Aerospace & Defense

Expert Analysis

• Opinion

  Courts Keep Rejecting Litigation Funding Discovery Campaign

  

  As shown by recent case law, including a New Jersey federal court holding last month in Valsartan Products Liability Litigation, there is no "shifting tide" in favor of disclosing litigation funding arrangements, say Matthew Harrison and Stephanie Southwick of Bentham IMF.

• How Emotionally Intelligent AI Could Assist With E-Discovery

  

  While artificial intelligence has already revolutionized the e-discovery field, the development of emotionally intelligent AI promises to explore data in an even more nuanced and human way, thereby further reducing the burden on legal teams, say Lisa Prowse and Brian Schrader at e-discovery services provider BIA.

• Chinese Acquisitions Even More Uncertain In New CFIUS Era

  

  While hostility toward Chinese-led investment in U.S. companies is not new, the proposal expanding the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States' authority to scrutinize such deals casts further doubt over how many inbound Chinese investments in the U.S. will actually close, says Jing Zhao at Saul Ewing.

• Preventable Risks Your Law Firm May Be Overlooking

  

  Although most lawyers are well-prepared to defend or justify the value of an insurance claim for clients, often law firms have not clearly identified their own potential liabilities, planned for adequate insurance or established prudent internal risk management practices, says Victor Sordillo at Sompo International.

• 6 Ethics Tips For Attorneys Making Lateral Transfers

  

  With lateral transfers between law firms on the rise, it is more important than ever for partners to understand the steps they must take to adhere to ethics rules and other requirements when making a transition, say attorneys at Harris Wiltshire.

• Fed. Circ. GE Case Reveals IPR Appellants' Standing Burden

  

  In light of the recent Federal Circuit decision in General Electric v. United Technologies, which illustrates the Federal Circuit's demanding standard for demonstrating Article III standing in appeals of inter partes reviews, counsel for appellants are well advised to focus carefully on injury in fact, says Richard Stark of Cravath.

• Bid Protest Spotlight: Task-Order Value, Discretion, OCIs

  

  In this month's bid protest roundup, Sandeep Nandivada of Morrison & Foerster looks at two September decisions from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, covering task-order jurisdiction and agency discretion to implement corrective action, and one from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on standards for organizational conflicts of interest.

• 10 Tips For Operating Under A Status-Of-Forces Agreement

  

  Status-of-forces agreements establish which laws of a foreign country apply to U.S. military personnel and government contractors working there, but they can be complicated and difficult to navigate, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

• Consider The Power Of Tactical Empathy

  

  By employing tactical empathy techniques to understand the interests behind the positions taken by others, attorneys can gain the upper hand in deal negotiations and litigation while still promoting and preserving long-term relationships with opponents, judges and others, say Shermin Kruse of TEDxYouth@Wrigleyville and Ursula Taylor of Strategic Health.

• DOD May Clarify Sole-Source Production Contracting Rules

  

  Proposed rulemaking by the U.S. Department of Defense is an opportunity for the agency to clarify the extent to which it agrees with a recent decision by the U.S. Government Accountability Office that seems to allow the DOD to sidestep statutory preconditions for awarding sole-source follow-on production contracts, says Nathaniel Castellano at Arnold & Porter.

• The Problem — And Opportunity — Of Implicit Bias In The Bar

  

  Law firms are beginning to recognize implicit bias as a problem. But too few recognize that it is also an opportunity to broaden our thinking and become better legal problem solvers, says Daniel Karon of Karon LLC.

• Series

  Judging A Book: Thapar Reviews Gorsuch's 'A Republic'

  

  U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch's new book "A Republic, If You Can Keep It" offers hope for our constitutional system through stories of American greatness, and sheds much-needed light on originalism for skeptics, says Sixth Circuit Judge Amul Thapar.

• Another Rollback In US-Cuba Financial Relations

  

  The new amendments to Cuban sanctions, together with an August executive order blocking Venezuelan government property, illustrate the Trump administration’s approach of restricting these countries' general access to the U.S. financial system while carving out permissible transactions with the private sectors in those countries, say attorneys at Hunton.

• Opinion

  True Wellness Requires A Deeper Look At Atty Profession

  

  While I applaud all of the law firms that have signed the American Bar Association's campaign to improve attorney well-being, to achieve a truly holistic solution we must ask difficult questions about what we do, how we do it and the expectations we have set for ourselves and our clients, says Edward Shapiro at Much Shelist.

• Claims Court Lowers Bar For Proposal Misrepresentation

  

  The U.S. Court of Federal Claims' recent decision in NetCentrics is a departure from prior decisions in that it holds that intent is not a necessary element of material proposal misrepresentation, says Aron Beezley at Bradley Arant.