United States: Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration

A federal judge has ruled that documents created by a client using a commercial AI tool and shared with counsel are not protected by attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine. The landmark decision raises critical questions about confidentiality expectations when clients use consumer-grade AI platforms to prepare legal materials, potentially exposing sensitive litigation strategies to discovery.

A federal court has ruled that prompts entered into consumer AI chatbots and their responses are discoverable evidence, not protected by attorney-client privilege or work-product doctrine.

The Office of Inspector General found that three Department of Labor agencies failed to establish proper controls for information-sharing agreements with private-sector plaintiff-side law firms, potentially giving some entities an unfair advantage through access to privileged investigative information.

Tennessee's retainage law has become unsettled following a 2020 legislative amendment, creating significant uncertainty for construction industry stakeholders about when retainage funds must be released after substantial completion. Contractors and owners now face starkly different legal interpretations of the same statute, with trial courts reaching opposite conclusions on essentially identical facts and no appellate guidance to resolve the conflict.

Controlling the meaning of claim terms is essential to drafting strong patents, while pre-empting common claim construction issues is crucial to the scope of patents when it comes to infringement. In Socket Solutions, LLC v. Import Global, LLC, No. 2025-1121 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 4, 2026), the Federal Circuit vacated the district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction due to multiple errors in claim construction.

In the world of mergers and acquisitions, “sandbagging” refers to a buyer’s decision to proceed with a transaction despite discovering—before closing—that one or more of the seller’s representations and warranties are false. The buyer closes the deal anyway, then later asserts an indemnification claim for the breach.

New York's 2026 legislative amendments fundamentally alter motor vehicle litigation by introducing modified comparative fault principles, eliminating the 90/180-day serious injury category, and redefining when liability is established for prejudgment interest purposes. These coordinated reforms to the CPLR and Insurance Law create significant implications for how fault is allocated and when plaintiffs can recover damages in automobile accident cases.

The New Jersey Supreme Court's recent ruling on Daniel's Law has created a pivotal moment in the ongoing legal battle between public officials and data brokers.

Controlling the meaning of claim terms is essential to drafting strong patents, while pre-empting common claim construction issues is crucial to the scope of patents when it comes to infringement. In Socket Solutions, LLC v. Import Global, LLC, No. 2025-1121 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 4, 2026), the Federal Circuit vacated the district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction due to multiple errors in claim construction.

For hundreds of years, the world’s sovereign nations refused to allow any other foreign sovereign to be sued in their courts without the sovereign’s consent. The guiding principle was “absolute sovereign immunity,” an outgrowth of the ancient legal precept rex non potest peccare, understood to mean “the king can do no wrong.” The principle also was recognized as wise foreign policy because it extended "grace and comity" to other sovereigns.

The Texas Supreme Court's decision in Paxton v. City of Austin reveals a procedural trap for businesses suing the government: winning the right to be heard can paradoxically freeze the entire case. When governmental defendants challenge a court's jurisdiction and lose, they can immediately appeal, putting all proceedings on hold—potentially for months or years.

WilmerHale partners analyze three pivotal Supreme Court rulings from the 2025-2026 term that reshape the landscape for transnational litigation, examining how these decisions affect corporate liability...