DC Pulse


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    Trump Taps V&E's Swett As New FERC Chair

    President Donald Trump will appoint Vinson & Elkins LLP energy regulatory counsel Laura Swett as chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the White House confirmed to Law360 Thursday.

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    Sidley Hires Ex-A&O Shearman US Sanctions Head In DC

    Sidley Austin LLP has hired the former U.S. head of sanctions from A&O Shearman, who is joining the firm's global arbitration, trade and advocacy practice in Washington, D.C., bringing experience to that team from the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

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    Antitrust, Gov't Enforcement Attys Join Foley & Lardner

    Foley & Lardner LLP has hired the former Washington, D.C., office founder of litigation finance firm Omni Bridgeway, alongside a longtime government enforcement defense lawyer, who focuses her practice on white collar defense, trade sanctions and related matters, who both join the firm in the nation's capital.

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    Covington Boosts DC Bench With Ex-Gov't Contracts Judge

    Covington & Burling LLP has fortified its government contracts practice with an of counsel in Washington, D.C., who previously served as an administrative judge with the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals and who currently serves as a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.

  • US Attorney Nominations For Missouri And Indiana Advance

    The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve, along party lines, two U.S. attorney nominees for Missouri and Indiana on Thursday.

  • ABA Says Attys Must Be Clear About Neutrality In Mediations

    Attorneys who agree to work as neutral, third-party mediators must make it explicitly clear that they are not advising or holding privilege with participants, the American Bar Association has warned in its latest ethics opinion.

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    Goldstein Can't Dismiss 2016 Tax Charges As Time-Barred

    A Maryland federal judge denied SCOTUSblog co-founder Tom Goldstein's motion to dismiss four of the 22 federal tax charges brought against him in January, ruling that his defense that the counts stemming from the 2016 tax year should be time-barred will have to be raised at trial.

  • High Court Leans Toward Limiting Voting Rights Act Suits

    The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative supermajority seemed ready Wednesday to further limit the use of the Voting Rights Act in challenging alleged racial discrimination in legislative redistricting, but appeared divided over how to accomplish that.

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    Morgan Lewis Adds Ex-IRS Special Counsel As DC Partner

    A former special counsel at the Internal Revenue Service's chief counsel's office has moved to Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP's tax-exempt organizations team, where he'll continue working on issues related to charitable giving groups and other organizations.

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    Ex-WH Ethics Attys Slam 'Vindictive' Comey, James Charges

    Three former White House ethics attorneys have filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice over what they call the "vindictive and meritless" criminal prosecutions of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

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    Former DHS Deputy Joins Kelley Drye As Customs Co-Chair

    The former deputy director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's economic security mission center is joining Kelley Drye & Warren LLP as an international trade practice partner, the firm has announced.

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    As Shutdown Drags On, Judiciary To Face Belt-Tightening

    With no end in sight to the government shutdown, the situation for the federal judiciary will get worse after Friday.

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    Meet HHS General Counsel Michael Stuart

    Michael Stuart, a former chief federal prosecutor for West Virginia, has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as general counsel for the Department of Health and Human Services, where he has promised to make healthcare fraud enforcement a priority. 

  • Judge Denies Gov't's 'Overbroad' Comey Discovery Proposal

    A Virginia federal judge has shot down prosecutors' recommendations for a protective order covering discovery material such as law enforcement documents and private communications in its case against ex-FBI Director James Comey, calling the proposal "overbroad" as it would have kept Comey's attorneys from leaving discovery material with Comey himself.

  • Voting Rights Case Could Further Chief's 'Central Project'

    As a 20-something special assistant in President Ronald Reagan's Department of Justice, John G. Roberts Jr. argued a test focused on the discriminatory effects of legislative redistricting on minority voters would be unconstitutional. Now, four decades later and as chief justice of the United States, he has a chance to make that view the law of the land.

  • Justices Lean Toward Ruling Mandatory Restitution Is Punitive

    A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared to embrace arguments Tuesday that forcing convicted defendants to pay restitution with compounding interest years after conviction is a criminal punishment and therefore subject to the Constitution's ban on increasing punishment retroactively.

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    Ogletree Brings On New COO From BCLP In DC

    Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC has added a former chief operating officer for Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP as its chief operating officer, the firm announced Tuesday.

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    V&E Adds Atty From Debevoise As Partner

    An attorney who spent the majority of her legal career with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and began there as a corporate law intern has joined Vinson & Elkins LLP as a partner, where she will start practicing in the firm's Washington, D.C., office before moving to its space in New York.

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    Ex-Virginia Solicitor Gen. Joins Hunton Andrews As Co-Chair

    A former Virginia solicitor general has joined Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP as the co-chair of the firm's issues and appeals practice in Washington, D.C., bringing to the team experience at the U.S. Department of Justice and private practice firms, according to a Tuesday announcement.

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    Why Former Government Attorneys Are Choosing MoFo

    Morrison & Foerster LLP has hired an array of former government attorneys this year, with many of them citing the West Coast firm's "government ethos" and support for building a new book of business.

  • Law Firm Seeks To Uphold $6.6M Arbitral Award In Fee Dispute

    A personal injury law firm embroiled in a long-running dispute over fees owed in litigation over a 1983 terrorist bombing in Lebanon urged a New York federal court to preserve a $6.59 million arbitral award it had secured for its work, arguing that tossing the arbitrator's "carefully balanced" decision would wrongly send the parties back to square one.

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    Up Next At High Court: Voting Rights & Warrantless Entries

    The U.S. Supreme Court will return Tuesday to hear oral arguments in four cases, including a dispute over the constitutionality of the last remaining provision of the Voting Rights Act and whether federal prisoners seeking postconviction relief are subject to the same rules as state inmates.

  • High Court To Eye Limits On Appeal Waivers In Plea Deals

    The U.S. Supreme Court will consider which exceptions might apply to criminal appeal waivers, which are common in plea deals, the court announced Friday.

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    Q3 Law Firm Lateral Hiring Reflects Cautious Optimism

    Lateral attorney hiring at the nation's largest law firms continued to climb in the third quarter of 2025, signaling that the legal talent market is gradually stabilizing after a sluggish start to the year, according to a new report from legal intelligence provider Firm Prospects.

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    The Supreme Court's Week: By The Numbers

    The U.S. Supreme Court kicked off its new term with arguments in six cases this week, including one involving a ban on gay "conversion" therapy and another over a congressman's challenge to state election rules. Here, Law360 Pulse takes a data-driven dive into the week that was at the Supreme Court.

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Expert Analysis

  • Making Legal Cents: How To Adapt As Clients Tighten Budgets Author Photo

    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.

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents Author Photo

    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.

  • General Counsel And Legal Ops Must Work Together Author Photo

    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.

  • How Generative AI's Growing Memory Affects Lawyers Author Photo

    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.

  • A Model For Optimal Legal Tech Investment Strategy Author Photo

    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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    My Nonpracticing Law Job: Recruiter Author Photo

    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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    Ask A Mentor: How Do I Balance Social Activism With My Job? Author Photo

    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.

  • Personality Tests And Machine Learning Applications In Law Author Photo

    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.

  • 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.

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    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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