Expert Analysis

• PFAS Risks In M&A Amid Litigation, Legislative Developments

  

  Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances have become a significant M&A concern amid new trends in settlements and state laws, and potential buyers must find ways to evaluate potential related risks, say attorneys at Debevoise.

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  Volunteering With Scouts Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Serving as an assistant scoutmaster for my son’s troop reaffirmed several skills and principles crucial to lawyering — from the importance of disconnecting to the value of morality, says Michael Warren at McManis Faulkner.

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  Law School's Missed Lessons: In Court, It's About Storytelling

  

  Law school provides doctrine, cases and hypotheticals, but when lawyers step into the courtroom, they must learn the importance of clarity, credibility, memorability and preparation — in other words, how to tell simple, effective stories, say Nicholas Steverson and Danielle Trujillo at Wheeler Trigg, and Lisa DeCaro at Courtroom Performance.

• How Recent Del. Rulings Clarify M&A Deal Fraud Carveouts

  

  Two recent Delaware decisions have provided clarity regarding when a party can or cannot rely on representations made during the course of an M&A transaction, particularly on the scope and enforceability of antireliance provisions, and on representations they knew or should have known were false, says Anthony Boccamazzo at Olshan Frome.

• Aligning Microsoft Tools With NYC Bar AI Recording Guidance

  

  The New York City Bar Association’s recently issued formal opinion, providing ethical guidance on artificial intelligence-assisted recording, transcription and summarization, raises immediate questions about data governance and e-discovery for companies that use Microsoft 365 and Copilot, say Staci Kaliner, Martin Tully and John Collins at Redgrave.

• FTC Focus: Antitrust Spotlight On 'Acqui-Hires,' Noncompetes

  

  A recent Federal Trade Commission focus on labor issues, like 'acqui-hire' deals, in which only a company's workforce is acquired, and noncompetes, shows that the agency is scrutinizing these issues on a case-by-case basis, necessitating a meaningful look at these transactions, particularly in the technology and artificial intelligence industries, say attorneys at Proskauer.

• A Single DOJ Corporate Enforcement Policy Raises Questions

  

  The U.S. Department of Justice's soon-to-be-released uniform corporate criminal enforcement policy could address the challenges raised by the current decentralized approach, but it will need to answer a number of potential questions amid scant details, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

• 5 Different AI Systems Raise Distinct Privilege Issues

  

  A New York federal court’s recent U.S. v. Heppner decision, holding that a defendant’s use of Claude was not privileged, only addressed one narrow artificial intelligence system, but lawyers must recognize that the spectrum of AI tools raises different confidentiality and privilege questions, says Heidi Nadel at HP.

• After Learning Resources: A Practical Guide For US Importers

  

  Following the U.S. Supreme Court's Feb. 20 decision in Learning Resources v. Trump, U.S. importers and consumers on whom tariffs were imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act can seek relief through existing administrative procedures or a yet-to-be-determined bespoke refund mechanism, and should plan for more changes in the tariff landscape, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

• Opinion

  AI-Assisted Arbitration Needs Safeguards To Ensure Fairness

  

  As tribunals and arbitral institutions increasingly use artificial intelligence tools in their decision-making processes, ​​​​​​​clear disclosure standards and procedural safeguards are necessary to ensure that efficiency gains do not erode the fairness principles on which arbitration depends, says Alexander Lima at Wesco International.

• Paramount-WBD Deal Would Widen Net For Antitrust Scrutiny

  

  The fresh likelihood of a merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery raises the prospect of added intervention from the U.S. Department of Justice due to the companies' overlaps in key markets, and may signal expanded DOJ scrutiny of potential anticompetitive effects on supply chains, says Shubha Ghosh at the Syracuse University College of Law.

• Planning For M&A Complexity After New State 'Mini-HSR' Laws

  

  After the recent enactment of California's mini-HSR law, and with Indiana poised to pass its own, requiring the submission of Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger notifications to state attorneys general, practitioners should expand their deal planning to include state-by-state reportability as more states adopt similar mandatory merger-notification requirements, say attorneys at McDermott.

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  Playing Piano Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Playing piano and practicing law share many parallels relating to managing complexity: Just as hearing an entire musical passage in my head allows me to reliably deliver the message, thinking about the audience's impression helps me create a legal narrative that keeps the reader engaged, says Michael Shepherd at Fish & Richardson.

• Considering The Prospects Of A Robinson-Patman Act Revival

  

  Following a flurry of activity under the Biden administration, Federal Trade Commission price-discrimination cases under the Robinson-Patman Act are at a crossroads, and state-level enforcement could become the next frontier in this area, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.

• New Foreign Bribery Guide Can Help Int'l Cos. Identify Risks

  

  In light of growing global coordination on anti-bribery enforcement, the International Foreign Bribery Taskforce’s recent guide to foreign bribery indicators represents a step forward in the standardization of factors for evaluating corruption risks that multinational companies should consider, say lawyers at Paul Weiss.