Public Policy

  • April 23, 2024

    Tabloid Made Deal To Save Trump 'Embarrassment,' Jury Told

    A longtime tabloid executive told a Manhattan jury Tuesday that he struck a secret deal with Donald Trump ahead of the 2016 presidential election to plant negative stories about his opponents and suppress salacious stories that could cause his campaign "embarrassment."

  • April 23, 2024

    NJ Appeals Court Backs State's Siting Regs For Solar Projects

    A New Jersey state appeals court on Tuesday upheld project-siting requirements under a Garden State law encouraging new solar development, rejecting a renewable energy industry group's argument that the requirements are unlawfully strict.

  • April 23, 2024

    NC Justices Urged To Reject Greg Lindberg Co.'s Review Bid

    North Carolina's insurance commissioner urged the state's supreme court to prevent a company controlled by insurance mogul Greg Lindberg from intervening in the liquidation proceedings of two of his life insurance companies, arguing a state appeals panel correctly held that an insurer's directors, but not shareholders, may intervene.

  • April 23, 2024

    Biz Ownership Law Constitutional, Lawmakers Tell 11th Circ.

    The Corporate Transparency Act is a garden-variety exercise of Congress' powers to address threats to national security, foreign affairs, commerce and tax collection, five Democratic lawmakers told the Eleventh Circuit, disputing a ruling that the law is unconstitutional.

  • April 23, 2024

    Broadcasters Support Bill To Revive Diversity Tax Certificate

    Broadcasters are supporting the recent reintroduction of a bill that seeks to increase diversity in the broadcasting industry by requiring the Federal Communications Commission to bring back a tax incentive program to facilitate the sale of broadcast stations to people of color and women.

  • April 23, 2024

    EPA Finishes Stronger Chemical Risk Evaluation Rule

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday announced stronger and broader regulations to assess chemicals' health and environmental risks, completing a process that started when the Ninth Circuit struck down parts of the initial rule as too weak.

  • April 23, 2024

    Trade Court Orders Feds To Rethink Canadian Lumber Duties

    The U.S. Court of International Trade ordered the U.S. Department of Commerce to redo countervailing duties on Canadian lumber, saying the department must better explain its refusal to check whether suppliers for investigated companies had received government subsidies.

  • April 23, 2024

    Ex-Public Defender Wants 4th Circ. To End Wait In Bias Suit

    A former public defender suing the federal judiciary for allegedly failing to take her sexual harassment claims seriously asked the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday to force a federal judge's hand after more than four months without a ruling following a bench trial, saying a decision on her long-pending bid for a preliminary injunction is overdue.

  • April 23, 2024

    NC Felony Voting Law Struck Down As Unconstitutional

    A North Carolina federal judge has struck down the state's 147-year-old law making it a crime for convicted felons to vote, finding that the statute disproportionately targets Black voters and had been inconsistently enforced in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

  • April 23, 2024

    Do Not Remand FDA Cigar Rule Without Vacatur, DC Circ. Told

    The New Civil Liberties Alliance is urging the D.C. Circuit not to remand a U.S. Food and Drug Administration rule regulating premium cigars without first vacating the regulation, saying federal agencies cannot enforce rules that have been declared unlawful.

  • April 23, 2024

    Ga. Bar Race Bias Suit Should Stay Dead, 11th Circ. Told

    The State Bar of Georgia told the Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday that a federal court was right to wash its hands of a racial bias suit filed by an attorney against the bar last year, because the Peach State's high court is the only court with jurisdiction over attorney discipline issues.

  • April 23, 2024

    Md.-Based Career Public Servant Is The FTC's Newest ALJ

    The Federal Trade Commission announced the appointment of another administrative law judge on Tuesday, elevating a longtime public servant who had previously become the first female Muslim American administrative law judge at the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings.

  • April 23, 2024

    Colo. Neural Privacy Law Has Attys Scratching Their Heads

    Colorado's governor signed the nation's first law specifically protecting neural data last week, but privacy attorneys say key caveats in the legislation leave them unsure how far the measure really goes.

  • April 23, 2024

    Reciprocal Discipline Not Time Limited, Colo. Justices Say

    A former Colorado attorney cannot escape disbarment there, the state Supreme Court has ruled, finding a rule placing a time limit on sanctions does not apply to reciprocal discipline, and therefore the attorney's 2022 disbarment in Washington, D.C., for misconduct that occurred in 2008 and 2009 may be reciprocated in Colorado.

  • April 23, 2024

    Atty Can Deduct $303K In Racing Ad Costs, 10th Circ. Told

    A Colorado attorney asked the Tenth Circuit to reverse a U.S. Tax Court decision that prevented him from deducting $303,000 in advertising expenses tied to his automobile racing, saying the lower court incorrectly ruled that the costs were related to a hobby rather than his litigation practice.

  • April 23, 2024

    Coverage Recap: Day 2 Of Trump's NY Hush Money Trial

    Law360 reporters are providing live updates from the Manhattan criminal courthouse as Donald Trump goes on trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election. Here's a full recap from day two.

  • April 23, 2024

    FTC Bars Employers From Imposing Noncompete Contracts

    The Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 on Tuesday to ban essentially all noncompete agreements that employers frequently impose on workers, leaving an earlier draft of the ban mostly unchanged other than to allow existing noncompete agreements with senior executives to remain while banning future ones for top corporate officials.

  • April 23, 2024

    Jury Finds Ex-Ecuadorian Official Guilty Of Money Laundering

    A Florida federal jury on Tuesday found the former comptroller of Ecuador guilty on all counts charged against him by the government, which accused him of taking millions of dollars in bribes and directing his son, a banker in Miami, to launder the money.

  • April 23, 2024

    Trump 'Detached From Facts' In Fla. Docs Case, Feds Say

    Prosecutors in Donald Trump's classified documents case have told a Florida federal judge that the former president's legal team was trying to paint a false narrative of political bias in its motion to obtain more discovery.

  • April 23, 2024

    Trump Atty 'Losing Credibility' In Defending Posts, Judge Says

    The New York judge presiding over former President Donald Trump's hush money case on Tuesday gave a harsh appraisal of defense attorney Todd Blanche's attempts to keep his client out of criminal contempt for disparaging witnesses online, saying the lawyer was "losing all credibility" as he argued Trump was "being very careful" with his words.

  • April 23, 2024

    DOL's Final Investment Advice Regs Expand ERISA's Reach

    The U.S. Department of Labor issued final regulations Tuesday broadening who qualifies as a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, backing off some changes included in a proposal the agency released in October.

  • April 23, 2024

    DOL Unveils Final OT Rule That Raises Salary Limits

    The U.S. Department of Labor on Tuesday released its long-awaited final rule raising the salary thresholds for overtime exemptions, solidifying aspects of a proposal that faced opposition from Republicans and business groups.

  • April 22, 2024

    HHS Finalizes Rule Bolstering Abortion Privacy Protections

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday issued a finalized version of its new rule that aims to protect the privacy of abortion providers and patients by prohibiting the disclosure of information related to "lawful reproductive health care," according to an announcement made by the agency.

  • April 22, 2024

    DOJ Antitrust Concerns Topple $960M Insulation Biz Merger

    Insulation and building material provider TopBuild Corp. said Monday it has terminated its $960 million agreement to buy mechanical insulation provider Specialty Products & Insulation from private equity firm Incline Equity Partners, saying it was unable to reach a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice over antitrust concerns.

  • April 22, 2024

    Colo. Justices Clarify Med Mal Damages Cap Calculation

    The Colorado Supreme Court held Monday that a trial court can't consider a victorious medical malpractice plaintiff's insurance liabilities to statutorily cap his award at $1 million, saying an exception to the state's "collateral source" statute bars application.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • High Court's Jan. 6 Rioter Case May Have Wide Ripple Effects

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    The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear oral arguments in Fischer v. United States, a case that will determine whether a law enacted after the Enron scandal can be used to prosecute Jan. 6 rioters, and could affect the government’s ability to charge those who impede a range of official proceedings, say Brook Dooley and Sara Fitzpatrick at Keker Van Nest.

  • How Export Controls Are Evolving To Address Tech Security

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    Recently proposed export control regulations from the U.S. Department of Commerce are an opportunity for stakeholders to help pioneer compliance for the increasing reliance on the use of outsourced technology service providers, say attorneys at Benesch.

  • HHS Opioid Rule Generally Benefits Providers And Patients

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    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' newly effective rule, the first substantial change to opioid treatment programs and delivery standards in over 20 years, significantly expands access and reduces stigma around certain medications, though the rule is narrow in scope and does have some limitations, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

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