whether the judicial privacy laws enacted following the shooting are doing much to protect jurists, while political leaders' heated rhetoric makes for an even more dangerous landscape for judges.

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    Ex-HUD GC On 'Running To The Fight' With New DC Boutique

    In a recent interview with Law360 Pulse, former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development general counsel Benjamin Klubes said he opted to launch his own practice after leaving the government, instead of joining a bigger firm, so he could more freely represent clients in cases challenging the Trump administration.

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    Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

    Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a Ninth Circuit panel affirmed Epic Games Inc.'s 2023 antitrust jury trial win, along with an injunction requiring Google to open its Google Play Store to rivals.

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    Clinton Alums Open 'Social Impact' Firm to 'Beat' Trump

    A pair of ex-Hillary Clinton advisers said they have launched a new "social impact" law boutique on Thursday that will work in tandem with their existing communications shop, aimed at offering legal counsel and policy insight to clients "looking to make a difference when it matters most."

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Expert Analysis

  • AI Is Reshaping Lawyering: What To Expect In 2024 Author Photo

    The future of lawyering is not about the wholesale replacement of attorneys by artificial intelligence, but as AI handles more of the routine legal work, the role of lawyers will evolve to be more strategic, requiring the development of competencies beyond traditional legal skills, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

  • Embrace Active Voice In Legal Writing — In Most Cases Author Photo

    Legal writers should strive to craft sentences in the active voice to promote brevity and avoid ambiguities that can spark litigation, but writing in the passive voice is sometimes appropriate — when it's a moral choice and not a grammatical failure, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Help Associates Turn Down Work? Author Photo

    Marina Portnova at Lowenstein Sandler discusses what partners can do to aid their associates in setting work-life boundaries, especially around after-hours assignment availability.

  • How AI Legal Research Tools Are Shifting Law Firm Processes Author Photo

    Although artificial intelligence-powered legal research is ushering in a new era of legal practice that augments human expertise with data-driven insights, it is not without challenges involving privacy, ethics and more, so legal professionals should take steps to ensure AI becomes a reliable partner rather than a source of disruption, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.

  • Data Source Proliferation Is A Growing E-Discovery Challenge Author Photo

    With the increased usage of collaboration apps and generative artificial intelligence solutions, it's not only important for e-discovery teams to be able to account for hundreds of existing data types today, but they should also be able to add support for new data types quickly — even on the fly if needed, says Oliver Silva at Casepoint.

  • Bracing For A Generative AI Revolution In Law Author Photo

    With many legal professionals starting to explore practical uses of generative artificial intelligence in areas such as research, discovery and legal document development, the fundamental principle of human oversight cannot be underscored enough for it to be successful, say Ty Dedmon at Bradley Arant and Paige Hunt at Lighthouse.

  • Why I Use ChatGPT To Tell Me Things I Already Know Author Photo

    The legal profession is among the most hesitant to adopt ChatGPT because of its proclivity to provide false information as if it were true, but in a wide variety of situations, lawyers can still be aided by information that is only in the right ballpark, says Robert Plotkin at Blueshift IP.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Use Social Media Responsibly? Author Photo

    Leah Kelman at Herrick Feinstein discusses the importance of reasoned judgment and thoughtful process when it comes to newly admitted attorneys' social media use.

  • Yada, Yada, Yada: The Magic Of 3 In Legal Writing Author Photo

    Attorneys should take a cue from U.S. Supreme Court justices and boil their arguments down to three points in their legal briefs and oral advocacy, as the number three is significant in the way we process information, says Diana Simon at University of Arizona.

  • How Firms Can Stop Playing Whack-A-Mole With Data Security Author Photo

    In order to achieve a robust client data protection posture, law firms should focus on adopting a risk-based approach to security, which can be done by assessing gaps, using that data to gain leadership buy-in for the needed changes, and adopting a dynamic and layered approach, says John Smith at Conversant Group.

  • 5 Life Lessons From Making Partner As A Solo Parent Author Photo

    Laranda Walker at Susman Godfrey, who was raising two small children and working her way to partner when she suddenly lost her husband, shares what fighting to keep her career on track taught her about accepting help, balancing work and family, and discovering new reserves of inner strength.

  • Series

    Ask A Mentor: How Can I Turn Deferral To My Advantage? Author Photo

    Diana Leiden at Winston & Strawn discusses how first-year associates whose law firm start dates have been deferred can use the downtime to hone their skills, help their communities, and focus on returning to BigLaw with valuable contacts and out-of-the-box insights.

  • Resume Gaps Are No Longer Kryptonite To Your Legal Career Author Photo

    Female attorneys and others who pause their careers for a few years will find that gaps in work history are increasingly acceptable among legal employers, meaning with some networking, retraining and a few other strategies, lawyers can successfully reenter the workforce, says Jill Backer at Ave Maria School of Law.

  • Law Firm Guardrails For Responsible Generative AI Use Author Photo

    ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools pose significant risks to the integrity of legal work, but the key for law firms is not to ban these tools, but to implement them responsibly and with appropriate safeguards, say Natalie Pierce and Stephanie Goutos at Gunderson Dettmer.

  • Opinion

    We Must Continue DEI Efforts Despite High Court Headwinds Author Photo

    Though the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative action in higher education, law firms and their clients must keep up the legal industry’s recent momentum advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the profession in order to help achieve a just and prosperous society for all, says Angela Winfield at the Law School Admission Council.

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