Construction

Expert Analysis

• 3 Attorney Ethics Considerations For Litigation Funding

  

  The growth of the litigation finance industry has generated questions on the obligations of counsel when their clients are seeking outside capital to fund litigation, which litigators must understand when providing information to a third-party funder and discussing legal strategy with a client, says Matthew Oxman at LexShares.

• How OSHA's 5 Cooperative Programs Can Benefit Employers

  

  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s recent renewal of a 20-year regional partnership with the Builders’ Association highlights how OSHA's cooperative programs can help employers educate and protect their workers — and bolster their defense against workplace safety citations, says Patrick Bickford at Ausley McMullen. 

• How ABA Opinion Shifts Alternative Biz Structure Landscape

  

  A recent American Bar Association opinion approving lawyers' passive investment in nonlawyer-owned firms eliminates a hurdle for law firms wishing to scale their practice through alternative business structures, but aspiring investors should follow a few best practices, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Deepika Ravi at Harris Wiltshire.

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  Embracing ESG: HPE Counsel Talk Effective Board Oversight

  

  Governance teams can more effectively shape board oversight of environmental, social and governance issues by ensuring organizationwide agreement on the most relevant issues, building a materiality framework that reflects stakeholder input, and monitoring the integration of ESG into operations, say Rishi Varma and Derek Windham at Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

• How Calif. High Court Rulings Narrow Prevailing Wage Law

  

  Two recent rulings by the California Supreme Court in Mendoza v. Fonseca McElroy Grinding and Busker v. Wabtec should come as good news to public works construction contractors, subcontractors and suppliers, as they clarify and limit the scope of the state’s prevailing wage law in several important ways, say Laurence Phillips and Tyler Paetkau at Procopio Cory.

• Opinion

  Justice Gap Demands Look At New Legal Service Models

  

  Current restrictions on how lawyers structure their businesses stand in the way of meaningful access to justice for many Americans, so states should follow the lead of Utah and Florida and test out innovative law firm business models through regulatory sandboxes, says Zachariah DeMeola at the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System.

• Bankruptcy Eligibility Is Expanding For Small Biz Debtors

  

  A Florida bankruptcy court's recent decision in Vertical Mac Construction expands the scope of "just enough" commercial or business activity for Subchapter V eligibility, and potential debtors should consider this evolving boundary, says Nicholas Koffroth at Fox Rothschild.

• EPA, Army Corps Guidance Walks Back Regulatory Certainty

  

  Recent guidance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers concerning the 2020 water quality certification rule suggests a return to ill-defined project review timelines that give flexibility to authorities at the expense of transparency and regulatory certainty, say Anna Wildeman and Dave Ross at Troutman Pepper.

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  Embracing ESG: Leidos GC Talks Social Responsibility

  

  Recent criticisms of corporate commitments to stakeholders such as employees and communities — implicitly opposing environmental, social and governance initiatives — are fundamentally flawed and display a serious misunderstanding of contemporary investor priorities and dynamics, says Jerald Howe at Leidos.

• Lessons In Crisis Lawyering 20 Years After 9/11

  

  Dianne Phillips at Holland & Knight recounts her experiences as in-house counsel at a liquefied natural gas company in the tumultuous aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, and details the lessons she learned about lawyering in a crisis, including the importance of careful forethought and having trusted advisers on speed dial.

• Calif.'s Complicated Transition On Solar Panel Disposal

  

  California's regulations designating photovoltaic modules — or solar panels — as universal waste will have a widespread effect on the solar industry in California as this framework means new compliance considerations for panel manufacturers, installers, solar developers, service companies and organizations that install panels for their businesses or customers, says Laurie Berger at the Silicon Valley Law Group.

• Why Structured Data Is Increasingly Important To Your Case

  

  During discovery, legal teams often overlook structured data — the rows of information found in financial ledgers and similar corporate systems — and consider it secondary to emails and other anecdotal evidence, but this common mistake could mean litigators are missing key elements of a dispute, say consultants at Alvarez & Marsal.

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  Embracing ESG: AIG Counsel Talks SEC Risk Alert

  

  As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission responds to the changing landscape on environmental, social and corporate governance investing, including with its recent risk alert, it is imperative that the regulator take a measured approach, says Kate Fuentes at AIG.

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  Insurance Commissioner's Agenda: Wis. Tackles Climate Risk

  

  Wisconsin Commissioner of Insurance Mark Afable talks about educating consumers on potential climate-risk coverage gaps and mitigation efforts, and encouraging insurers to recognize the latter in underwriting, in the face of increasingly frequent and severe weather disasters.

• What The Judiciary's Font Recommendations Can Teach Us

  

  The D.C. Circuit's recent soft prohibition on Garamond and the ensuing debates about courts' font preferences should serve as a helpful reminder of a larger point — every departure from convention in legal writing carries some level of risk, says Spencer Short at Stradley Ronon.