Expert Analysis

• Recent Benchmarking Suits Highlight DOJ Enforcement Risks

  

  The U.S. Department of Justice's recent settlements with RealPage and Agri Stats inform the level of antitrust risk surrounding the use of benchmarking services and suggest an aggressive enforcement approach, particularly with respect to granular data and nonprice data reporting, say attorneys at Axinn.

• Becoming The Biz-Savvy GC That Portfolio Companies Need

  

  Candidates for general counsel roles at private equity-backed portfolio companies should prioritize proving their sector-specific experience, commercial judgment and ease with uncertainty — and attorneys hoping to be candidates in five to 10 years should start working on those skills now, says Dimitri Mastrocola at Major Lindsey.

• AI Agents Will Test The Bounds Of Expert Witness Rules

  

  Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence does not address whether a testifying expert must be human, but as the rule’s amended admissibility framework intersects with the accelerating capabilities of agentic AI, courts may be forced to confront whether AI-generated expertise fits within existing evidentiary doctrine, says Steven Cordero at Akerman.

• Reel Justice: 'Project Hail Mary' Can Aid Cross-Examination

  

  In the new science fiction film, "Project Hail Mary," a character understood that survival depended on eliminating ambiguity — a useful lesson that trial lawyers can implement by asking statements that are delivered in the form of a question during cross-examination, says Veronica Finkelstein at Wilmington University.

• AI-Proofing Class Action Notices From Pro Se Objection Surge

  

  Class action practitioners should prepare for a likely surge in artificial intelligence-enabled pro se objections by implementing several practical strategies to navigate this shift, says Britany Wessan at Almeida Law Group.

• Series

  Judges On AI: How Courts Can Survive The Tech Revolution

  

  Colorado Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Lino Lipinsky de Orlov discuss how artificial intelligence has already fundamentally altered the legal system and offer tips for courts navigating deepfakes, hallucinations and a gap in access to AI tools.

• What Jury Holdouts Can Teach Trial Lawyers About Strategy

  

  Though a hung jury can be a disappointment, a psychological understanding of jury holdouts can help trial lawyers shape their damages arguments and understand leadership and group composition as a function of jury selection, says Clint Townson at Townson Litigation.

• 4th Circ. Ruling Will Rewrite Class Action Litigation Strategies

  

  The Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Oliver v. Navy Federal Credit Union is the first from a federal circuit court to hold that motions to strike are inappropriate vehicles for challenging class allegations at the pleading stage, invalidating a tactic that had been used for decades, says Jim Francis at Francis Mailman.

• AI Investment Advice May Fail Investor Protection Rules

  

  Based on an ongoing study of artificial intelligence platforms' investment advice given to retail investors, direct access to AI may not yield recommendations for typical households that are suitable under relevant securities rules, raising new and important issues in the regulation of financial markets, says Bruce Carlin at Rice University.

• Food Kiosk Merger Offers FTC Insights For Dealmakers

  

  The Federal Trade Commission's recent approval of 365 Retail Markets' merger with fellow food-kiosk provider Cantaloupe balances structural divestiture with behavioral provisions, emphasizing the role of early engagement by the parties and the importance of tailored remedies in concentrated markets, say attorneys at Freshfields.

• 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

  

  The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

• Series

  Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

• AG Watch: Reconciling 2 Maryland Data Privacy Statutes

  

  In-house counsel should map the interplay between the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act's strictly necessary standard to deliver a requested service, and the Protection From Predatory Pricing Act's exemption of consent-based pricing within loyalty programs, before the state attorney general begins enforcement on the latter in October, says Erek Barron at Mintz.

• Nexstar Offers A Cautionary Tale On State-Level Deal Scrutiny

  

  State-enforcement challenges to the $6.2 billion Nexstar-Tegna merger remind legal practitioners that federal approval isn't always sufficient to deliver certainty on closing, integration and timetable assumptions, says Brett Story at Britehorn Securities.

• How 'Bundling' Enforcement Is Parsing Efficiency, Access

  

  Recent antitrust enforcement actions have taken a selective view of companies' bundling of products or services — challenging it when it shuts out rivals, but tolerating it when it creates efficient scale — making the real test now less about lower prices than about whether competition is being blocked, says attorney Alan Kusinitz.