Following the Tenth Circuit’s recent Liberty Global v. U.S. decision, which held the economic substance doctrine does not require a threshold relevancy determination, taxpayers can prepare for potential audits by maintaining contemporaneous documentation and taking other steps that demonstrate the business purpose of transactions, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

Cases like the bribery conviction of a Cincinnati City Council member recently vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court show juries often reject “I made an honest mistake” as a white collar defense, but attorneys who understand why jurors convict defendants who made reasonable but flawed decisions can strategize around this, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

Though some commentators predicted a cataclysmic impact from the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Cox v. Sony, in actuality the decision correctly maintains the status quo for internet providers' copyright infringement liability, says Courtney Sarnow at CM Law.

The Federal Trade Commission's recent settlement of an antitrust case accusing major ad agency holding companies of colluding on brand safety standards underscores the risk of industry coordination on politically or socially sensitive issues and signals heightened viewpoint suppression scrutiny for companies and antitrust practitioners, say attorneys at Proskauer.

A New York state court's recent unprecedented annulment of the state's wetlands regulations brings uncertainty about the standards for determining and classifying wetlands jurisdiction and assessing compliance with permitting requirements as next steps are determined, say attorneys at Foley Hoag.

Banks and fintechs are grappling with a fragmented, fast-changing consumer lending landscape as more states consider opting out of preemption under the Depository Institutions and Monetary Control Act, which may ultimately lead to a decrease in interstate lending and access to credit, says Marc Franson at Chapman and Cutler.

Firms that treat fiduciary compliance as a foundation for responsible artificial intelligence adoption will be best positioned when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission moves from implicit expectations to explicit rules regarding advisers' core duties, as those are unlikely to change, says Ivor Wolk at Manatt.

As the rapid growth of sports betting heightens the risk that sensitive information held by coaches, players and staff may be improperly exploited, sports organizations can look to the securities context to safeguard information and address potential misconduct, say attorneys at Patterson Belknap.

The recently recorded enforcement award from The Hague District Court, allowing an investor to seize Spanish real estate in the Netherlands in satisfaction of an arbitration award, exposes the precise point at which International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes enforcement becomes coercive sovereign execution, says Josep Galvez at 4-5 Gray's Inn.

In a favorable development for healthcare providers, an Oregon federal court recently vacated certain U.S. Department of Health and Human Services restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors, but the government's broader campaign against this care, including proposed rulemaking and agency investigations, leaves significant uncertainty, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

Nascent litigation matters against data center operators, set against limited government regulation and a growing body of public health research, suggests we may be on the cusp of an era of mass toxic tort claims, with a liability framework firmly rooted in precedent from other industries, says Benjamin Heller at RFZ Law.

The government’s recent oral arguments against birthright citizenship in Trump v. Barbara would have the Supreme Court use modern immigration classifications as markers for a constitutional boundary that is not expressed in the Fourteenth Amendment, making the theory easier to administer but weaker as a matter of text and history, says attorney Tara Kennedy.

The First Circuit's recent ruling in Walsh v. HNTB, one of the first circuit-level applications of Muldrow's lowered adverse employment action threshold, indicates that performance improvement plans can remain on solid footing if they don't affect the terms of employment, says Sasha Thaler at Constangy.

The Third Circuit's recent decision in ASTM v. UpCodes, finding that republication of copyrighted building codes incorporated into binding law likely constitutes fair use, may help shape intellectual property strategy for standards organizations, rights holders and potentially even AI stakeholders, says Mitesh Patel at Reed Smith.

Watershed developments concerning prediction markets — such as the first insider trading charges, major speeches from U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission leadership, and the introduction of rulemaking and legislation — dominated the first quarter of 2026, a trend that will likely continue throughout the rest of the year, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

Recent state proxy voting laws have increasingly emphasized financial returns while intensifying scrutiny of proxy advisory firms and stewardship practices, creating new compliance challenges and risks, according to attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

Recent updates to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s membership application program should remind firm management to treat the filing process not as a compliance chore, but as a test of operational and regulatory readiness where they can anticipate and address FINRA's concerns, says Andrew Mount at Eversheds Sutherland.

Escalating tensions with Iran risk disrupting the energy and infrastructure inputs that support data center operations, raising insurance coverage concerns for operators affected by events far outside their physical footprints, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

The government’s recent assertion that the plaintiffs in American Association of University Professors v. Department of Homeland Security lack standing to challenge the Trump administration’s pay-to-play immigration program does not address whether an agency can deem a million-dollar gift evidence of eligibility for immigration benefits carefully defined by Congress, says Jun Li at Reid & Wise.