California

Expert Analysis

• Ethics Reminders As Employees Move To Or From Gov't

  

  Many organizations are making plans for executives to go into government jobs, or for government officials to join a private sector team, but they must understand the many ethics rules that can put a damper on just how valuable the former employee or new hire can be, say Scott Thomas and Jennifer Carrier at Blank Rome.

• When It Comes To SEPs, Act Locally But Enforce Globally

  

  Because recent standard-essential patent decisions in the U.S., the U.K., China and Germany may signal a trend toward a greater international influence on global royalty rates by individual national jurisdictions, potential licensors and licensees may need to adjust their enforcement strategies, says Mauricio Uribe at Knobbe Martens.

• UnitedHealth ERISA Ruling Exposes Faults In Health Coverage

  

  Perhaps one of the most significant health insurance decisions ever, a California federal court’s recent ruling that Employee Retirement Income Security Act violations require a UnitedHealth subsidiary to reconsider 50,000 denied mental health treatment claims reveals how insurers' decisions sometimes disregard generally accepted care standards, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Sherman.

• Carbon Capture Policy Should Be Aligned For Global Adoption

  

  With support from both Republicans and Democrats, carbon capture, utilization and storage technology as a tool for decarbonization may be poised for domestic growth — but the U.S. and the European Union must coordinate their policies to promote a global approach, say Hunter Johnston and Jeff Weiss at Steptoe & Johnson.

• Surveying Drug Pricing Reform: The Latest State Activity

  

  Attorneys at Ropes & Gray explore four types of high-impact drug pricing initiatives at the state level — pricing transparency, pharmacy benefit manager controls, drug importation and value-based arrangements — examining how the current wave of reforms may affect drug companies' business operations.

• A Key To Helping Clients Make Better Decisions During Crisis

  

  As the pandemic brings a variety of legal stresses for businesses, lawyers must understand the emotional dynamic of a crisis and the particular energy it produces to effectively fulfill their role as advisers, say Meredith Parfet and Aaron Solomon at Ravenyard Group.

• NY Auto-Renewal Law Raises Compliance, Litigation Concerns

  

  A new law in New York that requires businesses to obtain consumer consent for automatic contract renewals could warrant extensive revisions to existing terms and conditions, and courts could eventually create a private right of action if they follow California’s trend of permitting individuals to sue under separate statutes, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

• Where Data Privacy And CFPB Are Headed Under Biden

  

  Data privacy is likely to be a key area of legislative and enforcement focus for President-elect Joe Biden, and consumer financial protection is expected to be an immediate priority due to the economic impact of the pandemic, with the most drastic shift likely to occur at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

• How Federal, State Plans Could Bring Carbon Capture To US

  

  Proposals from President-elect Joe Biden, a pair of bills currently pending in Congress and a low-carbon fuels program in California provide insights into how carbon capture, utilization and storage technology could be integrated into the fight against climate change in the U.S., say Hunter Johnston and Jeff Weiss at Steptoe.

• DOJ's Visa-Plaid Challenge Shows Email Can Imperil A Deal

  

  The U.S. Department of Justice used a trove of internal Visa email and other communications to show how the $5.3 billion Plaid merger might limit competition — providing a cautionary tale of how internal documents can endanger a transaction that shows few antitrust concerns on the surface, says Tammy Zhu at Medallia.

• A Forgotten But Effective Tool Against Opioid Scams

  

  With the pandemic contributing to rising rates of opioid and substance use disorders, prosecutors should consider the regrettably underused Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act as a tool for targeting and shutting down body brokers and others in the treatment industry that place profits above patients, say Michael Adelberg and Matthew Rubin at Faegre Drinker, and Melissa Garrido at Boston University.

• 6 Best Practices For Banks Serving The Marijuana Industry

  

  As more states legalize marijuana, financial institutions with marijuana-related business customers should implement robust and nuanced compliance programs, and those that do not want to serve the industry should have policies in place for determining whether existing customers are engaged in marijuana-related activities, say attorneys at Venable.

• Ethics Considerations For Law Firms Implementing AI

  

  Richard Finkelman and Yihua Astle at Berkeley Research Group discuss the ethical and bias concerns law firms must address when implementing artificial intelligence-powered applications for recruiting, conflict identification and client counseling.

• EU Climate Goals Are Hard To Reach Without Carbon Capture

  

  The European Union's failure to fully embrace blue fuels, produced using carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies, may hinder the region's pursuit of its aggressive decarbonization goals, say Hunter Johnston and Jeff Weiss at Steptoe & Johnson.

• What Calif.'s New Consumer Debt Law Means For Collectors

  

  Brett Watson at Cozen O’Connor explains what California's recently enacted Debt Collection Licensing Act means for debt collectors, including how they should prepare to comply, how the act interacts with existing state laws, and whether to expect forthcoming enforcement actions.