Expert Analysis

• Upholding Energy Efficiency Rules If DOE Eases Enforcement

  

  Despite recent moves by the Energy Department and Congress to limit energy efficiency enforcement, companies should maintain current efficiency standards and testing procedures lest they risk state or private action, enforcement lookbacks during future administrations, truth-in-advertising complaints and more, say attorneys at HWG.

• New Suits Raise Stakes After 7th Circ. 'Zero Sugar' Ruling

  

  The Seventh Circuit's recent ruling in Franco v. Chobani that "zero sugar" claims on allulose-sweetened products are not preempted has sparked a wave of lawsuits, and companies can no longer assume that federal allulose guidance is a safe harbor, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.

• Meta Smart Glasses Suit Will Test Privacy Law For Bystanders

  

  In a consolidated suit over how Ray-Ban Meta AI smart glasses handle personal video footage, a recently proposed class of unwittingly recorded bystanders highlights questions over whether privacy laws and product disclosures adequately address the risks wearable recording devices pose to nonusers, say attorneys at Barnes & Thornburg.

• DOJ-Agri Stats Settlement Offers Key Benchmarking Lessons

  

  A Minnesota federal court's recent approval of the Agri Stats settlement marks a significant milestone as it's the most granular U.S. Justice Department guidance on permissible competitor benchmarking since the 2023 withdrawal of the safety zone, lending predictability for companies in data-pooling arrangements, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

• Calif. AV Notices Reshape Crash Data Preservation, Discovery

  

  California's new autonomous vehicle noncompliance notice process does not decide fault or establish that an AV is unsafe, but it can create a contemporaneous regulatory record and accelerate decisions about what crash-related data must be preserved, reviewed and potentially disclosed in litigation, says attorney Lem Garcia.

• Testing AI's Promise For Large-Scale Document Review

  

  Our document-review comparison of attorneys' responsiveness and issue coding decisions versus predictions generated by artificial intelligence across 1,600 documents suggests that these tools can offer a reasonable and reliable basis for improved discovery workflows, provided lawyers understand where guardrails are needed, say attorneys at Redgrave.

• How ChatGPT Teen Version Raises Product Liability Questions

  

  OpenAI's recent rollout of ChatGPT for Teens offers younger users a purportedly safer version of the software — but it could also help plaintiffs who are questioning whether earlier versions were safe for minors, when the company identified risks and when safeguards became technically viable, says Michael McCready at McCready Law.

• What's Next For Prediction Markets If States Win At High Court

  

  While the Supreme Court hasn't taken up a prediction market case yet, a high court win for the states in their quest to regulate the exchanges would likely mean a wave of state legislature bills and regulatory guidance arriving on different timelines, rather than a single uniform transition, says Howard Herndon at Bradley Arant.

• AI Meeting Recaps Pose New Discovery And Privilege Risks

  

  The New York City Bar Association’s recent ethics opinion, cautioning attorneys not to record nonclient conversations with artificial intelligence tools, reflects an emerging view that AI meeting recaps are now a distinct business record category, meaning counsel should set meeting-level controls and apply framework-level updates, says William Wright at Faegre Drinker.

• Preparing For Broader Calif. Rules On PE Healthcare Deals

  

  California's recent emergency regulations implementing expanded healthcare transaction review requirements, such as for private equity and hedge funds, represent a notable expansion of state oversight, including enhanced disclosures, wider definitions and new advance notice requirements, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

• Species 'Harm' Definition Rollback Brings Risk For Developers

  

  A rule recently adopted by federal agencies rescinds the definition of "harm" in Endangered Species Act regulations to exclude habitat destruction — but while the move is aimed at reducing regulatory burdens, it creates new uncertainty for developers, and may trigger increased environmental protections in California, say attorneys at Cox Castle.

• HPE-Juniper Settlement Teaches Key Tunney Act Lessons

  

  A California federal court's recent approval of the U.S. Department of Justice's settlement with Hewlett Packard over its Juniper Networks acquisition offers legal practitioners some crucial lessons, including on unique tech-sector remedies for mergers and acquisitions and the continued viability of the Tunney Act, says Shubha Ghosh at Syracuse University College of Law.

• Elder Fraud Risk And Pleading Lessons From Meta Cases

  

  Michael Gilfix and Benjamin Gicqueau at Gilfix & La Poll discuss how a recent Meta youth settlement and an April decision involving social media harms to children may point to a broader pleading framework in cases of elder fraud, and offer practical measures for platforms and consumers seeking to reduce elder fraud risk.

• Hugging Face Attack Is A Warning To The Securities Markets

  

  The recent Hugging Face cyberattack, in which OpenAI's artificial intelligence agents hacked a third party without human instruction, raises questions about how regulators could respond to a similar incident in the securities markets and whether there's a substitute for scienter if no person is behind a financial crime, says Joseph A. Hall at Davis Polk.

• Series

  Playing Bid Whist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  As a child, I viewed bid whist as a family tradition and a source of friendly card game competition, but as a lawyer, I see it as a tool that has helped me cultivate skills like communication, teamwork, risk assessment and composure, says Keyonn Pope at Riley Safer.