Expert Analysis

• Lessons From The DOJ's 1st Enforcement Policy Declination

  

  The first U.S. Department of Justice declination to prosecute alleged export control violations and national security offenses offers a window into the operation of the administration’s recently implemented corporate enforcement and voluntary self‑disclosure policy, and how companies' compliance and cooperation efforts should be targeted, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

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  Bass Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Landing a trophy striped bass and closing a big deal both require cultivating the patience to finesse — not force — your way to desired outcomes, changing course when your old approach isn’t working and learning from the ones that got away, says Jon Ruiss at Alston & Bird.

• A New Defense For Medicaid Fraud Cases In Texas

  

  The Texas Supreme Court decision in LabCorp v. Texas last month, finding that the state's False Claims Act requires proof that an omission is material, is among the first to establish that the government's lack of reaction to the defendant's disclosures rendered alleged omissions immaterial, say attorneys at Sheppard.

• Fighting The Evidentiary Risks Of Deepfakes In Court

  

  Though courts and federal rules are only slowly developing frameworks for assessing digital evidence that could have been created or generated by artificial intelligence, litigators should understand what steps they'll likely need to take to successfully challenge potentially deepfaked exhibits — and fight questions about the authenticity of their own, say attorneys at MoFo.

• Agentic AI And Securities Law: Who Is The Adviser?

  

  Securities regulation has always been actor-based, but as agentic artificial intelligence becomes more common, it will push the law toward a partially system-based framework in which systems themselves, and the relationships between them and their deployers, are the focus of regulatory attention, says Joseph A. Hall at Davis Polk.

• Have Private Suits Filled Gap Left By SEC's Crypto Pullback?

  

  In the wake of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's regulatory retreat in the crypto space, private litigants have pursued claims across different types of crypto-related activities and market participants, but whether private lawsuits have replaced SEC enforcement remains unclear, says Simona Mola at NERA.

• Justices' Concurrences Foretell Fault Line On Appeal Waivers

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled 8-1 in Hunter v. U.S. that appeal waivers that produce a miscarriage of justice are unenforceable, but the decision's concurrences indicate future divisions over whether this exception will be used as a rare safety valve or to police ordinary but troubling plea errors, say attorneys at RJO.

• A Potential Turning Point For Short-And-Distort Claims

  

  A California federal jury's conviction of Andrew Left signals that the historically blurry line between securities fraud and legitimate criticism of companies is growing clearer, and that there is a viable recourse against so-called short-and-distort campaigns intended to create a false impression of the market, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

• High Court's FCC Fine Ruling Reframes Agency Enforcement

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T sweeps aside uncertainty about what kinds of regulatory enforcement trigger a Seventh Amendment right, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

• CFTC Policy Substantially Expands Self-Reporting Incentives

  

  A recent U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission policy moves from a mitigation-centered model to prioritizing declination for early self-reporting and full cooperation, reflecting a deliberate effort to harmonize voluntary self-disclosure incentives across the federal enforcement authorities, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.

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  Choral Singing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Singing in the New York City Bar Chorus — a hobby partly inspired by the late U.S. District Judge Richard Owen, who infused my clerkship year with opera music — has improved my legal career by refining my abilities to listen, exude confidence and develop emotional intelligence, says Bonnie Baker at Friedman Kaplan.

• Attorney Mental Health Is An Ethical Obligation In The AI Era

  

  As attorneys cope with the increasing unpredictability that artificial intelligence and constant policy changes have created, particularly in practice areas where they carry the emotional weight of clients’ most consequential life events, otherwise soft discussions about self-care are a matter of professional competence, says attorney Jack Jrada.

• 3 Litigation Strategies To Stay Ahead Of Bad Facts

  

  A case with damaging facts can still be won if, instead of avoiding the facts, attorneys proactively address them by carefully selecting a strategy of confronting, containing or reframing, says Allison Rocker at Baker McKenzie.

• Agentic AI And Securities Law: Evolving Risk Disclosures

  

  The U.S. disclosure regime is built on the premise that management can describe the material facts and risks facing its business, but, with the advent of agentic artificial intelligence, the question is whether the regime can accommodate decision-making systems whose behavior is not fully predictable, says Joseph A. Hall at Davis Polk.

• DOJ China Container Indictments Signal Global Cartel Risk

  

  The U.S. Department of Justice's recent announcement that it had indicted Chinese manufacturers for conspiring to drive up the price of shipping containers sold in the U.S. illustrates the Antitrust Division's interest in pursuing overseas cartel conduct, especially in China, signaling that multinational companies with employees abroad should strengthen antitrust compliance to avoid running afoul of U.S. national security policy, say attorneys at Squire Patton.