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Compliance
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October 22, 2024
Standard Deduction To Get $400 Bump For 2025 Tax Year
The standard deduction will rise by $400, to $15,000, for individuals and married couples filing separately for the 2025 tax year, the IRS said Tuesday in announcing inflation adjustments to over 60 tax provisions.
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October 22, 2024
How Law Firms Get And Keep Elite Status
For decades, a handful of New York-based law firms thoroughly dominated the national consciousness when it came to power, profitability and prestige. But in today's legal market, increased movement of partners and clients from one firm to the next has begun to shake things up and create opportunities for go-getters to ascend the ranks.
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October 22, 2024
The 2024 Prestige Leaders
Check out our Prestige Leaders ranking, analysis and interactive graphics to see which firms stand out for their financial performance, attractiveness to attorneys and law students, ability to secure accolades and positive legal news media representation.
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October 22, 2024
Shake Shack Settles Massachusetts Child Labor Complaint
Shake Shack has agreed to pay $244,500 to settle allegations that it violated Massachusetts child labor laws, including failing to obtain work permits and allowing minors to work more than 48 hours in a week, the state attorney general announced Tuesday.
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October 22, 2024
Ga. Top Court Says State Trooper Can Pursue Wage Suit
The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to upend a decision finding the Georgia Department of Public Safety waived its immunity from a state trooper's unpaid overtime suit, but sent the case back to the trial court to determine if the department breached federal law.
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October 22, 2024
Ex-Ga. Insurance Commissioner Gives Up Law License
Georgia's justices accepted John Oxendine's voluntary surrender of his law license on Tuesday, months after the former state insurance commissioner was sentenced to prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar medical testing kickback scheme.
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October 22, 2024
CFPB's Open Banking Rule Flops With Industry, Lands In Court
Banks will face new requirements to make account data freely available for consumers to share with fintech firms and other competitors under a long-awaited rule that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveiled Tuesday, drawing an immediate industry legal challenge seeking to block it.
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October 21, 2024
Rocket Mortgage Faces DOJ Suit Alleging Refi Race Bias
The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday sued Rocket Mortgage and two appraisal companies in Colorado federal court for allegedly undervaluing a woman's Denver home because she was Black, asserting that the mortgage company then canceled her refinancing application when she reported the alleged discrimination.
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October 21, 2024
SEC To Focus On Advisers' Investment Outsourcing In '25
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission examiners are poised to generally stay the course with their exam priorities in the coming year, with a particular focus on investment advisers that outsource their investment functions, according to a report released Monday.
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October 21, 2024
NYSE, Cboe Win SEC Approval For Bitcoin ETP Options
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has given the New York Stock Exchange and Cboe Global Markets permission to list and trade options of certain bitcoin exchange-traded products, following the long-anticipated approval of the ETPs themselves at the start of this year.
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October 21, 2024
OFAC Sanctions Adviser Joins Faegre Drinker's Trade Team
A former sanctions regulations adviser to the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has joined Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP's customs and international trade team in its Washington, D.C., office as a government and regulatory counsel, the firm has announced.
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October 21, 2024
Madigan Part Of 'Corruption At The Highest Levels,' Jury Told
Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and his loyal right hand Michael McClain engaged in an eight-year "campaign of bribery," leveraging his public office and leadership roles to steer business to Madigan's property tax law firm, enrich his allies with do-nothing jobs and maintain his considerable political power, prosecutors told an Illinois federal jury Monday.
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October 21, 2024
SEC, CFTC Chairs Talk Crypto, AI & Wall Street Texting Sweep
The leaders of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission appeared before an audience of top financial professionals Monday to discuss the future of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence regulations and to defend against accusations that ongoing probes of brokers' use of off-channel communications were too harsh.
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October 21, 2024
Rule Aims To Give Geothermal Energy Projects A Boost
The U.S. Department of the Interior said it's pitching a new categorical exclusion that's intended to speed up geothermal resource discovery efforts on public lands, with a proposed rule slated to be published Tuesday.
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October 21, 2024
PBMs Keep Door Open To Constitutional Riposte Against FTC
Attorneys for Caremark Rx, Express Scripts and OptumRx kept the door open Monday to challenging the Federal Trade Commission's constitutionality as they face an in-house case accusing the country's three largest pharmacy benefit managers of artificially inflating insulin prices by relying on unfair rebate schemes.
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October 21, 2024
CFPB Funding No Reason To Ax SoLo Suit, Calif. Judge Says
Another federal judge has refused to dismiss a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lawsuit on the grounds that the agency lacks valid funding, and has found that the agency has pled plausible deceptive advertising, state violations and other counts against fintech lender SoLo Funds Inc.
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October 21, 2024
US, Land Donor Settle Fight Over $1.9M Cut To Deduction
The federal government settled a suit brought by a Louisiana partnership that accused the IRS of using a flawed appraisal to drive down its tax deduction for a land donation by nearly $1.9 million, according to Louisiana federal court filings.
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October 21, 2024
DC Circ. Unsure Right Law Used To Challenge Alaska LNG Project
Two conservation groups faced a skeptical D.C. Circuit panel on Monday in their challenge to the U.S. Department of Energy's reapproval of a $44 billion liquefied natural gas project in Alaska.
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October 21, 2024
Belgium Joins French Courts In Telegram CEO Criminal Probe
Belgian investigators have joined French law enforcement in the criminal investigation of Pavel Durov, the CEO of encrypted messaging-platform Telegram, who is charged in France with aiding illegal child pornography, fraud and other crimes, the Paris prosecutor's office announced.
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October 21, 2024
3M Asks 2nd Circ. To Keep Vermont PFAS Case In Fed Court
3M Co. is asking the Second Circuit to reverse an order remanding a suit by the state of Vermont over "forever chemical" contamination back to state court, saying that it filed for removal as soon as it learned that the claims involved products from a facility that made products for the military.
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October 21, 2024
Truist Bank To Pay $9.1M Over 'Unwise' Trust Administration
Charlotte-based Truist Bank has agreed to pay the federal government $9.1 million to resolve claims that its predecessor SunTrust Bank ran afoul of the law by approving unwise disbursements for beneficiaries of a lead poisoning settlement, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.
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October 21, 2024
Novartis Loses Challenge To Medicare Drug Price Talks
A New Jersey federal judge on Friday tossed Novartis Pharmaceuticals' challenge to a Medicare drug price negotiation program, ruling the company is not required to participate, and that participating in the program does not violate its First Amendment rights.
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October 21, 2024
Ontrak Jury Lacked Key Compliance Instruction, Judge Told
Counsel for convicted Ontrak founder Terren Peizer urged a California federal judge Monday to grant a new trial in the healthcare executive's novel insider trading case, saying jurors weren't properly instructed that they should acquit if Peizer's $20 million share sale was blessed by a compliance officer.
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October 21, 2024
Mike Pence Supports US Steel-Nippon, Calls Critiques 'Bogus'
Former Vice President Mike Pence has come out in support of Nippon Steel's planned $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, stating that Nippon will inject essential funding into the ailing Pennsylvania-based steelmaker while helping to fend off China and Russia's growing levels of global steel production.
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October 21, 2024
Catalent CEO Defends Novo Deal, Will Stay On After Buyout
Catalent CEO Alessandro Maselli told the medical company's customers Monday that Catalent will continue to support them following its planned $16.5 billion sale to Novo Holdings, seeking to assure clientele after Sen. Elizabeth Warren and advocacy groups pressured the Federal Trade Commission to scrutinize and potentially block the deal.
Expert Analysis
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Considering Possible PR Risks Of Certain Legal Tactics
Disney and American Airlines recently abandoned certain litigation tactics in two lawsuits after fierce public backlash, illustrating why corporate counsel should consider the reputational implications of any legal strategy and partner with their communications teams to preempt public relations concerns, says Chris Gidez at G7 Reputation Advisory.
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Integrating ESG Into Risk Management Programs
Amid increasing regulations and reporting requirements for corporate sustainability in the European Union and the U.S., companies might consider how to incorporate environmental, social and governance factors into more formalized risk management, say directors at Alvarez & Marsal.
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Exploring Practical Employer Alternatives To Noncompetes
With the Federal Trade Commission likely to appeal a federal court’s recent rejection of its noncompete ban, and more states limiting the enforceability of these agreements, employers should consider back-to-basics methods for protecting their business interests and safeguarding sensitive information, says Brendan Horgan at FordHarrison.
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How Increased Sanctions Scrutiny Is Affecting Debt Markets
U.S. sanctions and export control regulators have recently taken several steps that broaden financial sector oversight, and banks, lenders and borrowers must adapt their syndication and risk assessment processes in different ways or risk incurring substantial penalties, say Cristina Brayton-Lewis and Kerrick Seay at White & Case.
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What The SEC Liquidity Risk Management Amendments Entail
Fund managers should be cognizant of the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission's recent changes to certain reporting requirements and guidance related to open-end fund liquidity risk management programs, and update their filing systems if need be, says Rachael Schwartz at Sullivan & Worcester.
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It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers
Amid fierce competition for business, the transactional “trusted adviser” paradigm from which most firms operate is no longer sufficient — they should instead aim to become trusted partners with their most valuable clients, says Stuart Maister at Strategic Narrative.
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Avoid Getting Burned By Agencies' Solar Financing Spotlight
Recently coordinated reports and advisories from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission maximize the spotlight on the consumer solar financing market and highlight pitfalls for lenders to avoid in this burgeoning field, says Mercedes Tunstall at Cadwalader.
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Service Agreement Lessons From July's Global Tech Outage
The worldwide outages recently caused by Crowdstrike Holdings' misconfigured software update highlight the need to evaluate potential IT vendors, negotiate certain service agreement terms, and review existing agreements and diligence forms to help prevent future disruptions and mitigate the fallout should one occur, say attorneys at WilmerHale.
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Vertex Suit Highlights Issues For Pharma Fertility Support
Vertex Pharmaceuticals' recent lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' interpretation of the Anti-Kickback Statute is influenced by a number of reproductive rights and health equity issues that the Office of Inspector General should address more concretely, including in vitro fertilization and fertility preservation programs, says Mary Kohler at Kohler Health Law.
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Calif. Bill, NTIA Report Illustrate Open-Model AI Safety Debate
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s balanced recommendations for preventing misuse of open artificial intelligence models, contrasted with a more aggressive California bill, demonstrate an evolving regulatory debate about balancing democratic access to this powerful new technology against potential risks to the public, say Stuart Meyer and Fredrick Tsang at Fenwick.
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5 Lessons From Consulting Firm's Successful DOJ Disclosure
The Boston Consulting Group recently received a rare declination of prosecution from the U.S. Department of Justice after self-disclosing a foreign bribery scheme, and the firm’s series of savvy steps after discovering the misconduct provides useful data points for white collar defense attorneys, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.
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What To Know About Ill. Employment Law Changes
Illinois employers should review their policies in light of a number of recent changes to state employment law, including amendments to the state’s Human Rights Act and modifications to the Day and Temporary Labor Services Act, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.
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'Greenhushing': Why Some Cos. Are Keeping Quiet On ESG
A wave of ESG-related litigation and regulations have led some companies to retreat altogether from any public statements about their ESG goals, a trend known as "greenhushing" that was at the center of a recent D.C. court decision involving Coca-Cola, say Gonzalo Mon and Katie Rogers at Kelley Drye.
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Complying With FTC's Final Rule On Sham Online Reviews
The Federal Trade Commission's final rule on deceptive acts and practices in online reviews and testimonials is effective Oct. 21, and some practice tips can help businesses avert noncompliance risks, say Airina Rodrigues and Jonathan Sandler at Brownstein Hyatt.
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7 Takeaways For Investment Advisers From FinCEN AML Rule
With a new FinCEN rule that will require covered investment advisers to implement anti-money laundering programs and comply with extra recordkeeping requirements by 2026, companies should begin planning necessary updates to their policies and procedures by focusing on seven of the rule’s key requirements, identified by attorneys at Simpson Thacher.