Keep your finger on the legal world's pulse

Bloomberg reports that the U.S. government may have to pay millions of dollars in legal bills to successful challengers of the Trump administration's executive actions and policies. Attorneys have sought fees exceeding $100,000 in at least 10 cases over the past year, totalling more than $2.5m, according to a Bloomberg analysis of court records. Federal agencies can be required to pay attorneys’ fees when they lose in court under the Equal Access to Justice Act of 1980, which entitles “prevailing parties” to recoup legal expenses if the government’s position wasn’t “substantially justified.” Steven Brown, a Houston-based lawyer who is seeking more than $180,000 in fees in lawsuits contesting the Trump administration’s efforts to cancel foreign students’ legal status, observed: “It’s important that when the government can’t justify itself, courts can award costs.”

 

Bloomberg

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Goldman Sachs quizzed Kathy Ruemmler - who stepped down ​as the bank's chief legal officer and general counsel at the end of June - in 2023, 2025 and 2026 about links to Jeffrey Epstein amid mounting scrutiny of the late convicted ​sex offender's ties, according to a transcript released by ‌the U.S. Congress House Oversight Committee. "I wouldn't characterize it as investigation, but there were reviews done and questions asked. And that occurred in 2023. That occurred again in 2025, in 2026, as there was increasing media scrutiny around ​anybody who had ever sat in the same room with Jeffrey Epstein," Ruemmler said, ​according to the transcript. Reuters says the hitherto unreported internal Goldman Sachs inquiries could raise further questions over the bank's decision to retain Ruemmler.

 

Reuters

The Senate Judiciary Committee's planned vote on Todd Blanche's nomination as attorney general is in doubt after Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina raised objections to provisions in a Justice Department settlement resolving President Donald Trump's lawsuit against the IRS. The senators say Mr. Blanche has failed to provide written assurances that he will eliminate parts of the agreement, including a proposed $1.8bn compensation fund, while also seeking changes to a provision that would shield Mr. Trump and his family from certain IRS audits. Mr. Cornyn said he is "not prepared to vote yes" without clear written commitments from the Justice Department, potentially jeopardizing Mr. Blanche's confirmation because he cannot afford to lose any Republican support on the committee. While Mr. Tillis said he believes the dispute is largely a matter of finalizing the language, Mr. Cornyn has questioned why the administration has not formally revised the tax audit provision, arguing it could grant Mr. Trump protections unavailable to other taxpayers.

 

CNBC

Forbes

New York Times

PBS News

The Federal Trade Commission, alongside Utah and California, has filed a lawsuit against Hims & Hers Health, alleging deceptive practices regarding billing and unauthorized data sharing with advertisers including Meta and Snap. The complaint accuses the telehealth company of enrolling consumers in recurring subscription plans before they consult with medical providers and complicating the cancellation process. Hims & Hers has disputes the claims, saying the lawsuit misrepresents evidence and industry standards.

 

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

The IRS and the Social Security Administration (SSA) have suspended the approval of advanced annual and sick leave, preventing employees from borrowing against future leave accruals until further notice. Both agencies said the policy change is intended to reduce large outstanding advanced leave balances, ensure employees are available to deliver public services, and address cases where workers are unlikely to repay the leave they have already used. Pending requests for advanced leave will be denied, although employees may still use accrued leave, participate in the Voluntary Leave Transfer Program, or take unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. The decision has drawn strong criticism from federal employee unions, which argue that advanced leave serves as an essential safety net for workers facing serious illnesses, family caregiving responsibilities, or other emergencies.

 

Government Executive

Elon Musk has dismissed as "Absurdly fake news" a Wall Street Journal report that executives at his electric ​vehicle company Tesla have been told to prepare for a separation of its China business ahead of a potential merger with ‌his space exploration firm SpaceX. Separately, a Tesla China representative said the report was “false information.” Tesla advisers have discussed options including a spinoff, sale or closure of the China business, according to another person familiar with the situation, the report said. Separating Tesla’s China operations would be a necessary move before any merger given SpaceX’s work as a major U.S. defense contractor.

 

Bloomberg

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

Anthropic has disclosed that its Claude AI models gained unauthorized access to three outside companies during an evaluation of its cyber-offensive tasks, days after rival OpenAI ⁠revealed a rogue agent had gone on a hacking spree at AI ​firm Hugging ‌Face. “Claude compromised the ​impacted ​organizations’ infrastructure using ​basic techniques, such as ​exploiting ‌weak passwords and ​unauthenticated ​endpoints,” Anthropic said. Two of the organizations were ​unaware of the activity ‌before being contacted, and Anthropic said that ​it was still trying to reach the third. “We discovered these incidents after a proactive review of our cybersecurity evaluation transcripts,” the company said in a statement.

 

CNBC

Financial Times

The Register

BBC News

The Guardian

William Shaughnessy has joined Greenberg Traurig as a shareholder in its construction law practice in Atlanta. He brings extensive experience advising owners, developers, contractors, and investors on complex construction and infrastructure projects both in the U.S. and internationally. His expertise covers the entire project lifecycle, including contract negotiation, risk management, and dispute resolution. Shaughnessy previously worked at Jones Walker.

 

Bloomberg Law

The EU's comprehensive AI law launches on Sunday to ensure Europeans immediately know whether the online content they see is real or fake. Companies must make sure their AI systems, including chatbots, make it clear to users they are AI. When an image or text has been created using AI, it must be labeled as such - for example, by integrating watermarks and other markers to enable the easy detection of AI-generated content. Firms face large fines if they don't comply. An EU official said that since AI is "making it increasingly difficult for all of us to distinguish what is real from what is synthetic," the rules seek to "preserve citizens' ability to trust what they see, hear, and read." Karen Massin, who leads Google's Government Affairs & Public Policy team in Brussels, warned of "regulatory complexity" that could prove counterproductive, and "risks confusing the people these rules are meant to help."

 

Le Monde

A landmark lawsuit filed in 2019 by Brazil's Office of the Attorney General (Advocacia-Geral da União, or AGU) seeking to hold the country's largest cigarette manufacturers financially accountable for the public health costs caused by smoking has reached a critical milestone. All legal submissions are now complete, including an opinion from the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office supporting the AGU's claims. The case is now awaiting a decision before the Federal Court in Porto Alegre on whether the tobacco companies are liable for the harms caused by the marketing and sale of their cigarettes in Brazil.  

 

The Globe and Mail

The co-founder of AI startup LemonLime has apologized after offering instant job interviews to networking event attendees who agreed to get inked with a company logo. Jordan Zietz, posting on LinkedIn, said the idea was to “meet exceptional people, and find out which of them are just as crazy as we are,” adding that he had brought a tattoo artist along to the event. Seven people, he wrote, took him up on the offer. The Wall Street Journal reports that “online outrage erupted almost instantly.” Mark Pincus, the former CEO of game company Zynga, observed: “It’s novel, but I don’t like it . . . You’re asking somebody to get the tattoo before we even know if we’re going to hire them - that’s not OK.” 

 

Wall Street Journal