Insights

Analysis from the front lines of IP & technology law.

Our attorneys write about the developments shaping intellectual property — from the PTAB and the Federal Circuit to the practical realities of protecting fast-moving technology.

PropertyAnimal Law

Handling a Pet Legal Problem: A Practical Guide

This guide walks through the pet legal problems people actually have, in the order the work happens. It starts with the first forty-eight hours after a bite — for both the owner and the injured person — including the insurance notice that must not be late. It then covers the dangerous dog hearing as a case to be prepared and, better, negotiated before it happens. It covers housing disputes and the difference between a pet and an assistance animal, veterinary problems and the records and second opinion that decide them, buying disputes and the short lemon law windows, boarding and daycare injuries, and the animal seizure bond deadline that forfeits animals more often than any trial does.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 12, 202628 min read

ConsumerAuto Sales

Handling a Defective Vehicle or a Dealer Dispute: A Practical Guide

This guide is the action sequence for a car that will not work or a dealer that will not deal fairly. It covers what to do at the very first service visit that decides the case months later, how to look up technical service bulletins and arrive prepared, when and how to send the manufacturer the written notice that most lemon claims fail without, how to revoke acceptance against the dealer instead, how to invoke the holder rule against the lender, what to do the day a dealer calls to say financing fell through, how to cancel the finance office add-ons for a refund, and when small claims beats everything else.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 12, 202628 min read

PropertyAnimal Law

Animal Law: Pet Ownership, Dangerous Dog Proceedings, and Veterinary Claims

Animal law sits on an uncomfortable premise: the law classifies animals as property, while most owners experience them as family, and nearly every dispute in this area turns on that gap. This article explains dog bite liability in both its strict liability and negligence forms, and what a dangerous dog proceeding actually is — an administrative hearing with real due process rights and a possible destruction order, which owners routinely walk into without counsel. It covers landlord pet policies and how assistance animals differ from pets, homeowners insurance exclusions that leave owners personally exposed, veterinary malpractice and the damages problem that makes those cases hard, and what happens to animals in a divorce, an estate, and a cruelty seizure.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 12, 202629 min read

PropertyAnimal Law

Animal Law Toolkit: Incident Records, Hearing Defense, and Veterinary Claims

Working templates for animal legal problems. It includes a bite incident report and witness statement format, the prompt insurance notice that preserves coverage, and an ordinance review worksheet that extracts the two deadlines that decide a dangerous dog case. It provides a records request, a hearing presentation outline, a temperament evaluation request that tells the behaviorist what the hearing needs, a remediation package index, and a negotiation script for the conversation before the hearing. It also includes a housing accommodation request with provider documentation language, veterinary records and second opinion requests, a licensing board complaint, a footage preservation demand, a lemon law notice, and a pet trust and emergency caregiver plan.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 12, 202624 min read

PropertyAnimal Law

Animal Law Checklist

A working checklist for animal legal problems, organized by the situation you are actually in. It opens with the first forty-eight hours after a bite for both the owner and the injured person, including the insurance notice that must not be late. It covers the dangerous dog hearing as a case to prepare and negotiate before it happens, housing disputes and the accommodation request most people never submit in writing, veterinary problems and the necropsy decision measured in hours, purchase disputes with their short statutory windows, boarding injuries and the footage preservation demand, and the seizure bond deadline that forfeits animals. It closes with the planning that makes all of it easier.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 12, 202612 min read

LitigationFederal Practice

Standing and Justiciability Checklist: A Practical Checklist

Standing is the first question in every federal case and the one most often litigated carelessly. This checklist runs it from both sides: the strategic decision that should precede any challenge, pleading concrete injury with the historical analogue identified, choosing between facial and factual attacks, the narrow discovery that resolves it, deploying it at class certification where it does the most work, and preserving it through appeal. Separate sections cover mootness and voluntary cessation, ripeness, organizational and associational standing, the removal trap, and practice-area-specific problems. It covers injury, traceability, redressability, mootness, ripeness, and the standing of each named plaintiff for each form of relief. Every item is written so that a "no" tells you what to do next.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 11, 20267 min read

ConsumerHome Improvement

Home Improvement Contract and Contractor Dispute Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a home improvement project from screening through final payment and, when necessary, the dispute. It sets out the eight verification steps that prevent most construction disasters, the contract terms to insist on, and the state statutory requirements to read your contract against. It covers the cancellation rights that may still be open because the required notice was never given, the preliminary notices that look like junk mail and identify everyone who can lien your house, and the lien waiver habit that prevents paying twice. It ends with the dispute sequence: the defect notice statute to check before doing anything, the free remedies that come before litigation, and the consumer protection claim that shifts fees.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 11, 20269 min read

GovernmentProfessional Licensing

Professional License Defense Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a licensing matter from the arrival of the board's letter through reinstatement. It is organized as sequences: the first forty-eight hours, records preservation, mapping the parallel proceedings, writing the response, responding to a summary suspension, preparing and trying a hearing, negotiating a resolution around the findings rather than the sanction, self-reporting, complying with probation, and petitioning for reinstatement. The items that most often destroy an otherwise defensible matter are flagged, beginning with the telephone call to the investigator.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 10, 20267 min read

LitigationFederal Practice

Pleading and Attacking Standing in Federal Court: A Practical Guide

Standing is litigated badly more often than any other threshold issue, usually because one side treats it as a checklist and the other treats it as unavoidable. This guide sets out how to do it well from both sides: pleading concrete injury with the historical analogue identified, choosing between facial and factual attacks and when each is worth making, taking the narrow discovery that resolves it, deploying standing at class certification where it does the most work, and — the decision most often skipped — determining whether winning is actually good for the client, given that dismissal is without prejudice and state courts frequently apply looser rules. It covers the plaintiff's allegations, the defendant's Rule 12(b)(1) motion, the factual attack and its discovery consequences, and standing at the class certification stage. Worked examples show how the same facts read differently at the pleading stage and at summary judgment. It also addresses mootness, ripeness, and the strategic use of standing in removal practice.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 10, 202627 min read

EducationSpecial Education

Special Education Law: IDEA, IEPs, Section 504, and Parent Rights

Roughly one in seven public school students receives special education services, and the statute that governs them is procedural to its core: parents win by using the process, not by being right about pedagogy. This article explains what a free appropriate public education requires after Endrew F. raised the standard above Rowley, how child find and evaluation obligations work and what to do when a district refuses to evaluate, what an IEP must contain and how the team operates, the difference between an IEP and a Section 504 plan, the least restrictive environment requirement, the procedural safeguards that give the statute its force including prior written notice and stay put, how disciplinary removals trigger a manifestation determination, and the dispute paths from a facilitated meeting through a due process hearing and into federal court.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 9, 202628 min read

LitigationFederal Practice

Article III Standing After TransUnion: Concrete Injury, Traceability, and the End of No-Injury Claims

Standing is the first question in every federal case and the last defense many cases never survive, and the Supreme Court's decision in TransUnion changed what a statutory violation must show to get into federal court. This article explains the doctrine as it now operates: the three constitutional elements, what makes an intangible harm concrete, the historical analogue test and how courts apply it, and the requirement that every class member — not merely the named plaintiff — have standing for damages. It covers mootness and ripeness, organizational and associational standing, and the strategic consequence that most often surprises defendants, which is that winning on standing frequently sends the case to state court rather than ending it. It traces how the concreteness requirement reshaped statutory damages litigation, class certification, and removal strategy. It closes with what a standing allegation has to look like now.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 9, 202627 min read

ConsumerStudent Loans

Student Loan Repayment and Relief Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a student loan matter from inventory to discharge. It is organized as sequences: building the loan inventory, verifying and fixing loan type, selecting a repayment plan, the annual habits that protect forgiveness, what to do when you cannot pay, escaping a default, the discharge applications worth filing, private loan defenses, servicer disputes, and scam avoidance. Deadlines and irreversible decisions are flagged. The first section is the one everything else depends on, because loan type governs every available remedy.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 8, 20266 min read