The Judiciary is making progress on three key initiatives: modernizing case-management technology, authority to manage mission-essential Judiciary properties, and setting policy on AI use, the Judicial Conference of the United States was told today.
Judiciary News – United States Courts… Read the rest
I’ve worked with lawyers who ask for a company research report before a meeting, receive a beautifully prepared document and then admit they only had time to skim the first page. I’ve also seen business development teams spend hours gathering information about a prospect without knowing exactly what the lawyer plans to do with it. Both situations illustrate a common challenge in law firm business development: we have access to an enormous amount of information, but we don’t always spend … Read the rest
Neil Duxbury
The General Law Renaissance and the Common Law
Abstract
Of late, there has emerged an important body of legal scholarship sympathetically reassessing the concept of “general law” – unwritten legal norms discoverable by courts. This article shows that these reassessments run up against a problem when the general law in question is common law. The problem arises from a question: what makes common law valid as law in the first place? In England, the answer is that common-law … Read the rest
Check out the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s opinion in Ramirez v. City of Texas City, No. 25-40475 (Sep. 3, 2026), in which the court concluded that a property owner raising a procedural due process claim properly invoked his right to have that claim tried by a jury.
[Disclosure: this is from our shop.]
After a fire caused extensive but repairable damage to Ramirez’s home, the city labeled the home “substandard” and demanded he do something. … Read the rest
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has advised the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts that funds are available to transfer to the Judiciary to make additional payments to eligible Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustees for fiscal year 2025.
Judiciary News – United States Courts… Read the rest
Nobody likes the grammar police. Patent lawyers, unfortunately, may be the exception.
In Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Pfizer Inc. No. 2025-1427 (Fed. Cir. June 23, 2026), one character did a lot of damage. The difference between C2 and C1 cost Enanta the priority date of its provisional application—and led the Federal Circuit to affirm that the challenged claims were anticipated.
Turns out proofreading really can be worth millions.
But the case raises a more interesting question: Even if Enanta had … Read the rest
The Air We Breathe – Indoor Air Quality Is Becoming a Real Estate Issue
The most dangerous environmental threat is the one we breathe every day. Air pollution is the world’s largest environmental health risk, responsible for roughly 7 million premature deaths each year, according to the World Health Organization.
For real estate owners, however, the more surprising issue may be what happens inside the building.
A now widely quoted WHO assessment released this summer found that indoor … Read the rest
For many employees, the benefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle aren’t just physical; they are financial. Through health-contingent wellness programs, employers can offer monetary rewards or reduced health insurance costs to employees who achieve specified health-related goals. These programs may focus on nutrition, weight loss, tobacco cessation, fitness, substance abuse assistance, stress management, or general health education.
However, determining what rewards employees are eligible for, and when those rewards must be provided, has long presented a compliance challenge for employers. … Read the rest