Expert Analysis

• Series

  Law School's Missed Lessons: Cultivating Good Judgment

  

  Law schools generally overlook the role that solid judgment skills play in real-world practice, but attorneys can bridge the gap by strengthening their abilities to assess a case’s strengths and weaknesses, develop and execute effective strategies, and provide clear recommendations to clients, says Manny Caixeiro at Venable.

• What To Expect From Colorado's New Artist Co. Structure

  

  Colorado's newly established class of artist companies, or A-Corps, provides a useful structure for small-scale ventures, but challenges could arise for more complex business plans, and limitations on investor participation may limit widespread adoption, say attorneys at Armstrong Teasdale.

• How Cos. Can Fight Consumers' Tariff Refund Class Actions

  

  After the U.S. Supreme Court's February decision in Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump, invalidating $165 billion of presidentially imposed tariffs, consumers have filed numerous class actions seeking tariff refunds from businesses — but companies have substantial and multifaceted defenses available against these claims, say attorneys at Patterson Belknap.

• Attorneys Using AI May Have Ethical Duty To Redact Docs

  

  The trajectory of legal ethics guidance in recent years strongly suggests that as redaction technology becomes more accessible, the failure to use it when uploading highly confidential materials into artificial intelligence tools will become increasingly difficult to defend as reasonable, say attorneys at Lewis Brisbois.

• Series

  Juggling And Unicycling Make Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Because I juggle (sometimes with fire) and ride the unicycle, friends and family used to joke that I should join the circus, but I pursued the practice of law instead and learned that my hobbies benefit my profession in several important ways, says Morgan Eddy at Smith Currie.

• Opinion

  Md. Court Got Ad Tax Similarity Analysis Wrong

  

  Decisions striking Maryland’s digital advertising tax are fundamentally flawed because the Maryland Tax Court found similarity between digital ads and other ads without considering deep market distinctions, says Darien Shanske at UC Davis School of Law.

• Planning For The Impact Of FinCEN's CTA Rollback

  

  The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's recent rollback of Corporate Transparency Act reporting obligations should reduce compliance costs, but its plans to revisit customer due diligence rules should prompt companies and financial institutions to reassess state beneficial ownership programs, say attorneys at Sidley.

• Series

  Ballet Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  A lifetime of learning and performing ballet taught me that success — whether in dance or practicing law — comes only through hours of thorough preparation, boundless energy and relentless effort, says Sharon Katz-Pearlman at Greenberg Traurig.

• NY Tax Talk: Evaluating The Sales Tax Vendor Relief Program

  

  New York state’s new penalty abatement and interest discount program, recently enacted alongside mandated sales tax vendor reregistration, may be most useful for vendors that recently lost a protest or have not yet fully paid all the interest and penalties associated with an assessment, says Elizabeth Cha at Eversheds Sutherland.

• What DOJ Fraud Division Rule Resolves, And What It Doesn't

  

  The U.S. Department of Justice’s recently published final rule answers many outstanding questions about the newly created National Fraud Enforcement Division, but overlapping mandates could result in parallel investigations and diverging viewpoints between multiple sets of prosecutors, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

• ERC Filing Deadlines Raise Tax Adviser Liability Risk

  

  To minimize their risk, employee retention credit providers and tax advisers should understand that agreements to extend clients’ two-year deadline for challenging disallowances are not effective until the IRS countersigns, and implement an action plan to track filing deadlines and consider other proactive steps, says Michael Williams at CFOMW.

• Series

  Taekwondo Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Taekwondo has taught me to recognize when to fight for a position and when to focus on finding a solution, and that the best outcomes are often achieved by solving problems — all of which has improved my work as a bankruptcy lawyer, mediator and Subchapter V trustee, says Amy Denton Mayer at Berger Singerman.

• Where DOJ's Fraud Priorities Memo May Actually Matter

  

  The U.S. Department of Justice’s recently released memo outlining priorities for its newly created fraud division will shape how cases are identified, staffed and sequenced, meaning white collar defense work must begin earlier, say David Tarras at Tarras Defense and Trevor Jones at Dynamis.

• What To Know As Legal Duty To Consider AI Takes Shape

  

  While the U.K. Jurisdiction Taskforce’s recent statement on liability for artificial intelligence harms is nonbinding for both U.K. and U.S. lawyers, it highlights the importance of being able to distinguish between the availability of a tool and a professional obligation to use it, say Jonny Frank and Michael Costa at StoneTurn.

• OECD Draft Could Guide Pricing For Intragroup R&D Deals

  

  The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's proposed revisions to its intragroup transfer pricing guidelines provide helpful tips for determining the cost base for contract research and development services, highlighting the importance of selecting a reasonable set of third-party comparables and appropriate means for evaluating markups, says economist Harold McClure.