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The <keyword id="20055654" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bar-Council-of-India" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Bar Council of India" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Bar Council of India">Bar Council of India</keyword> (<keyword id="20055655" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bci" source="keywords">BCI</keyword>) has directed all <keyword id="22332741" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="State-Bar-Councils" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="State Bar Councils" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="State Bar Councils">State Bar Councils</keyword> to take stringent <keyword id="22258153" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="disciplinary-actions" source="keywords">disciplinary actions</keyword> against <keyword id="21509125" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="advocates" source="keywords">advocates</keyword> found advertising or seeking work through online portals, which is a direct violation of the Bar Council of India rules. The Bar Council of India has issued directives and cease and desist notices in compliance with a judgment pronounced on July 3, 2024 by the <keyword id="19900621" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Madras-High-Court" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Madras High Court" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Madras High Court">Madras High Court</keyword>. The judgment underscores that the legal profession is a noble service to society and not a business driven by profit motives. In this regard, BCI directs the online platform to remove all listings, profiles, and advertisements related to <keyword id="22033472" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="legal-practice" source="keywords">legal practice</keyword>s by advocates immediately and no later than four weeks from the date of the notice. Cease and desist any operations enabling the advertisement or solicitation of legal practice by advocates. Submit a detailed compliance report outlining the actions taken to the BCI by August 10, 2024 Failure to comply with these directives will result in the BCI initiating legal proceedings and seeking appropriate penalties against the non-compliant organizations, stated BCI. All portals, <keyword id="19984289" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="online-platforms" source="keywords">online platforms</keyword>, and advocates found in violation of Rule-36 of the Bar Council of India Rules are hereby issued a public notice to ensure strict compliance with these Rules immediately. Any advertisements contravening the aforementioned Rule must be withdrawn forthwith, stated BCI. Practices of online platforms offering lawyer services were examined and found to be in violation of the <keyword id="22332742" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="BCI-Rules" source="keywords">BCI Rules</keyword>. The permissibility of <keyword id="22332740" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="lawyers-advertising" source="keywords">lawyers advertising</keyword> and soliciting work was scrutinized and deemed inappropriate. The involvement of online intermediaries in facilitating lawyer services was assessed and found to be in breach of professional conduct standards. The court ruled that online platforms cannot seek protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act for activities illegal under the Advocates Act and BCI Rules, added Bar Council of India's statement. Recently Madras High Court directed BCI to issue Circulars/Instructions/Guidelines to the State Bar Councils to initiate disciplinary proceedings for misconduct against the Advocate's advertising, soliciting works directly or indirectly, whether by circulars, advertisements, touts, personal communication, interviews not warranted by personal relations, furnishing or inspiring newspaper comments or producing his photographs to be published in connection with the case where he is engaged or concerned.

BCI directs State Bar Councils to take action against lawyers advertising, seeking work through online portals

<ul class="summary-list"><li>PowerSchool sells student data without parents' informed consent, a federal lawsuit alleges.</li><li>The edtech giant calls the lawsuit's allegations "unfounded and inaccurate."</li></ul>It's been 10 years since Emily Cherkin helped her son log onto a school computer on his first day of Kindergarten."He can't even write his name. Why am I teaching a five-year-old control-alt-delete?" she remembers asking herself.Cherkin, a Seattle mother of two, former teacher, and author of the new parenting guide <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=emily+cherkin+the+screentime+solution&amp;rlz=1C5GCEM_enUS1094US1095&amp;oq=emily+cherkin+the+screentime+solution&amp;gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRigATIHCAYQIRirAtIBCTEwMzY5ajBqN6gCALACAA&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8">"The Screentime Solution,"</a> is now the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that alleges the education technology giant PowerSchool is selling student data, including health and disciplinary records, to its third-party "partners," and doing so without the informed consent of kids or parents.The lawsuit, filed in May in federal court in San Francisco, takes on the world's largest provider of cloud-based software for K-12 schools.PowerSchool, based in Folsom, California, manages data and crunches it into what it calls "analytics and insights" for more than 60 million students and their educators, including <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.powerschool.com/global/north-america/united-states/">at 90 of the top 100 US school systems by enrollment size</a>.Boston-based private equity firm <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rak-garg-bain-capital-ventures-youngest-partner-2024-7">Bain Capital</a> acquired PowerSchool for $5.6 billion in a deal finalized October 1. PowerSchool <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.powerschool.com/bain-capital/#:~:text=(%E2%80%9CPowerSchool%E2%80%9D%20or%20the%20%E2%80%9C,value%20of%20approximately%20%245.6%20billion.">CEO Hardeep Gulati said</a> the merger will help the company expand its award-winning products, including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.powerschool.com/powerschool-ai/powerbuddy/?utm_id=ps00032&amp;utm_campaign=powerschool_powerbuddy_paid-search__pkg00035&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=paid-search&amp;utm_content=text-only&amp;_bk=powerbuddy&amp;_bt=702266406463&amp;_bm=e&amp;_bn=g&amp;_bg=161909434485&amp;cq_plac=&amp;cq_net=g&amp;cq_pos=&amp;cq_med=&amp;cq_plt=gp&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwsoe5BhDiARIsAOXVoUucdfp2kkZDiwXnqSDBRfimw6rztJoPhTxmV5nwd8F7Y9ZtUlGzj3IaAqMIEALw_wcB">PowerBuddy,</a> its new generative AI platform.With two parents and their children as sole plaintiffs, the Cherkin lawsuit may seem a small effort by comparison, but it's throwing big rocks.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25260275-cherkin-v-powerschool-complaint-20240506">The lawsuit</a> caps Cherkin's decade of concern about children and screen time. It calls PowerSchool a "multibillion-dollar surveillance-technology empire." It demands that the company pay back untold millions of dollars earned by selling student data "products" to more than 100 of its <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.powerschool.com/company/partners/">partners</a>, including educational consulting firms and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25259171-powerschool-guide-to-p20w">government policymakers</a>.One partner, an educational consulting firm, offers marketing guidance to colleges, trade schools, and the military based on data from the 6 million high school students who use PowerSchool's Naviance college-planning software, the lawsuit alleges."PowerSchool collects this highly sensitive information under the guise of educational support," the lawsuit alleges, "but in fact collects it for its own commercial gain," while hiding behind "opaque terms of service such that no one can understand."PowerSchool is throwing big rocks back.The days of "spiral-bound grading books" are long over, the edtech company's lawyers counter in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25260257-cherkin-v-powerschool-motion-to-dismiss-20240722">a motion to dismiss</a> filed in July.The motion argues that PowerSchools is legally allowed to collect data voluntarily submitted by students and administrators, along with metadata about "unique device identifiers," IP addresses, and "cookie data."PowerSchool also argues that it "adequately discloses" what data it collects.PowerSchool spokesman Austin Zerbach told BI that no PowerSchool product sells any form of student data. "PowerSchool does not endorse or support any use of student educational records other than as agreed to by our customers, the schools and districts controlling the student education record, nor do we conduct targeted advertising with personal data of students," PowerSchool spokesman Zerbach said in a written statement.<h2 id="d912114d-9964-433f-80b6-1ed9123210db">A 345-terabyte trove of data</h2>The information PowerSchool collects from students is "virtually unlimited," the lawsuit says.It lists more than 50 kinds of data that PowerSchool says in public disclosures it "may" collect, including "extracurricular program membership" and "student assessments."<div type="image" title="Categories of data PowerSchool public disclosures mention the edtech company &quot;may&quot; collect." height="1076" width="766" msid="114945245" hostid="261" sizebytes="23708"></div>PowerSchool also tells users it may collect "student behavior data" and information about "physical and mental disabilities," according to the lawsuit.PowerSchool's "data trove" totals some "345 terabytes of data collected from 440 school districts," and includes information from nearly 20 edtech companies it has acquired since 2015, including Schoololgy and Kickboard, a "student behavior management and reporting program," the lawsuit alleges.What's done with the data?The lawsuit alleges that in addition to being aggregated into lucrative analytics "products" for third parties, it's used to "train its AI technologies," including a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.powerschool.com/powerschool-ai/powerbuddy/?utm_id=ps00032&amp;utm_campaign=powerschool_powerbuddy_paid-search__pkg00035&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=paid-search&amp;utm_content=text-only&amp;_bk=powerschool%20powerbuddy&amp;_bt=702266406463&amp;_bm=e&amp;_bn=g&amp;_bg=161909434485&amp;cq_plac=&amp;cq_net=g&amp;cq_pos=&amp;cq_med=&amp;cq_plt=gp&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw-JG5BhBZEiwAt7JR6wXcuxvpa0vkLTae4QJjMPAdsAXLaqF5-fArp6Ea0cuLbThmuvw7YBoCCiwQAvD_BwE">PowerBuddy</a> chatbot marketed not only to educators but to "state officials" for the purpose of "workforce planning," the lawsuit alleges.<div type="image" title="PowerSchool also publicly discloses that it may collect &quot;student behavior data&quot; and records of &quot;physical and mental disabilities,&quot; the Cherkin lawsuit alleges." height="1512" width="822" msid="114945247" hostid="261" sizebytes="38602"></div><h2 id="58f65212-0185-4112-b583-39eb1ada3ba6">The data is anonymized</h2>The data shared with third parties is anonymized, but the lawsuit raises concerns that it is so "granular" that it can be reverse-engineered to identify individual students."There are data brokers — they're called identity-resolution companies — that collect information from internet users, re-identify the data, and then sell it," said attorney Julie Liddell, whose Austin, Texas-based <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://edtech.law/about-us/">EdTech Law Center </a>represents Cherkin in the suit.Technology can easily re-identify anonymized student data, said Chad Marlow, senior policy counsel at the ACLU, where he focuses on privacy, surveillance, and technology issues."A generation ago, the most private student data was kept in a locked steel file cabinet in the principal's office, and it was very hard to share that information," Marlow said. "Nowadays the ability to share and reshare that data can be as easy as pressing a key on a keyboard."<div type="image" title="PowerSchool's marketing of student data systems to state government agencies." height="2394" width="1955" msid="114945234" hostid="261" sizebytes="89902"></div>Among the "products" PowerSchool offers educators, policymakers, and government agencies is its <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.powerschool.com/college-career-and-life-readiness-cloud/connected-intelligence-p20w/">"P20W Cradle-to-Career State Data Systems."</a>Its data is touted as "longitudinal," captured from the same students from K-12 through post-secondary education and into the workforce.<div type="image" title="PowerSchool markets &quot;efficient access to both historical and current data&quot; from students to government agencies." height="1486" width="1744" msid="114945238" hostid="261" sizebytes="109230"></div>"It's telling state and local governments, 'You will not get a more robust picture of children, starting from their earliest days,'" said Liddell."And this is not just for educational services," she told BI. "It's for workforce planning, for healthcare planning, for juvenile justice and law enforcement planning," she said.PowerSchool's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, including on grounds that it misapplies the law and fails to state "actual damages," will be argued in San Francisco on Thursday before US District Judge James Donato."The claims made in the complaint are unfounded and inaccurate," Zerbach, the PowerSchool spokesman, told BI.The company "strictly and proactively follows all legal, regulatory, and voluntary requirements for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.powerschool.com/privacy/">protecting student privacy</a>," the statement said, pointing to PowerSchool's online "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.powerschool.com/blog/commitment-to-protecting-student-data-privacy/">commitment to protecting student data privacy.</a>""No PowerSchool product, including Connected Intelligence P20W, sells any form of student data," the spokesman said. "Connected Intelligence P20W provides a unified, secure, and integrated platform for education and government agencies to securely unify, integrate, and access their own source system data in a state-specific data cloud. As with all PowerSchool products, only authorized users have data access with stringent data governance as defined by the state agency. "PowerSchool began selling software to help schools track grades, attendance, and enrollment in 1996.Apple purchased the company for $62 million in 2001, then sold it to Vista Equity Partners in 2015. Vista Equity retains a minority investment stake, as does Onex Partners, according to PowerSchool's Bain merger announcement.When the deal closed on October 1, shares of the edtech leader, which had been trading as PWSC, were delisted from the NYSE.The Bain-PowerSchool deal comes on the heels of global investment firm KKR &amp; Co. Inc's $4.8 billion acquisition of the Salt Lake City-based edtech firm Instructure Holdings, Inc., <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/instructure-to-be-acquired-by-kkr-for-4-8-billion-302206622.html">announced in July.</a>"It's unsurprising that private equity firms are increasingly interested in acquiring companies that have access to troves of highly valuable data," Liddell told BI.As a private company, "they will no longer be legally bound to make even the minimum disclosures required by a public company," she said.A spokesperson for Bain Capital did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

A lawsuit accuses Bain Capital's PowerSchool of trafficking in student data. The edtech giant says everything it does is legal.

After a full day of meetings at Julie, a startup that sells a morning-after pill, CEO Amanda E/J Morrison jumped a flight from New York to Boston and headed to a small, private college, where a trivia night awaited her. Dozens of students shuffled into a classroom with plates of chicken tenders, Texas toast, and bright blue boxes of the emergency contraceptive.Morrison had worked with the Planned Parenthood Generation Action club at Suffolk University to sponsor the event, part of Julie's efforts to win a new generation of consumers. However, she had another, more pressing reason for being there. Julie is doing more campus events to clear up some of the confusion about emergency contraception — namely, that it isn't medication abortion.Standing at the head of the classroom, Morrison read off a projector screen, "Emergency contraceptives like Julie are legal in how many states? 25, 48, 50, 37." Students tapped their answers into a quiz app. "It's 37," Lily, a spirited sophomore, whispered to her teammates.In a minute, the correct answer appeared on screen, and the quiet chatter rose to a clamor. Half the teams said 37 states."Fifty states, guys. It's everywhere," Morrison said.When asked why she said 37, Lily said, "Just the way things are going."In states that outlaw abortion, some patients and politicians worry that contraception could be in legal jeopardy, too. There's no federal law preserving access to birth control, rather, a patchwork of state laws and court decisions holding it in place. Another Trump term <a target="_blank" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/29/trump-birth-control-contraception-00159555">could change that</a>.For Julie, "that's the million dollar question of this election," Morrison said.<div type="image" title="TK" height="2000" width="2667" msid="114460252" hostid="261" sizebytes="193282"></div>"We're not worried about some big ban happening in the first hundred days. But how those decisions trickle down — what is presented in Congress as a bill, how the Supreme Court reacts, what trickles down to the states — becomes a real secondary concern," she said.Founders of women's health startups feel doubly invested in this election, one of the closest presidential races of the century. Half a dozen founders and investors of women's health companies, all women, told Business Insider that if Vice President Kamala Harris wins, it's business as usual. They said another Trump victory creates uncertainty for reproductive health startups, from period trackers to online abortion clinics to embryo banks.<div type="image" title="TK" height="1610" width="2147" msid="114460254" hostid="261" sizebytes="109206"></div>While Harris's presidential campaign has been marked by unrelenting support for reproductive healthcare, including contraception and abortions, Trump's position has been a moving target.The former president suggested <a target="_blank" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/29/trump-birth-control-contraception-00159555">in May</a> that he was "looking at" restrictions on birth control, then walked that position back in a social media post later that day. During the September presidential debate, he called himself a "leader" on IVF, a move that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/12/trump-ivf-gop-roe-abortion-00178760">angered</a> parts of his base that have sought to restrict fertility treatments. He said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-says-he-would-veto-federal-abortion-ban/">in October</a> that he'd veto a national abortion ban after deflecting the question for months but would support states ordaining their own abortion bans.Trump's waffling on reproductive rights has put founders of women's health startups on notice. "It is one of the major issues that we're discussing and that our CEOs are focused on — how to continue to provide care to women, especially women of childbearing age," said Trish Costello, founder of Portfolia, an investing platform that pools money from female accredited investors.The day after the presidential debate, Mika Eddy was vibrating with the weight of the election. The race's outcome could drastically change reproductive rights, foreign policy, gun safety, and climate law — all issues close to Eddy, a 35-year-old Californian and mother of two.But Eddy also has skin in the game as the chief executive officer of Malama Health, a startup helping women with gestational diabetes access better care. Its doula network assists patients on Medicaid with applying for benefits such as diabetes-friendly meals and medical transport.Eddy worries that if Trump wins, he would restrict access to the coverage and benefits that her users rely on, weakening one of Malama Health's key services."There is this common misperception that, 'we're in California, we're in a liberal state, and so we're safe.' And I don't think that's the case," Eddy said.For some founders of women's health startups, this election is more than a political contest; it has ramifications for their livelihoods. With so much at stake, they're planning how to handle a scenario where states or courts might impose more limits on reproductive rights.<div type="image" title="US Vice President Kamala Harris taking pictures with some young teen girls." height="3000" width="4000" msid="114460257" hostid="261" sizebytes="755478"></div><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/abortion-telemedicine-startup-hey-jane-roe-v-wade-2022-10">Hey Jane</a> is a telehealth startup that connects patients to medical providers who offer online appointments and delivers abortion pills to their doorsteps. A year after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion, Hey Jane started selling birth control and treatments for urinary tract infections, yeast infections, and herpes, both oral and genital. The new products cushion the business against a "plan E" scenario of a national abortion ban, said Carli Sapir, a Hey Jane investor and founding partner of Amboy Ventures."We're thinking about how to make sure those other verticals are in a good place to continue carrying the company forward," said Sapir.This time last year, one of Hey Jane's rivals, Choix, shut down <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vcs-backing-online-abortion-sites-say-its-good-business-2021-9">after three years in service</a>. The company said in a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/choix-closes-virtual-doors-launches-130300919.html">press release</a> that "the stigma and politics surrounding abortion care posed significant fundraising challenges." It raised a $1 million seed round in 2022.While direct providers of abortion, like Hey Jane, could see major restrictions or shutdowns to their core businesses if Trump returns to the White House, a wider range of companies expect to feel the ripple effects. Startups that seem removed from the front lines, such as those involved with period tracking and fertility treatments, are also preparing for potential challenges.<div type="image" title="Then-President Donald Trump addresses the anti-abortion &quot;March for Life&quot;" height="750" width="1000" msid="114460247" hostid="261" sizebytes="53678"></div>If a national abortion ban were to occur, apps like Flo Health or Clue might face increased scrutiny, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-lux-capital-deena-shakir-wrote-childrens-book-2024-9">Deena Shakir</a>, a general partner at Lux Capital. These apps track when women have their periods and when they miss them. In today's post-Roe America, privacy experts worry that such data could be used to suggest that someone has had or is thinking about having an abortion, potentially putting women at risk of prosecution in certain states.The stakes could be equally high for companies involved with fertility treatments.The demand for services like in vitro fertilization, or IVF, and surrogacy has been climbing for years as people have kids later in life and infertility rates increase. That's birthed a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fertility-startups-booming-despite-market-downturn-2023-6">global fertility market</a> that includes companies that operate clinics to provide services like egg freezing and IVF, companies that run labs and tests, and firms that help people pay for the procedures.However, the industry's future is uncertain following attacks on abortion access. The end of Roe v. Wade opened up the legal terrain for states to interfere with access to other reproductive care, said Lauren Berson Sugarman, founder and chief executive officer of Conceive, a startup that offers personalized fertility guidance, including text support from nurses and peer groups.In Alabama, the state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos should be considered children. That put patients and fertility clinics on edge that they could be criminally charged for destroying extra embryos. A handful of Alabama clinics paused IVF treatments while patients throughout the South began moving their embryos to jurisdictions with more stable legal protections."We see a lot of patients come to us and say, should I move my embryos out of a red state? Because what happens if they come after IVF?" said Berson Sugarman.The push for "embryo rights" could have wide-reaching repercussions for startups like Maven Clinic or Carrot Fertility, which offer fertility benefits for employers, and TMRW Life Sciences, a biotech company creating robots for the safe storage of frozen sperm, eggs, and embryos.Moreover, it could influence the type of research that startups conduct and where. Alice Zheng, a principal at women's health investor RH Capital, explains how the shifting legal landscape might affect companies like Vitra Labs. As a biotech startup working on developing eggs from stem cells for IVF, "they're doing really cutting-edge research for fertility, but they need to think very carefully about where they set up shop," Zheng said. "Some of their research might involve certain types of tissue, which is more closely scrutinized in some areas than others."<div type="image" title="TK" height="2000" width="2667" msid="114460250" hostid="261" sizebytes="243576"></div>Two years ago, in the hours after the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion, Morrison's phone started ringing and didn't stop. Investors wanted to know if the ruling would kill Julie's launch in Walmart stores that fall. Job candidates wondered if the company would still exist in six months. Morrison's mom called, concerned for her daughter's future."For probably two weeks straight, I was just doing reassurance calls," Morrison said.While emergency contraception is not the abortion bill and is currently legal in all 50 states, it is continuously confused with the abortion pill, which can have damaging consequences. In June, the medical journal JAMA Network Open published a <a target="_blank" href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2820370?%20utm_source=For_The_Media">study</a> that found retail pharmacy fills of Plan B, a leading morning-after pill brand, fell by 65% in states with near-total abortion bans the year after the Dobbs decision, partly due to clinic closures and confusion about its legal status.That confusion could threaten Julie's sales, and puts the onus of the company to better educate consumers. It sponsors events like trivia nights and sorority house brunches. It has enlisted TikTok influencers to share videos of their drugstore hauls showing how easy it is to buy Julie. In one video, a young woman going back-to-school shopping walks off with a two-count pack of the emergency contraceptive pill. The caption reads, "double majors, not double strollers."Other startups are urging consumers to fight for reproductive rights at the polls. Eddy's Malama Health has reminders to register to vote in its app and will tell users where their nearest polling station is closer to election day. The company asks for their ZIP codes during onboarding, Eddy explained."When you have a baby, you're like, 'I want to vote, but I don't know where to go,'" Eddy said. She hopes the emails will get more pregnant women and new moms to head to the polls. Eddy added that the emails won't support a candidate and are meant as a "nonpartisan resource."<div type="image" title="TK" height="2000" width="2667" msid="114460255" hostid="261" sizebytes="192114"></div>Julie's content isn't political, either. It's not trying to change any minds about abortion rights. The goal is simply to spread awareness among young adults that emergency contraception helps prevent pregnancy, not end it. This way, Morrison said, a woman who is anti-abortion and has unprotected sex can feel confident taking Julie knowing that she isn't compromising her abortion stance.It was past 9 o'clock on a weekday, and the competition at trivia night was heating up. Students in teams of two or three screamed with delight as they watched their names climb the leaderboard. They competed to win prizes like sex toys and T-shirts with the phrase, "A Better Morning After.""Morning-after pills end pregnancy. True or false," the club president called out.Thirty seconds later, the screen showed that every team had answered correctly.Morrison pumped both fists in the air, beaming her approval.<a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/melia-russell">Melia Russell</a> is a senior correspondent at Insider covering startups and venture capital. She can be reached via the encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 603-913-3085 and email at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:mrussell@businessinsider.com">mrussell@businessinsider.com</a>.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/rebecca-torrence">Rebecca Torrence</a> is a correspondent at Business Insider writing about healthcare startups and venture capital. Send her an email at <a target="_blank" class="" href="mailto:rtorrence@businessinsider.com">rtorrence@businessinsider.com</a>.

'The million-dollar question of this election': Women's health startups are confronting a shifting legal landscape   

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The 2024 election is already the most litigated in US history.</li><li>Republicans and Democrats have been involved in a bevy of pre-election lawsuits.</li></ul>With the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-long-will-it-take-to-call-us-presidential-election-2024-10">2024 US presidential election</a> just days away, the high-stakes race is already the most litigated in modern American history.For months, Republican allies of former President <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-harris-presidency-impact-ai-artificial-intelligence-2024-10">Donald Trump</a> and Democratic allies of Vice President <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kamala-harris-closing-argument-washington-dc-speech-policty-economy-trump-2024-10">Kamala Harris</a>, have been involved in a barrage of pre-election lawsuits, with Republicans waging the majority of the legal challenges in key battleground ground states. And while preelection litigation might not feel like a fundamental part of democratic presidential elections in the US, the 2024 cycle has proved it to be a keystone political strategy."Probably the most discouraging part of this whole litigation experiment is that it has little or no connection to democracy and credible elections," said John Hardin Young, an election law expert and senior counsel at the Washington, DC, law firm Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein &amp; Birkenstock."It's gamesmanship," said Young, who said litigation has "become part of the political strategy.""It's, in a way, a prelude to postelection challenges where the political message has been mangled together with the litigation," he added.Legal experts told Business Insider some of the lawsuits brought by Republicans could set the stage for potential court challenges after the election on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/election-impact-companies-trump-harris-2024-10">November 5.</a>But it all really depends on how close the election between Trump and Harris is, the experts said. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/harris-trump-presidential-election-swing-state-polls-sun-belt-2024-10">National polls</a> suggest the race for the White House will be a tight one.The Republican National Committee said that the party's "election integrity" operation, announced earlier this year with the Trump campaign, has been involved in 130 lawsuits across 26 states this election cycle.Many of the lawsuits center on the handling of mail-in voting, overseas ballots, and voter rolls. Democrats have intervened in a slew of them.When the RNC announced the "election integrity" program back in April, it said it would deploy more than 100,000 volunteers and attorneys across all battleground states."This gives voters confidence that their ballot will be counted properly, and in turn, inspires voter turnout," RNC spokeswoman Claire Zunk told BI in a statement. "While Democrats continue to interfere in our election and dismantle election safeguards, we are protecting the vote for all Americans."The Trump campaign declined to comment for this story, referring BI to Zunk's statement. Harris' campaign referred BI to a previous interview with a campaign spokesperson discussing litigation strategy.<h2 id="4aadeff5-56ea-4983-849f-48a2f25372bd">Harris campaign memo says the Republican lawsuits aim to 'sow doubt'</h2>Operatives for the Harris campaign said in a recent memo to "interested parties" that Republicans' lawsuits are "part of an effort to sow doubt" in the results of the 2024 election."Trump Republicans believe they have a better chance of winning when fewer people vote and fewer votes are counted. That's why they are spreading misinformation and filing dozens of baseless lawsuits in an obvious attempt to suppress voter turnout," the October 11 memo obtained by Business Insider says.The memo was written by Dana Remus, President <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-biden-dropping-out-presidential-race-2024-7">Joe Biden's</a> former White House counsel who is now leading the Harris campaign's legal team, and Monica Guardiola, the Democratic National Committee's acting co-executive director.It says that Democrats are "prepared and enter this final stretch with a playbook to protect the integrity of our elections — before and after November 5."Democrats, they say, have already intervened in "dozens of baseless Republican lawsuits to debunk their lies and defeat them in court."The DNC, together with the Harris campaign, have scored 15 court wins over the last three weeks, largely after intervening in lawsuits brought by Republicans, the campaign told BI.The memo says the upcoming election is already the "most litigated in American history," but that the campaign is the most prepared.The 2020 general election previously held the record as the most litigious in modern history.In the two-month period between November 3, 2020 and January 6, 2021, plaintiffs filed 82 lawsuits in 10 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Post-Election Litigation Analysis by the Stanford-MIT Healthy Election Project.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_interest/election_law/litigation/">The American Bar Association</a> logs less than 40 preelection lawsuits having been filed before Election Day 2020.As of November 1, there were a record 203 voting and election cases pending in 40 states, with 25 lawsuits alone filed in the battleground state of Georgia, Democratic election attorney Marc Elias, who is also part of the Harris campaign's legal team, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/marceelias/status/1852343593744150952">said</a> on X.And more are expected.<div type="image" title="Trump addressing the RNC on Thursday." height="1500" width="2400" msid="114947214" hostid="261" sizebytes="223364"></div><h2 id="909afd83-4da5-414d-b8dd-21382fdaf7bc">Republican legal strategy is more organized than 2020</h2>In recent weeks, Republicans have faced a series of court losses but have also had some success.A federal judge in the swing state of Pennsylvania this week <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://apnews.com/article/pennsylvania-military-overseas-ballots-1cb8e5b1b4e564482125e1633642c06b">dismissed</a> a lawsuit brought by a group of Republican congressmen that sought new verification requirements involving overseas and military ballots. Judges in the swing states of Michigan and North Carolina also recently <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-overseas-voters-north-carolina-michigan-758923beadbcbe9cd70a974806c27279">rejected RNC challenges</a> targeting overseas voting.The RNC pointed BI to nine recent court wins, including when a panel of Trump-appointed judges from the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Mississippi's law of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-absentee-ballot-voting-d65b943c27e9e7c5247dc2c14d3dbb15">counting properly postmarked mail-in ballots</a> received after Election Day violates federal law.Young, the election law expert, called the wave of litigation "part of the political messaging.""The Republican litigation strategy doesn't seem to follow any particular rules, but really is an attempt to throw anything against the wall and see if anything sticks," he said.Republican's 2024 litigation strategy, though, seems much more organized than in 2020 when Trump and his allies <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-campaign-lawsuits-election-results-2020-11">brought more than 60 lawsuits</a> alleging voter fraud in unsuccessful attempts to challenge the results after Election Day, said Sophia Lin Lakin, a voting rights lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU is involved in dozens of election-related lawsuits."In 2020, it felt slapdash and very reactive and improvisational," Lakin said, adding that now Republicans' efforts seem to be more strategic with the laying of "narrative groundwork.""There is definitely a fair number of lawsuits that really do seem to have served no purpose other than a narrative purpose" to potentially be leveraged in the event that the election results are not favored by Republicans, said Lakin.To tighten and not repeatpart about setting groun rules, maybe we cut graf above and below and add this transition graf below:Jason Torchinsky, a partner at the law firm Holtzman Vogel and a Republican election lawyer, told BI filing lawsuits before the election is an effective strategy.there's no doubt there has been an "unprecedented level of preelection litigation" this cycle, "but all of that litigation is aimed at setting the ground rules whether you're coming at it from the right or the left.""Preelection litigation to set ground rules is often much more successful than postelection litigation," Torchinsky said, explaining, "The courts are very, very reluctant to look like they are determining the outcomes of elections."<h2 id="240a3465-ceb0-4039-86a1-45b348592c02">A possible 'period of uncertainty' after the election</h2>During a Zoom panel discussion this week, Elias warned there may be a "period of uncertainty" after Election Day."But honestly, there have been periods of uncertainty after the elections for many years. It's just people get more anxious about them now," he said."So I think if people vote, they should have confidence that the process will almost certainly sort itself out OK," he said.

Inside the litigation election, where lawyers on both sides are duking it out in the courts like never before

The government has officially announced October 1, 2024, as the starting date for <keyword id="23245808" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vivad-Se-Vishwas-2-0" source="keywords">Vivad Se Vishwas 2.0</keyword>, the direct tax dispute resolution scheme. If you're involved in a tax dispute, this scheme might be your chance to resolve it efficiently. Originally introduced during the 2024-25 Union Budget, the scheme is designed to handle <keyword id="22518437" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="income-tax-disputes" source="keywords">income tax disputes</keyword> that are currently tied up in appeals. Confirming the news, the <keyword id="19900485" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Finance-Ministry" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Finance Ministry" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Finance Ministry">finance ministry</keyword> said in its notification: "The central government hereby appoints the 1st day of October, 2024 as the date on which the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme, 2024 shall come into force." <h2>The scope of the disputes</h2>To give you an idea of the scale, about 2.7 crore direct tax demands are currently being contested, amounting to a staggering Rs 35 lakh crore. These disputes are scattered across various legal forums, and Vivad Se Vishwas 2.0 aims to help clear this backlog. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="113444994" title="In the long run, rate cut by Fed will be favourable for most US banks: Moody&amp;#39;s" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>In her Budget speech, <keyword id="19912360" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Finance-Minister-Nirmala-Sitharaman" source="keywords">Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword> highlighted the government’s dedication to simplifying taxes and minimising litigation. She said, "The government will continue its efforts to simplify taxes, improve <keyword id="20404572" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="taxpayer-services" source="keywords">taxpayer services</keyword>, provide tax certainty and reduce litigation while enhancing revenues." <h2>Who can avail the scheme?</h2>If you have any pending disputes or appeals, including writs and special leave petitions, whether filed by you or the tax authorities, as of July 22, 2024, you are eligible to take advantage of this scheme. The list of eligible cases includes those pending before the Supreme Court, high courts, Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, and Commissioner/Joint Commissioner (Appeals). It also covers cases before the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP) and revision petitions awaiting a decision from the Commissioner of Income Tax. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="113417255" title="Individuals earning over Rs 10 cr rise by 63% in India; financial assets of high net worth individuals to nearly double by 2028" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>However, the window to decide whether or not to participate in the scheme is limited. As Karishma R. Phatarphekar, Partner at <keyword id="20006170" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Deloitte-India" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Deloitte India" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Deloitte India">Deloitte India</keyword>, said: "Given the limited time window, an informed decision on opting for the scheme should be made promptly." The rules and forms for the scheme are expected to be published "imminently in the coming week." <h2>Success of the original Vivad Se Vishwas</h2>For those who are wondering about the potential impact, the first Vivad Se Vishwas scheme, introduced in 2020, resolved a significant number of cases. More than 1 lakh taxpayers participated, and the government collected about Rs 75,000 crore in taxes. With this track record, the expectations from Vivad Se Vishwas 2.0 are high. With October 1 just around the corner, now is the time to prepare if you are considering resolving your tax dispute through Vivad Se Vishwas 2.0. As the rules and forms are expected shortly, it’s wise to consult your <keyword id="23245810" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tax-advisor" source="keywords">tax advisor</keyword> and make a decision soon. This scheme could provide the relief you’ve been waiting for while contributing to a more efficient tax system for all. (With inputs from PTI)

New Vivad Se Vishwas 2.0 tax resolution scheme to start on Oct 1 — what you need to know

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Generative AI is transforming the legal industry, but attorneys say the billable hour is here to stay.</li><li>Instead, they said the value of a lawyer's hour is likely to increase as AI tools help automate routine tasks.</li></ul>Generative <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/signal-president-generative-ai-bubble-nvidia-openai-2024-8">artificial intelligence</a> is revolutionizing industries across many sectors, and the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/artifical-intelligence-golden-age-technology-lawyers-legal-issues-2024-8">legal world is no different</a>.The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-using-ai-bain-survey-roi-2024-6">AI boom</a> has reignited the long-running debate over the potential <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/surprise-the-billable-hour-is-not-dead-2009-12">death of billable hour</a> — the standard method of payment in the legal profession.And though <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-models-microsoft-openai-meta-google-2024-6">AI-powered tools</a> are expected to become widely adopted in the legal field in the coming years, industry experts told Business Insider that the use of the rapidly advancing technology won't kill off the billable hour payment model, but rather reinvent it.Several attorneys said that as AI tools are used at firms to automate routine and time-consuming grunt work tasks like document review and due diligence, the number of billable hours to a client is likely to be reduced, and the value of a lawyer's individual hour is likely to increase."The real value that lawyers provide, whether or not that's strategic advice, whether or not it's the actual drafting of arguments, whether or not it's the arguing in court to jurors or to judges in courtrooms, or to the making of deals and negotiating terms — all those sorts of things — I think you're going to see an increasing premium on," said Michel Paradis, a partner at the global firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt &amp; Mosle LLP.Paradis, who specializes in AI-related legal work and also teaches national security and constitutional law at Columbia Law School, said he doesn't believe there will ever be a "complete disappearance" of the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-sonnedix-legal-eliminated-billable-hour-2021-11">billable hour</a> in the law profession."What I think you're likely to see is a slow disappearance of the filler billable hours" that a slew of law firms depend on, Paradis said.The same way that the introduction of word processors dramatically shifted the way law firms operated in the late 20th century, Paradis said he foresees the same thing happening with AI."AI is going to have a similar effect to the rise of information technology in the legal field," said Paradis, "and that is a consistent gobbling up of the bottom of the legal market."Elisa Botero, another partner at the New York-headquartered firm, agreed, saying that the billable hour model will remain a "key metric" for at least the foreseeable future even as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/big-law-firms-using-ai-fast-track-ma-deals-work-2022-10">more law firms move to utilize AI tools</a> to boost the efficiency of their practices."But what type of work will be billed out will shift and is already shifting," said Botero, explaining that more traditional, associate-type work or junior-level work will be most impacted by the use of AI."You'll still see billable hours, but you'll see a reduction of those billable hours for that type of routine legal work that can be automated" with AI tools, Botero said.<h2 id="66e39611-3337-4510-85b9-68f507694c7f">AI can't replace everything a lawyer does</h2>James Gatto, a partner at Sheppard Mullin who co-leads the firm's AI industry team of about 100 attorneys, said that the billable hour isn't going anywhere for higher-level work, but that there may be a fixed-rate payment for legal services that are primarily done by AI."If you're using AI to produce a draft of a brief that would have taken, let's say, $5,000 of legal time to do a first draft, maybe now it's $2,500," Gatto said.He added that AI "may accelerate the elimination or minimization of billable hours for certain types of work, but I don't think it will do it across the board.""Not everything that a lawyer does can be replaced by AI," the attorney said, pointing to legal work involving depositions, trials, negotiations, and mediations.Frank Gerratana, a partner at the international firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., said that he sees the integration of AI tools in law firms as a positive that can allow attorneys to spend more time on critical work."I can envision a scenario in which lawyers can simply charge more per hour because they're spending more time on the highest value work and things that are time-consuming — but not particularly high value — can be automated," said Gerratana, who advises clients on intellectual property issues.With the integration of AI into law firms, Gerratana said he can picture a world where hour-based billing, subscription-type billing, and task-based billing for legal services all exist at the time."If I, as an attorney, can really speed up my work I might be more inclined" to bill by the task, he said.<h2 id="bf826b9d-4af6-4b2e-b1a7-362abf3e58f6">A 2023 ABA survey found that 20% of law firms were using or considering using AI</h2>Meanwhile, a 2023 <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_practice/resources/tech-report/2023/2023-artificial-intelligence-ai-techreport/">survey</a> by the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/student-loans/is-law-school-worth-it">American Bar Association</a> found that 10.9% of firms across all sizes were using AI tools in their practices, while 9.8% were seriously considering purchasing AI tools.Gatto said that his firm utilizes a custom AI tool that was developed in-house. The tool can be used to draft legal memos and briefs and to create initial agreements of all kinds."Basically any type of legal document, you can use AI to some extent, at least right now, to assist in creating a first draft," Gatto said.Despite the use of AI, Sheppard Mullin is still currently charging clients by the hour."The part that's being done by AI, we're charging still just hourly. If it takes five minutes, we bill five minutes, that's it, but none of that stuff is ready to go to the client," said Gatto, explaining that an initial draft of a document created with the help of AI would be comparable to the work of a first-year law school student."There's still a fair amount of work that gets done between the partner and the first year to get the memo to the point where it takes everything into account and it's ready to go to a client," Gatto said.The firms Curtis and Mintz are still in the piloting phase when it comes to the use of AI in legal work."Any law firm that is not currently investigating how to use AI tools in their practice is going to fall quickly behind the law firms that have figured this out," said Gerratana.Juan Perla, another partner at Curtis, said that the firm is in the midst of developing an internal AI policy and expects to have certain AI tools integrated into the practice within months."Although we're proceeding carefully we're very intentional in our plan moving forward," Botero added. "We do feel that these tools will be necessary."Richard Robinson, the CEO and founder of the legal tech startup <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-deck-legal-tech-startup-robin-ai-raise-series-b-2024-1">Robin AI,</a> which uses <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-claude-chatbot-google-chatgpt-2023-3">Anthropic's</a> large language model <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/researchers-at-anthropic-taught-these-ai-chatbots-how-to-lie-2024-1">Claude</a> to help lawyers draft and edit contracts, told BI that tools like his enable attorneys to operate at the top of their game."We're not just revolutionizing the legal industry. We're helping businesses to grow," Robinson said. "We've helped companies do legal due diligence 10 times faster than they could without our technology.""We are helping companies to reduce the time it takes to negotiate contracts from 90 days down to seven, in some cases," he said.According to Robinson, Robin AI, which was founded in 2019, has 100 paying customers, including seven <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-fortune-500-companies-addressing-diversity-and-inclusion-2021-6">Fortune 500 </a>companies, as well as thousands of users utilizing a free version of the product."We are seeing enormous demand ever since the release of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-chat-gpt-2023-1">ChatGPT</a>," he said.

AI won't kill the billable hour in the legal world — it'll just reinvent it

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In March, Russia dealt with its highest-ever number of <keyword id="21428034" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AWOL-cases" source="keywords">AWOL cases</keyword> since the war began, Mediazona reported.</li><li><keyword id="20083063" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Russian-courts" source="keywords">Russian courts</keyword> issued a daily average of 34 <keyword id="21428035" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="awol-sentences" source="Orion">AWOL sentences</keyword> in that month alone, per the outlet.</li></ul>Russian courts assessed 684 absences without leave in March, the highest-ever monthly count since the war in Ukraine began, independent Russian media reported. Citing public records, independent outlet <a target="_blank" href="https://en.zona.media/article/2024/04/12/record">Mediazona</a> reported on April 12 that a daily average of 34 AWOL sentences were carried out in military courts that month. Mediazona reported that almost all of the cases were related to men recruited in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-speech-partial-military-mobilization-draft-reservists-ukraine-war-2022-9">Russia's mobilization,</a> which began in September 2022 and saw some 300,000 men conscripted to fight in Ukraine. The independent report was cited in a <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1783035540897505767">UK Defence Ministry intelligence update</a> on Wednesday. "<keyword id="2149045" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="russian-soldiers" source="Orion">Russian soldiers</keyword>, including those forcibly recruited during the September 2022 partial mobilization, are required to remain in military service indefinitely, with little prospect of release," the update said. Men found guilty of going AWOL were typically handed suspended sentences to allow them to return to their units, some of which are on the front lines, Mediazona reported. At least some of these AWOL cases played out over the last year, including the unauthorized absence of a contract soldier who returned home in May 2023 and was later diagnosed with a mental disorder, per Mediazona. Russian courts have dealt with some 2,300 AWOL cases since the start of 2024, and about 7,400 total cases since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to Mediazona. Moscow was the region with the most such trials, with 496 cases, per Mediazona. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular hours by Business Insider. The Kremlin's partial mobilization in 2022 was deeply unpopular, sparking an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/number-of-russians-fleeing-draft-bigger-1st-invasion-force-uk-2022-9">exodus of affluent Russians </a>and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/police-arrest-hundreds-russians-protesting-putin-military-mobilization-ukraine-war-2022-9">protests in Moscow</a>. Thousands of draftees were sent to combat units and were widely reported to have initially received <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-not-producing-enough-weapons-equip-new-recruits-ukraine-isw-2024-2">little training and equipment</a>. Some <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-mobilization-some-drafted-dead-less-than-month-2022-10">died</a> in their first month of deployment. Grueling conditions on the front line and heavy fighting in the summer of 2023 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-unit-sent-families-video-commander-drunk-bakhmut-ukraine-war-2023-7">slammed Russian morale</a>, with multiple reports and rumors of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-troops-low-on-equipment-and-at-war-with-commanders-experts-2023-8">infighting</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-troops-threaten-to-desert-disrespect-officers-in-ukraine-isw-2023-7">desertion</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-soldiers-see-getting-injured-only-chance-go-home-ukraine-2024-4">malingering</a>. But Russia's all-out push to boost its numbers appears to be taking effect. Its army has <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russias-army-15-percent-larger-when-attacked-ukraine-us-general-2024-4">grown by about 15%</a> since the war in Ukraine started, according to an estimation on April 10 by US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. This spring, Russia is set to call up some <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-putin-signs-decree-spring-military-conscription-2024-03-31/">150,000 men for routine, statutory military service</a>, which typically lasts about one year. These men are not legally obliged to fight outside the country. Meanwhile, Ukraine has also struggled to replenish its hard-hit forces, with thousands of military-age men <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-some-ukrainians-dodge-the-draft-escape-fighting-russias-invasion-2023-10">trying to flee the country</a> or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-man-paid-5000-for-diagnosis-avoid-draft-report-2023-8">hide from Kyiv's military draft.</a> To shore up its manpower, Ukraine's parliament on April 2 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraines-zelenskiy-signs-bill-lowering-mobilisation-age-combat-duty-25-2024-04-02/">lowered its draft age</a> for males from 27 to 25. <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1782698925100589223">On Tuesday</a>, the country's foreign ministry also announced that it was temporarily suspending issuing passports to Ukrainian military-age men abroad, requiring them to return home to renew their documents. Russia has slowly been making gains in Ukrainian territory since the start of 2024, with Ukraine saying its troops are struggling without vital ammo and weapons previously supplied by NATO. After stalling in Congress for months, about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-aid-could-arrive-within-week-after-congress-greenlight-2024">$60 billion in US assistance</a> to Ukraine was approved on Wednesday.

Russian courts saw hundreds of AWOL cases in March alone, a record high since the war began: report

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Arizona opened the doors for outside investors in law firms, and Steve German had high hopes.</li><li>But he says his co-owner, 777 Partners, was hit by scandal and didn't invest the millions it promised.</li></ul>Two years ago, Steve German was optimistic.He'd done well for himself as a trial lawyer in Phoenix, suing insurance companies on behalf of workers who were denied benefits. And he'd just launched a venture with the Miami investment firm 777 Partners that he hoped would revolutionize the legal business.Arizona had recently begun permitting nonlawyers to invest in law firms, which is banned in nearly every other state. German seemed poised to ride the wave of deregulation and build what he'd later describe as "generational wealth."State bar associations have long restricted lawyers from selling stakes in their firms to outside investors, out of a desire to protect consumers from bad advice, to keep financiers from distorting firms' ethical obligations to their clients — and to keep profits in the hands of lawyers. That meant that firms basically had to eat what they killed: Any investments in marketing, technology, or building cases had to come from client fees or the firm's cut of jury awards and settlements.Allowing private-equity riches to pour into law firms looked like it could be a game changer. When he spoke with Business Insider <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-benefit-from-arizona-law-firm-ownership-structure-2022-10">in 2022</a>, German excitedly described how he might use 777's money to take lower fees and allow clients to designate charities they'd like to benefit. He was making connections with referral sources and said he'd hired BerlinRosen, one of the better-known public-relations firms that work with plaintiffs' lawyers."It was something that was revolutionary in many ways, and it was something I saw as a way to do good," German said. The firm, called Scout Law Group, was one of the first such firms — known as an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-benefit-from-arizona-law-firm-ownership-structure-2022-10">alternative business structure</a> — to be approved by state regulators."The ABS program reminds me of when Uber first came to town and everyone was like, 'Oh, my god, that's crazy,'" Andy Kvesic, who serves on the state committee that approves ABS applications, said.German's optimism was short-lived. Before 2022 came to an end, his relationship with 777 had begun to sour amid disputes over funding. Now, German has become a vocal critic of Arizona's hands-off approach to regulating these new entities.German said 777 didn't supply money on the terms or timeline it promised and planned. While he got some funding and was able to build a portfolio of about 300 to 400 cases, German said the millions that his partner had promised never flowed in. He had to whip out his own checkbook to pay vendors and employees, he said in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24752517-german-v-scout-law-group-and-777-partners-et-al">lawsuit filed in April</a> alleging fraud, breach of contract, and unpaid wages. It's one of several lawsuits involving 777, which, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.semafor.com/article/11/30/2023/feds-probe-sports-investor-777-over-money-flows">Semafor,</a> has also been under Justice Department scrutiny.777 has not yet filed an answer to German's complaint. The firm did not respond to a request for comment.He first decided to resign from Scout last summer, a few months after the firm and its leaders filed licensing paperwork with state regulators that he said he now believed was incomplete. But he told BI that after he forwarded his "break-up letter" to state regulators, he came to regret the decision; it touched off a bar investigation and resulted, for a period, in the suspension of Scout's license. He ended up rescinding the resignation and sticking around until 777 picked a new compliance lawyer in December, he said.After all that, he expected that the firm and its new leaders' license application would be closely scrutinized. He said the steady drumbeat of negative reporting made it clear that 777 hadn't been up front about the controversies it was involved in.But, he said, the committee that reviews ABS applications renewed Scout's license with barely any discussion. German also sits on the committee, and he was recused from the decision. But he said that and subsequent board decisions, like giving a pass to a lawyer who failed to mention that he'd been suspended in another state, unsettled him."What we're doing is sending the wrong message," he said. "What we're saying is, don't disclose your bad stuff."<h2 id="36d168a2-3b57-4875-b8ab-b0c81b9db7d8">Regulators approved 777 Partners despite litigation, DOJ probe</h2>German isn't the first business partner to sue 777 Partners, and he may not be the last. After the firm began investing in soccer clubs, Brazil's news outlet O Globo reported that one of its owners, Josh Wander, was on probation until 2018 for a cocaine-related charge. (At the time, 777 called it "ancient history.") The firm's reliance on insurance premiums, which are normally invested conservatively to ensure future claims can be paid, to fund its risky bets in sports teams and other speculative investments was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.semafor.com/article/11/15/2023/mystery-investor-777-partners-bought-european-sports-teams-with-insurance-customers-cash">unearthed</a> by Semafor, and insurance regulators and business partners have been asking questions and filing lawsuits.But German said on some level, it's about more than money. Revelations about 777's other business lines — for instance, its work with online payday lenders that charge sky-high interest rates and pay Native American tribes to use their sovereign immunity as a legal shield — repulsed him when he learned about them in July after reading about the firm in the soccer publication Josimar, he said.Asked how he didn't know about the controversies until 2023, German said he'd asked Steven Pasko, one of 777's principals, whether the firm was the subject of any lawsuits while he was filling out ABS licensing paperwork, and he had denied it. He said he still didn't know how the controversies didn't come to the attention of ABS committee staff."These people are the exact opposite of who should be approved," he said. "We're supposed to be looking out for the public interest, and we're letting in guys who are sued for RICO?"The ABS committee's minutes <a target="_blank" href="https://www.azcourts.gov/Portals/26/ABS%20Regular%20Minutes.pdf">show</a> that Scout's renewal application passed 5-1, with two recusals and two absences. According to the committee's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.azcourts.gov/Portals/26/ABS%20Committee%20Annual%20Report%20to%20Supreme%20Court%20for%202023%20-%20FINAL.pdf">most recent annual report</a>, 25 new entities got a green light last year; one application was denied. The number of complaints jumped from zero in 2022 to 24 in 2023, though no discipline was imposed on any of the four entities that were the subject of complaints.Lynda Shely, an Arizona legal-ethics lawyer who is also a member of the committee, said she would not comment specifically on German's dispute with 777 and Scout, which she has advised. She was also recused from the vote on Scout's renewal application. But she pushed back on the idea that Arizona was being too permissive, saying many applications didn't even make it to a vote because of the heavy scrutiny applied by committee staff. Funding and marketing firms were cutting deals with law firms in nonpublic arrangements for years before Arizona changed its rules, she added."There's a whole lot of disclosure that occurs through our model," she said. "There's more transparency about the relationship with an ABS."As BI reported in 2022, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-benefit-from-arizona-law-firm-ownership-structure-2022-10">Arizona's ABS structure</a> has unleashed a wave of experimentation. In some entities, lawyers and accountants are working side by side to serve clients better, and in others, technologists are helping traditional law firms work more efficiently, with the potential to share in the upside. Advocates see it as a way for lawyers to sell packages of valuable services, instead of selling billable hours.But one of the most common uses of an ABS has been for personal-injury and mass-tort attorneys to team up with funders and marketers more directly than is possible under legal-ethics rules in other states.Defenders of traditional law-firm structures say lawyers take an oath to do what's best for their clients. They argue that involving outside funders in firm management creates a risk that profits come first and clients come second.But some advocates for systems like Arizona's say those risks can be managed by requiring lawyers to have the final say, keeping a close eye on the new firms, and taking complaints seriously. They say there's nothing wrong with lawyers using outside money to reach more injured clients, who may not know where to turn when facing medical bills from car wrecks and dangerous drugs."So far, it is a success," Shely said. As with any new initiative, she said, it "will have growing pains and need to adjust and tweak things as we go."For much of 2023, German said, he expressed his discontent with 777's leadership, including its then-general counsel, Ed Gehres, and its chief financial officer, Damien Alfalla. He said he had conversations with other investors about buying 777's stake in Scout, but the talks ultimately went nowhere. He said other investors wanted to borrow money against Scout's unearned contingency fees, which could have made it impossible for those clients to find a new lawyer if they had to leave Scout for some reason.Gehres and Alfalla didn't respond to emails seeking comment.In the wake of his own dispute with 777, he said, he has become alarmed by the permissive approach the state has taken toward licensing and thinks more scrutiny is needed. He still believes that the ABS model has the potential to fill gaps in the legal marketplace, he said, but that greenlighting any applicant — many of which have little connection to Arizona — is a mistake.Allowing outside investment into law firms, he said, "is a privilege." "It serves a purpose for access to justice," he added. "It's not for a billionaire equity fund to use to game the process."Correction: June 18, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of 777 Partners' former chief financial officer. He is Damien Alfalla, not Damian Alfalla.

A lawyer dreamed of disrupting the legal industry with private equity. It turned into a nightmare.

In a keynote address at the Indo-Singapore Judicial Conference, <keyword id="19941896" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chief-Justice-of-India" source="keywords">Chief Justice of India</keyword> DY Chandrachud emphasised the crucial role of <keyword id="19901571" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="technology" source="keywords">technology</keyword>, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), in reshaping <keyword id="21291398" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="legal-research" source="keywords">legal research</keyword> and the judiciary while stressing the imperative of <keyword id="20773416" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ethical-considerations" source="keywords">ethical considerations</keyword> in its integration. Chandrachud commenced his address by lauding the conference's revolutionary focus on technology and its potential to catalyse crucial dialogues at the crossroads of technology and the judiciary. He acknowledged the profound impact of judicial dialogues in fostering cross-cultural exchange and mutual learning among diverse legal systems. Highlighting the deep-rooted ties between India and Singapore, Chandrachud commended both nations for their commitment to upholding the rule of law and promoting access to justice. "Judicial dialogues indeed play a vital role in fostering cross-cultural exchange and mutual learning among different legal systems. India and Singapore share not only deep social, cultural, and economic ties but also a commitment to upholding the rule of law and promoting access to justice. As two dynamic and rapidly evolving nations, both India and Singapore recognise the transformative potential of technology in modernising their respective judicial systems," said the CJI. He lauded Singapore's emergence as a global technology and innovation hub, citing its adoption of cutting-edge initiatives such as online dispute resolution platforms and electronic filing systems. "Singapore has positioned itself as a global hub for technology and innovation. With its strategic location, business-friendly environment, and robust legal framework, Singapore has attracted top talent and investment in the tech sector... Additionally, the Singapore International Commercial Court leverages technology to facilitate international dispute resolution, offering efficient and cost-effective solutions for resolving cross-border commercial disputes," he further said. The CJI praised India's strides in leveraging technology to modernise its judiciary, particularly through initiatives like the e-Courts project. "India boasts a vibrant tech ecosystem and a rich legal heritage. With a population of over a billion people and a rapidly growing economy, India presents enormous opportunities in adopting technology within the <keyword id="20199889" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="judicial-system" source="keywords">judicial system</keyword>. The e-Courts project, for instance, aims to computerise court processes, digitise case records, and establish online case management systems across all levels of the judiciary. By reducing administrative burdens and automating routine tasks, e- Courts enhance the speed and efficiency of legal proceedings, ultimately improving access to justice for all citizens," Chandrachud said. The Chief Justice then turned his attention to the transformative potential of AI in legal research, describing it as a "game-changer" that empowers legal professionals with unmatched efficiency and accuracy. He elucidated specific instances where AI, notably ChatGPT, had been utilised in court adjudication, citing examples from Colombia and India. "Additionally, the Supreme Court of India introduced live transcription services, an initiative aimed at enhancing accessibility to legal information. This initiative has been particularly impactful in addressing linguistic diversity, as live transcription services translate judicial proceedings into 18 regional languages and Hindi, ensuring that legal information is accessible to citizens across India using AI termed as the Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software. This not only saves time and resources but also improves access to justice by reducing delays and backlogs in the court system," he said, "In 2023, Justice Juan Manuel Padilla, a Colombian judge, utilised the ChatGPT to deliver a judgment in a case involving insurance claims for an autistic child," Chandrachud elaborated, underscoring the complementary role of AI in augmenting judicial reasoning rather than supplanting it. Similarly, he recounted how the Punjab and Haryana High Court in India sought insights from ChatGPT in a bail petition. However, Chandrachud cautioned against overlooking the ethical, legal, and practical considerations associated with <keyword id="20230984" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI-integration" source="keywords">AI integration</keyword> into court proceedings. "These instances show that we cannot avoid the question of using AI in court adjudication. The integration of AI in modern processes including court proceedings raises complex ethical, legal, and practical considerations that demand a thorough examination. The use of AI in court adjudication presents both opportunities and challenges that warrant nuanced deliberation," he asserted. He noted the importance of transparency, accountability, and fairness in AI utilisation, highlighting concerns about potential errors and biases inherent in AI systems. "The full realisation of AI's potential hinges on global collaboration and cooperation," Chandrachud said, urging stakeholders to prioritise robust auditing mechanisms and capacity building. In his concluding remarks, the CJI noted that the advancement of technology and AI is inevitable. "It holds the potential to significantly change professions and make service delivery more accessible to people. In the field of law, this translates to the potential for AI to expedite and streamline justice delivery. The era of maintaining the status quo is behind us; it is time to embrace evolution within our profession and explore how we can harness the processing power of technology to its fullest within our institutions," he said. Aiming to explore the intersection of technology and the legal system, particularly focusing on the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in judiciary, the Supreme Court organised a two-day conference on Technology and Dialogue between the Supreme Courts of India and Singapore on Saturday and Sunday. Alongside judges, jurists, Chief Justice of Singapore Justice Sundaresh Menon also engaged in panel discussions covering a wide array of topics. 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CJI DY Chandrachud advocates for ethical AI integration in legal research

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Several important Supreme Court decisions this term dealt with questions of executive power.</li><li>In two rulings, SCOTUS expanded presidential power and limited the rest of the executive branch.</li></ul>With its rulings this term, the Supreme Court created a perfect storm for the lower courts to be inundated with legal challenges on everything from the applications of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-climate-policy-supreme-court-chevron-doctrine-federal-regulations-2024-6">regulatory laws</a> to the scope of the presidency's power.In doing so, the high court has set up a political chessboard through which the judicial branch can claw power away from the established executive authority.Meanwhile, some members of lower courts — such as US District Judge Aileen Cannon, in her Monday decision to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-classified-documents-case-dismissed-judge-2024-7">toss out Donald Trump's classified documents case</a> — are, intentionally or not, creating ways to assist SCOTUS in methodically shrinking the executive branch's power.<h2 id="297304dc-86ee-4c7b-bd78-2c06bdda177a">The Supreme Court's attack on executive power</h2>Taken together, two specific Supreme Court decisions this term — on Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System — combined to create a window for an array of new lawsuits to challenge once-settled law and be reinterpreted by a deeply polarized court. And in the cunning way the high court's conservative majority phrased its decisions, the justices kept the power to clean up the mess for themselves.In a ruling on June 28, the court overturned 40 years of precedent and rolled back the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scotus-chevron-doctrine-bidens-climate-policies-at-risk-2024-6">Chevron doctrine</a>. Once considered a victory among conservative lawmakers because it had upheld a deregulatory interpretation of policy by the Reagan administration, the Chevron doctrine gave the Environmental Protection Agency — and federal agencies more broadly — the power to interpret ambiguous regulatory language in laws enacted by Congress, as long as the agency's interpretation was reasonable.By rolling Chevron back, the Court decided it should no longer defer to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aoc-says-biden-isnt-using-his-executive-powers-enough-2022-2">executive branch</a> interpretations of the laws involving its agencies. It has now limited the power of presidentially appointed officials to determine how their agencies should be run under existing laws."So that is, in theory, taking power away from unelected officials," Justin Crowe, a professor of political science at Williams University who researches the Supreme Court, told Business Insider. "But, where is that power going? It's not exactly going to the people or to elected officials. In some roundabout sense it might be going to Congress, but in reality, it's going to courts and judges, and giving courts and judges the ability to second-guess agency decisions."Under the new rules, federal agencies wouldn't be the authority on the regulations they enforce. That means a plaintiff could challenge regulatory rules and enforcement methods by agencies like the EPA, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/securities-and-exchange-commission">Securities Exchange Commission</a>, or Department of Health and Human Service, and the Court would be allowed to interpret the legal regulations, potentially siphoning even more power from the executive branch.<h2 id="b2822377-27ec-4a45-a744-9026d8f1498d">A one-two punch against regulation</h2>Corner Post was decided on July 1, receiving less media attention than Loper did several days prior. But, when combined with the outcome of the Loper decision, Corner Post "almost encourages the targets of administrative regulation to sue," according to Jonathan Entin, a retired constitutional law professor at Case Western Reserve University."Loper says no deference to the agency; the courts are supposed to interpret regulations. But the Corner Post case, which was a challenge to a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/what-is-the-federal-reserve">Federal Reserve Board</a> regulation about card swiping fees, may encourage loads of legal challenges," Entin, who clerked for former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg while she was in the DC Circuit, said.In the Corner Post case, Entin told BI, the Court expanded the six-year time limit for plaintiffs to bring lawsuits against <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-decisions-chevron-sec-federal-government-regulations-2024-6">federal agencies</a> over their regulatory rules. The new limitations are no longer based on when the rule was implemented, as a lower court had determined. Instead, the high court decided the countdown begins when a plaintiff says they were injured by the rule — which "opens up every rule for renewed challenges by just anybody," Entin said.This means that a plaintiff could sue over a rule enacted decades ago if they can make a case that they were hurt by the regulation within the last six years — like a newly created gas station suing over emissions regulations that it claims hinder its business, giving the current court a window to reinterpret old law.With Corner Post, Entin said, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/colorado-rules-trump-disqualified-from-2024-primary-ballot-2023-12">Supreme Court</a> created a statute of limitations that, from the standpoint of federal agencies, never really expires.<h2 id="35a4e83c-8788-4d29-b479-5fd7ca8a9ed0">A 'tsunami of lawsuits'</h2>In her dissent in the Corner Post case, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/justice-jackson-trump-immunity-oval-office-criminial-activity-supreme-court-2024-4">Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson</a> noted that taken together, the Loper and Corner Post decisions would open up a "tsunami of lawsuits" from plaintiffs who have grievances with various federal regulations — from the Federal Reserve Board's fees for debit card processing to the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Act and beyond. Those inevitable legal challenges will offer the Court ample opportunities to weigh in — and flex its power — in the future.But the Court didn't stop at giving itself the reins to interpret regulations that federal agencies are beholden to.The most striking example might be the Supreme Court's ruling in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-trump-immunity-january-6-election-ruling-decision-2024-5">Trump v. United States</a>, in which the court granted widespread immunity to sitting presidents for official actions taken in office. But an insidious element of the Trump case is that it gave the judiciary the power to decide what exactly constitutes an official, protected, action, compared to an unofficial — and thereby unprotected — one.In the Trump case, the Supreme Court offered Trump broad immunity for some of his acts concerning his January 6 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/law-review-brett-kavanaugh-clue-scotus-trump-immunity-2024-4">election interference case</a>. It also kicked some decisions back down to DC District Judge Tanya Chutkan to determine whether other elements of the charges against the former president would be protected by the "official act" immunity or if he could still be prosecuted for them.Additional challenges from the Trump camp on Chutkan's decisions could land the case back on the Supreme Court's desk for more specific interpretation.Similarly, Judge Cannon's Monday decision to toss out the former president's classified documents case will almost certainly find its way to the Supreme Court after appeal.Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, ruled that the appointment of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cannon-suggests-special-counsel-should-have-taken-her-more-seriously-2024-7">Special Counsel Jack Smith</a> to prosecute the former president was unconstitutional because Smith was not approved by Congress to fill the role like other legal officers of the US who have the power to impanel grand juries and bring indictments.Smith was assigned to the job by Attorney General Merrick Garland — a presidentially appointed position. Special counsels have historically been used for major cases in which Justice Department officials may have a conflict of interest, such as the Ronald Reagan-era Iran-Contra affair, Bill Clinton's Whitewater controversy, and the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hunter-biden-may-lose-trial-politics-appeals-2024-6">criminal investigation into Hunter Biden</a>.Clarence Thomas signaled in his opinion in the Supreme Court's immunity case ruling this month that he believes many types of special counsels are unconstitutional. It was only weeks after Thomas's opinion that Cannon made her ruling.While other conservative justices have not so clearly stated their opinion on special counsels, a future ruling preventing their use would erode the right of the Attorney General's office to appoint special prosecutors, removing that power from the executive branch.The pattern is not limited to the immunity case or those involving business regulations — it's part of a trend of the Supreme Court <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-decisions-chevron-sec-federal-government-regulations-2024-6">dismantling</a> the non-presidential powers of the executive branch, rolling back laws, and reversing lower court rulings involving <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-tosses-ban-bump-stocks-guns-alito-congress-2024-6">guns</a>, emergency <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scotus-opinion-allowing-emergency-abortions-in-idaho-was-posted-early-2024-6">abortions</a>, and where <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-homeless-camp-removal-without-adequate-shelter-beds-2024-6">homeless people are allowed to sleep</a>.In the July 6 episode of Slate's Supreme Court analysis podcast "Amicus with Dahlia Lithwick," Senior Court Reporter Mark Joseph Stern said the Court spent this term expanding its power and "restructuring representative democracy to make it less representative and less democratic."And it can keep happening no matter who is in the White House."It strikes me that this is a court that does not have a modest view of its own role," Entin told BI. "It has reached out to decide things that it didn't necessarily have to decide, and by doing so, it encourages other potential litigants to try to swing for the fences. And whether the court got these cases right or not, I think we're going to see more cases raising these sorts of issues come along."

The Supreme Court is sending some mixed signals about executive power

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Google has faced numerous lawsuits over privacy, intellectual property, monopoly tactics, and more.</li><li>Google is currently battling two key antitrust cases over its search engine and advertising tactics.</li></ul>Google is one of the world's largest and most influential companies, and the most popular search engine by far. So it's no surprise that the search giant's rapidly evolving and boundary-pushing technology would attract litigation over the course of its 25-year history.Google has been sued in dozens, if not hundreds of high-profile controversies over privacy, intellectual property, discrimination, advertising, and even defamation, and has racked up both wins and losses over the years.Some of Google's most consequential legal cases have occurred in 2023 and 2024, including two major antitrust cases and several class-action lawsuits. Here's what you need to know about the biggest recent cases to land on Google's docket.<h2 id="9d068fd7-ebc6-4b84-bda3-32ac78633831">Why did the US government sue Google over antitrust violations?</h2>The US government's battle against Google has resulted in two major antitrust cases that are both still ongoing. One case culminated in a landmark monopoly trial in the fall of 2023, which is still awaiting a verdict. The dispute centered on whether Google has illegally abused its monopoly over the search engine industry, spending billions of dollars each year to suppress competition. The US government argued that Google's business dealings have blocked innovation in the search business to the detriment of internet users. Google CEO <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sundar-pichai-google-alphabet-ceo-career-life">Sundar Pichai</a> testified in the antitrust trial in October 2023, and defended instances in which Google pushed companies like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple">Apple</a> and other smartphone makers into revenue-sharing agreements that would make Google the default search engine on phones and computers.<div type="image" title="Google CEO Sundar Pichai smiles while walking past security personnel outside a federal courthouse in Washington, DC, after testifying in an antitrust case." height="683" width="1024" msid="110005824" hostid="261"></div>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-ceo">Google CEO</a> even acknowledged on the stand that company executives knew that becoming the default search engine on smartphones "would lead to increased usage of our products and services."The second major antitrust case against Google concerns its online advertising strategies, and is set to go to trial in September 2024. The US government has alleged that Google illegally abused its monopoly over the digital advertising market by acquiring its competitors and forcing website publishers to adopt Google's tools, such as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-ads-adwords">Google Ads</a>, thereby suppressing the rise of rival technologies.Google has denied any wrongdoing in both cases. The search giant argued during its 2023 trial that Google dominates the search business because it's superior to its rivals, not because of its business dealings. Google has similarly denied the claims in the advertising-related monopoly case, saying its acquisitions were legal and actually enable innovative new advertising technologies, and that the federal government's lawsuit could undo years of industry progress.<h2 id="a2de7586-71f8-42ee-a300-2b9e1b56ccc4">What happens if Google loses its antitrust cases?</h2>It's unclear who will win the antitrust case on Google's search engine. Judge Amit Mehta will be the one to decide the outcome, rather than a jury, and Mehta vigorously questioned both sides during closing arguments in May 2024.If <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-antitrust-trial-big-tech-future-analysis-2024-5">Google loses the lawsuit</a>, Mehta is expected to take some sort of action that would boost competition in the search-engine business. Google could face consequences like orders to adjust its business practices, or even a total ban on its contracts to make Google the default search engine.Both antitrust cases carry potentially massive implications for internet users — Google could face sanctions that alter its operations so dramatically that it loses its ubiquity in the search and advertising industries, paving the way for new companies and technologies to flourish.Google's antitrust cases will also likely influence the outcomes of other antitrust lawsuits the US government has filed against major tech companies. Currently, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon">Amazon</a>, Apple, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-business-suite">Meta</a> all face similar antitrust lawsuits against their business practices that could threaten their market dominance.<h2 id="9e1c9831-9b4b-4c83-8898-757900d949af">What to know about Google's class-action settlements and who can claim money</h2>Google has been the subject of two major class-action lawsuits that were resolved or nearing resolution in late 2023 and 2024.One of the most hotly anticipated resolutions was that of a class-action case involving personal data collected from 136 million Google Chrome users. The lawsuit accused Google of tracking the internet activity of users who had switched to Google's "incognito" setting.As part of a settlement agreement, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-delete-browsing-data-settle-privacy-lawsuit-incognito-mode-2024-4">Google said it would delete the search data</a> collected from those 136 million users, which Google said was merely "old personal technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization."Lawyers initially sought a $5 billion payout for consumers, but anyone expecting to receive a chunk of that money will need to sue Google individually to receive any damages. The settlement agreement for the class-action case did not include any monetary damages to be paid out by Google.<div type="image" title="A smartphone displays the Google Play Store logo, which reads &quot;Get it on Google Play.&quot;" height="683" width="1024" msid="110005825" hostid="261"></div>Google does, however, have to pay out roughly $700 million as part of a separate class-action case involving the Google Play Store. Attorneys general from five states accused Google of using monopoly tactics to box out competitors to the Google Play Store and limited users' ability to download Android apps from other app stores.An estimated 102 million consumers were affected between August 16, 2016, and September 30, 2023, and are entitled to compensation of at least $2, the settlement agreement stipulated. Consumers who are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-antitrust-lawsuit-settlement-claim-play-store-apps-payout-2023-12">eligible for the Google settlement</a> don't need to submit any sort of claim to get that money, however. Consumers will receive automatic payments through PayPal or Venmo.<h2 id="60cda2ce-aa92-4537-aa7c-5d8d0b116ea7">Google's battle over Europe's "right to be forgotten" laws</h2><div type="image" title="A shadowy person wearing glasses sits in front of a blurry laptop screen displaying the Google search engine." height="697" width="1024" msid="110005828" hostid="261"></div>One of Google's biggest legal battles in the 2010s concerned the European Court of Justice's "right to be forgotten" ruling and whether Google was responsible for personal data that appears in its search results. Google lost its case in 2014, and the EU court ruled that individuals have the right to remove information about themselves from search engine results.Under the ruling, Google must respond to legitimate requests from individuals to delist webpages from its search results. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/larry-page-google-career-life-education">Larry Page</a>, one of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-founders">Google's founders</a> and a former CEO, spoke out vehemently against the EU court's "right to be forgotten" ruling at the time, warning that repressive foreign governments could abuse the ruling.However, in 2019, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-wins-case-keeps-right-to-be-forgotten-in-eu-2019-9">Google won a "right to be forgotten" victory</a> in a subsequent EU court ruling, which stipulated that Google only has to delist content from search results in Europe, and the "right to be forgotten" does not apply globally.Recent research has suggested that Google and Microsoft together have received some 150,000 "right to be forgotten" requests to delist search results each year since the EU court's ruling in 2014. The vast majority of the links targeted for delisting were from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook">Facebook</a>, X, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tv-upfronts-youtube-plan-to-capitalize-top-streaming-status-2024-5">YouTube</a>.

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