Public Policy

  • November 13, 2024

    Defenders, Prosecutors Clash On Proposed Wash. Case Caps

    As public defenders called on the Washington Supreme Court on Wednesday to adopt lightened caseload standards to stem the exodus of attorneys from the indigent defense field, prosecutors chalked up those concerns to career dissatisfaction and cautioned the court the updated rules would catapult local governments into budgetary crisis.

  • November 13, 2024

    Transport Co. Wants To End Calif. Family Separation Suit

    Transportation services provider MVM Inc. urged a California federal judge to toss a proposed class action by a father and son who were separated after crossing the border, arguing Tuesday the Trump-era separation policy was enacted by the U.S. government, and that MVM was simply executing its contractual duties.

  • November 13, 2024

    DOJ Doc Pushes For Strong Antitrust Compliance Programs

    Companies hoping antitrust compliance programs will mitigate or even eliminate U.S. Department of Justice criminal prosecution for bid-rigging, price-fixing and market allocation schemes need strong monitoring, remediation, oversight and responsibility, according to new guidance released Tuesday.

  • November 13, 2024

    Md. Electricity 'Greenwashing' Law Is A Muzzle, Judge Told

    A Maryland law attempting to crack down on electricity suppliers' "greenwashing" claims unconstitutionally mandates companies speak about their product in a way that conforms to what the state considers "sustainable energy," a renewable energy company and an advocacy organization argued in Maryland federal court.

  • November 13, 2024

    Cox Eyes Federal Suit After RI Court Tosses BEAD Case

    Cox Communications has signaled that it may sue in federal court after a Rhode Island state judge tossed on jurisdictional grounds its complaint accusing state officials of botching the rollout of federal broadband deployment dollars.

  • November 13, 2024

    TikTok Asks To Keep NC AG's Addiction Complaint Redacted

    TikTok Inc. is asking a North Carolina state court to keep redacted portions of a complaint by the state alleging that it targets youth to make them compulsive and addicted users, saying parts of the complaint include information from confidential documents and trade secrets.

  • November 13, 2024

    Copyright Chief: Fair Use A Tough Issue In Upcoming AI Report

    An upcoming report from the U.S. Copyright Office addressing questions of infringement and training artificial intelligence models with copyrighted material will address fair use, Shira Perlmutter, the office's director, told a U.S. Senate oversight panel Wednesday.

  • November 13, 2024

    Boston Says Celebrity Chef Owes $1.6M In Taxes

    The city of Boston is taking celebrity chef Barbara Lynch to court, alleging that for more than a decade she has failed to pay over $1.6 million in personal property taxes for her group of restaurants, which she is in the process of closing and attempting to sell.

  • November 13, 2024

    Detroit Fire Fee Ruling Concerns Mich. Justice

    A Michigan Supreme Court justice on Wednesday said he was troubled by a lower appellate ruling he said seemed to imply that municipalities can work around a state law barring sneaky taxes, in this case by stating a charge for fire prevention services is really just the cost of a permit allowing property owners to do business in Detroit.

  • November 13, 2024

    EPA Tells DC Circ. That Mercury Rule Is Sound

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told the D.C. Circuit that opponents of its rule strengthening standards for mercury and other toxic air emissions at power plants are seeking to hamstring the agency with a too-narrow interpretation of the Clean Air Act.

  • November 13, 2024

    Judge Won't Rethink Mootness Of Air Force Vax Mandate Suit

    A Georgia federal judge on Tuesday refused to reconsider his finding that a challenge by U.S. Air Force personnel to the military's now-rescinded COVID-19 vaccination mandate on religious grounds is moot, holding there is no live controversy to keep the case going.

  • November 13, 2024

    Trump Is Poised, Once Again, To Jolt US Trade Policy

    Donald Trump's first stint in the White House saw steep tariffs against China and other trade partners, and with the Biden administration having largely maintained and even expanded those levies, the president-elect is well-positioned to further pull those levers.

  • November 13, 2024

    Space Activities Need Licensing Latitude, Chamber Says

    The Federal Communications Commission could stifle in-space manufacturing growth if it decides to license new space stations only for individual services instead of broader, category-wide uses, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said.

  • November 13, 2024

    FTX Prosecutors Tout Tech Chief's 'Outstanding Cooperation'

    Manhattan federal prosecutors urged a lenient sentence for former FTX technology chief Zixiao "Gary" Wang, telling the court on Wednesday that his "outstanding cooperation" was instrumental in securing the lightning-fast indictment and ultimate conviction of founder Sam Bankman-Fried for an $11 billion fraud that sank the crypto exchange.

  • November 13, 2024

    Outgoing DOJ Antitrust Head Wants To Unstack Healthcare

    The U.S. Department of Justice's top antitrust official looked to the future Tuesday, of both healthcare and his own exit with the change in presidential administration, as he defended the Biden era's more aggressive, nuanced approach to merger enforcement that wouldn't allow massive insurers and others to stack up the industry like Tetris.

  • November 13, 2024

    Republicans Ask Pa. Justices To Cement Ballot Date Rule

    Although a Pennsylvania court decision tossing a rule for mail-in ballots was supposed to only apply to a September special election in Philadelphia, Republican groups have asked the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania to review it and more broadly uphold the rule requiring a handwritten date on the ballots' outer envelopes.

  • November 13, 2024

    Madigan's Atty Seeks To Discredit Key Government Witness

    The cross-examination of a former ComEd executive who wore a wire for the government as it built its corruption case against ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan veered Wednesday into the informant's messy divorce proceedings and his failure to disclose felony charges when trying to buy a gun to kill snakes, as Madigan's attorneys tried to call his credibility into question.

  • November 13, 2024

    Short-Term Rental Owners 'Unreasonable,' Dallas Tells Court

    A Dallas short-term rental advocacy organization loves to focus on property rights, but it never considered the rights of neighbors who want safe neighborhoods and don't want to live next to an active business, a city attorney told a Fifth Court of Appeals panel during oral arguments Wednesday.

  • November 13, 2024

    Colo. A2J Commission Will Launch Listening Tour Next Year

    Colorado Supreme Court Justice Melissa Hart told a room of attorneys on Wednesday that the state's Access to Justice Commission is preparing a 2025 "listen and learn" tour to solicit ideas on how to better serve Coloradans who struggle to afford legal representation.

  • November 13, 2024

    DOD Issues Strategy For Military Base Private 5G Networks

    The U.S. Department of Defense released its strategy for deploying private 5G networks that are upgraded and specifically tailored for needs that can't be met by public commercial networks.

  • November 13, 2024

    LNG Co. Says Full DC Circ. Must Revive Texas Project

    The company behind a liquefied natural gas project on the Texas Gulf Coast urged the full D.C. Circuit on Wednesday to vacate a panel's ruling nixing its federal approval, citing another panel's decision finding the White House Council on Environmental Quality's National Environmental Policy Act regulations are unenforceable.

  • November 13, 2024

    SEC's Uyeda Says Limits On Private Funds Need Review

    Smaller private and venture capital funds could benefit from less-stringent registration requirements, a Republican member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told an advisory panel Wednesday, saying the time is ripe to review whether existing thresholds still make sense.

  • November 13, 2024

    Trump Picks Former Democrat Gabbard For Intelligence Chief

    President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he had chosen former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as his nominee for director of national intelligence, also confirming he had chosen Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., as his secretary of state.

  • November 13, 2024

    Trump's Choice Of Matt Gaetz For AG Hints At Cannabis Policy

    President-elect Donald Trump's announcement Wednesday that he would nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., one of the relatively few Republican proponents of cannabis legalization, to be the next U.S. attorney general marks an early sign of how his administration will consider marijuana policy.

  • November 13, 2024

    NC Wetlands Developer Wants 4th Circ. To Revive Projects

    A North Carolina landowner has urged the Fourth Circuit to block a new rule defining the scope of the Clean Water Act, arguing that the new rule saddles him with "extraordinary compliance costs" for wetland development projects and goes beyond the law's actual scope.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3

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    In a relatively light few months for banking legal updates in New York, the state Department of Financial Services previewed its views on banking sector artificial intelligence use via insurer guidance, and an anti-money laundering enforcement action underscored the importance of international monitoring processes, say Eric McLaughlin and Dana Bayersdorfer at Davis Polk.

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

  • Plan Sponsors Must Prep For New Mental Health, Drug Rules

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    To comply with newly published health insurance rules requiring parity between access to mental health and substance use services compared to medical and surgical services, employers with self-insured plans will need to update third-party administrator agreements and collect data, among other compliance steps, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.

  • The Trade And Tax Issues Behind US-Canada Digital Tax Clash

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    The new Canadian digital services tax recently went into effect despite objections from the U.S., a controversy that represents an unusual mix of trade and tax policy, and many companies have been pondering how it will affect their e-commerce businesses, says Damon Pike at BDO.

  • Aviation Watch: Boeing Plea Agreement May Not Serve Public

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    The proposed plea agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and Boeing — the latest outgrowth of the company's 737 Max travails — is opposed by crash victims' families, faces an uncertain fate in court, and may ultimately serve no beneficial purpose, even if approved, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.

  • Opinion

    Bill Is Key To Protecting US Economy From Patent Piracy

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    It is critical that Congress pass a recently introduced bill that would protect U.S. investors from intellectual property theft by restoring court-ordered injunctions as the default remedy in patent infringement cases to ensure inventors get the justice they deserve, says Andrei Iancu at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • Managing Sanctions Defense Across Multiple Jurisdictions

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    Companies called before multiple regulators to account for the same conduct in this era of increased global sanctions and import-control enforcement should consider national differences in law and policy, and proactively coordinate their responses in certain key areas, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Series

    Colorado Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3

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    In the third quarter of 2024, Colorado's banking and financial services sector faced both regulatory updates and changes to state law due to recent federal court decisions — with consequences for local governments, mortgage lenders, state-chartered trust companies and federally chartered lenders serving Colorado consumers, says Sarah Auchterlonie at Brownstein Hyatt.

  • Building US-Japan Relationships In The M&A Market

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    The prospect of U.S.-Japanese mergers and acquisitions presents stronger competition to U.S. investors in the global M&A markets, while also opening up an additional exit route for sellers looking to offload strategic assets, says Nick Wall at A&O Shearman.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • 4 Ways To Prepare For DOD Cyber Certification Rule

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    Given the U.S. Department of Justice's increased scrutiny of contractor compliance with cybersecurity requirements, it is critical that contractors take certain steps now in response to the U.S. Department of Defense's proposed Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification implementation rule, say Townsend Bourne and Lillia Damalouji at Sheppard Mullin.

  • FTC Focus: How Scrutiny Of PBMs And Insulin May Play Out

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    Should Express Scripts' recent judicial challenge to the Federal Trade Commission succeed, any new targets could add litigation and choice of forum to their playbooks, and potential FTC court action on insulin could be forced to parallel venues as the issues between the commission and PBMs evolve, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Opinion

    AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

  • A Look At How De Minimis Import Rules May Soon Change

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    The planned implementation of executive actions focused on the de minimis rule as it applies to shipments means companies should use this interval to evaluate the potential applicability and impact of Section 301, Section 201 or Section 232 duties on their products, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Key Takeaways From DOJ's New Corp. Compliance Guidance

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    The U.S. Department of Justice’s updated guidance to federal prosecutors on evaluating corporate compliance programs addresses how entities manage new technology-related risks and expands on preexisting policies, providing key insights for companies about increasing regulatory expectations, say attorneys at Debevoise.

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