Expert Analysis

• Series

  Playing Magic: The Gathering Makes Me a Better Lawyer

  

  The competitive card game Magic: The Gathering offers me a training ground for the strategic thinking skills crucial to litigation, challenging me to adapt to oft-updated rules, analyze text as complicated as any statute and anticipate my opponent’s next moves, says Christopher Smith at Lash Goldberg.

• Improving Well-Being In Law, 10 Years After Landmark Study

  

  An important 2016 study revealed significant substance abuse and mental health issues among lawyers, and while the findings helped normalize the conversation around these topics, a decade later, structural change is still needed, says Denise Robinson at PLI.

• Mapping Bank Exec Clawback Risk Ahead Of Revived Bill

  

  The reintroduction of the Failed Bank Executives Clawback Act would allow recovery of executive compensation after bank failures, making it important for executives and counsel to take steps such as mapping compensation, reviewing employment agreements, documenting decisions, and confirming D&O insurance, says Drew Jones at Diamond McCarthy.

• Federal 401(k) Plan Would Create Fiduciary Litigation Risks

  

  President Donald Trump recently previewed an initiative to make a public 401(k)-style plan option available to all American workers who lack access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan, raising novel and complex litigation issues that merit careful attention, say attorneys at Willkie.

• What DOL Proposal Signals For 401(k)s, Alternative Assets

  

  The U.S. Department of Labor recently published a highly anticipated proposed rule that could establish more defined pathways for 401(k) plan fiduciaries to consider investment options with greater alternative asset exposure, and help fund sponsors and investment managers develop such options, say attorneys at Cleary.

• Steps To Consider As DOJ Launches Fraud Division

  

  The establishment this month of the National Fraud Enforcement Division within the U.S. Department of Justice is a significant reorganization that suggests an increase in enforcement activity involving federally funded programs but leaves a number of important questions unanswered, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

• Series

  Officiating Football Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Though they may seem to have little in common, officiating football has sharpened many of the same skills that define effective lawyering in management-side labor and employment: preparation, judgment, composure, credibility and ability to make difficult decisions in real time, says Josh Nadreau at Fisher Phillips.

• Series

  Law School's Missed Lessons: How To Draft Pleadings

  

  Most law school graduates step into their first jobs without ever having drafted a complaint, answer, motion or other type of pleading, but that gap can be closed by understanding the strategy embedded in every filing, writing with clarity and purpose, and seeking feedback at every step, says Eric Yakaitis at Haug Barron.

• E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On ESI Control

  

  Several recent federal court decisions have perpetuated a split over what constitutes “control” of electronically stored information — with judges divided on whether the standard should turn on a party's legal right or practical ability to obtain the information, say attorneys at Sidley.

• 2 Discovery Rulings Break With Heppner On AI Privilege Issue

  

  While a New York federal court’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner suggests that some litigants’ communications with AI tools are discoverable, two other recent federal court decisions demonstrate that such interactions generally qualify for work-product protection under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, says Joshua Dunn at Brown Rudnick.

• Bid Protest Spotlight: Evidence, Tailored Talks, Materiality

  

  In this month's bid protest roundup, Brian Doll at MoFo delves into three recent decisions from the Government Accountability Office about the evidentiary standards necessary to sustain a protest, discussions tailored to individual proposals, and misrepresentation claims involving factors irrelevant to the agency's decision.

• Series

  Isshin-Ryu Karate Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  My involvement in martial arts, specifically Isshin-ryu, which has principles rooted in the eight codes of karate, has been one of the most foundational in the development of my personality, and particularly my approach to challenges — including in my practice of law, says Kaitlyn Stone at Barnes & Thornburg.

• Fraud Enforcement, Sentencing Face Unusual Convergence

  

  The Trump administration’s newly created task force to eliminate fraud and the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s recent proposals to scale back certain elements of the federal sentencing framework seem to point in opposite directions, creating a collision of policy priorities that may reshape how fraud cases are charged, negotiated and sentenced for years to come, says David Tarras at Tarras Defense.

• Opinion

  State Bars Need To Get Specific About AI Confidentiality

  

  Lawyers need to put actual client information into artificial intelligence tools to get their full value, but they cannot confidently do so until state bars offer clear, formal authority on which plan tiers of the three most popular generative AI tools are safe to use when sharing specific client details, says attorney Nick Berk.

• Trump Order Signals Tougher Benefits Fraud Probes

  

  A recent order from President Donald Trump establishing a federal taskforce for addressing fraud in federally funded benefit programs emphasizes interagency information sharing, potentially affecting a broad range of areas including government contracts, administrative law considerations and False Claims Act cases, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.