Big Law Business

Marijuana is now legal in about half of the states, but still maintains its illegal status at the federal level. What does this mean for an employer who wants to, or has to, administer drug tests for its employees? We tackle that question on our podcast, On The Merits, with Sean Mack, a partner and co-chair of the cannabis and hemp law practice at the New Jersey firm Pashman Stein. Mack says testing employees for marijuana–or even firing them for testing positive–is now so fraught with employment law issues that it may no longer be worth the hassle. Mack also talks about a case out of Ohio, Fisher v. Airgas, in which an employee who was fired for a false positive marijuana test result won at the federal appellate level. Mack says it's a sign that, in employment law cases, even federal judges are able to look beyond pot's controlled substance status. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Hetal Doshi, the top antitrust litigator at the Department of Justice, says she tries to make the cases her team pursues easy for the average person to understand. "If we are litigating cases inside an echo chamber, or like in a very narrow, technocratic way that only other lawyers can understand, then we're failing to do our jobs," Doshi says on this episode of our podcast, On The Merits. Doshi spoke to reporters Leah Nylen and Danielle Kaye about how this philosophy played into recent cases that blocked mergers in the airline and publishing industries. Doshi also talks about the idea that antitrust laws are meant to protect not only consumers from higher prices, but also to protect workers from lower wages. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The Commerce Department's disastrous rollout of a new payment system left some National Weather Service employees on the hook for their own business expenses, and even led utility companies to shut off power to some critical weather systems due to unpaid bills. Bloomberg Government reporter Jack Fitzpatrick found that even now, months after this system went online, the Department is still working through a backlog of unpaid invoices. And despite a report from its Inspector General, it's still not clear what exactly went wrong and who at the Department is to blame. On this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Fitzpatrick explains what happens when a federal agency can't pay its bills on time and what might happen when the Department expands this troubled payment system in the years to come. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Harvard, NYU, and several other elite universities have been hit with civil rights lawsuits from students who say the schools allow, or at least don't counter, campus antisemitism. Though these suits largely stem from an increase in antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7, attorneys say the groundwork for them was laid with an executive order back in 2019. That's when the Trump administration adopted a broad definition of antisemitism for civil rights claims under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On today's episode of On The Merits, Bloomberg News reporter David Voreacos talks about the litigation and why the policy change could pose challenges for the universities facing the suits. We also hear from attorneys representing Jewish students in two of the suits. They explain why they believe universities should be held accountable for the actions of their students and faculty. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

It's becoming more common for investors to chip in money for a lawsuit in exchange for a share of any payout a party wins, a practice known as litigation finance. But, as a recent Bloomberg Law investigation found, the identities of these litigation funders is often shrouded in mystery—and can have national security implications. Bloomberg Law reporters Emily R. Siegel and John Holland learned about a Russian company with close ties to Vladimir Putin that financed the creditors in US and UK bankruptcy proceedings—even after several of its founders were sanctioned due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Holland and Siegel join our podcast, On The Merits, to explain why attorneys say this was an attempt to use litigation finance to evade international sanctions, and whether it will lead to new rules on this practice. They also talk about how the Russian company came within hours of receiving a more than $6 million payout before a bankruptcy judge put a stop to it. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The

Insurance companies like The Allstate Corp. and State Farm have experienced one too many devastating wildfire seasons in California. Many are looking to exit the market in impacted communities, but a powerful state lawmaker is trying to keep them. Mike McGuire is a Democrat representing a Northern California district directly affected by wildfires, and he just became the top ranking member of the California State Senate. Many of his constituents say they've gotten non-renewal notices or steep rate hikes. He wants to require insurers to issue policies to property owners who take wildfire mitigation measures. On this episode of On The Merits, our California correspondent Andrew Oxford tells us why insurers no longer want to cover climate-vulnerable areas and what politicians like McGuire can do about it. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Generative AI has the potential to transform the legal profession, and the guest on today's episode of our podcast, On The Merits, believes it will. But the tech also has led some lawyers to make embarrassing and costly mistakes. Lawyers have filed briefs in court that contain citations fabricated by AI tools. And a law firm in New York recently got a dressing down from a judge for using AI to estimate the fees it was entitled to. Katherine Forrest, a former federal judge and current partner at the firm Paul Weiss, talks with Bloomberg Law reporter Isabel Gottlieb about why AI isn't appropriate to use in many legal settings—at least not yet. Forrest also goes into some of the useful ways lawyers can take advantage of AI technology right now. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

A quarter of law students surveyed by Bloomberg Law late last year said they self-identify as neurodivergent, an umbrella term for people with ADHD, autism, or another condition that causes their brains to function differently than that of the average person. But the same survey found that more than three times fewer working attorneys identify as neurodivergent. Which means, as more of this upcoming cohort of lawyers enters the workforce, firms may need to change their policies to accommodate them—or, at the very least, to avoid being hit with disability discrimination complaints. Bloomberg Law analyst Jessica Blaemire analyzed the survey data, and also looked at federal data on discrimination complaints specifically related to neurodivergence. She joins our podcast, On The Merits, to talk about what these numbers mean and about what firms can do to make their workplaces more welcoming. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

In a remote part of Nevada, an energy company is trying to build a climate-friendly power plant—but the plant is being blocked by conservationists and a decades old environmental law. A geothermal plant built atop desert hot springs sits half-completed after the discovery of a new toad species in the area, and an environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. Conservation groups are suing, arguing the plant could drive the toad to extinction. But that seemingly puts them at odds with clean energy advocates in the fight against climate change. Bloomberg Law's Daniel Moore and Andrew Satter visited the site and join our podcast, On The Merits. They discuss the plant, the toad, NEPA, and why these "green-on-green" fights could become common as renewable energy projects expand. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

A ruling last month from the Alabama Supreme Court declaring frozen embryos to be legally equivalent to children scared many would-be parents in and out of the state. Late Wednesday night, the state legislature there passed a law meant to ease the worries of both patients receiving in-vitro fertilization services and the doctors who provide those services. But, as Bloomberg Government reporter Alex Ruoff explains in this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, the new law doesn't actually overturn the ruling but instead enacts a narrow liability shield for the reproductive health care field. That has many worrying that access to IVF in Alabama will still be restricted, he says, and looking to Congress for nationwide clarity. Ruoff is joined by Bloomberg Law reporter Celine Castronuovo, who explains the legal minefield now facing IVF doctors and patients, and also why there's little stopping judges in many other states from issuing similar rulings. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us

During the pandemic, Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, or SPACs, were all the rage in the financial markets. They were seen as a faster, easier way to go public that bypasses the laborious process of a typical IPO. But now that the SPAC boom has gone bust, it's clear that some of the companies that did this weren't ready for the scrutiny that comes with being publicly listed. Bloomberg Tax & Accounting reporter Nicola M. White looked into one of these companies, Lottery.com. What she found was a head-spinning story of financial mismanagement that involved an exiled Russian businessman, an ill-timed Monaco yacht party, and a very large loan from a Southern California pastor. On this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Nicola unpacks how things went so wrong for Lottery.com and how damaging it can be for a company to go public before it's ready. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Since a landmark Supreme Court decision against it three years ago, the NCAA has suffered a string of legal losses in its effort to block changes to how, and whether, its athletes are compensated. Now, it's trying to turn this trend around by moving the fight from the courthouse to Capitol Hill. The NCAA has at least two allies in Congress, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.). The pair have introduced legislation that would roll back many of the NCAA's recent adverse court decisions. In the meantime, the setbacks for the NCAA keep coming. A court decision last week forced it to allow licensing deals for recruits, and next week Dartmouth College athletes will vote on whether to unionize. On this episode of our podcast, Bloomberg Law reporters Diego Areas Munhoz, Katie Arcieri, and Parker Purifoy join us to talk about what type of legal problems the NCAA is having, what to expect from the upcoming union vote at Dartmouth, and what's happening in Congress. Do you have feedback on this epis

Being a white collar defense lawyer requires a special type of soft skill: the ability to effectively counsel a titan of industry more accustomed to giving orders, not taking them. But the guests on today's episode of our podcast, On The Merits, say this type of work has gotten a little harder because many white collar clients now believe the government agencies prosecuting them are acting in bad faith. J. Nicholas Bunch and Kit Addleman, two defense attorneys with the firm Haynes Boone, discuss how the country's contentious political climate is shaping this mindset and how to overcome it to secure the best outcome for your client—in some instances, despite themselves. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The cost of an attorney is far out of reach for many middle- and low-income Americans. This has serious negative consequences on both society and the rule of law, according to Ray Brescia, a professor at Albany Law School and author of a new book about the future of the legal profession. Increasing the supply of attorneys is one potential solution. But Brescia says another is to turn the legal profession into a commodity with the help of technology—specifically, artificial intelligence. In this episode of our news podcast, On The Merits, Brescia talks about the ways that AI and other technology broaden the public's access to justice, while also potentially disrupting the legal industry itself. Brescia discusses these issues and more in his new book, "Lawyer Nation: The Past, Present, and Future of the American Legal Profession." Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Many have long suspected that the legal profession, and so-called "Big Law" in particular, has a liberal lean. A new study looking at Supreme Court amicus briefs supports this suspicion with some of the strongest empirical evidence yet. The study found that firms overwhelmingly choose liberal clients instead of conservative clients when working on pro bono cases before SCOTUS. Legal journalist and Bloomberg Law columnist David Lat says this finding isn't surprising, but what's interesting is thinking about why this is and what, if anything, firms should do about it. Lat joins our podcast, On The Merits, to talk about ideological diversity in the legal industry and why even Jones Day, one of the most conservative firms in the country, files lots of briefs on behalf of liberal clients. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Elon Musk was unhappy, to put it mildly, with the ruling last week from a Delaware court that invalidated a $55.8 billion pay package he received from Tesla, his electric car company. Shortly afterward, he threatened to move Tesla's incorporation out of Delaware to a less shareholder-friendly state. But, as we discuss in this episode of our news podcast, On The Merits, doing so will likely just land Musk back in the same Delaware court that's the target of his current ire. Bloomberg Law reporters Mike Leonard and Jennifer Kay explain why this court voided Musk's massive pay package, and why the things about Delaware that aggravate him are also what make it the corporate home for nearly every public company in America. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

November's general election is still nine months away, but the preliminary battles between Republicans and Democrats that will shape this year's Congressional races are about to begin. States will begin to hold congressional primaries starting in early March. And special elections will continue to play out throughout the year, including next week's contest to replace disgraced former Rep. George Santos (R-NY). Bloomberg Government's Greg Giroux joins us on this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, to talk about which races to watch in the months ahead, why retaining the Senate will be difficult for Democrats, and why neither party has the upper hand in the House. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The legal industry used to have a stigma against attorneys representing legal malpractice clients who are suing other attorneys. But that stigma, if it still exists, has definitely faded. Data from legal malpractice insurers shows that the dollar amount of these suits has ballooned in recent years. That includes one of the most high profile suits: Elon Musk's claim against the mega-firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz disputing $90 million in fees for work on his Twitter purchase. On this episode of our news podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law reporter Tatyana Monnay talks about how firms handle legal malpractice suits, why they're more common in bad economic times, and how insurance plays into all of this. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The Republican National Committee's release of an AI-generated ad last year turned a lot of heads among professional campaigners, and it led some of them to say this new tech has no place in political races. But is this stance sensible, or is it another instance of "AI panic" sweeping the culture? Jessica Furst Johnson, an election law attorney with the firm Holtzman Vogel who's worked in Republican politics for years, thinks it's closer to the latter. Johnson joins our podcast, On The Merits, to talk about how AI, when used properly, could be an effective—not to mention cost-saving—tool for cash-strapped campaigns. She also discusses how efforts to outright ban the technology from elections could run afoul of candidates' First Amendment rights. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

John Lewis, the late Congressman and civil rights hero, authored a law in 2007 that tasked the Justice Department with reopening and reinvestigating racially-motivated killings from the Civil Rights era. More than 15 years later, the Justice Department has failed to bring charges in nearly all of the cold cases it has reopened. On our weekly podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law reporter Ronnie Greene talks about why the DOJ has had such little success prosecuting these cases. Moreover, he says, civil rights advocates worry the Justice Department's lack of results may cause Congress to lose patience with the program and defund it. Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.