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DC Pulse
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Simpson Thacher Mourns Chair, Pioneering Dealmaker Beattie
Richard "Dick" Beattie, the senior chairman of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP whose pioneering deal work helped cement private equity's place in mergers and acquisitions, died on Friday at 86, the firm announced.
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Bondi's Brother Soundly Defeated After Heated DC Bar Race
A solo employment attorney has overwhelmingly defeated the brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a race for D.C. Bar president that drew national attention.
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Early Support Key To Fixing Legal Profession's Diversity Gap
A lack of early support and systemic barriers continue to block underrepresented students from entering the legal profession, attorneys and legal educators warned at a Friday panel, calling for expanded investment in pipeline programs despite recent legal challenges to diversity initiatives.
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Paul Hastings Adds A&O Shearman Private Equity Duo
Paul Hastings LLP announced the addition of a private equity duo from A&O Shearman to bolster the firm's practice and offerings in the upper-middle market and beyond.
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Baker McKenzie Names Int'l Trade Chief As Global Chair
Baker McKenzie said Monday that it has elected the head of its international trade practice to become its new global chair.
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Supreme Court Limits Discovery In FOIA Suit Against DOGE
The U.S. Supreme Court halted discovery Friday into whether the Department of Government Efficiency is an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act, but left the door open to future, more tailored inquiries about the inner workings of the initiative.
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DOGE Can Access Social Security Data For Now, Justices Say
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Friday that the Department of Government Efficiency could obtain unlimited access to Social Security Administration data on millions of Americans while a legal dispute over privacy concerns plays out.
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Flaws Remain In Bar Fitness Queries, Summit Panelists Say
Many current state bar character and fitness tests fail to identify bad actors, and at the same time, certain aspects of the queries can hurt efforts to increase diversity in the profession, according to panelists at the American Bar Association's 2025 Virtual Equity Summit on Friday.
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The Supreme Court's Week: By The Numbers
An undivided U.S. Supreme Court issued five unanimous rulings this week, weighing in on the burden majority-group plaintiffs must meet in discrimination cases, what counts as a religious organization for purposes of an employment tax exemption, and whether Mexico can sue American gun companies for their alleged role in cartel violence. Here, Law360 Pulse takes a data-driven dive into the week that was at the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Legal Sector Jobs Ticked Up In May Amid Uncertain Economy
The U.S. legal industry added 1,100 jobs in May, holding steady in the midst of economic uncertainty, according to preliminary data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Trump Seeks High Court's OK On Education Dept. Job Cuts
The Trump administration has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to lift a Massachusetts federal judge's order halting massive job cuts at the U.S. Department of Education, arguing that the judge's finding that almost 1,400 employees must be reinstated to ensure the department's continued operation "has no basis in reality."
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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week
The University of Virginia School of Law Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and attorney Edward Gilbert lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the Sixth Circuit's ruling that plaintiffs claiming anti-heterosexual workplace discrimination need to provide extra "background circumstances" evidence.
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Ex-FERC, DOE Lawyers Form Energy Law Boutique
A group of energy lawyers coming out of the federal government have launched their own boutique in Washington, D.C., aimed at helping clients through a rapidly changing regulatory environment, the attorneys announced this week.
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Capital One Awards GC $5M Following Discover Deal
Capital One's top in-house attorney will receive more than $5 million in stocks as part of a total bonus package of more than $43 million for the company's executive team after it completed the $35 billion acquisition of Discover Financial Services, Capital One said in a document recently filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Why Guided Talks Are Key To Retaining Women Attys
At an American Bar Association summit session on inclusive workplace practices on Thursday, one panelist noted that one of the ABA's recent recommendations is to engage in guided conversations throughout law firms and across the legal profession. But what exactly is a guided conversation?
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Office Snapshot: Nixon Peabody's DC Space Turns 10
As Nixon Peabody LLP prepares to mark 10 years operating out of its current location in Washington, D.C., the nearly 100-attorney office recently saw the appointment of a new managing partner and is in the final stages of a redesign aimed at fostering collaboration among colleagues.
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Voir Dire: Law360 Pulse's Weekly Quiz
The legal industry began June with another action-packed week as BigLaw firms expanded their presence and offerings. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse’s weekly quiz.
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Trade Policy Whiplash Drives Firm Hiring Spree In DC
As President Donald Trump's tariffs and other policy changes fuel client demand, law firms are on pace for a nearly 60% increase in international trade hiring in the greater Washington, D.C., legal market this year, according to new data.
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Ex-DOJ Unit Chief Launches Sher Tremonte DC Office
New York-based Sher Tremonte LLP has expanded to the nation's capital, opening a new office in Washington, D.C., led by a former U.S. Department of Justice chief and staffed by a former U.S. attorney who prosecuted crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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Judge Rejects DC Bid To Toss Black Atty's Bias Suit
A D.C. federal judge allowed a city attorney's discrimination and retaliation lawsuit to proceed to discovery Thursday, rejecting the D.C. government's motion to toss the claims that a city administrative law judge discriminated against Black women and paid the plaintiff attorney less than her male peers.
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Ex-Bush Admin Atty To Lead HHS Civil Rights Office
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has appointed an attorney to lead its civil rights office who brings more than 30 years of experience across the public sector and private practice, including as counsel for HHS during the George W. Bush administration.
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Boom In Nonequity Partner Tiers Test Law Firms' 'Discipline'
As nonequity partnership tiers expand across U.S. law firms, experts warn that the model, while effective for retaining talent and controlling costs, demands disciplined management oversight to avoid becoming a liability.
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Atty Coalition Asks Fla. Bar To Open Ethics Probe Into Bondi
A group of lawyers, law professors and former judges asked the Florida Bar on Thursday to open an ethics investigation into Pam Bondi's actions as attorney general, saying she has pushed U.S. Department of Justice attorneys to violate their ethical obligations under the guise of "zealous advocacy."
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Senate Panel Advances Picks For Nat. Sec. Post, Iowa US Atty
The Senate voted 52-43 along party lines on Thursday to confirm John Andrew Eisenberg to be assistant attorney general for national security.
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After Strong 2024 Growth, US Firms Face Looming Uncertainty
Domestic lawyer headcount growth among the 400 largest law firms in the U.S. picked up speed in 2024, rising 3.1% on average and outpacing growth the previous year, but experts say the winds that bolstered that expansion may have shifted as a result of macroeconomic uncertainty.
Expert Analysis
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Making Legal Cents: How To Adapt As Clients Tighten Budgets
Amid a dip in corporate legal spending and client pushback on bills, Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants highlights specific in-house counsel frustrations and explains how firms can provide customized legal advice with costs that are supported by undeniable value.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.
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General Counsel And Legal Ops Must Work Together
It is critical for general counsel to ensure that a legal operations leader is viewed not only as a peer, but as a strategic leader for the organization, and there are several actionable ways general counsel can not only become more involved, but help champion legal operations teams and set them up for success, says Mary O'Carroll at Ironclad.
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How Generative AI's Growing Memory Affects Lawyers
A new ChatGPT feature that can remember user information across different conversations has broad implications for attorneys, whose most pressing questions for the AI tool are usually based on specific, and large, datasets, says legal tech adviser Eric Wall.
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A Model For Optimal Legal Tech Investment Strategy
Legal organizations struggling to work out the right technology investment strategy may benefit from using a matrix for legal department efficiency that is based on an understanding of where workloads belong, according to the basic functions and priorities of a corporate legal team, says Sylvain Magdinier at Integreon.
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Series
My Nonpracticing Law Job: Recruiter
Self-proclaimed "Lawyer Doula" Danielle Thompson at Major Lindsey shares how she went from Columbia Law School graduate and BigLaw employment associate to a career in legal recruiting — and discovered a passion for advocacy along the way.
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Do I Balance Social Activism With My Job?
Corporate attorneys pursuing social justice causes outside of work should consider eight guidelines for finding equilibrium between their beliefs and their professional duties and reputation, say Diedrick Graham, Debra Friedman and Simeon Brier at Cozen O'Connor.
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Personality Tests And Machine Learning Applications In Law
Mateusz Kulesza at McDonnell Boehnen looks at potential applications of personality testing based on machine learning techniques for law firms, and the implications this shift could have for lawyers, firms and judges, including how it could make the work of judges and other legal decision-makers much more difficult.
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AI Is Reshaping Lawyering: What To Expect In 2024
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.
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Embrace Active Voice In Legal Writing — In Most Cases
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.
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Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can I Help Associates Turn Down Work?
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.
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How AI Legal Research Tools Are Shifting Law Firm Processes
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.
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Data Source Proliferation Is A Growing E-Discovery Challenge
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.
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Bracing For A Generative AI Revolution In Law
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.
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Why I Use ChatGPT To Tell Me Things I Already Know
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.