New York

Expert Analysis

• 4 Urgent Employer Steps After NY's New Airborne Virus Law

  

  Attorneys at Morgan Lewis lay out necessary protocols and best practices for employers with New York work sites to implement industry-specific airborne infectious disease prevention standards by Aug. 5, as required by the New York Health and Essential Rights Act.

• Responding To Fraud Charges Based On Trade Data Analytics

  

  Anthony Barkow and Charles Riely at Jenner & Block examine recent charges against a Canadian hedge fund manager to highlight how defense practitioners can appraise suspicious trading pattern evidence gleaned from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's data analytics.

• Law Firms, Know Who's Responsible For Your Cloud Security

  

  Lawyers generally know that files go into the cloud and that the files are then secured and protected, but it's necessary for firms to take a closer look at their cloud supply chain and then come up with a responsibility matrix that helps mitigate any potential risks or weaknesses, says Martin Ward at iManage.

• Benefits For Law Firms Venturing Into New Services

  

  By offering more services, law firms can deepen and strengthen their client relationships and truly become an extension of their clients' teams while generating new revenue streams, and while there are risks associated with expanding into consulting, they may be worth it, says Lou Ramos at Major Lindsey.

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  Embracing ESG: Exelon GC Talks Diversity Initiatives

  

  Executing a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion programming, through recruitment, inclusive legal pipelines and community empowerment via pro bono efforts, can ensure a strong environmental, social and governance proposition, says Gayle Littleton at Exelon.

• Revamping Law Firm Marketing Lists — With Partner Buy-In

  

  Jackson Lewis’ Paige Bowser shares lessons from the firm's recent overhaul of an outdated email marketing database, including tips for getting partners on board, ensuring compliance with privacy laws and augmenting outreach strategies.

• First 2021 Corporate FCPA Case Offers Compliance Reminders

  

  Foster Wheeler's recent Foreign Corrupt Practices Act settlement — the first corporate enforcement action since President Joe Biden took office — highlights the FCPA risks related to public contracting and tenders, the use of third-party agents, successor liability following M&A activity, and the U.S. authorities' aggressive assertion of jurisdiction in international corruption cases, says Robert Johnston Jr. at Lowenstein Sandler.

• A Look At Tribal Involvement In Juul Litigation

  

  The vaping epidemic has had a disproportionate impact on Native American tribes, and the ensuing litigation against Juul Labs has many parallels with Big Tobacco suits from the 1990s, but this time around tribes have a seat at the bargaining table, say Geoffrey Strommer and Riley Plumer at Hobbs Straus.

• The Murky World Of Legal Rankings Gets Some Clarity In NJ

  

  New Jersey's new, stringent approach to legal rankings will make accolade advertising more transparent, benefiting both attorneys and clients and offering legal marketers a new set of best practices amid evolving standards, say Penny Paul at Lowenstein Sandler and Susan Peters at Greybridge.

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  Embracing ESG: Cigna Counsel Talks Employee Wellness

  

  Building employee well-being into corporate environmental, social and governance priorities required our legal team to focus more closely on cross-functional collaboration within the company and increased communication with our board of directors and shareholders, says Julia Brncic at Cigna.

• Courts' Clashing Standards For Evidence At Class Cert.: Part 2

  

  While federal circuits continue to split on whether to approach fact and expert evidence differently at class certification, and there is no sign of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to resolve the issue, applying an admissibility standard to one and not the other appears illogical, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

• Hybrid Work Models Are Key To Gender Parity In Law Firms

  

  To curb the historically high rates of attrition among female lawyers, Roberta Liebenberg at Fine Kaplan and Stephanie Scharf at Scharf Banks suggest firms must normalize hybrid work schedules, and they recommend best practices to promote engagement among all attorneys, regardless of where they work.

• ADA Compliance After 2nd Circ. Short-Term Injury Ruling

  

  Disability discrimination lawsuits are likely to increase following the Second Circuit’s recent decision in Hamilton v. Westchester County, which affirmed that temporary injuries are covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and could affect accommodations for shorter term conditions — including those resulting from COVID-19, say David Jacoby and Mishell Kneeland at Culhane Meadows.

• Courts' Clashing Standards For Evidence At Class Cert.: Part 1

  

  The Sixth Circuit's recent ruling in Lyngaas v. Ag highlights an ongoing circuit split on whether plaintiffs moving to certify a class must use admissible evidence and whether fact and expert evidence should be treated equivalently in this regard, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

• Sea Change In Drug Assistance Programs May Be On Horizon

  

  Clint Hermes and Jennifer Michael at Bass Berry discuss how recent developments, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's accelerated drug approvals and the Pfizer v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services case, have the potential to change the way that federal health care program beneficiaries receive financial assistance.