Keep your finger on the legal world's pulse

Meta has been ordered to pay an additional $567m in compensation and strengthen child-safety measures across its platforms after a New Mexico judge found the technology company to be a “public nuisance.” The latest award brings total penalties in the case to $942m, following a $375m jury award in March. The lawsuit, filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez in 2023, accused Meta of exposing children to sexually explicit content, solicitation, and human trafficking. Judge Bryan Biedscheid concluded that Meta’s platforms are a significant contributing factor to New Mexico’s youth mental health crisis, citing evidence of increasing depressive episodes, eating disorders, and suicide rates among adolescents. Torrez described the judgment as a potential “blueprint” for holding social media companies responsible for products that endanger children. Meta has said it will appeal the New Mexico ruling.

 

CNN

Financial Times

New York Times

PBS News

Staff departures and fears of political retribution have largely sidelined two watchdog offices inside the Justice Department tasked with investigating misconduct, limiting new investigations into the administration of President Donald Trump, according to Reuters interviews with four former DOJ staffers and a review of ‌department employment and investigations data. Nearly half the workforce at the Office of Professional Responsibility has left during Trump’s second term, and about 17% have departed the Office of Inspector General, government records show. Many retired or took buyouts the administration offered to shrink the federal workforce.

 

Reuters

President Donald Trump is seeking to scale back birthright citizenship in the U.S. just weeks after the Supreme Court shot down his previous attempt to eliminate the right. The president has signed two executive orders, including one that expands the existing definitions of non-citizens whose children are not eligible for birthright citizenship. The second order bans so-called birth tourism, whereby pregnant mothers come to the U.S. to give birth so that their babies will be citizens. "This should have happened years ago, but we're taking care of it now," Trump said from the Oval Office, as he criticized the Supreme Court's rejection of his previous bid to end the 150-year-old policy.

 

Jurist

Los Angeles Times

BBC News

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has accused DuPont and several of its spin-off companies - New DuPont, Corteva, Chemours and Qnity - of orchestrating a “corporate shell game” to dodge billions in PFAS cleanup. An amended lawsuit alleges DuPont offloaded massive PFAS legal risks onto Chemours, the company with the least amount of assets, and to limit the liability of Corteva, New DuPont and Qnity. “The DuPont Defendants cannot game the system by illegally moving assets out of reach, dodging liabilities for the harm they have caused, and calling it restructuring,” Bonta said. “I look forward to ensuring that these companies are held accountable for PFAS pollution and that their assets cannot be hidden behind corporate walls while their responsibilities are left behind.”

 

Financial Times

Los Angeles Times

The Trump administration is to pay German energy firm RWE $1.22bn to abandon plans to build wind farms off the coasts of New York, California and Louisiana. It is the fifth such deal struck by the administration to get companies to drop offshore wind projects. “After careful consideration, it was determined there is no path forward to permit these projects in the U.S. for the foreseeable future,” RWE said, referring to the leases it initially secured with a “long-term commitment to develop offshore wind capacity.” The company paid $1.1bn for its New York lease in a 2022 auction held by the Biden administration, while its leases in Louisiana and California cost a combined $163m. President Trump has said wind turbines are an "economic and environmental disaster." He previously said that he did not want "even one" built during his time in office.

 

Euronews

New York Times

Reuters

The Guardian

A federal judge has ordered the Defense Department to temporarily lift its freeze on approvals for wind energy projects. Judge Karin Immergut of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon granted a preliminary injunction to several renewable energy groups that said the freeze caused a "total halt" of wind project development in ​the U.S. The Pentagon said it is "actively evaluating land-based wind energy ​projects to ensure they do not impair national security or military operations, in accordance with ⁠statutory and regulatory requirements." Joshua Berman, a lawyer for the Sierra Club, said the Trump administration has "tried every trick in the book to stop or slow-walk renewable energy development, and courts have seen through [its] ruses time after time."

 

Bloomberg

New York Times

Reuters

Federal prosecutors have charged Roy Lee Harvey, former Nike warehouse supervisor Michael Reno Perkins, and 10 others with conspiring to steal at least $2m-worth of Nike products between 2021 and 2024 by diverting shipments from the company's Memphis distribution center. Investigators allege that Mr. Perkins recruited warehouse employees to steal highly sought-after sneakers, while Mr. Harvey coordinated orders based on demand from prominent resellers and used "ghost labels" to reroute packages to addresses in Los Angeles. The investigation began after Nike identified suspiciously relabeled shipments and worked with the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department to track 28 diverted packages using GPS devices. Authorities later recovered thousands of pairs of allegedly stolen shoes, clothing, and accessories valued at approximately $5m during searches connected to the case. Mr. Harvey has pleaded not guilty and maintains there is no evidence he knew the shoes were stolen.

 

Los Angeles Times

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has established a new Financial Reporting and Accounting Unit within its Division of Enforcement to strengthen investigations into financial reporting fraud, accounting misconduct, and auditing violations. The specialized team will work across the SEC’s divisions to support enforcement efforts that align with the agency’s broader policy objectives. The unit will be led by Timothy Zimmerman, a former law firm partner and corporate legal executive who joined the SEC earlier this year as a senior adviser. It will be staffed by attorneys and accountants with expertise in financial reporting, accounting, auditing, and securities regulation. The announcement comes as SEC leaders seek to reinforce enforcement in core regulatory areas. According to a recent Cornerstone Research report cited by the agency, SEC accounting and auditing enforcement actions fell by 68% in 2025 compared with the previous year.

 

Bloomberg Tax

Accounting Today

According to a study by Paragon Legal, return-to-office mandates are significantly influencing compensation expectations and hiring decisions among legal professionals. The survey revealed that 61% of legal professionals would accept a pay cut to work fully remote, with 48% willing to forgo up to 10% of their salary. Meanwhile, 55% of respondents indicated they would decline an attractive job offer if the return-to-office requirements were too strict. Additionally, only 30% agreed that in-office time enhances the quality of their work, while 39% felt it boosts productivity. “In-office work has real value in the right context,” according to Paragon Legal, which surveyed more than 200 legal professionals earlier this year. “Intentional collaboration, relationship-building and certain high-stakes matters can benefit from being in the same room. But the data shows that legal professionals sometimes make career decisions based on how much flexibility they are offered.”

 

ABA Journal

Some of the biggest U.S. hedge funds, including Steve Cohen’s Point72 and Ken Griffin’s Citadel, have been targeted by a wave of attempted cyber attacks. The hacking attempts featured phone calls in which ⁠cybercriminals tried to trick employees into granting them access or handing ​over other sensitive information, according to people familiar with the situation. Reuters notes that the phone call tactic is still widely used by hackers because of ​its effectiveness. Vinod Paul, president of Align Managed Services, which specializes in helping hedge funds with cybersecurity and information technology, said AI tools are helping bad actors launch attacks relatively cheaply and more broadly. “Before they could attack 50 entities in a targeted attack, now they can do 1,000 . . . Hackers can also listen into a phone call and mimic the voice, tone and phrasings of the speakers to create fake calls,” Paul said.

 

Bloomberg

Financial Times

Reuters

Sidley Austin has expanded its finance team by hiring 11 lawyers from Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, including partners Brian Foster and Patrick Calves. Foster, who co-led the fund finance practice at legacy Cadwalader, and Calves, who became a partner in 2023, are reuniting with Leah Edelboim, a former Cadwalader partner who joined Sidley in February. Yvette Ostolaza, chair of Sidley’s management committee, said the hires were "a deliberate step in our multi-year build-out of a global finance platform with premier sponsor-side and lender-side finance capabilities." Over the past three years, Sidley has added 40 finance partners globally through lateral hires and promotions.

 

The Global Legal Post

An Indian parliamentary panel has threatened to remove Meta’s safe harbor protection, which grants conditional immunity to social media companies, demanding an apology from CEO Mark Zuckerberg after the social media giant briefly restricted a Facebook post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing students during the Gen Z protests in July. The dispute over the post by Modi came just days after regulators summoned the company over concerns about child abuse content. Meta later said the restriction on the post was due to an “error,” although initially the post reportedly indicated the content was blocked due to a “legal request.” Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, said he had “apologized” to India’s Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw “for the error restricting PM Modi’s post.”

 

CNBC

The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has approved the $110bn merger between Paramount and Warner Bros, saying that the tie-up does not "give rise to a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition in the U.K." The CMA's investigation, which was launched in June, came after Culture secretary Lisa Nandy asked the watchdog to look into the deal. The CMA has now ruled that the merger will not be referred to a phase two investigation. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has also said it will not intervene, after Paramount made several "legally-binding commitments" centered on its U.K. broadcasting output, including an agreement over the editorial independence of news and a pledge not to combine its linear channels with on-demand services.

 

Financial Times

Daily Mail

The Guardian

Live shopping platform Whatnot is on track to generate more than $1bn in revenue this year after adding 20m new accounts in 2025, as its livestream auctions for trading cards, fashion and other collectibles continue to attract shoppers. However, the app is facing growing scrutiny over claims that its fast-paced auction format encourages compulsive spending and exposes users to fraud, with critics comparing its popular "card breaks" to gambling. The company says it has expanded its trust and safety measures, introduced optional spending limits and watch-time controls, and is testing additional safeguards, while rejecting suggestions that its platform promotes addictive behavior. Meanwhile, consumer protection lawyers have launched legal challenges alleging some of Whatnot's practices amount to illegal lotteries, highlighting the increasing regulatory scrutiny facing the rapidly growing live-commerce sector. 

 

Wall Street Journal