Keep your finger on the legal world's pulse

The sudden collapse of 95-year-old law firm Weil Gotshal has left its roughly 600 associates, and its future summer hires, without jobs. The dissolution of the firm has sent shock waves through the legal job market, and rival firms and headhunters are moving quickly to interview Weil lawyers. “This is a paradigm shift,” observed David Diamond, assistant dean of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Career Strategy Center. “We want to make sure they have all the support they need to get back into the job search quickly.” Evan Fox, a legal headhunter at Long Ridge Partners, said his team has scheduled more than 100 job interviews for Weil lawyers. “This is truly unprecedented,” he said.

 

Wall Street Journal

NBC News reports that when Democrats take control of the House and the Senate in January, they will face the “tricky challenge” of carrying out aggressive oversight of the Trump administration while needing the President's signature to advance most legislative goals. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, has warned Republicans to “lawyer up.” Rep. Peter Aguilar (D-CA) told NPR: “there will be a host of investigations . . . there is plenty to investigate, but I’ll tell you what the American public wants us to investigate are the grift and the corruption, the self-dealing, the no-bid contracts.” The Financial Times says investigations could uncover communications between officials and executives after alleged corruption emerged as a campaign theme in the midterms.

 

Financial Times

NBC News

NPR

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday night announced its largest election monitoring effort in history, deploying approximately 1,000 monitors across all 50 states. Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ Civil Rights Division, said: “Election integrity has been one of the top priorities for this Administration and this Division . . . I am very proud we are deploying the largest monitoring effort in DOJ history, and pursuing transparency for elections in an assertive and nondiscriminatory manner.” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass criticized the deployment, calling it a “baseless and dangerous attack” on state election processes.

 

The Hill

The Supreme Court has signaled that it may side with Catholic preschools challenging Colorado's universal pre-K program, which requires participating schools to comply with anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ families. The Archdiocese of Denver and two Catholic parishes argue that the policy unfairly excludes religious institutions from public funding because they require enrolled families to support Catholic teachings, including those concerning same-sex relationships. During oral arguments, most conservative justices appeared sympathetic to the schools' religious freedom claims, while liberal justices warned that granting exemptions could undermine civil rights protections and create broader legal uncertainty. Colorado maintains that religious schools are welcome to participate if they accept all eligible children under the same rules as other providers. The case could have significant implications for religious institutions' access to government-funded education programs and the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws. A ruling is expected by June 2027.

 

USA Today

Los Angeles Times

New York Times

Politico

McDonald’s has appointed law firm White & Case to defend itself against proposed class-action lawsuits alleging that its use of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted pricing tools violates U.S. antitrust laws. The lawsuits, filed in federal court in Chicago, claim that McDonald’s coordinated menu prices with independent franchisees using algorithms trained on nonpublic data, allegedly resulting in higher prices for consumers. The legal team includes Jack Pace III, co-leader of White & Case’s antitrust and competition practice. The cases follow an October lawsuit and a Reuters investigation into McDonald’s use of AI to guide menu pricing. McDonald’s, which is due to publish its third-quarter earnings later today, has denied any wrongdoing, maintaining that franchisees independently determine their prices and that AI does not directly set menu prices. The litigation adds regulatory and legal scrutiny to the fast-food chain’s use of AI in its pricing strategy.

 

Reuters

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has said hackers who stole $6.3bn used "fake job interviews" to steal funds. An engineer was contacted through a legitimate job-hunting platform and invited to bogus job interviews with fake company representatives. "Advanced and deceptive" methods were used to build trust, and the job applicant was instructed to download an "assignment" that deployed malicious code. The engineer's compromised computer and a compromised internal AI tool were then leveraged to gain control over two other engineers' laptops and execute the next steps of the attack. The FBI has traced the theft to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group with links to the government. 

 

Nikkei Asia

BBC News

The Guardian

The Times

Federal prosecutors have acknowledged an error in their response to an appeal by Tom Goldstein, the SCOTUSblog co-founder and high-stakes poker player convicted of tax evasion and making false statements on loan applications. Mr. Goldstein’s attorneys argued in a September 10th filing that prosecutors had incorrectly relied on language from 18 U.S.C. Section 2(a), rather than Section 2(b), in connection with jury instructions. In an October 27th response, the government admitted conflating the two provisions but maintained that the mistake did not affect the verdict because the court had not read the disputed Section 2(a) language to jurors. Prosecutors also rejected Mr. Goldstein’s allegations of a Brady violation involving his accountant, Walter Deyhle, and defended the exclusion of text messages involving an individual known as “Kids,” arguing that they constituted inadmissible hearsay. The dispute centers on whether alleged procedural and evidentiary errors warrant relief from Mr. Goldstein’s convictions.

 

ABA Journal

The U.S. has banned imports from Chinese genomics giant BGI Group and two related entities, saying that the companies' goods are made with forced labor. The Department of Homeland Security said the companies partnered with the government in China's Xinjiang region to facilitate "the monitoring, surveillance and repression of ethnic minorities" through genetic testing. The companies deny the claims. The companies' addition to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List creates a presumption that their goods are made with forced labor and can’t enter the U.S. unless importers prove otherwise.

 

Bloomberg

William Nicholson has joined Orrick as a partner in its energy & infrastructure practice in New York. He specializes in advising sponsors, investors, and lenders on project development, finance, and acquisitions across renewable and conventional power sectors. Previously, he was with Kirkland & Ellis.

 

Bloomberg Law

India's IT minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has said the government is open to discussing concerns regarding its new privacy law, which media groups argue threatens press freedom. A coalition of 21 publishers, including Network18 and NDTV, has challenged the law in the Supreme Court, claiming it could lead to pre-censorship and hinder investigative journalism. Vaishnaw assured that journalistic freedom is constitutionally protected, inviting editors to share their suggestions. "Journalistic freedom is guaranteed by the Constitution, and there is no intention to affect that,” Vaishnaw said. "I am inviting all editors. We are happy to take on record all suggestions, and if there is any doubt, the government is open to act accordingly," he added.

 

Khaleej Times Online

A tribunal in Kenya has rejected a consumer-rights group's challenge to plans by Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, to build a replica of his 700,000 barrel-a-day Nigerian oil refinery in the Lamu archipelago, in a decision that paves the way for a $16bn facility that is meant to cut eastern Africa’s complete reliance on imported refined fuel. The Consumers Federation of Kenya had asked the tribunal to order disclosures on the funding and public liabilities arising from the government’s support of the initiative, but the Public Private Partnerships Petition Committee ruled that the group had failed to prove the project is a public-private partnership.

 

Bloomberg

Gallup's latest polling reveals that U.S. employee engagement fell to 29% in the third quarter of 2026, marking its lowest level since 2011. The decline, which was particularly concentrated among remote and hybrid workers, is attributed to organizations adopting artificial intelligence. Gallup's findings suggest that AI adoption may be outpacing necessary communication and managerial support, leading to increased disengagement among employees. Jim Harter, chief scientist for Gallup's workplace management and wellbeing practices, said: “The Q3 findings add to concerns about how well organizations communicate expectations and maintain employee connections across different work arrangements.” The data indicates that engagement has been on a downward trend since its peak of 36% in 2020, with significant declines in clarity of expectations and supervisor support. The psychological disconnect among workers raises concerns about productivity and overall morale. 

 

CNBC