Contributors

Granting a district judge’s request for appellate guidance on whether special law-of-the-case and issue-preclusion rules applied in multidistrict litigation about an alleged conspiracy to fix prices in the drywall industry, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a pre-trial decision against the plaintiff in a “later-filed case.”

The classic mediation format includes an opening or joint session. This is a time when all the parties meet one another and listen to the mediator give details about how the mediation is to proceed.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, construing Illinois law, recently evaluated the pleading requirements for an insurer seeking to rescind an insurance policy.

The U.S. Supreme Court is back in session today, with two Navajo Nation water needs cases to be argued. Tomorrow, the court hears a Lanham Act case on foreign sales and also a case on the Federal Arbitration Act, topping off this week with the Jack Daniel’s trademark matter.

Seattle recently became the first U.S. city to add “caste” to its list of categories protected from discrimination. The law defines “caste” as “a system of rigid social stratification characterized by hereditary status, endogamy, and social barriers sanctioned by custom, law, or religion.”

As the Illinois legislative session grinds on, an important deadline passed on Friday with both House and Senate bills needing to be approved by the committees in their house of origin.

Did you happen to watch the 95th Academy Awards? If so, you were joined by more than 18 million others — myself included. On the other hand, if you missed it, you didn’t miss much. Both the program and many of the selections were disappointing.

It has often been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The good news is that President Joe Biden recently announced his plans to end COVID-19 emergency declarations in May — making the pandemic an endemic. The bad news is that Chicago is still feeling the aftermath of enforced quarantines, mandatory masks and isolation. It may feel it for several more years.

This year’s Super Bowl had everything that’s necessary to keep football fans watching — a see-sawing score, a quarterback playing on an injured ankle and a controversial holding call in the game’s final minutes.

When you enter the Abelson auditorium of the Court Theatre to view renowned British playwright Caryl Churchill’s play “Fen,” you can’t help but be astounded by its monstrous set.

Late composer Jonathan Larson took Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La Boheme” and moved it from Paris in the 1830s to New York City in the 1980s and it became the award-winning musical “Rent.”