Pennsylvania

Expert Analysis

• FERC Price Order Leaves Renewable Developers Gobsmacked

  

  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently issued an order applying the minimum offer pricing rule to offshore wind and other new green energy projects in the PJM Interconnection system — making it nearly impossible for project developers to sell capacity into the market, says Belton Zeigler of Womble Bond.

• Rebuttal

  Legal Industry Should Pursue AI Prediction Progress

  

  As part of the debate prompted by my recent Law360 guest article on legal prediction using artificial intelligence, I would like to unpack four issues and suggest that attorneys and technologists continue to tackle the problems presently within reach, says Joseph Avery at Claudius Legal Intelligence.

• Opinion

  More Legislatures Should Pass Broad Noncompete Bans

  

  To offer protections for a larger population of workers, more states should enact comprehensive legislation like California’s prohibition on noncompete agreements for all employees or the recently introduced federal Freedom to Compete Act, says Joseph Abboud at Katz Marshall.

• Solutions To 4 Common Law Firm Diversity Challenges

  

  A workshop recently held by the California Minority Counsel Program provides steps law firms can take toward solving minority attorneys' limited access to social capital and lack of meaningful investment, as well as other obstacles to diversity and inclusion, says Alexandra DeFelice, director of marketing and business development at Payne & Fears.

• Rebuttal

  Discrimination Cases Are Too Complex For AI Fee Prediction

  

  A recent Law360 guest article criticizing the New Jersey Supreme Court’s ruling in Balducci v. Cige overlooks the intricate nature of discrimination cases, which renders artificial intelligence an insufficient tool for predicting time and cost, says Paul Aloe at Kudman Trachten.

• Courts May Clash With Litigants Over Document Review Tech

  

  As courts increasingly accept technology-assisted document review, some are bordering on forcing parties to employ TAR, in which case attorneys may need to step in if their clients prefer other processes, say Donna Fisher and Matthew Hamilton at Pepper Hamilton.

• 3rd Circ. Philly Pay History Ruling May Set National Bar

  

  The Third Circuit’s recent decision upholding Philadelphia’s law that bans employers from asking about salary history is likely to support similar legislation across the country, and is relevant to how courts may assess the evidence required for justification, say Reilly Moore and Robert Dumbacher at Hunton.

• Rebuttal

  AI Can't Accurately Predict Case Length And Cost — Yet

  

  A recent Law360 guest article argued that artificial intelligence can precisely estimate the length and cost of a new case, but several limitations will likely delay truly accurate predictions for years to come, says Andrew Russell at Shaw Keller.

• EEOC Policy Change Clashes With Challenges To Arbitration

  

  Although the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s recent retraction of a policy that opposed mandatory arbitration agreements for worker discrimination claims aligns with U.S. Supreme Court precedent, it doesn’t address resistance to arbitration in new state laws or in the wake of #MeToo, says Mauro Ramirez at Fisher Phillips.

• What Health Care FCA Trends Tell Us About The Year Ahead

  

  The U.S. Department of Justice showed more initiative in directly bringing health care-related False Claims Act cases despite a decrease in qui tam filings last year, and as scrutiny of the industry continues to rise, several sectors deserve to be watched carefully this year, say attorneys at Epstein Becker.

• Consumer Finance Poised For Greater Scrutiny From States

  

  As state-level regulators step up consumer finance oversight to fill the void created by more restrained federal regulation in this area, financial institutions should keep an eye on developments and agencies in several key states, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.

• Lawyers Can Build Trust Through The Spoken Word

  

  As attorneys, we may prefer the precision of written communication, but a phone call or an in-person conversation builds trust by letting others see and hear our authentic selves, rather than something constructed or scripted, says mediator Sidney Kanazawa of ARC.

• Universities Shouldn't Roll Dice On Sports Betting Compliance

  

  As states across the U.S. legalize sports betting, universities must be willing to amend their compliance programs to protect their institutions, student-athletes, athletic conferences and the integrity of games, say attorneys at Cadwalader.

• Opinion

  Legal Prediction Is Demanding But Not Impossible

  

  The New Jersey Supreme Court’s recent decision in Balducci v. Cige incorrectly concluded that predicting the length and cost of a case is nearly impossible, and overlooked artificial intelligence's ability to do so, says Joseph Avery with Claudius Legal Intelligence.

• T-Mobile/Sprint Ruling Elevates Tech Market Merger Analysis

  

  A New York federal court’s recent refusal to block the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile provides a compelling case for considering the dynamism of high-tech markets and demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the nuances and limitations of empirical economic analysis, says Jeffrey Eisenach of NERA Economic Consulting.