(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)Donald Trump spent the four years between his two presidencies filing garbage lawsuits. Hillary Clinton! The Pulitzer Committee! Twitter! No one was immune. Now back in the White House, President Trump is continuing the habit....

As we step into 2025, the legal operations landscape continues a transformation anchored by a simple question: What does value truly mean in a legal department? As we’ve seen through our work at UpLevel Ops and Value Strategies, the answer often transcends traditional...

Ed. Note: A weekly roundup of just a few items from Howard Bashman’s How Appealing blog, the Web’s first blog devoted to appellate litigation. Check out these stories and more at How Appealing. “This time, the anti-Trump resistance is in the courts, not in the...

Brittany Courville has had an interesting career path. The University of Pennsylvania Law grad began her legal career at Winston & Strawn but has since left the practice of law. Courville got caught up in the Free Britney movement — the online activism that...

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day. The decisions being made by law firms with regard to the timing of their recruitment could easily have negative personal ramifications on students and student well-being. It’s possible that those interviews...

* Deal lawyers earning some vacation time next week as they billed like crazy to get mergers filed by today to avoid new rules. [Reuters] * Despite court orders, the federal hiring freeze hangs over everything and agencies are halting law school recruiting. [Bloomberg...

Remember when Donald Trump and the MAGA universe wanted to “lock her up!” over Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server for State Department business? Let’s be clear, we found Clinton’s use of a personal email server, which she claimed to have used “for...

Chronicling the Adelson trial has had its fair share of clever legal arguments and delays, but this development happened out of court. Being incarcerated comes with its stressors. Being in a cell and having your day dictated to you take their toll, but sometimes it’s...

Access to justice is at risk. If you’ve been paying attention, you know this isn’t a new issue. Nonprofits that provide legal services to underserved populations have been in jeopardy for years. Funding cuts have become the norm, and they just keep coming. With the...

Ed. Note: Welcome to our daily feature Trivia Question of the Day! According to the 2025 Law360 Pulse In-House Counsel Satisfaction Survey, what percentage of respondents are satisfied with their job’s schedule flexibility? Hint: Flexibility is key since the...

The DOJ Is Basically Trump Legal Now: And there’s so much work to bill! Losses And So Much Potential: Will a merger get them on the right track? How Can It Be Defamation When I’m So Silly?: This defense against defamation may be an issue of first impression. Donna...

In the least surprising news of the day, Litera has acquired a company. Litera’s strategic vision — sometimes more like a mythic quest — involves building the ultimate end-to-end law firm software empire and the company is always on the lookout for providers offering...

(Photo by Yuki Iwamura-Pool/Getty Images)Well, they made it official: The Justice Department no longer serves the United States, it serves Donald Trump personally. Buried in new Attorney General Pam Bondi’s memo dump between the empty platitudes about “justice” and...

Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts on motherhood in the legal profession, in partnership with our friends at MothersEsquire. Welcome Faith Bentley to our pages. Click here if you’d like to donate to MothersEsquire. The adage that women are...

The nation was transfixed by the December murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the subsequent arrest of Luigi Mangione, which seemed to implicate the American healthcare system as a motive for the attack. It also spurred a ton of vitriol against the...

(Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)Southern California communities ravaged by life-threatening wildfires now have a Biglaw firm to thank for coming to the rescue when FireAid — the star-studded benefit concert that’s raised more than $60 million thus far —...

Ed Martin’s tenure as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia continues to provide fodder for law professors seeking future professional responsibility hypos. Using the office letterhead to write letters to X accusing government workers of vague,...

Ed. Note: Welcome to our daily feature Trivia Question of the Day! Which U.S. Senator and Yale Law graduate has proposed legislation criminalizing the import/export of artificial intelligence products to/from China with up to 20 years in jail, a million dollar fine,...

There a bunch of administrative shakeup going on over at LSU. The most discussed aspect was when LSU managed to find a judge that sided with their decision to pull a professor from class over some lightly seasoned language, but it isn’t the only thing. This wasn’t the...

The highly anticipated transatlantic merger between U.K.-based Herbert Smith Freehills — No. 34 on the Global 200 — and New York-based Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel — No. 141 on the Global 200 — will be voted on by partners this month, and if approved, the...

* Musk-Trump “early retirement” deal includes waiver of any rights to bring a suit about the contract itself. Making it less a contract than an invitation to get scammed. [Bloomberg Law News] * Private equity has bought a law firm… what could possibly go wrong?...

The post ‘Precision Med Has Evolved As Badly As I Expected’ And Other Takeaways From Former FDA Commissioner At PMWC appeared first on Above the Law.Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf was in Silicon Valley to receive an award from the...

Despite the current state of the Supreme Court’s ethical quagmire, the mere appearance of impropriety or lack of impartiality is a real problem for the judiciary. So maybe Petersburgh, New York Town Court Justice Richard T. Snyder is (or more accurately *was*) a fair...

Biglaw Isn’t Faring Much Better Either: Don’t worry – by the 3rd year of this administration it won’t even be a holiday anymore. A Change Is Gonna Come: Winston DeCuir steps down as LSU’s General Counsel. Getting Out Of Jury Duty And A Job!: Judge kicked off the bench...

Never before have borders been blurrier. Goods, services, and, relevant here, art freely circumnavigate the globe with little regard for where one nation ends and another begins. When I listen to a song in my office in New York City, the singer may be Italian and the...

[Mitch] McConnell was very good at building a federal judiciary by and for conservative white men. His twin priorities were confirming as many Republican judges as possible, and blocking as many Democratic appointees as possible. — Madiba Dennie, writing at Balls and...

Black History Month feels a little different in 2025. The White House proclamation announcing the annual event described Black history as a celebration of, specifically, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman… and Thomas Sowell and Clarence Thomas. I’m sure Douglass...

(Image via Getty) When most product teams hear the word “regulations,” they don’t exactly cheer. For many, it feels like a mountain of red tape standing between them and a successful launch. But I see regulations differently — not as roadblocks, but as opportunities....

So much of the coverage on Pauline Newman’s ordeal with her court focuses on distractions from the heart of the matter: her age, her constant efforts to simply do her job, what have you. We should really be focused on the folks who keep filibustering and not good...

Even someone chronically online that tries to balance media consumption between terrifying governmental changes and celebrity content may not have followed all the minutiae of the dueling lawsuits between “It Ends With Us” co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni....

Regardless of the availability of federal funding, we write to further remind you of your obligations to comply with New York State laws, including those that prohibit discrimination against individuals based on their membership in a protected class… Electing to...

Ed. Note: Welcome to our daily feature Trivia Question of the Day! Which Supreme Court justice’s oath-taking ceremony was the first broadcast live on television? Hint: The justice has some other noteworthy firsts to their name as well. See the answer on the next page....

Former Biglaw Partner Loses Crypto Scam Appeal: Rough times. Appeal Court Sides With LSU For Now: Is this really the best use of their funds? Keep It In The Courtroom: Judge is pissed over press release. It All Comes Back To Kimberly A. Moore: Let’s focus on the real...

Properly setting up and managing IOLTA accounts helps prevent the risk of being disbarred and ensures your current and prospective clients can trust your firm with their funds throughout their case.  However, between commingling prevention and client...

After long years of looking askance at remote workers, the pandemic forced law firm managers to reconsider that stance.  Now, contractors (including virtual and offshore staff) are just as common in the legal environment as anywhere else in the modern economy.  We...

What do you do when the facts and the law aren’t on your side? Throw money at the problem! Tenured law school professor Ken Levy of Louisiana State University was suspended from teaching his students because of comments he made about state governor Jeff Landry and...

If I had to rank motions I dislike the most, Rule 12, that motion to strike has got to be up there. And I would say, scandalous or impertinent matters in your pleadings are really the standard. We shouldn’t be striking a class action complaint at this stage, with no...

Former Locke Lord partner, Mark Scott, was convicted in 2019 on federal conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to launder money charges. Last year, Scott was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the $400 million cryptocurrency scheme and was ordered...

(Photographer: Samuel Corum/Bloomberg)Is it a sign of a healthy judiciary when the country’s largest professional association of lawyers has to formally vote on whether Supreme Court justices should follow basic ethical rules? Asking for an American in the year 2025....

The post What Is OpenAI’s Powerful New Deep Research Tool Capable Of? I Use It To Analyze The Legality Of President Trump’s Pause Of Federal Grants appeared first on Above the Law.Over the weekend, OpenAI released Deep Research, an AI agent capable of completing...

Congratulations to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, whose tweets made it into yet another legal filing yesterday. This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo.Why? To end any confusion created by the...

From left, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Ed Martin, and Jeffrey Clark, former Acting Assistant Attorney General. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)Conspiracy theorist-cum-interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin is having a ball with his newfound position. Back in...

* Trump shuts down CFPB as part of make America pay hidden bank fees again. [NPR] * ABA says overturning wrongful convictions should be easier. [ABA Journal] * Berkshire Hathaway shifting work to new firm following death of Charlie Munger. [Barron’s] * Court keeps...