Expert Analysis

• NLRB Ruling Allows Leeway On Disciplining Misconduct

  

  The National Labor Relations Board's recent decision in Lion Elastomers gives employers more room to discipline employees for threatening and offensive conduct, even when it occurs during protected activity, renewing focus on employer motive, consistency and documentation, says Sarah Niemiroski at Shipman & Goodwin.

• Logistics Update: Handling Iran War Supply Chain Limitations

  

  The war in Iran is straining global logistics by introducing practical, commercial, legal and claims limitations for both operators and customers — so all supply chain participants must understand the resulting legal issues, and how to respond to them, says Jonathan Todd at Benesch.

• How Banks Can Better Prepare For Wire Fraud Risks

  

  Recent schemes serve as a reminder that banks can better limit liability for fraudulent wire transfers by documenting commercially reasonable security procedures, following them consistently, and addressing beneficiary name and account number discrepancies, says Shelli Clarkston at Spencer Fane.

• Lessons For Cannabis Dispensaries From Web Tracking Suits

  

  The trajectory of health-tracking litigation in Florida and elsewhere suggests that patient privacy claims will not disappear quickly, so dispensaries should audit their sites, tighten consent and align their disclosures with their actual practices, say attorneys at Buchanan Ingersoll.

• FTC Highlights Path To Preserve Board Rights In A Rival Co.

  

  The Federal Trade Commission's move to add key guardrails permitting firearms manufacturer Beretta to retain two directors as it takes a 25% stake in competitor Ruger illustrates how parties may maintain board rights in certain circumstances without running afoul of Section 8 of the Clayton Act, say attorneys at Davis Polk.

• FINRA Disputes Highlight Timeliness In Arbitrator Bias Claims

  

  Recent Financial Industry Regulatory Authority litigation over arbitrator neutrality shows that the strength of challenges depends not only on what counsel discovers, but also on how early it is uncovered and how concretely it can be demonstrated, says Dax White at White Law.

• Opinion

  A Capital Markets Agenda For The New Congress

  

  When the 120th Congress convenes in January, it should place capital markets issues near the top of its to-do list, with a focus on legislation that can make the public company model more competitive, says David Kaufman at Thompson Coburn.

• FinCEN Scam Alerts Push Banks To Rethink AML Monitoring

  

  Recent Financial Crimes Enforcement Network guidance on digital asset scams suggests that future anti-money laundering examinations may focus less on whether institutions detect the movement of criminal proceeds and more on whether they can identify fraud schemes before victims suffer catastrophic losses, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

• Defending Hospital Antisteering Clauses From DOJ Scrutiny

  

  The Trump administration has recently made clear that pursuing antitrust challenges to antisteering provisions in hospital-insurer contracts is a priority — but a review of similar cases against hospital systems and important precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court illuminates some potential defenses in such cases, says Derek Moore at Rule Garza.

• How AI Could Help Judges Spot Their Own Biases

  

  In close cases where there’s room for discretion, artificial intelligence could challenge judges’ implicit biases by running counterfactual tests at scale — but any judicial use of such tools would need guardrails, say Arnold Peter at Peter Law and Nancy Rapoport at University of Nevada.

• Assessing Hidden Risk Of Administrative Agency Settlements

  

  Though administrative resolutions of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations may seem preferable to settled federal court actions, the possibility that private plaintiffs may use commission orders in follow-on litigation poses an extra risk, increasing the importance of negotiating the settlement's form and language, say attorneys at Debevoise.

• State Of Insurance: Q3 Notes From Pennsylvania

  

  Pennsylvania courts issued several noteworthy insurance decisions last quarter, offering practical guidance for insurers evaluating public policy coverage disputes, drafting umbrella policy language and defending litigation involving claim file discoverability, says Todd Leon at Marshall Dennehey.

• Risk Management Tips For Cos. Deploying Open-Weight AI

  

  While many enterprises building out their artificial intelligence strategies are considering open-weight models, the Open-Source AI Leadership Act and accompanying congressional oversight letters to prominent tech and consumer companies signal that opportunity and legal risk are being discovered and evaluated on the same timeline, say attorneys at Cooley.

• West Point Prof's Suit Tests Public Employee Speech Limits

  

  A recent complaint in New York federal court alleging that West Point unlawfully terminated a professor who challenged a directive banning references to human causes of climate change could illuminate how academic freedom and public employee speech protections apply at a military academy, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

• Compete Act Reinforces Calif.'s Antitrust Leadership Role

  

  California's recent passage of the Compete Act, which expands the state's principal antitrust statute's focus on concerted multifirm conduct to business dealings between two or more firms, underscores California's leadership in state antitrust enforcement as attorneys general move to fill perceived gaps left by reduced federal oversight, say attorneys at Skadden.