Expert Analysis

• Justices' Obstruction Ruling Clears Venue-Challenge Path

  

  While the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Abouammo v. U.S. poses venue challenges for federal obstruction of justice prosecutions, it is a gift for defense counsel because it offers a clean, constitutional basis to challenge venue where a place of falsification and a place of investigation diverge, says Liz Aloi at MoFo.

• Drawing A Line Between Settlement Pressure And Extortion

  

  U.S. v. Luo, pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, may force courts to address anew when settlement negotiations become criminal extortion, particularly in the age of easily fabricated digital evidence, says attorney Denis Kiely.

• Recent Cases Clarify When Risk Disclosures Trigger Liability

  

  Several recent decisions highlight circumstances where risk disclosures can constitute actionable misrepresentations, providing clarity on how the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act's safe harbor and the common-law bespeaks caution doctrine apply to risk disclosures, and how publicly traded companies can guard against such claims, say attorneys at Katten.

• Colorado's New Chatbot Law May Be Defined By Its Carveouts

  

  What makes Colorado's conversational artificial intelligence service law worth close attention is what it leaves out, so a thorough scoping analysis may be as important as compliance planning for companies that develop, license or deploy conversational AI, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

• Risk Reduction Lessons For PE Firms From PowerSchool Suit

  

  A California federal court's recent orders allowing claims against Bain Capital to proceed based on a data breach at its subsidiary PowerSchool indicate that private equity firms need to strategically approach acquisition activities to avoid cybersecurity risks, say attorneys at Womble Bond.

• What Fed's Fast Track To Account Access Means For Fintechs

  

  Fintechs, stablecoin issuers and other nonbank entities should assess eligibility, compliance demands and operational limits ahead of the Federal Reserve's potential finalization of a payment account framework proposing a faster path to direct access to key payment rails, says Stephen Aschettino at Fox Rothschild.

• 'Honeypot' Suit Spotlights Nuances Of Trade Secret Law

  

  Fintech company MyCard's recent complaint filed in Delaware federal court, alleging that competitor Atomic FI copied its proprietary software, including a "honeypot" in the form of a specific 37-character string, highlights fact-intensive questions of when alleged trade secrets are actually secret, says Eugene Mar at Farella Braun.

• FTC Focus: Calibrating Biden-Era Issues In 2026's 1st Half

  

  In the first half of 2026, Federal Trade Commission actions have redefined which of the previous administration's theories it views as legally sustainable, institutionally worthwhile and consistent with a more restrained conception, including a pivot from rulemaking to case-specific noncompete enforcement this spring, say attorneys at Proskauer.

• High Court's FCC Ruling Adds To Comms Industry Paradox

  

  The Supreme Court's recent decision in Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T, finding that the FCC's informal forfeiture process survives Seventh Amendment scrutiny, opens some doors for regulated entities, but the practical effect may be surprisingly constrained, says Jonathan Marashlian at The CommLaw Group.

• A Lender's Guide To Fraud: Identifying Risks

  

  The evolving lending landscape, particularly the private credit boom, has heightened lenders' exposure to fraud, but recent bankruptcies demonstrate where fraud risks most commonly materialize and how banks can mitigate exposure at the outset, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

• Series

  Founding An Autism Academy Made Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Starting a nonprofit autism school with no building, no funding model and no guarantee that families would trust us taught me the importance of mission, patience and purpose — lessons that sharpened my practice and showed how meaningful work outside the office can make lawyers better, says Phillip Russell at Ogletree Deakins.

• Mapping US-China Investment Compliance For EB-5 Deals

  

  Chinese capital deployment through the U.S.'s EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, alongside China's recently established outbound investment security framework, creates compliance gaps with the U.S. framework, and unique risks and considerations for practitioners, says Xuan Zhang at Reid & Wise.

• Trump's AI Order Is Strategic, Not Merely Deregulatory

  

  Although the framework presented in President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on artificial intelligence is styled as voluntary and innovation-friendly, it creates a new soft-power mechanism for bringing the most capable AI systems into closer alignment with federal security priorities, says Jesse Lemon at The Beckage Firm.

• Opinion

  Rule Of Law Requires Gov't Engagement With Bar, Not Retreat

  

  A federal agency's absence from national and local bar conferences, most recently illustrated by the U.S. Department of Justice's withdrawal from a New York City Bar Association white collar conference, disserves the bar, the government lawyers themselves and, ultimately, the administration of justice, says Muhammad Faridi at Linklaters.

• How Boards Can Shrink The AI Governance Gap

  

  While companies have overwhelmingly embraced artificial intelligence, most lack corresponding governance structures and director-level fluency to oversee these programs, highlighting the importance of board and executive supervision to keep pace with growing litigation risk, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.