Administrative and Regulatory Law AOPs: What’s New in 2025

Catherine Lovering
Wed, 23 Apr 2025 23:12:46 +0000
Legal Area of Practice, Legal Practice Management

Administrative and regulatory law should be an active area of legal practice in 2025, as the courts and the federal executive make changes to agency regulatory authority. Here’s a synopsis of the attorney’s role in administrative law and what one might expect in the coming year.

Basics of administrative law

In the United States, legislative bodies pass laws. By their nature, laws are abstract and general. They do not always include the details of the law’s application. It is typically up to government agencies to develop rules and regulations that cover the specifics.

The rules and regulations hold the force of law. Individuals, businesses, and organizations must follow them, even though the legislature does not draft the rules directly.

Administrative rule-making has mandatory limits. Laws such as the Federal Administrative Procedure Act (APA) lay out the specific procedure by which an agency can create regulations. Each individual agency also has a dispute resolution mechanism and its actions are open to legal challenge from outside parties. In addition to the APA, judicial review and the constitution limit agency authority.

Here’s one fictional example of administrative law in practice. The legislature of country “A” passes a law that no food producers can sell a product that contains cancer-causing agents. The law does not specify which agents are cancer causing. Instead it states that the government agency named, “Rules for Everything About Food,” has the authority to identify cancer-causing agents and to decide on penalties for any food producers that sell contaminated items.

Issues in administrative law

Administrative law in practice is about the adjudication of whether a party has violated a regulation. There can also be legal proceedings that examine whether an agency has overstepped its authority under statute, or has failed to do its job. During the rule-making process, there is a notice and comment period where affected parties give feedback on the proposed regulations. Review and consideration of these comments is another critical feature of administrative law.

Role of administrative law attorneys

Most lawyers encounter an administrative law issue at some point in their careers, even if they do not focus on administrative law as a practice area. Since administrative rules are pervasive, a regulation or rule can come into play in a wide range of practice areas.

Those who practice administrative law might fill several roles:

Drafting agency rules and regulations

Advising agency personnel on the lawfulness and correctness of regulations

Commenting on proposed rules and regulations as part of the formal notice period

Reviewing and analyzing public feedback and proposed rules

Participating in investigation and oversight committees

Challenging rules and regulations drafted by the agency as beyond the scope

Challenging the inactivity of an agency despite its legislative obligation to take action

Defending or prosecuting parties who are accused of regulatory violations

Representing clients in administrative law hearings

Some attorneys might also work for the agency in the capacity of an administrative law judge, deciding matters of dispute within the agency’s authority.

Outlook for administrative law in 2025

Administrative law is an area of growing interest with the Trump administration’s focus on implementing a massive reduction in the number of federal regulations. The focus on regulation has expanded beyond the president, with the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust holding a hearing called “Reining in the Administrative State: Regulatory and Administrative Law Reform,” in mid-February 2025.

These political movements come as the U.S. Supreme Court has reduced federal agency authority in recent judgments. The Court ended the Chevron doctrine, which said courts should defer to agencies when a statute is ambiguous. In a separate ruling, it also said courts should not defer to agencies in cases of mixed law and fact. As cases that involve administrative law continue to be heard by the highest court, it remains to be seen how the administrative state might change.

The Trump administration has already introduced many regulatory changes, some of which might be challenged in the courts. All of this signals a busy 2025 for attorneys working in regulatory law, as well as lawyers who encounter regulation in other areas of practice.

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