Aerospace & Defense

Expert Analysis

• 6 Considerations When Shopping For Legal Tech Software

  

  When evaluating the vast range of legal technology options available today, law firms will want to make sure that firm intellectual property and client data stored in the software are encrypted, isolated, protected through backups, and in compliance with the ever-growing list of data regulations, say Eric Tucker and Dorna Moini at Documate.

• Law Firm Strategies For Publicizing Laterals Amid Lockdowns

  

  With business development dinners and social events no longer viable for new lateral hires, law firms need a refreshed game plan — one that fully exploits the digital landscape, say Andrew Longstreth and Jesse Dungan at Infinite Global and Michael Coston at Coston Consulting.

• Security Fears Over HK Cable Reveal 'Team Telecom' Priorities

  

  Because the federal agencies known as "Team Telecom" have raised national security concerns regarding a proposed submarine cable system connecting the U.S. to Hong Kong, companies involved in similar projects should expect increased federal scrutiny and consider mitigation strategies, says Caroline Brown at Crowell & Moring.

• Bid Protest Spotlight: Limitations, Timeliness, Cost-Realism

  

  In their June bid protest roundup, Rachael Plymale and Lyle Hedgecock at MoFo review three notable decisions: The Court of Federal Claims reaffirmed the limitations surrounding sole-source awards, while the Federal Circuit expanded the bounds of the Blue & Gold Fleet timeliness rule and confirmed the wide latitude agencies have when conducting cost-realism evaluations.

• Are Your Slack Communications Primed For E-Discovery?

  

  With the increasing use of channel-based platforms such as Slack, Messenger and Teams in the work-from-home era, companies should assume they may be compelled to produce channel-based data in litigation and take proactive steps to protect sensitive information, say Jessica Brown and Collin James Vierra at Gibson Dunn.

• 6 Dispute Prevention Steps As Lawsuits Rise Amid Pandemic

  

  With the inundation of lawsuits resulting from the pandemic, now is an opportune time for companies and their advisers to implement prevention measures explicitly designed to break the dispute cycle early and to de-escalate possible legal actions as they form, says arbitrator and mediator Janice Sperow.

• CFIUS Latest Annual Report Reveals Key Enforcement Trends

  

  Attorneys at Reed Smith discuss five takeaways from the new annual report of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which assessed the 229 notices and 21 declarations filed for CFIUS' review in 2018 and provided a first look at the impact of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act.

• Opinion

  Time To Consider Percentage Rental Agreements For Lawyers

  

  It has long been the law that attorneys cannot use percentage rental agreements because doing so would constitute an impermissible sharing of fees with nonlawyers, but such arrangements can help lawyers match expenses with revenues in lean times like now, say Peter Jarvis and Trisha Thompson at Holland & Knight.

• 'Settle And Sue' Malpractice Cases Have New Clarity In Calif.

  

  A California state appellate court's recent decision in Masellis v. Law Office of Leslie F. Jensen provides a road map for proving causation and damages in settle-and-sue legal malpractice cases — an important issue of long-standing confusion, says Steven Berenson at Klinedinst.

• A Midyear Look At Key US Sanctions Developments

  

  During an active first half of 2020, the Office of Foreign Assets Control strengthened its sanctions programs, issued new guidance documents and announced several enforcement actions, underscoring that even during a pandemic, sanctions compliance is indispensable, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

• What You Say In Online Mediation May Be Discoverable

  

  Mediation conducted online with participants in different states makes it harder to determine where communications were made, increasing the risk that courts will apply laws of a state that does not protect mediation confidentiality, say mediators Jeff Kichaven and Teresa Frisbie and law student Tyler Codina.

• 10 Tips For A Successful Remote Arbitration Hearing

  

  As I learned after completing a recent international arbitration remotely, with advance planning a video hearing can replicate the in-person experience surprisingly well, and may actually be superior in certain respects, says Kate Shih at Quinn Emanuel.

• PE Deals Should Consider Gov't Contractors' Small Biz Status

  

  Private equity firms targeting government contractors that receive preferential treatment in federal procurement should know how to spot red flags that result in loss of small-business status and the deal structures that mitigate this risk, say Elizabeth Leavy and Robert McCann at Reed Smith.

• Opinion

  To Achieve Diversity, Law Firms Must Reinvent Hiring Process

  

  If law firms are truly serious about making meaningful change in terms of diversity, they must adopt a demographically neutral, unbiased hiring equation that looks at personality traits with greater import than grades and class rank, says Thomas Latino at Florida State University College of Law.

• What Hong Kong Policy Shift Means For US Finance Cos.

  

  Now that the U.S. no longer considers Hong Kong autonomous from China, stateside financial services companies should monitor public company audit reporting, non-U.S. futures and swaps trading, and international capital reporting, say Matthew Kluchenek and Matthew Bisanz at Mayer Brown.