DC Pulse


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    Justices Skeptical About Trump's Emergency Tariff Authority

    Several U.S. Supreme Court justices asked the government to defend why well-established judicial doctrines shouldn't limit President Donald Trump's tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act during oral arguments Wednesday, casting doubt on whether they believe the law provides that kind of authority.

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    Taft Adds DC Water Leader To New Government Practice

    The top attorney at D.C. Water, the independent authority overseeing water and wastewater matters in the nation's capital, has joined a new team at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, the firm announced Tuesday.

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    Judge Slams DOJ's 'Indict First' Strategy In Comey Case

    Federal prosecutors were given just over 24 hours to hand over all of the grand jury materials and anything seized under years-old warrants in the James Comey case when a Virginia federal judge said Wednesday that the government appeared to be pursuing an "indict first, investigate last" strategy.

  • Senate Confirms Jones Day Partner To 9th Circ. Bench

    The Senate voted 52-45 on Wednesday to confirm Eric Tung, a partner at Jones Day, as a judge on the Ninth Circuit.

  • Ignore Circuits, Follow Scalia, Justices Told In Deadlines Duel

    How can a U.S. Supreme Court advocate persuade the justices to spurn the near-universal views of circuit courts? One option appeared Tuesday at arguments over deadlines to vacate judgments, as a Williams & Connolly lawyer invoked Justice Antonin Scalia's influential methods — and seemingly found a receptive audience.

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    DOJ Ignores Court Discovery Order In Letitia James Case

    The U.S. Department of Justice has refused to provide New York Attorney General Letitia James access to documents related to her October indictment on mortgage fraud charges, arguing Tuesday that a Virginia federal judge was too early in making the discovery order.

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    Which GCs Sold Stock In October? Apple, Strategy And More

    Three top legal officers at tech companies in California, a Washington, D.C., suburb and Austin, Texas, hauled in big stock scores last month.

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    Haynes Boone Hires First Chief Talent Officer

    Haynes Boone announced this week that it has hired its first chief talent officer to steer attorney development and recruiting efforts as the firm continues to grow and change its senior leadership structure.

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    Confirmation Ends Dem-Appointed Judges' Lock On 1st Circ.

    The Senate voted 52-46 on Tuesday to confirm Joshua D. Dunlap, a partner at Pierce Atwood LLP, to the First Circuit.

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    Marino Finley Adds Top DC Litigator From Barnes & Thornburg

    Marino Finley LLP has hired a Barnes & Thornburg LLP white collar group partner in Washington, D.C., who joins the firm as of counsel to represent clients in high-stakes litigation, the firm announced this week.

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    Dechert Requiring 4 Days In Office For Some Attys, All Staff

    Dechert LLP joined a growing list of BigLaw firms increasing their office attendance requirements, rolling out a new policy requiring rising second-year associates and all nonattorney business professionals to work in person four days a week beginning next year.   

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    Secretariat Advisors Adds Ex-DC Gov't GC, WNBA Player

    Secretariat Advisors LLC, the global expert and advisory firm, has hired the former general counsel of D.C.'s Department of Employment Services, along with a former professional basketball player who founded a nonprofit group that uses sports to teach personal development tools to at-risk youth.

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    Ballard Partners Adds Lobbying Trio In Tallahassee, DC

    International lobbying firm Ballard Partners has added two Florida attorneys to its ranks who previously worked at the Vogel Group, including its managing principal.

  • Feds Defend Cases Against James Comey, Letitia James

    The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday took a swing at bids by former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James to get their indictments thrown out, telling a federal judge the appointment of interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan was valid.

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    The Lone Ranger Facing A BigLaw Powerhouse At High Court

    It might seem curious for a solo practitioner to decline offers of professional assistance in his first U.S. Supreme Court case. It might seem risky to go it alone against a BigLaw team led by an appellate icon. But a legal lone ranger arguing Tuesday at the high court is feeling confident, and he does have a friend proofreading briefs, just to be safe.

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    'Frankly, They're Irrelevant:' ABA Ratings In Trump's 2nd Term

    The American Bar Association, long considered the gold standard for rating judicial nominees, no longer gets to interview them as Trump officials claim the group's "not qualified" rating for some nominees during Trump's first term shows it is a biased and "leftist" organization. Ironically though, ABA ratings for President Donald Trump's second-term picks are mostly positive so far.

  • Justices Tackle Scope Of Military Contractor Liability

    The U.S. Supreme Court appeared hesitant on Monday to completely shelter U.S. military contractors engaged in combatant activities from liability for state-based injury claims, as the justices questioned whether doing so could hurt troops.

  • DC Public Defender Funding To Halt Because Of Shutdown

    Funding for public defender services in Washington, D.C., is about to run out as the government shutdown drags on, according to a recent letter from members of the D.C. Courts Joint Committee on Judicial Administration.

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    Cooley Expands Tech Practice With Ex-Freshfields Attys

    Two former Freshfields LLP litigators specializing in matters related to online safety and artificial intelligence have moved their practices to Cooley LLP's Washington, D.C., office.

  • New Loan Forgiveness Rule Targets Trump Critics, States Say

    Two lawsuits filed Monday, one by a coalition of states and the other by a group of cities, unions and advocacy organizations, are challenging a new Trump administration rule imposing "intentionally vague" and allegedly illegal restrictions on student loan forgiveness for public employees intended to stifle dissent.

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    MoFo Atty Brings Derivates Knowledge To Dentons As Partner

    Dentons has hired a former Morrison Foerster LLP of counsel who spent 17 years there advising banks, investment firms and hedge funds on a range of matters involving derivatives, swaps and hedging transactions, the firm announced Monday.

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    Goodwin Requiring 4 Days In Office, But Removes Tracker

    Goodwin Procter LLP will stop using certain technology to monitor in-office attendance while joining a growing list of BigLaw firms requiring U.S. attorneys to work in person at least four days a week, according to a memo obtained by Law360 Pulse.  

  • Expert Sues DC Atty For Allegedly Pirating $30K J6 Report

    A Texas-based expert report author has accused a Washington, D.C., attorney and her firm of unlawfully copying and distributing a copyrighted report regarding jury pool attitudes toward cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol in at least three separate criminal cases, unlawfully bypassing a $30,000 licensing fee.

  • Justices Skeptical Of Tolling Supervised-Release Absconders

    The U.S. Supreme Court appeared hesitant Monday to embrace the government's arguments that the "fugitive tolling" doctrine, which bans criminal defendants from earning credits to reduce prison sentences while they are not behind bars, should also be used to penalize defendants who abscond from supervised release.

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    Law Firms Cite 'Value' In Staffing Up On AI Expertise

    Law firms are creating more internal roles to bring on professionals to lead their artificial intelligence implementation, including a push to develop AI agents. But the competition to secure such skilled personnel is stiff.

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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.

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    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.

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    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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