Bloomberg Law 2025: Predictions That Cut Through the Commotion

Bloomberg Law 2025, the latest installment of Bloomberg Law’s annual outlook series, features more than 30 articles from our legal analysts that look ahead to what 2025 has in store for legal professionals and the legal industry.

This year’s iteration features deep dives into the latest data and trends in five broad topic areas: Litigation, Transactions & Contracts, Regulatory & Compliance, Artificial Intelligence, and the Practice of Law.

Subscribers can access all of the analyses below. Non-subscribers can download them for free here.

Post-Loper, Tort Litigation May Eat Regulatory Savings

The death of Chevron deference has been described as a boon for business. But uncertainty, state regulations, and tort litigation loom as potential fires that could burn hotter than the frying pan of federal regulation under Chevron. (Erin Webb)

Does Open Source Have a Fair Use Problem?

Meta’s release of its open source model may impact the lawsuits against it for copyright infringement. Does an open source model’s benefits to the public tip the scales of fair use in its favor, compared to its closed source competitors? Or does it do more damage to the copyright holders? (Golriz Chrostowski)

FTC to Expand Drug Middlemen Price Hike Fight in 2025

The Federal Trade Commission filed suit against the three largest pharmacy benefit managers in the US, alleging anticompetitive practices. This might be a big step toward breaking down PBM domination over prescription drug pricing and bringing back business to smaller pharmacies. (Laura Travis)

Agency Power on Life Support in 2025

After a blockbuster year for administrative law, 2025 is likely to see a further weakening of agency power under the Administrative Procedure Act. Courts will begin to chip away at the famous “arbitrary and capricious” standard of review, and the volume of decisions deeming agency actions arbitrary and capricious will escalate. (Michael Maugans)

Past, Precedent Appear to Favor NLRB’s Future

There is good reason to believe that the NLRB can maintain its authority in the face of recent Supreme Court rulings that have dramatically altered how administrative agencies can function and affect policy. A district court ruling in September provides a thorough, detailed legal roadmap for defending the board’s structure and power. (William Welkowitz)

Litigation Finance To Seek Broader Adoption in 2025

Powered by growth areas like insurance and secondary investments, expect litigation funding to continue its trend toward normalization in 2025 as a source of capital for litigants and as an alternative to traditional contingency fee arrangements. (Robert Dillard)

Antitrust in Interesting Times—A Curse for 2025

Between the increasingly heated rhetoric around antitrust law, the multi-pronged attacks on the tech giants, and the existential threats to the Federal Trade Commission, the top antitrust issues for 2025 have a slightly apocalyptic flavor. (Eleanor Tyler)

Court Cases, Election to Restrict 2025 SEC Rulemaking

A pro-business, anti-regulation incoming Trump administration and a restrictive new legal reality will push the SEC to adopt a significantly more cautious and deliberate approach to rulemaking next year, resulting in fewer new rules. (Preston Brewer)

More Companies Will Go Public-to-Private in M&A Market

In what has been a lackluster year for the M&A market thus far, transactions where a public target becomes private after closing have done surprisingly well. Going-privates and take-privates made headlines in 2024, and this momentum will propel more public companies to go private in 2025. (Emily Rouleau)

Commercial Outlook 2025: Tech, Geopolitics Will Rule

Global commercial activity will increase in 2025 due to technological developments and an improving fiscal environment despite headwinds from geopolitical factors, protectionist trade policies, and additional regulation. (Denis Demblowski)

Will Antitrust Squeeze Dealmaking in 2025?

There’s been talk about recent increased scrutiny of mergers, but what impact have new merger guidelines, pending HSR final rules, and agency reviews had? HSR-reported deals have returned to—and will remain around—their historical average, but deal counts don’t reveal all the effects on M&A activity. (Emily Rouleau & Eleanor Tyler)

More Supply Chain Risks Require More Resiliency

Supply chain disruptions are the new normal, and corporate counsel have to find ways to help build resiliency. In-house counsel are most concerned with compliance and global trade barriers, and are responding with an emphasis on flexibility—expanding supply chains and modifying supplier contracts. (Louann Troutman)

States to Forge Ahead With Groundbreaking Privacy Laws

On the heels of an unprecedented year for state privacy legislation, and with European regulatory models providing guidance amid US federal inaction, 2025 could be another breakout year for states’ privacy efforts. (Mary Ashley Salvino)

Is the Future of Financial AI Nonbank?

Modern fintech regulation centralizes fintech liability in banks. Is it preventing bank AI adoption? (Benjamin Cooper)

Companies Will Voluntarily Roll DEI Back in 2025

In 2025, corporate diversity programs will be further splintered by anti-DEI efforts. But rollbacks will likely come not from legal rulings, but from voluntary company action. (Kate Azevedo)

Drug Discount Laws to Surge as Courts Back State Power

Recent court rulings allowing states to regulate certain drugmaker discount policies will pave the way for a surge of new state legislation across the country in 2025. Big pharma companies will have to grapple with changing their practices under a federal discount program that they say is rampant with fraud and abuse. (Alexis Kramer & Brian Forst)

Contractors Brace for Job-Posting Pay Disclosure Rule

A new rule scheduled for release at year’s end will require employers with federal contracts to announce salary ranges for the job openings they post. The change will be a boon not just for applicants, but for current employees as well, who will be able to see--and discuss--what has been a fiercely guarded secret. (Lydell Bridgeford)

Climate Goal Rules Loom and Investors Are Watching

In 2025, the climate goals that companies set for themselves will likely be subject to greater scrutiny by investors than ever before. Investors will monitor whether company climate goal disclosures are accurate, consistent across reporting locations, and on track to meet quickly approaching 2030 goals. (Abigail Gampher Takacs)

Congress Will Recriminalize Hemp-Derived THC Next Year

In 2025, Congress will likely close the THC loophole created by the 2018 Farm Bill to remove all intoxicating cannabinoids from the definition of hemp. This move aims to curb the booming, unregulated market for hemp-derived THC created by the loophole that states are struggling to rein in. (Meghan Thompson)

Will AI Make Tech Companies Pivot on Climate Promises?

Tech companies often use ambitious language when disclosing their environmental priorities and goals. But as the artificial intelligence boom’s impact on greenhouse gases becomes a bigger concern, expect tech firms to start hedging instead. Some tech giants have already begun. (Matthew D. Taylor)

Elections and Obscenity Will Continue Driving AI Laws

The post-election period will see a widespread adoption of AI regulations narrowly targeted to curb election-related misinformation, deepfakes, and sexually explicit content. Expect First Amendment challenges. (Travis Yuille)

Will Path to AI Oversight Follow States or Standards?

Stakeholders pondering the future of AI compliance can look to two potential models: EU-inspired state laws and voluntary nationwide standards. But which one will AI follow? (Alan Huang)

Law Schools Accelerate AI to Meet Attorney Demands

Law schools have been including AI in elective courses and secondary programs, but recent survey data suggest that they will likely increase their teachings of AI—and incorporate it further into standard legal education—to help meeting legal employers’ growing demand for new hires who have AI experience. (Andie Hozik)

Will Basic Contract Skills Matter When AI Takes Over?

Before law firms and in-house legal departments consider fully integrating generative AI tools, an increased emphasis will need to be placed on developing the fundamental skills of attorneys to properly audit the answers of AI tools. (John Hawthorne)

SEC’s ‘AI-Washing’ Strategy Sets Tone for Adviser Oversight

There are many reasons why the SEC will keep pursuing AI disclosure-related claims as its main method for regulating how investment advisers handle the new tech. Here are three of them. (Colin Caleb)

Anti-DEI Threats Loom, But Lawyers Aren’t Flinching

DEI programs in law firms and in corporations have become a target for anti-DEI crusaders. But despite concerns that DEI programs might be scrapped, survey data show that law firms and corporations will keep their programs intact, adapting the language only in the face of direct lawsuits. (Brittany Long & Janet Chanchal)

Law Firms Going Full RTO May Miss Out on Efficiency

Lawyers are getting more billable hours out of their workweek when they spend one or two days working remotely, according to recent survey results. Law firms that enact full-time return-to-office policies in 2025 might not see a corresponding rise in lawyer efficiency. (Rachel DuFault)

In-House Lawyers Are Legal Tech’s Reluctant Innovators

Getting legal organizations to go all-in on adoption of project management software remains a big challenge in an industry where low tech is still king. But if lawyers ever take that leap, survey data show that in-house lawyers are the best equipped to do it. (Jason Wilson)

Lawyers Have New Assistant to Supervise in 2025—Gen AI

The bodies governing lawyer ethics are starting to make the connection between generative AI and lawyers’ duties related to supervising nonlawyer assistance, but lawyers may not see it that way yet. (Mary Shields)

Knowledge Management’s In-House Perception Problem

Once highly-prioritized by in-house counsel, knowledge management has surprisingly fallen out of favor as of 2024. Other legal operations goals have surpassed it on the hierarchy–goals that, ironically, are better-served by a strong knowledge management infrastruture. As technology advances, knowledge management will reclaim its critical relevance. (Robert Brown)

Legal Well-Being Programs Will Grow in 2025

Well-being programs at legal organizations will expand next year as employers seek to find ways to improve the on-going issues with poor well-being in law. Bloomberg Law data indicate that legal employers will increase well-being benefits and will hire staff dedicated to well-being. (Jessica R. Blaemire)