In its most recent decisions on personal jurisdiction, the U.S. Supreme Court has reiterated the distinction between general personal jurisdiction on the one hand and specific personal jurisdiction on the other.

As to the former, courts may exercise general or “all-purpose” personal jurisdiction over a defendant “to hear any and all claims against it” only when the defendant’s affiliations with the forum state “are so constant and pervasive as to render it essentially at home in the forum State.” Daimler AG v. Bauman, 134 S. Ct. 746, 751 (2014) (internal quotation marks and brackets omitted).

Originally published in Law360 on February 1, 2017.