Dress code expectations for lawyers are evoked in the name of professionalism and steeped in tradition. But advocates say that centuries-old grooming dictates have negatively impacted people of color, women, those with disabilities and LGBTQ folks and need to evolve. Many question their necessity.

Forensic veterinary investigations are a growing force in animal law, with vets working at the intersection of law and veterinary medicine. On any given case, the scope of the vet’s work runs from crime scene investigations, lab work, animal autopsies and report writing to serving as an expert witness in court.

“The tide is definitely changing on the perception of the importance of investigating animal cruelty,” says Martha Smith-Blackmore, president of Forensic Veterinary Investigations in Boston. “Crimes against animals do not exist in a vacuum.”

As Big Tech companies like Amazon and Google have come under scrutiny in recent years for their economic power, antitrust challenges are no longer being driven just by players in the federal government. As in California, the states are now coming for the companies too.

Media law experts say they are seeing several developing trends in libel and defamation cases. Those trends include forum shopping, having an increasingly political component, adding allegations unrelated to the defamation claim, increasingly naming individual reporters as defendants and demanding huge damage awards.

A federal appeals court has refused to revive a lawsuit claiming that Polsinelli breached a flat-fee agreement to provide “legal counsel” by sending work covered by the agreement to another law firm that billed Polsinelli’s client for its trial work.

The court on Oct. 2 starts what might turn out to be “another big term,” but it is opening with a more modest docket. Still, there are big cases on gun rights, social media use by government officials and the scope of the so-called administrative state.

A University of Arizona student who was physically assaulted by a football player in off-campus housing may sue for an alleged Title IX violation, an en banc federal appeals court ruled 8-3 Monday.

“Ideas are destiny. Mine sent me to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, to platoon leadership in Afghanistan, to the intensive care unit—and, eventually, to law.”

The Children’s Rights Litigation Committee “has just been a fantastic banger of the drum that kids need true representation, just like anyone else who’s inside a system that is making incredibly impactful decisions about their lives,” says Angela Vigil, the longest-serving member of the committee.

JoAnne Epps, the acting president of Temple University and its former law school dean, died Wednesday after becoming ill at a campus memorial service. She was 72 years old.

Updated: A former international corporate attorney at Polsinelli has alleged that she experienced “callous gaslighting” and retaliation by the law firm when she complained about sexual harassment by two influential senior partners.

Through the next year, the ABA’s Task Force on the Law and Artificial Intelligence will provide practical information to help lawyers navigate and responsibly use AI, as well as recommendations and reports on several key issues.

Republican Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is facing ethics charges for comments that he made about his investigation of an “abortion activist acting as a doctor” who provided an abortion to a 10-year-old girl.

Following the recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion that found race-conscious college admissions to be unconstitutional, some universities worry their minority outreach programs may be in jeopardy.

“I often get asked a version of this question: ‘What happens when you know you’re going to lose?’” U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said this week in an appearance at the University of Wisconsin Law School. “I’m an incorrigible optimist.”

A man who called off his engagement is entitled to the return of a $70,000-plus engagement ring and a wedding band, the Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled in a 2-1 decision.

“Lawyers take an oath, and they have a responsibility that’s not just to their client but to the larger legal community, to the profession and to democracy. When you have lawyers who are working against the rule of law [it’s important] to bring a comprehensive system of accountability,” says Michael J. Teter, the managing director of the 65 Project.

A nonprofit group isn’t liable for copyright infringement when it posts technical standards online that have been developed by private groups and then incorporated into government regulations, a federal appeals court has ruled.

An Illinois hearing board has recommended suspension for a former federal prosecutor and Polsinelli shareholder who was temporarily barred from the criminal courthouse in Chicago and held in criminal contempt of court four times.

The top court in Massachusetts has ruled that a school for developmentally and intellectually disabled people can continue to use electric skin shock therapy as permitted by a 1987 consent decree.

The University of Oregon School of Law and the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law have demonstrated compliance with accreditation standards, according to the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.

While family separations have long been the norm when treating babies born dependent on substances, recent research suggests allowing a mother to stay with and care for her infant significantly improves their health outcomes.