Benefits

Expert Analysis

• UnitedHealth ERISA Ruling Exposes Faults In Health Coverage

  

  Perhaps one of the most significant health insurance decisions ever, a California federal court’s recent ruling that Employee Retirement Income Security Act violations require a UnitedHealth subsidiary to reconsider 50,000 denied mental health treatment claims reveals how insurers' decisions sometimes disregard generally accepted care standards, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Sherman.

• A Key To Helping Clients Make Better Decisions During Crisis

  

  As the pandemic brings a variety of legal stresses for businesses, lawyers must understand the emotional dynamic of a crisis and the particular energy it produces to effectively fulfill their role as advisers, say Meredith Parfet and Aaron Solomon at Ravenyard Group.

• Ethics Considerations For Law Firms Implementing AI

  

  Richard Finkelman and Yihua Astle at Berkeley Research Group discuss the ethical and bias concerns law firms must address when implementing artificial intelligence-powered applications for recruiting, conflict identification and client counseling.

• Picking The Right Location And Tools For Virtual Courtrooms

  

  Attorneys should consider the pros and cons of participating in virtual court proceedings from home versus their law firm offices, and whether they have the right audio, video and team communication tools for their particular setup, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

• Beware Atty Ethics Rules When Reporting COVID-19 Fraud

  

  Attorneys considering blowing the whistle on False Claims Act violations by recipients of COVID-19 relief may face a number of ethical constraints on their ability to disclose client information and file qui tam actions, say Breon Peace and Jennifer Kennedy Park at Cleary.

• Looking For Judicial Activists? Check The Footnotes

  

  U.S. Supreme Court nominees typically face intense questioning over potential judicial activism, but a better way to gauge judges' activist tendencies may be to look at the footnotes in their opinions, say Christopher Collier at Hawkins Parnell and Michael Arndt at Rohan Law.

• Best Practices For Legal Technology Adoption

  

  The pandemic has accelerated the need to improve the practice of law through technology, but law firms and in-house legal departments must first ensure they have employee buy-in and well-defined processes for new digital tools, say Dan Broderick at BlackBoiler and Daryl Shetterly at Orrick.

• What The Biden-Harris Win Means For Securities Regulation

  

  In this brief video, Amy Greer and Valerie Mirko at Baker McKenzie examine what a government led by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris could mean for the securities industry, regulatory leadership and financial policy.

• The Pandemic's Long-Term Impact On Law Firm Operations

  

  Brian Burlant at Major Lindsey looks at how pandemic-era remote work has changed the way law firms operate — from shifts in secretarial functions to associate professional development — and explains why some alterations may be here to stay.

• Biden Workplace Agenda Will Bring Change Despite Hurdles

  

  Employers should be prepared to navigate a new dynamic under the Biden administration because some workplace policies — like joint employer, independent contractor and overtime regulations — may bypass congressional roadblocks with reform through administrative action, says Jessica Summers at Paley Rothman.

• Opinion

  Lack Of Access To Remote Court Proceedings Is Inexcusable

  

  Blanket rules that bar recording or dissemination of remote public court proceedings impede presumptive common law and First Amendment right of access, greatly expand courts' powers over nonparties, and likely run afoul of U.S. Supreme Court precedent, says Matthew Schafer at ViacomCBS.

• Retirement Plan Rule Throws Cold Water On ESG Factors

  

  A recently finalized U.S. Department of Labor rule requires retirement plan fiduciaries to focus solely on financial factors when making investment decisions — meaning that it will be difficult for plans to take environmental, social and governance factors into account, even if participants want them to, says Robert Gower at Trucker Huss.

• Opinion

  Why Attacks On Trump's Election Lawyers Are Problematic

  

  The vilification of Jones Day and Porter Wright for their involvement in President Donald Trump's election lawsuits is an attack on lawyers' duty to advocate for their clients' causes fearlessly and zealously within the bounds of the law, says Pierce O'Donnell at Greenberg Glusker.

• Avoiding 6 Common E-Discovery Production Pitfalls

  

  Vanessa Barsanti and Sarah Mahoney at Redgrave explore how attorneys can prevent collateral discovery disputes by efficiently overseeing the electronic document review process and ensuring the integrity of the information provided to opposing counsel.

• Opinion

  Biden Independent Contractor Plan Sends Confusing Message

  

  President-elect Joe Biden’s inconsistent campaign plan for independent contractors supports enforcement of existing laws against intentional worker misclassification while also proposing a challenging-to-meet federal classification standard modeled after California’s A.B. 5, says Richard Reibstein at Locke Lord.