Compliance

  • March 07, 2025

    FINRA Fines Baird For Reg BI Violations At Subsidiary

    Broker-dealer Robert W. Baird & Co. agreed to pay over $650,000 in combined penalties and restitution to settle Financial Industry Regulatory Authority claims that its subsidiary charged excessive fees and violated Regulation Best Interest by enrolling customers in programs they were already paying for.

  • March 07, 2025

    GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

    ESPN made news in the past week with a five-year, $100 million contract for talking head Stephen A. Smith, but so did Netflix, where chief legal officer David Hyman pulled in more than $100 million worth of stock sales in just seven days. Meanwhile, Honeywell revealed that its general counsel is busy figuring out how to create new subsidiaries where the company hopes to stash its asbestos and environmental liabilities.

  • March 07, 2025

    Off The Bench: NASCAR Feud Grows, ACC Peace, NCAA Wins

    In this week's Off The Bench, NASCAR insists that the two teams suing it are the real antitrust bullies, the ACC keeps two valued and valuable members in the fold, and a baseball player ends his court fight to play another year in college.

  • March 07, 2025

    EPA To Drop Enforcement Suit Against La. Neoprene Maker

    The Trump administration is dropping a lawsuit alleging that a neoprene manufacturer's air emissions pose a health threat to the surrounding community, saying the action is part of its effort to "end radical DEI programs" and "eliminate ideological overreach."

  • March 07, 2025

    Mass. Housing Law Called Unfunded Mandate In Latest Suit

    A controversial Massachusetts housing law requiring multifamily zoning near Boston-area transit facilities is facing a new legal challenge after the town of Wrentham argued in a Thursday state court suit that it's an unfunded mandate on localities.

  • March 07, 2025

    DC Judge Declines To Block DOGE From Treasury Systems

    A D.C. federal judge on Friday declined to wall off access to the federal government's payment systems from employees of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency during a lawsuit brought by retirees and union groups, determining the alleged privacy risks were not enough to warrant the court's intervention.

  • March 07, 2025

    Immigrant Rights Groups Fight IRS Data Sharing With DHS

    Two Illinois-based immigrant and Latino rights groups filed a suit Friday seeking to block the Internal Revenue Service from disclosing the names and addresses of taxpayers with taxpayer identification numbers to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other agencies with the purpose of enforcing immigration laws.

  • March 06, 2025

    Trump Executive Order Creates 'Strategic Bitcoin Reserve'

    President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order establishing a "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" that White House crypto czar David Sacks said would hold Bitcoin forfeited in criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings.

  • March 06, 2025

    Amid Court Setbacks, Trump Wants Foes To Foot Legal Bills

    With judges hitting the brakes on the White House's aggressive agenda, President Donald Trump on Thursday vowed to up the ante with his legal adversaries by seeking legal costs and damages if his administration ultimately prevails after initial setbacks in litigation.

  • March 06, 2025

    'Debanking' In Crosshairs Of GOP Bill On Reputational Risk

    Senate Republicans on Thursday unveiled legislation that would bar federal regulators from scrutinizing for "reputational risk" in bank supervision, a measure aimed at curbing the so-called debanking of crypto firms and other politically sensitive customer categories.

  • March 06, 2025

    Calif. Woman Accuses Fla. Sugar Co. Of Greenwashing

    Florida Crystals Corp. is deceptively advertising sugar products as eco-friendly when it knows that its farming practices are "unnecessarily poisoning people and the planet," a Santa Cruz, California, woman has said in a proposed class action accusing the company of greenwashing.

  • March 06, 2025

    SEC Urged To Address Impact Of Slack Ruling On Investor Suits

    Investor advocates on Thursday urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to address the growing number of companies that may be taking advantage of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in order to avoid getting sued after going public.

  • March 06, 2025

    Judge Says He's 'Wrestling' Over Int'l Aid Freeze Injunction

    A D.C. federal judge said Thursday he was still "wrestling" over a requested preliminary injunction that would stop the federal government from terminating foreign assistance grants and contracts en masse, questioning plaintiff organizations on their assertions of standing and the government's claims of "unreviewable" executive power over foreign affairs.

  • March 06, 2025

    Crypto Cos. Want Justices To Settle Venue Statute Circuit Split

    A Binance-branded U.S. exchange and affiliated crypto data site CoinMarketCap have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to settle what they call a circuit split over whether a trader must show the firms had contacts in their state, or if ties to the country as a whole are enough to press a manipulation claim under the Commodity Exchange Act.

  • March 06, 2025

    High Court Urged To Toss $22M SEC Disgorgement Order

    An investment advisory firm has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a First Circuit ruling that upheld an order for the firm to pay $22 million in disgorgement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, arguing that courts cannot impose disgorgement when investors have not suffered any financial harm.

  • March 06, 2025

    California City Abandons Battle Over Affordable Housing

    A wealthy Southern California city wants to drop its appeal of a legal nonprofit's suit that was filed over the city's opposition to a mixed-income affordable-housing project, according to a filing in a state appellate court.

  • March 06, 2025

    CFPB Pulls Plug On Acima Suit In Latest Enforcement Retreat

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's purge of its enforcement docket continued Thursday as the agency dropped a predatory lending lawsuit against Acima, a fintech lease-to-own company and affiliate of Rent-A-Center.

  • March 06, 2025

    Comerica Demands To Face Music In CFPB Suit Amid Stay Bid

    Comerica Bank has urged a Texas federal judge to reject the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's request for a stay of its lawsuit accusing the bank of mismanaging a government benefit card program, arguing the delay lacks "any legal justification" and would harm the bank.

  • March 06, 2025

    Wash. Biz Groups Say Water Regs Rule Likely To Be Repealed

    A group of business associations is fighting a bid by Washington state and a slew of Native American tribes to dismiss the associations' challenge to a decision that established water quality standards for the Evergreen State, saying the rule is set to be repealed under the new federal administration.

  • March 06, 2025

    FTC Challenges PE Firm's Medical Device Coatings Deal

    The Federal Trade Commission moved Thursday to block private equity firm GTCR BC Holdings LLC's planned $627 million acquisition of Surmodics Inc. over concerns about competition for medical device coatings.

  • March 06, 2025

    Dems Tell DOJ Musk May Be Strong-Arming X Advertisers

    Democratic lawmakers led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., have warned the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission that billionaire Elon Musk might be using his position in the Trump administration to bully companies that advertise on his social media platform, X.

  • March 06, 2025

    Top Groups Lobbying The FCC

    The Federal Communications Commission heard from advocates more than 50 times in February about their priorities, including opening valuable airwaves for 5G, clearing hurdles to rural broadband, and pushing T-Mobile's $4.4 billion deal to take over UScellular's wireless operations.

  • March 06, 2025

    Insurers Seek Toss Of Meta's Social Media MDL Coverage Suit

    A group of insurers urged a California federal court to either toss or stay Meta's suit seeking to pause all coverage litigation regarding underlying claims that the company deliberately designed its platforms to be addictive to adolescents, saying the first-to-file rule applies to the carriers' Delaware state court suit.

  • March 06, 2025

    Del. Corporate Law Rework Under Pressure At Tulane

    An attorney whose firm largely represents investors and consumers told a corporate law conference in New Orleans on Thursday that the list of plaintiff-friendly rulings that would be effectively overturned by a pending corporation law bill in Delaware "will probably be just as long as the bill itself."

  • March 06, 2025

    As FDIC Walks Back Biden-Era Policies, Bank Groups Applaud

    The financial services industry has welcomed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s recent moves withdrawing various rule proposals from the Biden administration, delaying the compliance deadline for another measure and proposing to rescind a policy statement on bank mergers. 

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Judge Should Not Have Been Reprimanded For Alito Essay

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    Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor's New York Times essay critiquing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for potential ethical violations absolutely cannot be construed as conduct prejudicial to the administration of the business of the courts, says Ashley London at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.

  • How Cos. Can Use Data Clean Rooms To Address Privacy

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    Implementing comprehensive administrative controls, security processes and vendor management systems are vital steps for businesses leveraging data clean rooms for privacy compliance, especially given the Federal Trade Commission's warnings of complicated user privacy implications, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • What Day 1 Bondi Memos Mean For Corporate Compliance

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    After Attorney General Pam Bondi’s flurry of memos last week declaring new enforcement priorities on issues ranging from foreign bribery to diversity initiatives, companies must base their compliance programs on an understanding of their own core values and principles, says Hui Chen at CDE Advisors.

  • Lights, Camera, Ethics? TV Lawyers Tend To Set Bad Example

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    Though fictional movies and television shows portraying lawyers are fun to watch, Hollywood’s inaccurate depictions of legal ethics can desensitize attorneys to ethics violations and lead real-life clients to believe that good lawyers take a scorched-earth approach, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

  • SEC Motion Response Could Reveal New Crypto Approach

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    Cumberland DRW recently filed to dismiss the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement action against it for the unlawful purchase and sale of digital asset securities, and the agency's response should unveil whether, and to what extent, the Trump administration will relax the federal government’s stance on digital asset regulation, say attorneys at O'Melveny.

  • Steel Cases Test Executive Authority, Judicial Scope

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    Lawsuits challenging former President Joe Biden’s order blocking the merger of Japan's Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel may shape how future administrations wield presidential authority over foreign investment in the name of national security, says Hdeel Abdelhady at MassPoint Legal.

  • 5 Things For Private Employers To Do After Trump's DEI Order

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    Following President Donald Trump's recent executive order pushing the private sector to narrow, and even end, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, employers should ensure DEI efforts align with their organization's mission and goals, are legally compliant, and are effectively communicated to stakeholders, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • 3 Ways Trump Can Nix SEC's Climate Disclosure Rules

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    Given President Donald Trump's campaign statements and agency appointments, it's likely that his administration will try to annul the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure rules, but his options for doing so present unique opportunities and challenges, with varying levels of permanence and impact, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • A Compliance Update For Credit Card Reward Partnerships

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    While the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's interest in credit card rewards programs could fade under the new administration, a recent circular focusing on both issuers and their merchant partners means that co-brand credit card partnerships with banks could be subject to increased scrutiny ahead, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • Perspectives

    Accountant-Owned Law Firms Could Blur Ethical Lines

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    KPMG’s recent application to open a legal practice in Arizona represents the first overture by an accounting firm to take advantage of the state’s relaxed law firm ownership rules, but enforcing and supervising the practice of law by nonattorneys could prove particularly challenging, says Seth Laver at Goldberg Segalla.

  • How FTC Consumer Protection May Fare Under Reg Freeze

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    Attorneys at Crowell & Moring consider how President Donald Trump's executive order directing agencies to freeze all pending rulemaking activity may frustrate any Federal Trade Commission efforts to change or eliminate rules that made it across the finish line before the inauguration.

  • Critical Steps For Navigating Intensified OFAC Enforcement

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    The largely overlooked SkyGeek settlement from the end of 2024 heralds the arrival of the Office of Foreign Assets Control's long anticipated enhanced enforcement posture and clearly demonstrates the sanctions-compliance benefits of immediately responding to blocked payments, says Jeremy Paner at Hughes Hubbard.

  • Unpacking HHS' Proposal To Amend HIPAA Security Rule

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    While the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' proposal to amend the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's security rule could face scrutiny under the Trump administration, it reflects a clear concern over health data security and could push entities to implement operational changes, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Expect Scrutiny Of Banks To Persist, Even Under Trump

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    Although the change in administrations brings some measure of uncertainty as to the nature of bank compliance oversight, if regulators in Washington, D.C., attempt to dilute the vigilance of federal superintendence, the states are waiting in the wings to fill the void, say attorneys at Polsinelli.

  • Reg Waiver Eases Calif. Rebuilding, But Proceed With Care

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    California Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order suspending some environmental review and permitting requirements for the reconstruction of homes and businesses damaged by recent wildfires may streamline rebuilding efforts, but will require careful navigation of the evolving regulatory landscape, says Gregory Berlin at Alston & Bird.

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