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DC Pulse
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The Biggest Cases At State Supreme Courts In 2025
Abortion access, education funding and mandatory prison sentences are among the high-profile issues on state supreme courts' dockets in 2025, as attorneys and activists increasingly turn away from the U.S. Supreme Court and instead look to the states to protect certain constitutional rights, experts say.
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These Issues Will Be Top Of Mind For Small Firms In '25
As the calendar turns from 2024 to 2025, small-firm attorneys and solo practitioners across the U.S. are facing a constellation of new and old issues, from dealing with new regulations to confronting the longstanding challenges of keeping a small business alive.
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BigLaw Lobbying Leaders See 'Fast And Furious' Year Ahead
Leaders of BigLaw lobbying shops expect an action-packed year as President-elect Donald Trump comes into power again and a new Congress takes over in Washington.
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DC Managing Partners On Their New Year's Priorities
As the new year ushers in seismic political change in the nation's capital, office managing partners at Washington, D.C., law firms are monitoring how client needs will change amid regulatory shifts, focusing on recruiting and developing talent, while continuing to figure out how to keep people engaged in a hybrid work environment.
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The Top 5 High Court Cases To Watch This Spring
The U.S. Supreme Court justices will return from the winter holidays to tackle major First Amendment questions and several administrative law disputes — all arising from the Fifth Circuit — that could further change how federal agencies promulgate rules and defend them.
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Legal Ethics Matters To Watch In 2025
After an eventful 2024, industry experts are looking ahead to what might be the big topics in legal ethics in the new year, including the ethics implications of artificial intelligence and ethics opinions that may be relevant to attorneys in the incoming second Trump administration.
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What's Keeping Law Firm Leaders Up At Night In 2025
Law firms have experienced rapid change and growth in recent years, and 2025 will likely be no different. Firm leaders told Law360 Pulse they are bracing to respond quickly to a number of different opportunities likely to arise in the new year.
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Trump Seeks High Court's Pause Of TikTok Sale-Or-Ban Law
President-elect Donald Trump has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to freeze the impending deadline for TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company or face a nationwide ban, suggesting his new administration could negotiate a deal that would end the need for the congressional mandate.
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Biden Vetoes Bill To Add New Judgeships
President Joe Biden vetoed a bill Monday that would have added more federal judgeships, despite the judiciary's plea that more seats on the bench are needed desperately.
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Trump Taps Ex-Homeland Security Atty As DOJ Chief Of Staff
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Chad Mizelle, who formerly held top legal roles at Trump's Department of Homeland Security and is married to Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Kathryn K. Mizelle, as chief of staff at the Department of Justice.
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Public Faith In State Courts Up As Trust In Fed. Courts Sinks
Public confidence in state courts seems to be rising at the same time that trust in the federal courts and overall judicial system is plummeting, according to recent surveys that paint drastically divergent pictures of people's faith in state and national judicial systems.
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Alston & Bird, Arnold & Porter Unveil Associate Bonuses
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP and Alston & Bird LLP told associates Monday they'd be receiving year-end bonuses that meet the prevailing scale for large law firms set by Milbank LLP in November — as long as they meet certain billable hours requirements, according to media reports.
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Sheppard Mullin Pet Calendar Nets Nearly $11K For Charity
Sheppard Mullin's New York office has launched a firmwide holiday pet calendar — featuring not only cats and dogs but also a donkey, peacocks, some lizards, a few guinea pigs and three little soccer-playing fish — that has raised nearly $11,000 for charity.
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Lessons In 'Value-Centered Lawyering' From Atty Turned Prof
Katya Cronin, a professor at George Washington University Law School and former BigLaw attorney, argued in a recent academic paper that law schools need to do more to encourage students to examine their personal values and pursue legal careers in line with them.
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What 2024 Looked Like For 4 Small Firms
A lot can happen in a year for small firms. Law360 Pulse caught up with four, some just getting started and others with long legacies, to talk about what their 2024 looked like.
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Foley & Lardner's New COO Wants To 'Champion' Firm Culture
As Jen Cafferty Patton moves up from chief talent officer to chief operating officer at Foley & Lardner LLP, she says she is prioritizing keeping the firm’s people-focused culture strong for both employees and clients.
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How DC Students Help Blank Rome Spread Holiday Cheer
In a tradition stretching back just over a quarter century, Blank Rome LLP taps into the Washington, D.C., community by hosting a competition for students at a local arts-focused high school to submit designs for the annual holiday card sent out to the firm’s thousands of clients.
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House Report Says Gaetz Paid For Sex, Accepted Gifts
Former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz regularly paid women for sex, including with one 17-year-old girl, used illicit drugs and accepted a trip to the Bahamas in excess of permissible gift amounts, according to a report released Monday morning by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ethics.
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3 Ways Associates Can Survive An Average Annual Review
You're a rock star associate in your fourth or fifth year trying to make partner, and you just got an average review after previously receiving high marks. Although it's tempting to panic, experts say it's possible to come back after such setbacks by being proactive.
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New Davis Wright Exec Talks 'Running The Business' Of Firm
After more than two decades as an employment attorney at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, Jenna Mooney has taken on the role of its second-in-command with a focus on running the business of the firm.
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Generative AI Continued To Drive Legal Tech Scene In 2024
Generative artificial intelligence remained the top issue for legal tech in 2024, as vendors continued rolling out generative AI tools while law firms tested them and trained their attorneys on the underlying technology.
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High Court Bar's Future: Williams & Connolly's Sarah Harris
Sarah M. Harris of Williams & Connolly LLP never planned on being a U.S. Supreme Court advocate, or even an appellate one. She stumbled upon that career path after realizing her initial goal of becoming a national security or government lawyer wasn't the right fit.
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Biden Exceeds Trump's Record On Judges By One
The U.S. Senate confirmed on Friday the last two judicial nominations from President Joe Biden, making his total of lifetime judicial appointments 235, just one over President Donald Trump's 234.
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How Akin Helped Holocaust Survivors Win Reparations
The Anti-Defamation League recently honored a Holocaust survivor who went on to become the face of a movement seeking accountability from the French national railroad company SNCF for its role in taking tens of thousands of Jews to Nazi concentration camps. The movement was assisted pro bono by attorneys from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.
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Approach The Bench: What Judges Had To Say This Year
Jurists weighed the benefits of partisan elections, praised innovations in telehearings and worried about the future of the profession in nearly a dozen interviews with Law360 this year.
Expert Analysis
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Leading Your Law Firm's Creation Of A New Practice Group
Marjorie Peerce and Peter Jaslow at Ballard Spahr discuss the challenges of building a new law firm practice group from the ground up, and how sustained commitment, communication and collaboration are the key ingredients for success.
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Do I Relay Shortcomings To Associates?
Michael Cohen at Duane Morris discusses the best ways to articulate how an associate is not meeting expectations, and why documentation of performance management is crucial for their growth and protecting the firm from discrimination suits.
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10 Principles For Effective Partner Reward Systems
Several forces are reshaping partners’ expectations about profit-sharing, and as compensation structures evolve in response, firms should keep certain fundamentals in mind to build a successful partner reward system, say Michael Roch at MHPR Advisors and Ray D'Cruz at Performance Leader.
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Why Interdisciplinarity Is Key To Designing The Future Of Law
The legal profession faces challenges that urgently demand new solutions, and lawyers and firms can address this by leaning on other industries that have more experience practicing, teaching and incorporating innovation into their core business and service models, says Jennifer Leonard at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Incorporating ADA Guidance Into Lawyer Wellness Movement
The Americans with Disabilities Act and rules of professional conduct may help the legal profession promote lawyer well-being by focusing on mental conditions' actual impact, rather than on associated stereotypes, says Alex Long at the University of Tennessee College of Law.
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can New Partners Generate Business?
Christine Wong at MoFo discusses how newly elected partners can prioritize business development by creating a strategic plan with the firm's marketing team and strengthening relationships with professional and personal networks.
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9 Writing Tips From The Justices' Opinions Last Term
Hidden in the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinions from the last term are each justice’s talents for crafting choice turns of phrase, highlighting best practices for attorneys to jump-start their own writing, says Ross Guberman at BriefCatch.
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What Web3 Means For Lawyers' Ethical Duties
As law firms embrace Web3 technologies by accepting cryptocurrency as payment for legal fees, investing in metaverse departments and more, lawyers should remember their ethical duties to warn clients of the benefits and risks of technology in a murky regulatory environment, says Heidi Frostestad Kuehl at Northern Illinois University College of Law.
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NY's Cybersecurity CLE Rule Is A Sign Of Changing Times
New York's recently announced requirement that lawyers complete cybersecurity training as part of their continuing legal education is a reminder that securing client information is more complicated in an increasingly digital world, and that expectations around attorneys' technology competence are changing, says Jason Schwent at Clark Hill.
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Opinion
Law Firms Stressing Work-Life Balance Are Missing The Mark
Law firms struggling to attract and retain lawyers are institutionalizing work-life balance through hybrid work models, but such balance is elusive in a client services and tech-dependent world, underscoring the need for firms to instead aim for attorney empowerment and true balance within — not outside — the workplace, says Joe Pack at Pack Law.
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A Law Student's Guide To Thriving As A Summer Associate
Summer associates are expected to establish a favorable reputation and develop genuine relationships in a few short weeks, but several time management, attitude and communication principles can help them make the most of their time and secure an offer for a full-time position, says Joseph Marciano, who was a 2022 summer associate at Reed Smith.
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Burnout Prevention Requires Effort From Attys And Firms
To avoid physical and emotional exhaustion, attorneys must respect their own and their colleagues' personal and professional boundaries, but law firms must also play a role in discouraging burnout culture — especially if they are struggling with attorney retention, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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How I Owned My Power As An Asian American Woman In Law
Gibson Dunn's Debra Yang shares the bumps in her journey to becoming the first female Asian American U.S. attorney, a state judge and a senior partner in BigLaw, and how other women can face their self-doubts and blaze their own trails to success amid systemic obstacles.
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Successful In-House Alt Legal Services Start With 4 Questions
Law firms that are considering creating an in-house alternative legal service provider should focus not on recapturing revenue otherwise lost to outside vendors, but instead consider how a captive ALSP will better fulfill the needs of their clients and partners, say Beatrice Seravello and Brad Blickstein at Baretz & Brunelle.
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3 Reasons To Embrace Jargon In Legal Marketing Content
Ignore what you've been told about jargon — adding insider industry terms to your firm's marketing and business development content can persuade potential clients that you have the specialized knowledge they can trust, says Wayne Pollock at Law Firm Editorial Service.