Expert Analysis

• Why DOE Isn't Phasing Out Appliance Efficiency Regs

  

  While the U.S. Department of Energy recently acted on President Donald Trump's 2025 executive order requiring it to consider sunsetting many energy regulations, the DOE has not proposed phasing out efficiency standards for appliances and industrial equipment — but it could pursue other approaches to ease such requirements, say attorneys at HWG.

• Series

  Power To The Paralegals: Burnout As A Structural Problem

  

  Law firm leadership can best retain their paralegals not by encouraging self-care, but by seeking top-down structural solutions for the quiet proliferation of responsibilities and the vicarious exposure to client trauma that particularly drive burnout in this vital role, says Erika Sneeringer at Brockstedt Mandalas.

• Managing Post-IEEPA Tariff Refunds, Replacements And Risks

  

  Companies and investors reeling from the rapid changes resulting from February's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act doesn't authorize tariffs should focus on understanding the duty refund process, the likely replacement tariffs and the operational ways they can minimize their tariff exposure, say attorneys at Debevoise.

• 11th Circ. Ruling Reflects Shift In Digital Consent Frameworks

  

  The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision in Tejon v. Zeus Networks that a browsewrap terms-of-service hyperlink was insufficiently conspicuous to bind a consumer to an arbitration agreement could accelerate a broader industry shift to clickwrap as the baseline for enforceable digital consent, say attorneys at Sheppard.

• Justices' FCC Fine Ruling May Weaken Agency Leverage

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T upheld the commission's forfeiture framework as consistent with Jarkesy, but it is also likely to reduce the effectiveness of the commission’s forfeiture proceedings as a collection and deterrence tool, say attorneys at Venable.

• DOL Deal Offers FMLA Lesson On Handling Intermittent Leave

  

  The U.S. Department of Labor's recent deal with the University of Tennessee paying an employee over $30,000 for alleged violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act offers lessons about responding to intermittent leave requests, avoiding forced resignations and providing required notices, says Jason Knott at Zuckerman Spaeder.

• 8 Ways 2026's Market Divide Is Rewriting Real Estate Risk

  

  As construction activity increasingly concentrates in data centers, healthcare and other resilient sectors, real estate developers and their counsel in the second half of 2026 should consider earlier risk allocation and more protective contract terms, and expect greater pressure on labor, pricing and infrastructure, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

• 2 Prediction Market Cases Will Test Insider Trading Theory

  

  Prosecutors in two recent Southern District of New York cases have filed separate charges against two defendants who used confidential information gathered from each employer to place prediction market bets, but each prosecution must overcome different legal hurdles established by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Second Circuit, says John Siffert at Lankler Siffert.

• Takeaways From 1st Del. Ruling Applying Moelis Amendments

  

  Delaware corporations should carefully review contractual arrangements and governance documents following the Court of Chancery's recent enforcement of a non-Delaware forum selection clause in a CEO's employment agreement under 2024 amendments to the state's General Corporation Law, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

• Ill. Law Firm MSO Bill Clashes With Court Power, Ethics Rules

  

  An Illinois bill prohibiting law firms from certain business arrangements with management service organizations, sent to the governor for signature last week, encroaches upon the courts' constitutional powers and goes beyond the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct in regulating investment in law-related services, says Matthew O’Hara at Smith Gambrell.

• Justices' Montgomery Ruling Doesn't Expand Shipper Liability

  

  Whether negligent hiring liability claims against shippers will increase after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last month in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II is anyone's guess, but the ruling itself will have no impact on shippers' actual liability in personal injury claims relating to trucking accidents, says Ronald Leibman at McCarter & English.

• GHG Rescission Undermines State Climate Suit Preemption

  

  As the U.S. Supreme Court considers the fate of state climate litigation in Suncor Energy Inc. v. Boulder County, it must confront the fact that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's rescission of its greenhouse gas endangerment finding has also removed the foundation for federal preemption of state climate suits, says attorney Gregg Goldfarb.

• 3rd Circ. Decision Sheds Light On BIPA Bank Exemption

  

  The Third Circuit's recent decision in McGoveran v. Amazon illuminates how courts are extending the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act's financial institution carveout beyond banks and insurers to technology vendors and other businesses handling biometric data, a defendant-friendly shift that still casts uncertainty around BIPA's enforcement, say attorneys at Dorsey & Whitney.

• Constructing AI Compliance Plans As State Laws Diverge

  

  With Colorado, Connecticut and the federal government recently announcing wildly different approaches to artificial intelligence regulation, creating a workable compliance program means addressing overlapping obligations using shared systems rather than separate silos, say attorneys at Ogletree.

• Assessing Issues The CFTC's Sports Betting Rules May Face

  

  The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently proposed a rule to consolidate its control of sports bets made on prediction market trading platforms, but problems may arise from possible conflicts between the proposed changes and state laws — and maybe even the Commodity Exchange Act itself, says David Slovick at Kopecky Schumacher.