‘A culture of availability’: Can litigators ever truly unplug?

Litigation Daily

In August, I did something I’d never done before in my career as a journalist: I went completely off the grid.

For five days, while I backpacked through the Tetons, I was completely unreachable. With zero bars on my phone, I couldn’t have stayed plugged in to the news cycle if I wanted to. During that time, as far as I was concerned, Luigi Mangione was still planning to go to trial in federal court, and Hayden Panettiere was alive and well. If every courthouse in Delaware simultaneously burned to the ground, I’d have had no way of knowing.

It made me wonder how many litigators have ever gotten to go offline like that. It turns out, if you ask litigators if they ever get the chance to unplug, most will say they do. But their version of unplugging often seems to come with the caveat that they must be on call to plug back in as soon as they’re needed. And if they’re preparing for or actively in trial? No way.

Continue reading here.

Delaware’s bench has more women. The Chancery bar is still catching up.

Litigation Daily

In the past decade, Delaware has gradually filled vacancies on its courts with more women than ever before. The Court of Chancery is currently led by its first-ever female chancellor, and two of the five sitting vice chancellors are women. (With former Vice Chancellor Morgan Zurn recently confirmed to the state’s Supreme Court, there’s one open seat.)

But female litigators appearing before those judges say the number of women leading and arguing cases in the Court of Chancery, while improving, is lagging in proportion to the bench.

Continue reading here.

It’s the Delaware Way or the highway: A primer on why Delaware’s corporate bar is so into civility

Litigation Daily

Irascible tort lawyer Joe Jamail once said, “I’d rather have a nose on my ass than go to Delaware for any reason.”

That was in response to the Delaware Supreme Court formally reprimanding Jamail for his conduct during a deposition. More than 30 years later, the Delaware bar still has a culture of being significantly more civil and friendly than other jurisdictions’ norms, a set of standards for legal practice often referred to as “the Delaware Way.”

Continue reading here.

Law firms are using AI as strategy tool, not for reliable forecasts of litigation outcomes

Law.com

The majority of law firm leaders with an eye on AI tools view them as at least somewhat reliable in predicting how cases might turn out, but they’re generally not treating large language models as a crystal ball that can calculate the likelihood of winning or losing a case outright.

Instead, attorneys are more often using the predictive functions of AI to corroborate or identify potential holes in their thinking about litigation strategy.

Continue reading here.

Corporate attorneys know their clients shouldn’t be asking chatbots legal questions. Do the clients?

Litigation Daily

In mid-March, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a decision concluding South Korean gaming company Krafton Inc. breached its agreement to purchase Unknown Worlds Entertainment, creator of the video game Subnautica, in an effort to evade a $250 million earnout agreement.

There were several attention-grabbing elements to the case, but what litigators immediately zeroed in on was how the court cited Krafton’s CEO’s ChatGPT conversations as evidence.

Continue reading here.

National law firms see promise in Delaware, spurred by changing demand for bankruptcy work

Delaware Business Court Insider

Despite a drop in fresh bankruptcy filings in Delaware, three law firms have launched three new Wilmington offices since the start of 2026, predicting a busy second half of the year given ongoing geopolitical turmoil and economic uncertainty.

Am Law Second Hundred and midsize firms Ice Miller, Connell Foley, and Lowenstein Sandler have all opened Delaware offices since the start of 2026 with the help of lateral bankruptcy partners, while other firms, including Akerman and FBT Gibbons, have added on partners in litigation and IP practices.

Continue reading here.

Here’s how noncompetes are being interpreted in contractarian Delaware

Law.com, Litigation Daily

It’s every lawyer’s go-to answer for pretty much every yes or no question: “It depends.”

“It depends” is also the most concise way to describe Delaware’s evolving stance on the enforceability of noncompetes at a time when the topic is getting a lot of attention nationally and some states are passing legislation to mark themselves as categorically for or against trade restrictions in employment contracts.

Delaware courts don’t rubber-stamp noncompetes, but they also don’t have a ban on them like the ones that a handful of other states have enacted through legislation and that the FTC floated before abandoning the effort last year.

Continue reading here.

Head to toe advocacy: How clothes fit into a litigation strategy

Litigation Daily

I’ve watched a lot of arguments in my time covering litigation, which means I’ve seen a lot of lawyers wearing essentially the same thing in the courtroom.

The overwhelming majority of the time, those outfits include a white shirt and a black, navy or charcoal suit. I’ve always wondered about what’s behind that near-uniform. Is it one of those things attorneys just do because that’s what their mentors did? Is it to keep one element simple during an otherwise complex event? And are litigators who deviate from that formula doing so to make a statement?

I asked litigators what they consider when getting dressed for court. More than anything else, those who do go for the white shirt and dark suit said they do so because they want to avoid anything that might distract from what they’re saying.

Continue reading here.

‘Opportunity for protection’: What to expect in Delaware corporate litigation in 2026

Delaware Business Court Insider

In 2026, Delaware’s corporate bar is expecting to see the continuation of several litigation trends that gained momentum in 2025.

Litigators are also looking to the courts to offer clarification on how changes adopted in 2025 to the Delaware General Corporation Law will apply in practice.

Continue reading here.

‘Clearway,’ safe harbors and constitutionality: A look back at the bill that split the Delaware bar

Delaware Business Court Insider

When asked about the most significant development in corporate law in 2025, attorneys who practice in Delaware—litigators on both sides and transactional lawyers alike—all refer back to Senate Bill 21, the changes it made to the Delaware General Corporation Law, and the questions about its constitutionality that are pending before the Supreme Court.

Discussion over those amendments has been ongoing throughout nearly the entire year. Senate Bill 21 was introduced in mid-February, immediately sparking a discussion over whether the legislation gave parameters for controller-involved transactions that offered needed clarity or if those parameters overstepped into the Delaware courts’ jurisdiction, as well as whether SB 21 was a necessary measure to protect Delaware’s corporate franchise and the lawyers who work within it.

Continue reading here.