Telecommunications

Expert Analysis

• 3 Attorney Ethics Considerations For Litigation Funding

  

  The growth of the litigation finance industry has generated questions on the obligations of counsel when their clients are seeking outside capital to fund litigation, which litigators must understand when providing information to a third-party funder and discussing legal strategy with a client, says Matthew Oxman at LexShares.

• How ABA Opinion Shifts Alternative Biz Structure Landscape

  

  A recent American Bar Association opinion approving lawyers' passive investment in nonlawyer-owned firms eliminates a hurdle for law firms wishing to scale their practice through alternative business structures, but aspiring investors should follow a few best practices, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Deepika Ravi at Harris Wiltshire.

• UK Focus On Int'l Data Transfers Shows Appetite For Reform

  

  Recent U.K. public consultations on international transfers of personal data and structural amendments to the country's General Data Protection Regulation illustrate the post-Brexit appetite for reform and signal changes to the international data transfers regime, say Kate Brimsted and Tom Evans at BCLP.

• What Telehealth Regulation May Look Like After COVID-19

  

  The majority of regulatory flexibilities around telehealth authorized due to COVID-19 may disappear with the end of the public health emergency, but several bills pending in Congress could bring permanent change, especially when it comes to mental health and audio-only services, says Suzanne Joy at Holland & Knight.

• Series

  Embracing ESG: HPE Counsel Talk Effective Board Oversight

  

  Governance teams can more effectively shape board oversight of environmental, social and governance issues by ensuring organizationwide agreement on the most relevant issues, building a materiality framework that reflects stakeholder input, and monitoring the integration of ESG into operations, say Rishi Varma and Derek Windham at Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

• Bankruptcy Courts' Equitable Discretion May Be In Danger

  

  The Eighth Circuit’s recent equitable discretion decision in VeroBlue sends a warning to practitioners and the bench that courts' overuse of this bankruptcy doctrine in dismissing post-plan confirmation appeals may result in elimination of the useful tool altogether, say Brian Shaw and Mark Radtke at Cozen O'Connor.

• Opinion

  Justice Gap Demands Look At New Legal Service Models

  

  Current restrictions on how lawyers structure their businesses stand in the way of meaningful access to justice for many Americans, so states should follow the lead of Utah and Florida and test out innovative law firm business models through regulatory sandboxes, says Zachariah DeMeola at the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System.

• Privacy Now Looms Large In Antitrust Enforcement

  

  Recent moves by the Biden administration as well as court decisions indicate that privacy is likely to play an increasingly important role in antitrust litigation, both as a justification used to defend against allegations of anti-competitive conduct, and as an element of product quality that can be restricted or diminished as a result of anti-competitive conduct, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

• FCC's Reassigned Numbers Data Won't Help TCPA Class Cert.

  

  The Federal Communications Commission's reassigned numbers database, which goes live Nov. 1, is poorly suited to overcome the challenges of class certification endemic to wrong-number cases because it was not designed to assist in identifying wrong-number calls or call recipients after the fact, says Debra Aron at Charles River Associates.

• Series

  Embracing ESG: Leidos GC Talks Social Responsibility

  

  Recent criticisms of corporate commitments to stakeholders such as employees and communities — implicitly opposing environmental, social and governance initiatives — are fundamentally flawed and display a serious misunderstanding of contemporary investor priorities and dynamics, says Jerald Howe at Leidos.

• Lessons In Crisis Lawyering 20 Years After 9/11

  

  Dianne Phillips at Holland & Knight recounts her experiences as in-house counsel at a liquefied natural gas company in the tumultuous aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, and details the lessons she learned about lawyering in a crisis, including the importance of careful forethought and having trusted advisers on speed dial.

• Rebuttal

  Adoption Of Extended M&A Valuation Models Seems Unlikely

  

  A recent Law360 guest article says courts would make appraisals of companies' stock more explicit and transparent by using projections of 25 years or more in discounted cash flow models, but there are several reasons the courts wouldn't, and shouldn't, adopt these projections, says Nicholas Walter at Wachtell.

• What 9th Circ.'s Tinder Ruling Means For Class Settlements

  

  The Ninth Circuit's recent opinion in Kim v. Allison, rejecting a precertification settlement of class claims that Tinder committed age discrimination, offers important insights for class action litigants and counsel on that court's shift toward increasingly stringent scrutiny of such settlements, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

• How UK Data Breach Ruling May Rein In Insurance Claims

  

  The recent U.K. High Court ruling in Warren v. DSG Retail, which held that claimants can only pursue personal data claims provided for in data protection legislation, narrows the basis upon which claims can be made following a data breach, and could make lower-cost recovery of after-the-event insurance premiums a thing of the past, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

• Opinion

  In War On Arbitration, Consumers And Companies Both Lose

  

  Amazon.com's recent decision to end arbitration and face the risk of consumer class actions, in the face of plaintiffs firms ramping up mass arbitration proceedings, portends the loss of a vital form of alternative dispute resolution, hurting both consumers and corporate defendants, says Sherman Joyce at the American Tort Reform Association.