Expert Analysis

• New DNA Screening Standard Has No Clear Playbook

  

  Although the government has not yet released promised guidance intended to support its new standards for screening mail-order DNA, companies should not read this as a reprieve from the Oct. 13 compliance deadline because the delay shifts enforcement risk to statutes that need no new authority, including false statements, the False Claims Act and fraud, says Ashwin Ram at Buchalter.

• HSR Compliance Lessons Abound In Proposed $250M Deal

  

  The U.S. Justice Department's recently proposed $250 million Hart-Scott-Rodino Act settlement with KKR sheds light on additional safeguards that companies can put into place to mitigate risk as they prepare for their next deal, including implementation of a robust document process, say attorneys at White & Case.

• The Patent Circuit: Marking Duties For Licensed Tech

  

  The Federal Circuit's decision in VDPP v. Volkswagen provides clarity on how the patent statute's marking provision applies to licensed technology, but expressly leaves open the question of how exactly patentees can make reasonable efforts to ensure licensees' marking compliance, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

• Mapping The Shifting Landscape Of Algorithmic Pricing Laws

  

  As state legislative activity and federal developments abound in algorithmic pricing practice, companies steering through this regulatory patchwork should consider a number of key issues, including status, use and exemptions, say attorneys at Covington.

• Testing AI's Promise For Large-Scale Document Review

  

  Our document-review comparison of attorneys' responsiveness and issue coding decisions versus predictions generated by artificial intelligence across 1,600 documents suggests that these tools can offer a reasonable and reliable basis for improved discovery workflows, provided lawyers understand where guardrails are needed, say attorneys at Redgrave.

• AI Meeting Recaps Pose New Discovery And Privilege Risks

  

  The New York City Bar Association’s recent ethics opinion, cautioning attorneys not to record nonclient conversations with artificial intelligence tools, reflects an emerging view that AI meeting recaps are now a distinct business record category, meaning counsel should set meeting-level controls and apply framework-level updates, says William Wright at Faegre Drinker.

• Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: September Lessons

  

  In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses six recent rulings involving pecuniary loss in false price comparison advertising, privity in an insurance fee class, antitrust standing, immigration class representatives, retirement beneficiary class commonality, and Rule 23(f) appeals in Fair Labor Standards Act claims.

• Wireless Patent Suits Offer Lessons For Data Center Industry

  

  As the data center patent litigation wave begins to crest, the industry can gain insight into what's to come by looking to the wireless and telecommunications industries, giving operators and suppliers concrete reasons to revisit their agreements and establish clear allocations of patent risk, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

• 4 Tips On Expert Gatekeeping From J&J Talc Deal

  

  Johnson & Johnson's successful campaign to exclude plaintiff-side oncologist testimony about whether its talcum powder caused ovarian cancer, which prompted the recent resolution of 70,000 claims, offers lessons on how product liability defendants can reshape risk calculation by rigorously applying expert admissibility rules, say attorneys at Hollingsworth.

• Tracking Texas: When A Promissory Note Is Not A Security

  

  The Texas Business Court's recent application of the so-called family-resemblance test in Thompson v. Anchor Capital offers a useful road map for Texas business owners and lenders navigating the intersection of commercial lending and securities law and determining when promissory notes can be classified as securities, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.

• Series

  Playing Bid Whist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  As a child, I viewed bid whist as a family tradition and a source of friendly card game competition, but as a lawyer, I see it as a tool that has helped me cultivate skills like communication, teamwork, risk assessment and composure, says Keyonn Pope at Riley Safer.

• FCC Robotics Restrictions Raise AI Compliance Risks

  

  A recent "covered list" update from the Federal Communications Commission places restrictions on foreign-produced advanced robotic devices’ ability to obtain new authorizations, creating a framework that is poorly suited to continuous artificial intelligence updates, and raising several transactional and contractual challenges, says Kim Larsen at Stinson.

• Opinion

  Calif. Bill Goes Too Far In Trying To Regulate Attorney AI Use

  

  California’s first-in-the-nation act regulating how attorneys and arbitrators use generative artificial intelligence will likely soon become law, but read broadly, the provisions may dissuade lawyers from employing AI at all, thereby depriving them of key work tools, says Joshua Wurtzel at Schlam Stone.

• How Real Estate Funds Can Use Umbrella Partnership REITs

  

  Recent transactions demonstrate how the conversion from a Delaware statutory trust to an umbrella partnership real estate investment trust may benefit real estate funds, and why attorneys should treat the structuring of this conversion as a coordinated diligence and drafting exercise, say attorneys at Kelley Drye.

• A Look At Litigation Risks From Financing The AI Buildout

  

  Artificial intelligence infrastructure financing can create gaps between accounting presentation and project-level economic exposure, and those gaps may affect management communications and how accounting experts can reconstruct the financial record when those communications become the subject of a securities dispute, says Erik Johannesson at Brattle Group.