Is Meta the new Big Tobacco?

Some costs are obvious, others are buried in the fine print. Meta's $18 billion settlement is making headlines, but the real question is whether this is the beginning of an end to tech litigation or just another data point. Pay-per-click advertising gets its own appraisal, and we’ve got a checklist for pricing out your firm’s holiday party. And there’s no charge for this one: Justice Clarence Thomas's podcast premiere.

Coming soon, we’ll talk to a lawyer’s lawyer about the mistakes made when setting up a firm. 

But first, the Renovator-in-Chief is mad at the judge handling the Kennedy Center litigation. Meanwhile, SCOTUS allows Trump’s work on the former East Wing of the White House to continue over Chief Justice Roberts’s dissent.

Harbor it is!
Over on Instagram, @fefe.media is playing a game of office “would you rather.”  

“Look how you left me. What are we going to do about it?”
If these allegations are true, contacting the sheriff and the Commission for Lawyer Discipline is what we’re going to do. 

“I do” believe jury service is important. 
A Kansas City bride went viral after she was called for jury duty on her wedding day. She says she’ll be happy to serve after returning from her destination wedding. Meanwhile, scammers are capitalizing on the public’s awe of the jury system to cash in.

Never made the roster, but definitely a player.
A guy pretending to play for the San Francisco 49ers, and his buddy who posed as a financial advisor, have been charged with defrauding women they met online out of $1.3 million.

What we’re watching.
Football, duh. But also the ever-changing rules on name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals.  

It feels too early to see shelves of red and green decorations at the store, but the retailers are actually right about this one. It’s time to start thinking about the holidays. More specifically, it’s time to plan your firm’s holiday gathering. This party-planning checklist lays out the decisions you need to make, and the steps you need to take to make this year’s event a success. (With an emphasis on invitations since an e-vite company put it together.) 

Why this matters: Don’t skip the info on costs (average was $59/person for food and beverage alone in 2025) and format (your team might prefer an in-office buffet lunch to a fancy night out). (Invyt)

Meta agreed to pay nearly $17 billion to settle state AG claims that it misrepresented the mental health harm Facebook and Instagram caused kids. Now, Mike Moore, the former Mississippi AG who negotiated the 1998 tobacco master settlement, is advising state AGs on building a broader industry-wide deal. But tech is not tobacco, and the settlement reached is worth far less than the $1.4 trillion originally demanded. 

Why this matters: This is the biggest tech settlement yet, but it’s far from the only case worth watching. The next moves will reveal if a tobacco-style master settlement or any real change is likely. (CNBC / The Hill)

Clarence Thomas doesn't do media. So it’s worth mentioning that he just appeared on Sen. Ted Cruz's Verdict podcast. During the wide-ranging interview, Thomas thanked Cruz for defending him during recent ethics investigations, revealed that Justice Alito once told him he found him “scary” back when they overlapped at Yale Law and explained why he isn’t afraid to overturn precedent. 

Why this matters: The timing of this isn’t a coincidence. Cruz's biography of Thomas hit shelves the day after the episode dropped. (Cruz’s interview of Thomas: Part 1 / Part 2)

Pay-per-click advertising remains one of the fastest routes to visibility for lawyers, and a recent Attorney At Work piece by Sasha Berson, Chief Growth Officer at Grow Law, lays out 10 tactical rules for running a campaign that actually pays for itself. Like, always send potential clients to a webpage on your site that matches their search terms instead of your homepage. 

Why this matters: This piece translates marketing jargon into numbers you can actually budget against. According to Berson, a well-run campaign should return $4 to $7 for every dollar spent, meaning a $10,000 monthly budget ought to generate $40,000 to $70,000 in new cases. (Attorney At Work)

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Raise the Bar is written and curated by Emily Kelchen, edited by Bianca Prieto.