Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
The Senate voted on Tuesday 52-47, along party lines, to confirm Florida state appellate Judge Jordan Emery Pratt to the Middle District of Florida.
 
								More than 100 former U.S. Department of Justice officials, a group of former federal judges and U.S. attorneys, current and former members of Congress, and a nonprofit focused on defending democracy are all backing former FBI Director James Comey's effort to nix his criminal prosecution.
 
								Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairwoman Laura Swett, a former Vinson & Elkins LLP energy attorney, has named another V&E energy lawyer based in the nation's capital as the agency's next general counsel.
The 2025 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard law firms are balancing business strength with social responsibility, global reach with local impact, and the ability to lead complex matters while meeting clients' evolving needs. Law360 caught up with firm leaders from this year’s Leaderboard to discuss what success looks like, and how they are positioning their firms for the future.
 
								Check out the Law360 Pulse Leaderboard to see which firms are leaders in all-around excellence this year.
 
								What makes a law firm stand out in a crowded field of top-tier competitors? What does it take to be a well-rounded firm? Presenting the 2025 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard — showcasing the firms that demonstrate excellence on measures of prestige, responsible business practices, and the reach of their legal work.
 
								The top 100 firms on Law360's 2025 Practice Footprint ranking have left a clear mark across federal district courts. Our interactive map shows where each firm has appeared in district court cases over the past three years — revealing the breadth of each firm's national reach.
 
								These 100 firms stand out for their impressive litigation footprints and transactions work. See who's leading the pack across four categories: variety of cases, range of jurisdictions, closing large merger and acquisition deals, and handling registered offerings.
 
								Steptoe LLP has hired an AI governance, compliance and regulatory expert who spent decades in C-suite leadership roles with IBM and Northrop Grumman and most recently helped found a legal technology company with a Steptoe partner who joined last month.
The U.S. Senate voted on Monday to confirm Rebecca Taibleson, a federal prosecutor in Wisconsin, to the Seventh Circuit, and Justice Bill Lewis of the Alabama Supreme Court to the Middle District of Alabama.
U.S. Circuit Judge William Duane Benton of the Eighth Circuit notified the judiciary on Friday that he plans to step back from active service, opening up another seat on the court for President Donald Trump to fill, according to the federal judiciary's online list of future judiciary vacancies.
A D.C. federal judge will review a trove of documents containing communications between officials from the first Trump administration and attorneys for his 2020 campaign to decide whether they can be kept from discovery in a lawsuit over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
 
								Two lawsuits from fired U.S. Department of Justice attorneys may set the U.S. Supreme Court up to decide between presidential authority and civil service job protections, giving the justices an "unprecedented" chance to reassess the nearly 50-year-old safeguards for lower-ranking government workers.
 
								Latham & Watkins LLP has hired a 19-year veteran of the U.S. Department of Commerce, who most recently was the acting director of an office that oversaw a number of export controls, the firm announced Monday.
 
								Ahead of Morris Manning & Martin LLP's impending merger with Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, the firm announced Monday that a corporate attorney has rejoined its ranks in Washington, D.C., after a stint with Reed Smith LLP.
 
								Personal injury juggernaut Morgan & Morgan PA has hired a new chief marketing officer who comes aboard from Geico to oversee Morgan & Morgan's national advertising efforts, with ambitions to help the firm shake up legal advertising and reach consumers with a message that resonates at a time when institutional trust is low.
 
								The leader of Holland & Knight LLP's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and industrial security team has made the move to Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP in Washington, D.C., the firm announced Monday.
 
								Mayer Brown LLP announced Monday that it has hired a pair of Washington, D.C., attorneys from Wiley Rein LLP, one of whom will lead its government contracts practice.
 
								A former chief trial counsel at the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition, who was one of the lead attorneys on the agency's landmark monopolization cases against Amazon and Meta, has joined WilmerHale's Washington, D.C. office, the firm announced Monday.
The Executive Office for Immigration Review has hired 11 new permanent immigration judges and 25 temporary ones after more than 100 judges were terminated, reassigned or retired early.
 
								Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP said Monday it has promoted 32 senior lawyers, the largest crop in the firm's history, including 20 new partners, 11 counsel and one senior attorney.
The federal government Friday urged a Maryland federal judge to give SCOTUSblog co-founder Tom Goldstein a December deadline to disclose whether he intends to assert at trial that he failed to file tax returns due to legal advice, saying it expects him to "blame everyone other than himself."
 
								Fannie Mae announced that it has elevated its deputy general counsel to acting general counsel, after the previous attorney to hold the position decided to move on from the post.
A nominee for a local court in Washington, D.C., highlighted during his confirmation hearing Thursday how he would seek to alleviate the overburdened court system in the district.
 
								Recently merged international law firm McDermott Will & Schulte announced Friday that it has elevated 74 attorneys to partner and 13 to counsel, marking the largest class in the firm's history.
 
									In the face of sustained regulatory and economic uncertainty, general counsel can help businesses move from reactive to proactive management by building a clear, cross-functional geopolitical command center that monitors and coordinates responses to a wide spectrum of issues, says Lars Faeste at FTI Consulting.
 
									Leaving an established law firm to start a boutique business of your own requires not only vision and resilience but also a solid business plan to help mitigate risks and increase your chances of unparalleled personal and professional success, says Rebecca Palmer at the Rebecca L. Palmer Law Group.
 
									The legal profession has a critical role to play in reducing attrition of women lawyers by addressing the disproportionate burden of the mental load — the often-unseen work of managing tasks and anticipating needs in both personal and professional realms, says Michelle Browning-Coughlin at Northern Kentucky University’s Chase College of Law.
 
									To help ensure new partners and practice groups are successfully integrated, firms should embrace specific structured practices that recognize each lateral's distinct value, personalize their integration plans and proactively address transition complexities long after onboarding ends, say Elizabeth Kennedy at NewEdge BD and Erika Steinberg at CMO2Go.
 
									By recalibrating how they structure and communicate their inclusion efforts, law firms can reduce legal exposure and preserve their values, says Angela Vallot at VallotKarp Consulting.
 
									As the legal industry faces political turmoil and economic uncertainty, the time is ripe for firms to revisit their strategic plans, ensuring they contain a few essential elements — from accountability systems to broad-based input — to achieve sustainable growth and profitability, says Joe Calve at Calve Communications.
 
									As fluency in artificial intelligence becomes a competitive imperative in the legal industry, the next generation of rainmakers likely won’t be defined by their Rolodexes or club memberships, but by their ability to leverage AI business development tools effectively, says Jessica Aries at By Aries.
 
									Law students can use artificial intelligence tools strategically throughout the job application process to review materials, prepare for interviews and navigate employers’ use of similar tools, but there are several key missteps they should be careful to avoid, says Lauren Wong at University of San Diego School of Law.
 
									Before landing a published quote, feature or interview, law firms should articulate the content’s purpose and develop a strategic plan for repurposing it to ensure they’re aligning public relations efforts with measurable business outcomes, says John Hellerman at Hellerman Communications.
 
									Julie LaEace at Perkins Coie offers tips for attorneys acting as pro bono coordinators, including how to choose appropriate projects, how to encourage participation and why it is important to keep in touch with legal aid partner organizations.
 
									Amid uncertainty in the legal job market, attorneys who are considering a transition to a leadership role must fundamentally reimagine their approach to value creation and develop a new set of skills, say Stacy Bratcher at Cottage Health and Michael Watkins at Genesis Advisers.
 
									As the legal industry increasingly looks to impose responsive guardrails for artificial intelligence use, firms and organizations’ internal use policies, outside counsel guidelines and vendor contracts can address confidentiality and data retention concerns in several ways, say attorneys at KXT Law.
 
									Firms can develop a strong pro bono culture without hiring dedicated professionals through strategies like demonstrating active involvement by leadership, tailoring volunteer tasks to individual professional development needs and building trusted partnerships within the legal aid community, says Stacy Zinken at Paladin.
Series
Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Extend Your Content's Life.jpg) 
									Attorneys often limit the impact of their thought leadership by letting their content languish after initial publication, but through four easy strategies for retooling existing content, they can maximize its reach and further their business development goals, says Jillian McKenna at Verrill Dana.
 
									As the student debt crisis evolves under changing federal policies, firms that proactively address the burden will have significant advantages in recruiting and retaining the best young lawyers, says Brian Kabateck at Kabateck.