International Trade

Expert Analysis

• How Case Management Orders Can Support New Attorneys

  

  Courts are leading the way in ensuring oral argument opportunities for newer attorneys by incorporating innovative language in a variety of orders, and private parties can and should follow suit by incorporating similar language into case management orders, say Megan Jones and Halli Spraggins at Hausfeld.

• 3 Things To Know About FDA's Evolving Drug Inspections

  

  Companies regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration need to stay abreast of the pandemic's ongoing impact, including inspection delays, the FDA's expanded usage of remote evaluations, and supply chain constraints, say Peter Lindsay and Nathan Sheers at Paul Hastings.

• Effective E-Discovery Of Chat Apps In Gov't Investigations

  

  With the increasing reliance on multiple messaging applications for business conversations in the remote working environment, companies can implement several best practices for collecting, reviewing and producing data, despite an absence of guidance on discovery obligations in government investigations, say Jason Weinstein and Katie Dubyak at Steptoe & Johnson.

• An In-House Counsel's Guide To Better Work Management

  

  Amid economic uncertainty and increasing pressure on corporate legal departments to do more with less, work management processes should be aimed at tracking legal teams' every contribution, including routine matters that can be reallocated to nonlegal staff, says Aaron Pierce at LexisNexis CounselLink.

• US Cos. Must Prepare For EU Carbon Tax On Imports

  

  With the European Union considering a tax on imported goods reflecting the carbon emitted during their manufacture, U.S. exporters to the EU should assess their possible liabilities, review opportunities to mitigate costs and consider ways to reduce emissions, say David Lakhdhir and Mark Bergman at Paul Weiss.

• Avoiding Materially Adverse Conflicts After New ABA Opinion

  

  The American Bar Association's recent guidance on what constitutes materially adverse interests between clients makes clear that lawyers should not take comfort in a current representation just because a former client is not on the opposite side of the v., and those hoping to avoid disqualification should consider five steps, says Hilary Gerzhoy at Harris Wiltshire.

• Start Preparing For Germany's Corporate Sanctions Act

  

  Germany’s soon-to-be-adopted Corporate Sanctions Act carries a presumption of mandatory prosecution but also a defense in cases where reasonable precautions fail to prevent nonmanagers from committing crimes, so companies should start putting such compliance programs into place now, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

• UK Top Court Fraud Ruling Could Reshape Int'l Discovery

  

  A recent U.K. Supreme Court ruling that KBR didn't have to provide documents held overseas to the Serious Fraud Office reveals the U.K. to be taking a divergent approach from the U.S. and has important implications for cross-border discovery and criminal investigations, say Katherine Toomey and Eric Lewis at Lewis Baach.

• Rebuttal

  US Legal System Can Benefit From Nonlawyer Ownership

  

  Contrary to claims made in a recent Law360 guest article, nonlawyer ownership has incrementally improved the England and Wales legal system — with more innovation and more opportunities for lawyers — and there is no reason why those outcomes cannot also be achieved in the U.S., say Crispin Passmore at Passmore Consulting and Zachariah DeMeola at the University of Denver.

• Assessing Damages Theories In Recent Trade Secret Verdicts

  

  Comparing different damages theories and verdicts in two recent trade secret decisions, Ajaxo v. E-Trade in California state court and Syntel v. TriZetto in New York federal court, offers insight for litigators developing case filing and risk management strategies, say Daniel McGavock and Robert Goldman at Charles River.

• Cos. Face Uncertainty In Commerce Foreign Adversary Rules

  

  When U.S. Department of Commerce rules for blocking certain transactions involving foreign adversaries go into effect in March, limited notice provisions and lack of specificity regarding review procedures will likely cause uncertainty for information communications and technology services companies, say Cortney Morgan and Grant Leach at Husch Blackwell.

• Building A Law Firm Knowledge Bank For Thought Leadership

  

  Marketing professionals often do not have firsthand knowledge of current legal trends and client issues, so law firms need to commit to an ongoing knowledge extraction process — a series of steps to draw out attorney insights that can help marketers create effective and frequent thought leadership content, says Michelle Calcote King at Reputation Ink.

• The Power Of A National Climate Emergency Declaration

  

  President Joe Biden has referred to climate change as an "existential threat" — and if he were to formally declare it a national emergency, he could tap into a wellspring of executive powers to advance initiatives that would be difficult to challenge in court, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

• How Preclusion At ITC Is Affecting District Court Litigants

  

  Recent federal cases indicate that parties seeking or opposing claim or issue preclusion in district courts following U.S. International Trade Commission final decisions can strategize by leveraging ITC benefits in district court and carefully assessing whether to appeal agency decisions, say Michael Gershoni and Philip Marsh at Arnold & Porter.

• Let's Emerge From The Pandemic As Legal Innovators

  

  The pandemic forced a digital reckoning on the legal profession — which switched to remote workforces, paperless workflows and digital signatures seemingly overnight — and law firms and corporate legal departments can keep up the innovation momentum with three guiding principles, says Kevin Clem at HBR Consulting.