Expert Analysis

• Criminal Discovery Practice Must Address Usability Problem

  

  One of the more consequential practical problems in federal criminal defense is that the ability to deliver digital evidence has outpaced the ability of many defense teams to review it, but there are several potential solutions, says Patrick Garrity at Brad Bailey.

• NYC Power Act May Spur Algorithmic Pricing And Other Suits

  

  New York City’s proposed Power Act would create a private right of action for unfair, deceptive, abusive and unlawful practices, broadening litigation exposure for businesses using algorithmic and other types of pricing technology, though its path to enactment still remains uncertain, say attorneys at Skadden.

• Opinion

  Judges Must Turn To Merits Earlier To Fix Civil Justice System

  

  The U.S. justice system is long overdue for a cultural shift that encourages judges to engage with the merits of a case from the outset, which would help to cut through procedural complexities and deliver high-quality justice efficiently and at lower cost, says Steven Kayman at Rottenberg Lipman.

• DOE Energy Efficiency Rollbacks Portend Clashes With States

  

  With the U.S. Department of Energy proposing rollbacks of energy efficiency regulations for numerous appliance types, backstop provisions in many states could come into play to preserve existing standards — but disputes over antibacksliding provisions in federal law and the limits of preemption mean court battles are likely, say attorneys at HWG.

• Enviro Marketing Lessons From NY Greenwashing Ruling

  

  A New York state appeals court recently affirmed the dismissal of a New York City suit accusing BP, Exxon and Shell of corporate and product greenwashing, providing practical lessons for framing comparative environmental claims carefully by ensuring that environmental claims are accurate, properly qualified and presented in context, say attorneys at V&E.

• How Cos. Should Prepare For Democratic Oversight

  

  Companies should begin preparing now for a new, Democratic-majority Congress — understanding how the oversight landscape has changed in recent years and monitoring leadership elections, new rules and potential select committees, say attorneys at Wiley.

• What 3 Cases Reveal About Solar Co. Financial Disclosures

  

  Three recent securities suits involving Nextracker, SolarEdge and Enphase illustrate the challenges of evaluating financial representations in the solar industry, raising a common issue: Financial projections cannot be fully understood without examining the operating information and assumptions supporting them, says Rand Manasse at Green Lane Partners.

• Series

  Open-Water Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Swimming long distances in open waters is not necessarily an escape from my intellectual property practice, but a complementary discipline that similarly rewards sustained attention, intellectual curiosity, resilience and the ability to pursue a distant objective without losing command of the immediate task, says Christina MacDougall at Morgan Lewis.

• Opinion

  The Invisible AI Danger That May Undermine Legal Profession

  

  A public database tracking cases involving hallucinations generated by artificial intelligence recently surpassed 2,200 entries, but the bigger risk underlying attorneys’ use of such tools is that they will slowly surrender their judgment to AI and lose analytical skills, says Massachusetts District Court Associate Justice Brian Palmucci.

• 10 Ways AI Labs Can Limit Antitrust Risks Of Safety Pacts

  

  The OpenAI CEO’s recent call for artificial intelligence laboratories to collectively slow development to allow safety research to catch up invites antitrust scrutiny, but the risks to coordinating competitors can be managed by carefully structuring pacing agreements and layering their approach to compliance, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

• The Patent Circuit: Minding Patents' Family Histories

  

  The Federal Circuit's recent decision in Epic Tech v. Pen-Tech highlights the relevance of patent families in determining whether to maintain an ongoing patent infringement litigation, and the sanctions risk that may stem from failing to account for patent relatives, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

• Defending Hospital Antisteering Clauses From DOJ Scrutiny

  

  The Trump administration has recently made clear that pursuing antitrust challenges to antisteering provisions in hospital-insurer contracts is a priority — but a review of similar cases against hospital systems and important precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court illuminates some potential defenses in such cases, says Derek Moore at Rule Garza.

• How AI Could Help Judges Spot Their Own Biases

  

  In close cases where there’s room for discretion, artificial intelligence could challenge judges’ implicit biases by running counterfactual tests at scale — but any judicial use of such tools would need guardrails, say Arnold Peter at Peter Law and Nancy Rapoport at University of Nevada.

• Assessing Hidden Risk Of Administrative Agency Settlements

  

  Though administrative resolutions of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations may seem preferable to settled federal court actions, the possibility that private plaintiffs may use commission orders in follow-on litigation poses an extra risk, increasing the importance of negotiating the settlement's form and language, say attorneys at Debevoise.

• West Point Prof's Suit Tests Public Employee Speech Limits

  

  A recent complaint in New York federal court alleging that West Point unlawfully terminated a professor who challenged a directive banning references to human causes of climate change could illuminate how academic freedom and public employee speech protections apply at a military academy, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.