Insurance

Expert Analysis

• Opinion

  The Case For A Nonpolitical Federal Judiciary

  

  For the last 20 years, at the insistence of both parties, U.S. Supreme Court nominations have been fierce ideological battles — which is bad for the country and bad for the public's perception of the legitimacy of the court, say Judge Eric Moyé, Judge Craig Smith and Winston & Strawn partner Tom Melsheimer.

• Trump's Drug Pricing Order Is More Bark Than Bite

  

  President Donald Trump's new executive order addressing pricing for drugs covered by Medicare Parts B and D glosses over enormous difficulties in restructuring Medicare operations and is unlikely to lead to any imminent changes, say attorneys at Debevoise.

• Anthem-Cigna Merger Ruling Highlights Post-Deal Issues

  

  The Delaware Chancery Court's recent decision to halt the Anthem-Cigna merger on antitrust grounds is most notable for not holding Cigna liable for breaching its obligation to support the transaction, and underscores the vulnerability of merger-of-equals transactions to post-signing issues, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

• The Keys To A Better Privilege Logging Paradigm

  

  Current privilege logging practices to identify what information is being withheld from discovery often lead to costly disputes, so practitioners should adopt a system based on trust and good faith, similar to the presumptions embedded in the business judgment rule for corporate directors and officers, say Kevin Brady at Volkswagen and Charles Ragan and Ted Hiser at Redgrave.

• Class Arbitration May Meet Its Demise At High Court This Term

  

  While the Second Circuit’s 2019 opinion in Jock v. Sterling Jewelers and the Ninth Circuit’s recent decision in Shivkov v. Artex exemplify how two interrelated inquiries have rescued class arbitration, the U.S. Supreme Court will likely address the issues this term and extinguish the practice, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

• White House Due Process Memo Could Reform Enforcement

  

  A little-noticed memo recently issued by the Trump administration in response to the pandemic, directing federal agencies to provide greater due process to individuals and companies under regulatory investigation, represents a long-overdue sea change in the way justice is carried out in enforcement proceedings, say Joan Meyer and Norman Bloch at Thompson Hine.

• Law Firm Hiring Considerations In A COVID-19 Economy

  

  Financially robust law firms are entering the recruiting market aggressively knowing that dislocations like the COVID-19 crisis present rare competitive opportunities, and firms that remain on the sidelines when it comes to strategic hiring will be especially vulnerable to having their best talent poached, says Brian Burlant at Major Lindsey.

• Djokovic's 'Accident' Through The Insurance Case Law Lens

  

  The conflict between how tennis pro Novak Djokovic and U.S. Open organizers characterized his striking a line judge with a tennis ball has parallels with one of the most litigated questions in insurance coverage cases — whether an injury was caused by an accident, says Randy Maniloff at White and Williams.

• Comparing Recent State Data Breach Law Updates

  

  Public and private entities should revisit their incident response plans to ensure compliance with and understand the differences among heightened data breach notification requirements that five states and Washington, D.C., added or amended this year, says Jane Petoskey at Polsinelli.

• Opinion

  Lawyers Must Act To Preserve Democracy This Election

  

  COVID-19 concerns and glaring gaps in registration threaten to dampen voter turnout in the 2020 election, so attorneys should take on the problem by leveraging their knowledge and resources in seven ways, says Laura Brill at Kendall Brill.

• M&A In The Energy Industry: 6 Current Trends

  

  The COVID-19 pandemic and the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia sent demand for oil plunging this year — but an abundance of distressed assets means that ample opportunities for mergers and acquisitions in the energy sector still exist, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.

• How To Effectively Defend Witnesses In Remote Depositions

  

  When a witness is isolated from the defending lawyer during a remote deposition, carefully planning the logistics and building witness confidence are critical to avoiding damaging admissions, say Jessica Staiger at Archer Daniels and Alec Solotorovsky at Eimer Stahl.

• How The Pandemic Is Changing Stock Volatility Calculations

  

  The COVID-19 pandemic is causing changes to beta measurement of stock sensitivity to market movements, and experts face the difficult question of whether to incorporate this changed beta into valuations in litigation, say Andrew Roper at Catalyst Economic Consulting and Clifford Ang at Compass Lexecon.

• Opinion

  Fla. High Court Should Hold Insurer Liable In Damages Row

  

  In Citizens Property v. Manor House, the Florida Supreme Court should hold that Citizens can be held responsible for damages resulting from its delay in resolving a hurricane-related insurance claim, in order to uphold settled law and protect policyholders, says Mark Nation at Morgan & Morgan.

• Whether And How To Compel Remote Arbitration

  Excerpt from Practical Guidance

  

  As the pandemic delays in-person arbitration hearings, mediator and arbitrator Theodore Cheng provides arbitrators with a checklist to examine the rationale and authority for compelling parties to participate in remote hearings.