Public Policy

  • April 29, 2025

    Mexico Put On Latest USTR Priority IP Watch List

    The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Tuesday issued its annual global intellectual property report that has placed close trading partner Mexico on its list of countries to keep the closest eye on.

  • April 29, 2025

    Union Pension Fund Wins $132M Bailout Suit At 2nd Circ.

    A union pension fund won its multimillion-dollar dispute with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. on appeal Tuesday, with the Second Circuit reversing a New York federal judge's 2023 decision that the PBGC was within its rights to reject the fund's 2022 application for $132 million in financial assistance.

  • April 29, 2025

    FERC Wrongly Greenlighted Kan. Grid Projects, DC Circ. Told

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission unlawfully approved a Kansas electric co-operative's transmission development projects despite rejecting a regional grid operator's plan to divide the costs of such projects, the D.C. Circuit heard Monday.

  • April 29, 2025

    Sullivan M&A Chief Sees Opportunities Amid Tariff Turmoil

    After a rocky start to 2025, the mergers and acquisitions landscape is grappling with economic volatility, shifting trade policies and a complex regulatory environment. But even in a "choppy" market, there are always deals to be made, says Melissa Sawyer, global head of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP's M&A group and co-head of its corporate governance practice.

  • April 29, 2025

    Mayer Brown Loses $1M Fee Award For Death Row Case Work

    A Texas state appellate court on Tuesday threw out roughly $1.2 million in attorney fees awarded to Mayer Brown LLP in its representation of a death row convict, finding that the law firm was not entitled to the funds under laws related to public information requests because it is not "liable" for the fees.

  • April 29, 2025

    Migrants Tell 1st Circ. 3rd Country Removals Can Be Limited

    A class of immigrants has urged the First Circuit to reject the Trump administration's attempt to lift an order restricting deportations to countries where they have no prior ties, saying federal law does not bar injunctions concerning protection under the Convention Against Torture.

  • April 29, 2025

    Five Federal Pot Law Cases Sent Back To DC Superior Court

    A District of Columbia federal judge has remanded to the city's Superior Court five cases from cannabis companies challenging the city's regulations after granting the companies' motion to dismiss all federal claims from the cases.

  • April 29, 2025

    Oklahoma Tribes Ask Court To Reopen Gaming Compact Row

    Four Oklahoma tribes are asking a D.C. federal court to lift a more-than-yearlong stay in their suit challenging the state and federal governments over gaming compacts — aiming to renew a bid for a partial win in the dispute and saying developments and recent authorities in the case will further their action.

  • April 29, 2025

    Florida, 20 Other States Back FTC Commissioner Firings

    A group of 21 Republican-led states and the Arizona Legislature are backing President Donald Trump's firing of two Democratic Federal Trade Commission members, telling the D.C. federal judge hearing the commissioners' case that the president has absolute authority over the commission.

  • April 29, 2025

    Automakers Get 15% Tariff Offset Under New Trump Order

    President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Tuesday afternoon to provide automakers that produce and sell finished vehicles in the U.S. a 15% offset on future imported parts that face a 25% tariff for the next year.

  • April 29, 2025

    High Court Backs HHS In Hospital Pay Formula Dispute

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with federal health officials in a challenge over a formula used to calculate billions of dollars in annual payments to hospitals treating indigent patients, saying that those entitled to Supplemental Security Income should be collecting cash payments before they're counted in the formula.

  • April 28, 2025

    Ed Martin Turns In 100-Plus Pages Of Responses To Sens.

    Ed Martin, nominee for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, has turned in his response to hundreds of questions from the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and he largely sidestepped inquiries about currently serving in the role in an interim capacity.

  • April 28, 2025

    Gitmo Atty Access Still Lacking, Immigrant Detainees Allege

    The Trump administration is still making it difficult for immigrants detained at Guantanamo Bay to access attorneys, including by denying in-person attorney visits and missing scheduled attorney-client phone calls, two detainees alleged in an amended suit filed Friday in D.C. federal court.

  • April 28, 2025

    DC Circ. Restores Ban On CFPB Mass Layoffs Amid Appeal

    A D.C. Circuit panel said Monday that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau must refrain for now from mass employee firings, backtracking from a prior decision that the Trump administration had used to attempt a now-suspended layoff of nearly all the agency's staff.

  • April 28, 2025

    Feds' Bid To Spring False Biden Accuser Shot Down By Judge

    A California federal judge rejected a request Monday by prosecutors to release a former FBI informant imprisoned for lying to federal agents that former President Joe Biden accepted bribes, saying he does not agree the court made a mistake at sentencing that should result in his release pending appeal.

  • April 28, 2025

    Pulled Decision Dooms Chicago Disposal Site Suit, Feds Say

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers urged an Illinois federal judge to toss a suit challenging its decision to expand a disposal facility that stores sediments dredged from Chicago waterways now that it has withdrawn that decision.

  • April 28, 2025

    Biz Groups Fight NY's Bid To Join Their Climate Suit With States'

    Fossil fuel industry groups countered the New York attorney general's bid to transfer their lawsuit fighting a $75 billion tab they must pay for climate change adaptation projects, saying joining their suit with one from a group of Republican states would serve neither justice nor judicial economy.

  • April 28, 2025

    Court Urged To Reconsider Jurisdiction In Tribal Tariff Row

    Blackfeet Nation members are asking a Montana federal judge to reconsider an order to transfer their challenge against President Donald Trump's tariffs on imports from Canada and abroad to the U.S. Court of International Trade, saying the decision is based on the constitutional question of the Indian commerce clause.

  • April 28, 2025

    DOJ Rips 'Flawed' Wartime Removals Order At 10th Circ.

    The U.S. Department of Justice told the Tenth Circuit that no precedent exists for a Colorado federal judge's temporary restraining order to halt removals under the Alien Enemies Act for individuals the DOJ says are not designated under the wartime law.

  • April 28, 2025

    Wells Fargo Exits CFPB's Mortgage, Auto Loan Consent Order

    Wells Fargo & Co. announced Monday it has exited a consent order it inked with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a 2018 settlement that stemmed from allegations of improper practices in the bank's auto lending and mortgage divisions.

  • April 28, 2025

    FCC Tells Courts 5th Circ. Wrong To Kill $57M AT&T Fine

    The Federal Communications Commission defended multimillion-dollar fines against T-Mobile and Verizon in letters to the D.C. Circuit and Second Circuit, urging the appeals courts not to heed the Fifth Circuit's toss of a related $57 million privacy fine against AT&T.

  • April 28, 2025

    Exec 'Can't Believe' X Offers Itself As Place For Friends

    The Federal Trade Commission pressed executives and former leaders from X Corp., Strava, Pinterest and Reddit on Monday for all the things that distinguish their services from Meta Platforms Inc., painting Facebook and Instagram in D.C. federal court as effectively the only place to really connect with friends and family to show the social media giant's alleged monopoly.

  • April 28, 2025

    DOJ's Slater Outlines 'America First Antitrust' Priorities

    The head of the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division said Monday that robust antitrust enforcement meshes with conservative principles, and the agency's priorities will be on pocketbook issues and protecting individual liberty online.

  • April 28, 2025

    DHS Says Visa Record Restored For Foreign Student In Wash.

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security told a Washington federal judge on Monday that a preliminary injunction was not needed to restore the student visa record of a University of Washington doctoral candidate from China, because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has already returned the student's status to active.

  • April 28, 2025

    Dallas Strip Clubs' Args Give Fed. Judge 'Déjà Vu All Over Again'

    A Texas federal judge told a group of Dallas adult entertainment businesses they were retreading old ground in a bid to get a city ordinance forcing them to close during early morning hours thrown out, saying during a Monday hearing that the Fifth Circuit already rejected their arguments.

Expert Analysis

  • Avoiding Pitfalls Around New Calif. Commercial Lease Law

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    A California law that became effective this year requires commercial landlords to extend certain protections previously afforded to residential tenancies, and a few key provisions of the law especially warrant reexamination of leasing and operational processes, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • How BigLaw Executive Orders May Affect Smaller Firms

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    Because of the types of cases they take on, solo practitioners, small law firms and public interest attorneys may find themselves more dramatically affected by the collective impact of recent government action involving the legal industry than even the BigLaw firms named in the executive orders, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Filial Consortium Claims' Future After Conn. High Court Ruling

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    While the Connecticut Supreme Court recently ruled for defendants in rejecting parents’ attempt to recover loss of companionship damages in a severe child injury case, there is still potential for the plaintiffs bar to lobby for a law that would allow filial consortium claims, Glenn Coffin at Gordon Rees.

  • 5 Tools To Help Existing Gov't Contracts Manage Tariff Costs

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    Five pointers can help government contractors scrutinize their existing contracts for protections like equitable adjustment and duty-free entry clauses, which may help insulate them from tariff-related cost increases, say attorneys at Covington.

  • 4th Circ. Health Data Ruling Opens Door To State Law Claims

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    In Real Time Medical v. PointClickCare, the Fourth Circuit recently clarified that state law claims can rest in part on violations of a federal law that prohibits electronic health information blocking, expanding legal risks for health IT companies and potentially creating exposure to a range of competitive implications, say attorneys at BCLP.

  • Opinion

    Lawsuits Shouldn't Be Shadow Assets For Foreign Capital

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    Third-party litigation financing amplifies inefficiencies from litigation and facilitates national exposure to foreign influence in the U.S. justice system, so full disclosure of financing arrangements should be required as a matter of institutional integrity, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

  • 2 Del. Rulings Reinforce Proof Needed For Records Demands

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    Two recent Delaware Court of Chancery decisions involving Amazon and Paramount Global illustrate the significance of the credible basis standard on books and records requests, underscoring that stockholders seeking to investigate wrongdoing must come forward with actual evidence of misconduct — not mere allegations, say attorneys at Cleary.

  • How To Accelerate Your Post-Attorney Career Transition

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    Professionals seeking to transition to nonattorney careers may encounter skepticism as nontraditional candidates, but there are opportunities for thought leadership and to leverage speaking and writing to accelerate a post-attorney career transition, say Janet Falk at Falk Communications and Evgeny Efremkin at Toronto Metropolitan University.

  • Key Takeaways From The 2025 Spring Antitrust Meeting

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    Leadership changes, shifting priorities and evolving enforcement tools dominated the conversation at the recent American Bar Association Spring Antitrust Meeting, as panelists explored competition policy under a second Trump administration, agency discretion under the 2023 merger guidelines and new frontiers in conduct enforcement, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • 3 Action Items For Innovators Amid Fintech Regulatory Pivot

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    As the federal banking agencies seek to smooth the way for banks to engage in crypto-related activities, banks and technology companies should take note of this new chapter in payments services, especially as leadership in digital financial technology becomes a national priority, says Jess Cheng at Wilson Sonsini.

  • What PFAS-Treated Clothing Tariff Bill Would Mean For Cos.

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    In keeping with a nationwide trend of greater restrictions on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, legislation pending in the U.S. House of Representatives would remove tariff advantages for PFAS-treated clothing — so businesses would be wise to proactively adapt their supply chains and review contracts to mitigate liability, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • How Tariffs May Affect Proxy Contests This Season

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    While global tariffs imposed by the Trump administration will certainly chill at least some activity this proxy season, and make defending contests significantly easier, there will likely be many new activist investments once there is more economic certainty, meaning more proxy fights this fall, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Running A Compliant DEI Program After EEOC, DOJ Guidance

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    Following recent guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice that operationalized the Trump administration's focus on ending so-called illegal DEI, employers don't need to eliminate DEI programs, but they must ensure that protected characteristics are not considered in employment decisions, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • A Closer Look At New NYSE, Nasdaq Listing Rule Changes

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has recently approved changes to the New York Stock Exchange's and the Nasdaq's listing rules on reverse stock splits, minimum share price requirements and required liquidity for initial listings, meaning listed companies facing delisting will have fewer means to regain compliance, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • Opinion

    GENIUS Act Can Bring Harmony To Crypto-Banking Discord

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    ​​​​​​​By embracing crypto innovation while establishing appropriate guardrails, the so-called GENIUS Act charts a path forward that promotes financial inclusion and technological advancement without compromising stability or constitutional rights, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School.

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