Expert Analysis

• Series

  Law School's Missed Lessons: In Court, It's About Storytelling

  

  Law school provides doctrine, cases and hypotheticals, but when lawyers step into the courtroom, they must learn the importance of clarity, credibility, memorability and preparation — in other words, how to tell simple, effective stories, say Nicholas Steverson and Danielle Trujillo at Wheeler Trigg, and Lisa DeCaro at Courtroom Performance.

• Charges Signal Tougher Stance On Execs' Bankruptcy Fraud

  

  The recent criminal charges stemming from the Tricolor and First Brands bankruptcy cases may represent a sea change in the willingness of federal prosecutors to use bankruptcy fraud as a basis to charge corporate officers more frequently alongside traditional statutes such as wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering, say attorneys at White & Case.

• Aligning Microsoft Tools With NYC Bar AI Recording Guidance

  

  The New York City Bar Association’s recently issued formal opinion, providing ethical guidance on artificial intelligence-assisted recording, transcription and summarization, raises immediate questions about data governance and e-discovery for companies that use Microsoft 365 and Copilot, say Staci Kaliner, Martin Tully and John Collins at Redgrave.

• How SF Family Zoning Suit Could Stymie City, Builder Goals

  

  A recent suit asserting that San Francisco should further study the environmental impact before permitting taller buildings with more family residences could disrupt the work of project developers and local government — and give pause to other cities rezoning to add housing capacity, says Phillip Babich at Reed Smith.

• Social Media Trial Raises Key Product Safety Questions

  

  The trial underway in a California state court against Meta and Google is unprecedented, because it marks the first time a jury has been asked to consider whether social media platforms' engagement-maximizing design can be treated as a product safety issue, or whether it is inseparable from protected expression, says Gary Angiuli at Angiuli & Gentile.

• What Employers Should Know About Calif. PAGA Proposal

  

  Recently proposed regulations concerning the Private Attorneys General Act evidence an intent by California's Labor and Workforce Development Agency to play a greater role in the prosecution of PAGA actions, including more oversight over the exhaustion notices and settlement process, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

• Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: March Lessons

  

  In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses four recent rulings from January and identifies practice tips from cases involving allegations of violations of consumer fraud regulations, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, employment law and breach of contract statutes.

• Where 5th Circ. Ruling Fits In ERISA Arbitration Landscape

  

  The Fifth Circuit's recent decision in Parrott v. International Bancshares, holding that an Employee Retirement Income Security Act plan may consent to arbitration, must be understood against the backdrop of a developing body of appellate authority addressing ERISA arbitration, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

• 5 Different AI Systems Raise Distinct Privilege Issues

  

  A New York federal court’s recent U.S. v. Heppner decision, holding that a defendant’s use of Claude was not privileged, only addressed one narrow artificial intelligence system, but lawyers must recognize that the spectrum of AI tools raises different confidentiality and privilege questions, says Heidi Nadel at HP.

• State, Federal Policies Complicate Fuel And Carbon Markets

  

  As federal and state regulators advance a complex web of mandatory and voluntary programs and incentives that shape how transportation fuels are produced, traded and valued, new compliance obligations present both risks and opportunities for fuel market and carbon market participants alike, says Sarah Grey at Arnold & Porter.

• Opinion

  AI-Assisted Arbitration Needs Safeguards To Ensure Fairness

  

  As tribunals and arbitral institutions increasingly use artificial intelligence tools in their decision-making processes, ​​​​​​​clear disclosure standards and procedural safeguards are necessary to ensure that efficiency gains do not erode the fairness principles on which arbitration depends, says Alexander Lima at Wesco International.

• Paramount-WBD Deal Would Widen Net For Antitrust Scrutiny

  

  The fresh likelihood of a merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery raises the prospect of added intervention from the U.S. Department of Justice due to the companies' overlaps in key markets, and may signal expanded DOJ scrutiny of potential anticompetitive effects on supply chains, says Shubha Ghosh at the Syracuse University College of Law.

• What Recent Dataset Suits Signal For AI Training Litigation

  

  Plaintiffs are moving away from abstract debates about artificial intelligence at large and toward dataset provenance, and three filings illustrate how provenance is pled using public dataset documentation, archives and discovery‑ready allegations about copying, retention and downstream handling, says Yulia Leshchenko at Name & Fame.

• Planning For M&A Complexity After New State 'Mini-HSR' Laws

  

  After the recent enactment of California's mini-HSR law, and with Indiana poised to pass its own, requiring the submission of Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger notifications to state attorneys general, practitioners should expand their deal planning to include state-by-state reportability as more states adopt similar mandatory merger-notification requirements, say attorneys at McDermott.

• What New Packaging Waste Laws Mean For Franchisors

  

  With states ramping up laws establishing extended producer responsibility programs for packaging materials, paper products and single-use food service ware, restaurant and hospitality franchisors face special compliance challenges as they navigate a delicate balance between conflicting priorities, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.