Insurance

Expert Analysis

• State Net

  A Look At How States Are Experimenting With Health Care

  

  The fate of the Affordable Care Act is currently pending in federal court, but states are proceeding on the premise that the law will survive its latest legal challenge as they consider competing Democratic and Republican visions of health care, says Lou Cannon of State Net Capitol Journal.

• Opinion

  Time To Heed Justice Stevens' Criticism Of Gun Decision

  

  Justice John Paul Stevens was right that the U.S. Supreme Court's 2008 gun rights decision in Heller desperately needs to be overruled, but while he viewed revision or repeal of the Second Amendment as the easier course for correction, only the court can clean up the mess it made, says Robert Ludwig​ of the American Enlightenment Project.

• 1st Circ. Takes A Bite Out Of Advertising Injury Coverage

  

  The First Circuit's decision in Sterngold Dental v. HDI Global Insurance clarifies the treatment of the intellectual property exclusion to personal and advertising injury coverage under the standard commercial general liability form, bypassing the need to determine whether a trademark is an advertising idea, say Bryon Friedman and Robert Joyce of Littleton Park.

• The Potential Effects Of Calif. Contractor Reclassification Bill

  

  If enacted, California’s Assembly Bill 5 would codify the so-called ABC test for independent contractors established in the California Supreme Court's Dynamex decision. Notably, the bill goes beyond the scope of Dynamex and could have an extraordinary impact on the state's economy, say attorneys at Littler.

• Remembering Justice Stevens As A Law Firm Leader

  

  Rothschild Barry's John Coffey, who joined Justice John Paul Stevens' law firm in 1965, shares what it was like to watch Justice Stevens practice law, mentor younger lawyers and land a malfunctioning plane.

• 5 Takeaways From DOJ Focus On Chinese Trade Secret Theft

  

  Since its official announcement of the China Initiative eight months ago, the U.S. Department of Justice has publicized the initiation of six new cases that include references to both trade secrets and China. These shed some light on DOJ and U.S. business priorities, says Sara O’Connell at Pillsbury.

• Data Analytics Decision Highlights Product Liability Questions

  

  In Rodgers v. Laura & John Arnold Foundation, a New Jersey federal court recently held that a public safety assessment based on data analytics was speech rather than a product. The decision suggests that consumers led astray by analytics may want to consider remedies outside of product liability law, say Davis Walsh and Richard Beaulieu of McGuireWoods.

• Answers To Key Legal Finance Ethics Questions

  

  While there is discussion in some quarters about new regulations on commercial legal finance, the hands-off approach taken by the majority of courts and legislatures is an implicit recognition that it is already sufficiently regulated, says Danielle Cutrona of Burford Capital.

• Federal Agencies Need A Uniform Record-Keeping Process

  

  The administrative record is very important to federal agency litigation — as showcased in last month's U.S. Supreme Court decision concerning the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census — yet there is no set of consistent principles to guide agencies in compiling these official records, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

• New HRA Regulations Are Welcome, But Watch For Pitfalls

  

  New regulations have expanded the use of health reimbursement accounts by allowing reimbursements for individual market insurance premiums. These new accounts bring potential for missteps under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Affordable Care Act, say attorneys at Proskauer.

• The Role Of Dictionaries In Last Term's High Court Decisions

  

  Since 32 of the 67 decisions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court during its October term cite dictionaries, it’s worth reviewing the opinions to learn which dictionaries the justices consulted and how they used them, say Bruce Wessel and Brian Weissenberg of Irell & Manella.

• Climate Change And Insurance: Insurers' Subrogation Claims

  

  Once the litigation floodgates open for property damage lawsuits against greenhouse gas polluters, a second wave of subrogation claims brought by first-party property insurers is likely to follow, say José Umbert and Jason Reeves of Zelle.

• How To Evaluate The Rise In Legal Employment

  

  Although the rate of employment for law school graduates — which had been falling steadily — saw a small increase over the last year, other factors, such as fewer graduates overall and potential future job growth stagnation, temper the good news for those pursuing law degrees, say Tiffane Cochran and Tyler Grimm of AccessLex Institute.

• Common Misconceptions About Risk Purchasing Groups

  

  Group property and casualty insurance policies are a misunderstood and often impermissible method of delivering insurance coverage. In recent years states have begun to reexamine their risk purchasing group laws, but many ambiguities and inconsistencies remain, says Zachary Lerner of Locke Lord.

• Opinion

  The Business Case For Championing Diverse Legal Teams

  

  Leveraging the collective strengths of a diverse workforce is not only the right thing to do, it’s a strategic imperative for any successful firm or business, says Louise Pentland, executive vice president and chief business affairs and legal officer of PayPal.