Know What's Happening in Legal
Know What's Happening in Legal
Delaware Supreme Court lets insurers pursue contract claims against Blackbaud over ransomware breach
The Delaware Supreme Court reversed lower‑court dismissals, permitting insurers to bring breach‑of‑contract actions against Blackbaud for its 2020 ransomware incident. Blackbaud had previously paid a $3 million SEC fine and $49 million to state attorneys general for misleading breach disclosures.
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By the numbers: Oil majors acquire $164M of Alaska oil leases
The Tulane Corporate Law Institute’s annual seminar convened Delaware Supreme Court justices, Chancery judges, and leading practitioners to dissect the year’s pivotal corporate law rulings. Highlights included the Supreme Court’s revisit of Elon Musk’s Tesla compensation package, new guidance on Brophy and Caremark director‑duty claims, and the nuanced limits of the Brola/Credit Glory decision after the eXp case. Panelists argued that the recently enacted SB 21 would likely have dismissed the Musk case at the trial level. Additional sessions covered shareholder activism, AI‑related filing concerns, and upcoming M&A hot topics, with extensive slide decks made available to attendees.
Cyprus has issued a legal order that obliges all organizations to treat identity documents presented through the Digital Citizen mobile app as equivalent to their physical counterparts in face‑to‑face transactions. The decree, signed by the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation...
On March 4, 2026 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Galette v. New Jersey Transit, holding that NJ Transit is not an "arm of the State" and therefore cannot claim sovereign immunity in out‑of‑state lawsuits. The Court...
Understanding the difference between tax planning and tax advice is crucial for advisors seeking to stay on the right side of this liability line. Tax planning may involve discussing general tax rules, modeling hypothetical scenarios, or analyzing the tax impact...
Technology firms warn that the EU ePrivacy derogation, which has underpinned voluntary child sexual abuse material (CSAM) detection since 2021, will lapse on April 3. The expiry would strip legal certainty that enables companies to use hash‑matching tools to spot and...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has opened a public comment period, ending May 11, on proposed revisions to data reporting requirements for Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D sponsors. The updates, intended for contract year 2027, clarify...
Diversification is a core requirement of a 351 exchange. Before assets can be contributed, the portfolio must satisfy specific IRS diversification tests. This video explains how those rules work in practice. The two key tests: The 25% Rule - No single security can represent...
In this episode, host Benjamin Wittes and court reporter Anna Bauer debrief the bizarre federal court appearance of Wittes, dubbed the "Lord Laser" trial, where no judge was present and a DOJ prosecutor ran the proceeding like a plea‑conference. They...
The U.S. Department of Justice resolved a $1.2 million Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement action against Balt SAS, a French medical‑device company. The DOJ determined Balt paid roughly $602,000 in bribes to a senior physician at a state‑owned French hospital, treating...
New York Assembly Bill A4615 seeks to amend the Dark Skies Protection Act by mandating that most outdoor lighting be turned off between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., with exemptions for safety‑critical fixtures. The legislation, targeted for a Jan 1 2028 start, aims to...
A Saskatchewan judge awarded University of Regina professor $70,000 in damages, finding she was defamed by accusations that she pretended to be Indigenous and used forged documents. The court clarified that the defamation stemmed from fraud allegations, not merely the...
Corporate legal teams still manage legal holds manually using spreadsheets, email threads, and shared folders. These manual workflows create hidden costs, including lost time, reduced visibility, and heightened compliance risk. As matters multiply and data environments grow, the inefficiencies become...
Sen. Marsha Blackburn unveiled a draft bill that obliges public companies and selected private firms to report AI‑related layoffs, role changes, and other workforce effects to the Labor Department each quarter. Non‑compliance could trigger civil penalties of up to $1 million...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has launched a new public‑idea portal under its Comprehensive Regulations to Uncover Suspicious Healthcare initiative. CMS Chief Operating Officer Kimberly Brandt invited citizens, providers, and industry experts to submit suggestions for strengthening...
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) dismissed a complaint by four allergy advocacy groups that claimed Southwest Airlines violated the Air Carrier Access Act by removing nut‑allergy passengers from pre‑boarding. Southwest had shifted those passengers to a later “extra time”...
Two former Designated Pilot Examiners have filed a class‑action lawsuit in federal court in Florida against the Federal Aviation Administration, alleging that recent policy changes eliminated the appeal process for examiner terminations. The complaint claims the FAA’s new enforcement procedures...
The Supreme Court declined to review a Tennessee vanity‑plate dispute, leaving the legal view that license plates are government speech intact. Leah Gilliam’s “69PWNDU” plate was revoked after a decade, illustrating state authority to reject messages deemed offensive. By refusing...
Regulators across Japan, the EU, South Korea and other jurisdictions are compelling Apple to loosen its tightly‑controlled iOS ecosystem through ex‑ante unbundling rules such as Japan’s Mobile Software Competition Act and the EU’s Digital Markets Act. These measures challenge Apple’s...
Catholic University is forcing Students Supporting Israel to invite someone who doesn't support Israel — or they can't hold the event. Student clubs, regardless of their perspective, are allowed to advocate for their beliefs and provide programming that supports those...
Transnational Dispute Management (TDM) is publishing a special issue on International Arbitration and the Space Industry, edited by Freshfields partners Alexandra van der Meulen, Kate Gough, Joshua Kelly, Annie Pan and Veronika Timofeeva. The call invites scholarly articles on topics ranging from liability...
Since May 2025 the U.S. Department of Energy has issued more than 40 emergency orders under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, the highest volume in two decades. The orders fall into retirement‑deferral and active‑dispatch categories, keeping roughly 4.4 GW of...
IBM senior consulting executive Joseph Msays, a 65‑year‑old veteran of more than three decades, filed a lawsuit in March 2026 alleging age and Lebanese‑American origin discrimination. He claims the company repeatedly passed him over for promotion despite his unit delivering...
Tesla faces a federal lawsuit alleging it fired Lakeisha Ward, a post‑order support employee with sickle‑cell disease, after she suffered multiple seizures at work. The complaint lists ten claims, including disability discrimination, failure to accommodate a physician‑requested shift reduction, retaliation,...
A new "kids online safety" law in Arizona would make posting the South Park clip of Trump and Satan having sex illegal, unless the social media user was able to upload Trump's government ID and a consent form from him...
More than 20 states are legally challenging the Trump administration’s decision to roll back a landmark scientific determination that greenhouse gases threaten human health, which underpins various federal climate rules https://t.co/FVlljxzbJ1
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled that a Kansas City hospital did not violate the National Labor Relations Act when it withdrew recognition of the SEIU after a decertification vote, even though the NLRB had not...
"US rapper Afroman cleared after police sued him over use of home raid footage" https://t.co/nm31pAaIKZ "I didn’t win, America won,” 🤣 https://t.co/B6bFcL256t
The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) has issued a policy paper urging Congress to modernize the Sarbanes‑Oxley Act. It recommends formally defining internal audit within the law, updating compliance expectations for Sections 302 and 404, and strengthening coordination between internal...
A coalition of 24 states, joined by dozens of cities and counties, filed a lawsuit in the D.C. Court of Appeals challenging the Trump administration’s repeal of the EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding. The suit argues the EPA acted illegally by...
The New Brunswick government introduced Bill No. 25 to amend the 2008 Midwifery Act, broadening midwives’ scope to cover the full child‑bearing continuum and permitting student midwives to gain supervised clinical experience. The legislation also restructures the Midwifery Council by adding...
ABC News issued a correction after its March 3 story overstated suppression order figures in New South Wales and mischaracterized Victoria’s share of national orders. The original numbers – 133 orders in NSW and 47 percent for Victoria – were based on...
Making up fake interview answers and attributing them to a real person, even with a disclaimer buried in the fine print, should be illegal as hell
Amendment 38 b would create a new Article 8ZA giving the Secretary of State power to set age‑verification requirements for information society services and to amend any provision of UK data‑protection law for that purpose. The proposal would let the government mandate...
The FCA will bring the £13 billion UK BNPL market under full regulatory oversight starting 15 July 2026, requiring lenders to conduct mandatory affordability assessments and provide standardized pre‑contract disclosures. A Temporary Permissions Regime opens from 15 May to 1 July 2026, after which firms must...
The Consumer Finance Monitor podcast reveals that the CFPB may slash its annual examinations from roughly 600 to about 70, shift to fully virtual, risk‑focused reviews, and even adopt a “humility pledge” for examiners. Simultaneously, the OCC, FDIC and Federal...
On 19 March 2026 the FCA published version 7 of its approach document on payment services and electronic money, outlining how the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and Electronic Money Regulations 2011 should be applied. The guidance targets authorised and small payment institutions, e‑money institutions, registered...
Construction eDiscovery demands a clear roadmap for handling diverse file types, from native CAD drawings to BIM models and project‑management data. The article outlines essential formats, metadata considerations, and the critical questions legal teams should pose to custodians and IT...
In this episode, host interviews Maria McFarland Sanchez‑Moreno, CEO of Represent Us, about the organization’s mission to enforce government accountability, especially targeting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and congressional inaction. Maria outlines the Congressional Courage Campaign, which mobilizes constituents to...
A wave of chatbot safety legislation has emerged in six states—Colorado, Hawaii, Arizona, Georgia, Nebraska and Idaho—mirroring Oregon's recently passed SB 1546. Each bill includes a carve‑out that exempts major AI services embedded in larger platforms, limits private lawsuits by...
HDFC Bank has faced a string of regulatory actions over the past seven years, beginning with a ₹1 crore RBI penalty in 2019 for KYC and AML lapses. Subsequent sanctions include a 2020 RBI directive that halted digital launches, a 2024...
DLA Piper, the world’s third‑largest law firm, announced it will dissolve its Swiss verein and adopt a global holding company to align strategy, leadership and partner economics. The move follows a decade of criticism that the verein model hampers data...
Freedom House reported the United States fell to 81 points on its Freedom in the World index, the lowest score since the survey began in 1972 and equal to South Africa. The drop reflects growing executive power under President Donald...
Former state and federal judges filed a 149‑signatory amicus brief urging the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to invalidate the Pentagon’s designation of AI firm Anthropic as a supply‑chain risk. The brief argues the Department of Defense exceeded its statutory...
On 19 March 2026 IOSCO released a consultation report proposing good practices to reinforce Principles 12, 15 and 16 of its commodity derivatives framework. The focus is on improving access to OTC position data, enhancing information sharing between regulators and...
The UK government is weighing a reduction of the Freedom of Information (FOI) cost limit to curb a surge in requests. A lower limit would shrink the time authorities can spend on each request, making it easier to refuse complex...
The Permanent Bureau announced that registration is now open for the 14th International Forum on the electronic Apostille Programme (e‑APP), scheduled for 12‑13 May 2026 in Marrakesh, Morocco. This marks the first time the e‑APP Forum will be hosted in...
Just a reminder that when it comes to bank regulation, what is deregulated on the way up is inevitably reregulated on the way down. Love them or hate them, there is no trend following crowd like our banking regulators.
Daybreak Games settled its lawsuit against the EverQuest emulator The Heroes Journey and its creators, Kristopher Takahashi and Alexander Taylor. The agreement bars the developers from distributing or promoting any EverQuest‑related emulator, with a $3.5 million damages clause if they breach...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed delaying the poultry grower‑payment and capital‑improvement rule until December 2027, pushing back its original July 2026 effective date. The rule, part of a Biden‑era effort to enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act, would...
Effective communication is a strategic tool for lawyers, not just a delivery of facts. Tailoring tone and structure to each audience—clients, opposing counsel, and judges—builds trust and credibility before any substantive dispute begins. Clear themes, disciplined wording, and concise follow‑ups...
