Public Policy

  • May 09, 2024

    Congress Wants Wade To Testify About Fani Willis Romance

    A congressional committee on Thursday asked Nathan Wade, a former special prosecutor in the Georgia election interference case, to testify behind closed doors about his romantic relationship with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as part of its investigation into her motives for prosecuting former President Donald Trump and his allies.

  • May 09, 2024

    4th Circ. Mulls Scope Of Farm Bill In Virginia Hemp Fight

    A Fourth Circuit panel on Thursday pushed attorneys for the state of Virginia and a group of hemp companies and customers to define precisely how much power states have to restrict the production and sale of intoxicating products derived from federally legal hemp.

  • May 09, 2024

    Biden Taps Housing Atty, 2 More For Tax Court

    President Joe Biden nominated three attorneys Thursday to serve as judges on the U.S. Tax Court, including a housing attorney who specializes in federal low-income housing tax credits, a legislative counsel for the Joint Committee on Taxation and an IRS attorney.

  • May 09, 2024

    Acting Labor Sec. Urges Senate Panel To Back DOL Funding

    Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su on Thursday defended President Joe Biden's U.S. Department of Labor budget, telling a Senate panel that such funding is necessary to recover workers' stolen wages and fight unlawful child labor, among other priorities.

  • May 09, 2024

    IRS Publishes Inflation-Adjusted HSA Amounts

    The Internal Revenue Service issued the inflation-adjusted amounts Thursday for health savings accounts for 2025 as well as the maximum amount that may be made available for excepted benefit health reimbursement arrangements.

  • May 09, 2024

    Buchanan Ingersoll Adds Marine Corps Cyber Pro As Counsel

    A U.S. Marine Corps veteran and cybersecurity expert with more than 25 years of legal experience has come aboard Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC's data privacy practice group as a counsel.

  • May 09, 2024

    Justices Uphold Civil Forfeiture Standards Amid Abuse Fears

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that people whose property is seized during criminal investigations of others aren't entitled to a quicker process to seek its return, even though a majority of justices expressed concerns about the constitutionality of civil forfeiture systems in general.

  • May 08, 2024

    AGs Blast Federal Data Privacy Law's Proposed State Override

    California joined attorneys general from more than a dozen other states and Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to urge Congress to ensure that proposed federal data privacy legislation sets a "floor, not a ceiling" that would preserve more stringent protections states have enacted and allow them to add new laws to address rapid technological developments. 

  • May 08, 2024

    Apple Judge Skeptical Tech Giant Complying With Epic Order

    The California federal judge overseeing Epic's antitrust suit against Apple reacted skeptically Wednesday to an Apple executive's claim that it has fully complied with her order aimed at allowing app developers to send users to outside payment platforms, saying some of Apple's new rules appear to "stifle competition."

  • May 08, 2024

    Tribes And Groups Urge 9th Circ. To Uphold TikTok Ban Pause

    Free speech and internet advocacy groups, as well a Native American nonprofit and two tribes, are urging the Ninth Circuit to uphold a lower court's decision that blocks Montana from banning social app TikTok, arguing that First Amendment protections include such media platforms.

  • May 08, 2024

    High Court Ruling May Shake Up CFPB's Litigation Docket

    A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that may come as soon as Thursday could decide the fate of not only the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure but also numerous pending enforcement actions the agency has brought around the country. Here, Law360 surveys what's at stake and where.

  • May 08, 2024

    New Treasury Rule Amps Up Reporting Burden For Banks

    The U.S. Department of the Treasury introduced an interim final rule Wednesday that refines and further expands recent increases in reporting requirements, including a new obligation for financial institutions to notify the federal government any time they unblock frozen assets.

  • May 08, 2024

    Biden Signs Law To Protect Children From Online Exploitation

    President Joe Biden has signed into law a bipartisan bill aimed at curbing online child sex exploitation by strengthening requirements for social media companies and other service providers to report abuse to the nation's centralized reporting system.

  • May 08, 2024

    Colo. Justice Doubts Auto-Reversal In 'Very Rare' Atty Conflict

    Colorado's chief justice questioned Wednesday why a man should get to automatically reverse his sexual assault conviction because his lawyer was being simultaneously prosecuted by the same district attorney's office, a situation that the convicted man said is exceedingly rare.

  • May 08, 2024

    ND Changes Course In Residents' High Court VRA Dispute

    In a move Native American tribes are calling "unconscionable," North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate and remand Voting Rights Act litigation, saying the state is unable to defend the basis for which it won the lawsuit.

  • May 08, 2024

    6 States Sue Feds Over New Title IX Gender Identity Rule

    Six state attorneys general have filed suit in Missouri federal court challenging the Biden administration's new interpretation of Title IX that expands LGBTQ+ rights, alleging it is an attempt to recast the law and make it about gender identity.

  • May 08, 2024

    Texas Wants Catholic Org. Barred For 'Systemic Violations'

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday urged a state judge in El Paso County to enjoin Catholic nonprofit Annunciation House Inc. from operating in the state, alleging the organization has been engaging in systemic criminal conduct by illegally harboring noncitizens.

  • May 08, 2024

    Alaska Comm. To Pay $5.3M To Settle Bidding Violation Claims

    Alaska Communications Systems Holding Inc. on Wednesday agreed to pay nearly $5.3 million and implement compliance measures to resolve a Federal Communications Commission investigation into the telecommunications provider's bidding and rate setting processes for rural medical patients.

  • May 08, 2024

    6th Circ. Questions FERC's Moves On Ohio Utility Grid Perk

    A Sixth Circuit panel on Wednesday questioned the role of a rate perk given to transmission companies for choosing to join a regional transmission organization as it weighed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's decision to yank the incentive for several Ohio utilities while preserving it for others.

  • May 08, 2024

    Lyft Driver Asks Calif. Justices To OK Intervening In PAGA Suit

    An attorney for a Lyft driver who sued the company under the Private Attorneys General Act urged the California Supreme Court on Wednesday to find her client has standing to intervene in a competing PAGA Lyft case that reached a settlement, saying the deal threatened to "extinguish" her client's rights.

  • May 08, 2024

    Vietnam's Labor Issues Mar Bid For Market Economy Status

    Representatives from U.S. industry, organized labor, and human rights advocacy urged the U.S. Department of Commerce to reject Vietnam's bid for market economy status Wednesday, denouncing its track record on labor rights.

  • May 08, 2024

    NAFTA Tribunal Orders US To Redo Duties On Canadian Wood

    A panel assembled under the North American Free Trade Agreement ordered the U.S. to redo countervailing duties on Canadian softwood lumber, rejecting the U.S.' conclusion that Canadian lumber companies hadn't fairly paid Ottawa to harvest lumber on government property.

  • May 08, 2024

    NY AG Says $6M NRA Verdict Should Stand

    A New York state court should not undo a jury's finding that the National Rifle Association allowed its officers to misappropriate $6.4 million of donor money, the state's attorney general has argued, saying trial evidence abundantly laid out evidence of misconduct and organizational failures.

  • May 08, 2024

    Texas Says Asylum Rule Fight Withstands Toss Of La. Suit

    Texas is urging a federal judge to preserve its challenge to a Biden administration rule broadening immigration officers' power to expedite asylum applications, saying a recent decision in Louisiana throwing out nearly identical claims has no bearing on its case.

  • May 08, 2024

    Pa. Panel Scrutinizes Missteps In 2020 Election Machine Fracas

    The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on Wednesday brought up apparent missteps by both sides of a fight stemming from third-party inspections of a conservative county's voting machines, started by the county commissioners falling in with the hunt for fraud in the 2020 election and the state pushing back.

Expert Analysis

  • Weisselberg's Perjury At Trial Spotlights Atty Ethics Issues

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    Former Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg’s recent guilty plea for perjury in the New York attorney general's civil fraud trial should serve as a reminder to attorneys of their ethical duties when they know a client has lied or plans to lie in court, and the potential penalties for not fulfilling those obligations, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • Practicing Law With Parkinson's Disease

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    This Parkinson’s Awareness Month, Adam Siegler at Greenberg Traurig discusses his experience working as a lawyer with Parkinson’s disease, sharing both lessons on how to cope with a diagnosis and advice for supporting colleagues who live with the disease.

  • Texas Hair Bias Ruling Does Not Give Employers A Pass

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    A Texas state court’s recent decision, holding that a school could discipline a student with locs for refusing to cut his hair, should not be interpreted by employers as a license to implement potentially discriminatory grooming policies, says Dawn Holiday at Jackson Walker.

  • When Trade Secret Protection And Nat'l Security Converge

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    The Trump administration's anti-espionage program focused on China is over, but federal enforcement efforts to protect trade secrets and U.S. national security continue, and companies doing business in high-risk jurisdictions need to maintain their compliance programs to avoid the risk of being caught in the crosshairs of an investigation, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Opinion

    Aviation Watch: Not All Airline Mergers Hurt The Public

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's actions to block recent attempted airline mergers have been touted as serving the interests of the consumers — but given the realities of the deregulated air travel market, a tie-up like the one proposed between JetBlue and Spirit might have been a win for the public, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.

  • The Merger Cases That Will Matter At ABA Antitrust Meeting

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    While the American Bar Association's Antitrust Spring Meeting this week will cover all types of competition law issues in the U.S. and abroad, expect the federal agencies' recent track record in merger enforcement to be a key area of focus on the official panels and in cocktail party chatter, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • How Banks Should Respond To Calif. AG's Overdraft Warning

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    Banks and credit unions should heed recent guidance from California’s attorney general, along with warnings by consumer regulators of all stripes, regarding unfair fee practices by properly disclosing their fees and practices, and ensuring the amounts charged mirror federal benchmarks, say Brett D. Watson and Madeline Suchard at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Calif. Verdict Showcases SEC's New 'Shadow Trading' Theory

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    Last week's insider trading verdict, delivered against biopharmaceutical executive Matthew Panuwat by a California federal jury, signals open season on a new area of regulatory enforcement enabled by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's shadow trading theory, say Perrie Weiner and Aaron Goodman at Baker McKenzie.

  • Cos. Should Prepare For Foreign Data Transfer Regulations

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    A new regulatory regime designed to protect U.S. sensitive data from countries of concern may complicate an already intricate geopolitical landscape and affect even companies beyond the data industry, but with careful preparation, such companies can endeavor to minimize the effect on their business operations and ensure compliance, say David Plotinsky and Jiazhen Guo at Morgan Lewis.

  • Series

    Playing Hockey Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Nearly a lifetime of playing hockey taught me the importance of avoiding burnout in all aspects of life, and the game ultimately ended up providing me with the balance I needed to maintain success in my legal career, says John Riccione at Taft.

  • A Closer Look At Antitrust Agencies' Chat Platforms Guidance

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    Following the U.S. antitrust agencies' clarification that companies' preservation obligations extend through applications that automatically delete communications, firms should look at new compliance measures, including keeping control over retention settings, say John Ingrassia and Tim Burroughs at Proskauer.

  • Expect CFPB Enforcement To Continue Ramping Up

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    From hiring and structural changes to continuous external pressure from a variety of sources, all signs indicate that the recent rise of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's public enforcement activity will continue throughout the rest of the year, despite ongoing litigation that could upend everything, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

  • ESG Challenges In Focus After Sierra Club Opposes SEC Rule

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    The Sierra Club's recent objection to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related disclosures for investors presents an unusual — pro-disclosure — legal challenge and an opportunity to take a close look at the varying critiques of ESG regulations, say Colin Pohlman, and Jane Luxton and Paul Kisslinger at Lewis Brisbois.

  • Opinion

    Why Supreme Court Should Allow Repatriation Tax To Stand

    If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't reject the taxpayers' misguided claims in Moore v. U.S. that the mandatory repatriation tax is unconstitutional, it could wreak havoc on our system of taxation and result in a catastrophic loss of revenue for the government, say Christina Mason and Theresa Balducci at Herrick Feinstein.

  • For Lawyers, Pessimism Should Be A Job Skill, Not A Life Skill

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    A pessimistic mindset allows attorneys to be effective advocates for their clients, but it can come with serious costs for their personal well-being, so it’s crucial to exercise strategies that produce flexible optimism and connect lawyers with their core values, says Krista Larson at Stinson.

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