Expert Analysis


DOE Energy Efficiency Rollbacks Portend Clashes With States

With the U.S. Department of Energy proposing rollbacks of energy efficiency regulations for numerous appliance types, backstop provisions in many states could come into play to preserve existing standards — but disputes over antibacksliding provisions in federal law and the limits of preemption mean court battles are likely, say attorneys at HWG.


Health Plan Sponsors Must Inspect 3rd-Party Admin Payments

A newly filed class action against Cigna spotlights issues surrounding how self-funded group health plan fiduciaries pay their third-party administrators, and the outcome could shape what plan sponsors are expected to know about such compensation structures, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.


Enviro Marketing Lessons From NY Greenwashing Ruling

A New York state appeals court recently affirmed the dismissal of a New York City suit accusing BP, Exxon and Shell of corporate and product greenwashing, providing practical lessons for framing comparative environmental claims carefully by ensuring that environmental claims are accurate, properly qualified and presented in context, say attorneys at V&E.


Justices' Intel Ruling Could Aid 401(k) Alternative Asset Push

Following the U.S. Supreme Court's recent oral arguments in Anderson v. Intel, a decision favoring Intel over a prudence claim against fiduciaries based on underperformance by comparing two funds that aren't meaningfully similar would undercut the most common litigation theory against including alternative investments in 401(k) plans, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.


FCRA Ruling Previews Future Business Transaction Litigation

The Ninth Circuit's overturning of a class verdict against CenturyLink is a win for businesses facing Fair Credit Reporting Act willfulness claims, but the question of when a consumer initiates a transaction remains unanswered, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.


How Cos. Should Prepare For Democratic Oversight

Companies should begin preparing now for a new, Democratic-majority Congress — understanding how the oversight landscape has changed in recent years and monitoring leadership elections, new rules and potential select committees, say attorneys at Wiley.


How Analytical Advances Reshape Biologic Patent Strategy

As regulators shift away from relying on comparative clinical efficacy studies in biosimilar development, and more toward analytical data, practitioners should pay closer attention to post-translational modifications when evaluating patentability, says Gina Nellesen at Global Patent Group.


What 3 Cases Reveal About Solar Co. Financial Disclosures

Three recent securities suits involving Nextracker, SolarEdge and Enphase illustrate the challenges of evaluating financial representations in the solar industry, raising a common issue: Financial projections cannot be fully understood without examining the operating information and assumptions supporting them, says Rand Manasse at Green Lane Partners.


6 Ways RE Projects Can Balance Campus, Commercial Needs

Recent mixed-use campus developments show that housing, research, hospitality, retail and recreation can share infrastructure and institutional identity while operating under diverse requirements, as long as the underlying agreement structures are carefully thought out and drafted, says Bob Burton at Winstead.


Series

Open-Water Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Swimming long distances in open waters is not necessarily an escape from my intellectual property practice, but a complementary discipline that similarly rewards sustained attention, intellectual curiosity, resilience and the ability to pursue a distant objective without losing command of the immediate task, says Christina MacDougall at Morgan Lewis.


3 Factors That Can Make Or Break A Subchapter V Case

The Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment Act may soon increase the debt limit for Subchapter V bankruptcy, making the process available to more business, but their success within it depends on the debtors' efficiency, credibility and accurate financial assessments, say Michael Martinez at Grier Wright and Mary Grasta at Stretto.


Conflicting Rulings Cloud NCAA Eligibility Rule

The NCAA's adoption of the five-to-five eligibility rule has resulted in a genuinely fractured landscape, with the qualification for members of the class of 2022 essentially dependent upon the location of the athlete and the institution rather than on the underlying facts of the case, says Andrew Hope at Buchanan Ingersoll.


How Contracts Can Address Agentic AI Monitoring Risk

In light of two recent OpenAI incidents of artificial intelligence agents disabling their monitoring safeguards, companies deploying agentic AI should draft contracts reflecting the possibility that controls can fail, and identify who controls each safeguard, whether the AI agent can interfere, and how a failure will be detected, say attorneys at Zova Law.


How Groq-Nvidia Suit Tests Venture Capital Exit Math

A recent Delaware Court of Chancery suit concerning Nvidia's acquihire of certain Groq employees highlights that when such deals are challenged, the economic dispute turns on reconciling technology, people, cash and continuing ownership rather than on the headline number, says Ben Dubin at VC Expert Services.


What To Expect From Calif.'s Incoming Health AI Laws

California's new statewide ground rules for artificial intelligence in clinical care, set to take effect on Jan. 1, reveal the Legislature's choice to regulate healthcare AI primarily though institutions, rather than direct product regulation, and providers should shape their compliance plans accordingly, say attorneys at Reed Smith.


A Lesson On How Courts Approach Impossible Patent Claims

The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Satius v. Samsung, concluding that a scientifically impossible patent claim lacks enablement, underscores important considerations when drafting patent claims with potentially incompatible alternatives, and highlights an uncommon strategy for attacking patent validity via claim construction, say attorneys at Buchanan Ingersoll.


Full Policy Payment May Not Bar Insurer Bad Faith In 9th Circ.

Establishing that an insurer acted within its contractual rights likely disposes of a breach-of-contract claim, however, following the Ninth Circuit's recent ruling in Quilbillies v. First American Title Insurance, the same showing may not dispose of bad faith, says Tracy Garcia at Cozen O'Connor.


SEC's 'Innovation Exemption' Isn't A Substitute For Legislation

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently announced innovation exemption, allowing trading in certain tokenized securities on permissioned on-chain trading platforms, is a temporary and conditional solution for a specific market model, not a general exemption for on-chain securities trading, says Niels Lemmers at Flow Traders.


What Axing ERISA Exhaustion Rule Means For Plan Sponsors

The Eleventh Circuit’s recent reversal of a 40-year precedent requiring plaintiffs to exhaust administrative remedies before filing statutory Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims eliminates a common threshold defense in fiduciary breach suits, making it important for plan sponsors to reassess their internal review and litigation strategies, say attorneys at Nelson Mullins.


How Cos. Using AI Agents Can Avoid Protected Data Incidents

For businesses whose deployed artificial intelligence agents could enter other companies' systems and steal protected data, deployers can take several steps before an incident to test the configured agent, such as limiting it to approved systems and destinations and requiring human escalation when tasks stall, says Steven Carlson at von Briesen & Roper.



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Special Series


My Hobby Makes Me A Better Lawyer

From quilting to clowning to raising miniature livestock, attorneys share how their unusual extracurricular activities enhance professional development.




Judges On AI

Do artificial intelligence tools have any practical judicial applications? In this Expert Analysis series, state and federal judges explore potential use cases for AI in adjudication and beyond.




Opinion


Justices Must Protect Enforcement In DOL Fine Power Case

In deciding whether the U.S. Department of Labor’s in-house court has the power to decide monetary penalties arising from H-2A violations, the U.S. Supreme Court must preserve a practical route to relief for workers and a constitutional forum for employers to contest liability, say Michelle Dromgold-Sermen, Jessica Vasquez-Luna and Julissa Barrera at George Mason University.

The Invisible AI Danger That May Undermine Legal Profession

A public database tracking cases involving hallucinations generated by artificial intelligence recently surpassed 2,200 entries, but the bigger risk underlying attorneys’ use of such tools is that they will slowly surrender their judgment to AI and lose analytical skills, says Massachusetts District Court Associate Justice Brian Palmucci.



Access to Justice Perspectives


3 Reforms Are Needed To Surface Hidden Evidence

The overturned murder conviction of Richard Glossip, who will soon be retried, demonstrates why several measures are needed to help protect against due process violations caused by prosecutors withholding evidence, say Marc Levin and Khalil Cumberbatch at Council on Criminal Justice.