Banking

Expert Analysis

• Ransomware Attacks Raise Key Legal Considerations

  

  Ransomware is a growing concern and can have significant legal implications for affected entities. There are six things to keep in mind as you work to understand and respond to the threat of these disruptive attacks, say Lisa Sotto, Brittany Bacon and Jeffrey Dunifon of Hunton & Williams LLP.

• FINRA Continues To Step Up Focus On Senior Investors

  

  The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority recently introduced new sanction guidelines that allow FINRA staff to consider the vulnerability of customers in determining appropriate sanction levels. These guidelines are only one of many recent FINRA publications related to the protection of senior investors, say Bruce Bettigole and Sarah Razaq Sallis of Eversheds Sutherland.

• Opinion

  How Nevada Is Preparing For Blockchain Technology

  

  Nevada Senate Bill 398 helps make the state welcoming to companies using blockchain technology, and gives legal recognition to blockchain transactions. It also incorporates blockchain into the definition of electronic records, and prohibits interference from local governments, says Ben Kieckhefer, a member of the Nevada Senate and director of client relations for McDonald Carano LLP.

• An Interview With Floyd Abrams

  

  It was a privilege to spend a half-hour on the phone with the nation's foremost First Amendment lawyer. Floyd Abrams and I discussed his career, his new book and what he sees in his free-speech crystal ball. And he was a very good sport when I asked if it is constitutionally protected to yell inside a movie theater: “Citizens United is a terrible decision and should be set on fire,” says Randy Maniloff of White and Williams LLP.

• Bucking Tradition: NewLaw And The Coming Millennials

  

  Recent surveys show that law firms won't be able to rely on the flood of associates their business model demands as long as they require them to dedicate all day, most nights, every weekend and all holidays to firm business, says Jill Dessalines, founder of Strategic Advice for Successful Lawyers and former assistant GC at McKesson Corp.

• State AGs Responding To Trump Policies: 3 Areas To Watch

  

  The federal government’s unfolding enforcement priorities have galvanized state attorneys general into action. We expect this trend to continue, say attorneys with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.

• Monthly Column

  Gray Matters: We Feel, We Decide

  

  Despite legal education training and the focus on logic and reason by the courts, lawyers address emotional issues on a daily basis — albeit more indirectly. But a shift to consciously and strategically addressing emotions gives us a powerful tool to help our clients reach faster, better decisions, say dispute resolution experts Robert Creo and Selina Shultz.

• The UK's New Suspicious Activity Reporting Regime: Part 2

  

  Under the U.K. Criminal Finances Act 2017, the procedures for reporting suspicious financial activity have changed. Law firms, accounting firms and banks must now take on a more active role in identifying sources of information relevant to determining whether a money laundering offense has taken place, and must respond to information requests from other regulated firms, say attorneys with Dechert LLP.

• The Misconception About SWS Appraisal Decision

  

  The Delaware Chancery Court’s recent decision in SWS Group raises the question whether below-the-merger-price appraisal results will now become more common. A number of commentators have suggested that the answer is yes, but their conclusion follows what we believe to be a misconception, say attorneys with Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP.

• The UK's New Suspicious Activity Reporting Regime: Part 1

  

  The U.K. Criminal Finances Act 2017 introduces major changes to the regime for suspicious activity reports. To minimize the risk of serious business disruption, financial services firms, accounting firms and law firms doing business in the U.K. must be prepared to take a more considered approach to analyzing whether a suspicious activity report is genuinely required, say attorneys with Dechert LLP.