Last week we reviewed our 2020-25 Best and Worst lists to see if any patterns emerged in terms of the federal circuits. Our tentative conclusions were that the Fifth Circuit is pretty defense-friendly and that the Third Circuit is pretty active, both good and bad.
This week we surveyed state court cases from the
Above the Law used to be a forum largely dedicated to law firm associates bemoaning their treatment at their “TTT” (third-tier toilet). But now the Above-the-Law substack does a splendid job of covering law industry topics. David Lat is a knowledgeable and fair-minded commentator. He is smart. He did, after all, work at Wachtell. He
No, not that case. The appeal of the FIFRA preemption rulings in glyphosate litigation is still pending. This decision is Hencely v. Fluor Corp., No. 24-924, 2026 U.S. Lexis 1868 (U.S. Apr. 22, 2026), which involves the preemption of negligence claims against a military contractor in connection with a terrorist attack on the Bagram
In a pair of decisions, Express Scripts, Inc. v. Anne Arundel County, ___ A.3d ___, 2026 WL 797872 (Md. March 23, 2026), an opioid case, and Mayor & City Council of Baltimore v. B.P. P.L.C., ___ A.3d ___, 2026 WL 809501 (Md. March 24, 2025), a climate change case, the Supreme Court of
In truth, this post is not so much a review as a full-throated endorsement. We are telling colleagues that they need to read Elizabeth Chamblee Burch’s The Pain Brokers (One Signal Publishers 2026). Two things drive our enthusiasm for this book: cynicism and pride.
First, let’s indulge our cynicism. The Drug and Device Law
Last month we were one of the first on the web with a review of the new Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Fourth Edition. Since it was nearly 1700 pages long – literally longer than “War & Peace” – we did only the most cursory of analyses, describing differences in topics and authors
Today we have a guest post on some recent developments on whether strict liability applies to software, apps, artificial intelligence, and other forms of electronic data, which depends, as this 50-state survey addresses, on whether such intangible items meet the common-law definition of “product.” It is by Reed Smith attorneys (and repeat guest posters) Mildred
Cordero v. Olson Assocs. P.C., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91994, 2025 WL1383217 (D. Utah May 13, 2025), is just another FDCA case. Except it is not the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act that is in controversy, but, rather, the Fair Debt Collection Act. The plaintiff sued several defendants, including law firms, for allegedly unlawful debt
At a recent seminar, one of the sessions was a nuts-and-bolts discussion of conducting Internet, mostly social media, research into prospective jurors for voir dire purposes. It was quite interesting from a practical standpoint, but no law was cited that such research was even allowable (assuming courts could detect non-courtroom activities), and if so, what restrictions apply.
So we thought we’d take a look.
Continue Reading Avoid Getting Into Trouble over Internet Research about Prospective Jurors
Some of your bloggers recently attended the American Conference Institute’s annual Drug and Medical Device Litigation Conference in New York. One of the conference panels addressed a recent unsettling ruling in a non-drug-device case that held communications training provided by defense counsel for their client’s employees was not only discoverable but admissible at trial. In re Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation, 664 F. Supp.3d 981, 983 (N.D. Cal. 2023). Moreover, some of the “practices” that found their way into the opinions seemed to us not only privileged but entirely unobjectionable:
Plaintiffs also point out that, for years, [defendant] has directed its employees to avoid using certain [legal] buzzwords in their communications. . . . Eight years later, [defendant] still was telling employees . . . “[a]ssume every document you generate … will be seen by regulators.”
United States v. Google LLC, ___ F. Supp.3d ___, 2024 WL 3647498, at *113 (D.D.C. Aug. 5, 2024) (citation omitted). That’s only good sense, and no different than the other side (at least if they have good lawyers) tells its own individual plaintiffs before they have to testify.
Continue Reading Privilege and Lawyer-Provided Employee Training