Back in February, a limited liability company filed a lawsuit against the five companies licensed to operate online sports betting in the District of Columbia (“District” or “D.C.”). The case invokes an old section of the...more
Borrowers and lenders must both be aware of the risks relating to uncertainty regarding make-whole premiums in bankruptcy. The enforceability of “make-whole” premiums in bankruptcy has become a hotly contested issue in...more
Texas has been the leader in American energy independence for more than a century. Decades of industry innovation have provided Texas real property owners with new ways to extract value from minerals, water, and more...more
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision on June 5, 2025, resolving a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit split in the matter of Ames v. Ohio Dep't. of Youth Servs., 605 U.S. ____ (2025). The Supreme Court...more
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) indicated in court documents that it intends to begin new rulemaking to replace a previous rule that permitted 401(k) plan fiduciaries to consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG)...more
There have been numerous news reports about the discovery of an original Magna Carta at the Harvard Law School Library, including this article in Harvard Magazine. According to these reports, a document previously...more
Event contracts, which are a type of derivative contract whose payoff is based on a specified event, occurrence, or value, have been area of significant attention in the derivatives markets, with several key developments...more
When it comes to regulating motor vehicle emissions, California has long been different. California was the first state in the nation to enact tailpipe emission standards and as result of its "pioneering" efforts in the...more
President Donald Trump on April 23, 2025, issued an executive order (EO) titled "Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy," mandating the cessation of federal enforcement of the "disparate impact" theory of...more
The Supreme Court of the United States’ recent Clean Water Act decision in City of San Francisco v. EPA has sent shockwaves through the environmental community by prohibiting EPA and state agencies’ common practice of...more
On March 24, 2025, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) issued a decision titled In Re: Riggs (the Riggs decision) that vacated a decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the US...more
Last week, the Supreme Court held oral argument in Federal Communications Commission v. Consumers’ Research. The case addresses the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund programs aimed at providing...more
Update: On March 21, 2025, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an interim final rule that removes the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) under...more
In 2024, plaintiffs across the United States filed various class action cases related to web tracking technology employed by companies to enhance user experience on their websites and to improve the efficacy of their...more
The Supreme Court ruled on January 15, 2025, that if a plaintiff amends a complaint to remove federal claims after a case has been removed to federal court, the federal court loses its jurisdiction over the remaining...more
The SEC was increasingly active in fiscal year (FY) 2024 in pursuing enforcement actions involving cybersecurity incidents and artificial intelligence (AI) (query how long society will continue to define AI; harkens to the...more
Just a few months after the United States Supreme Court voted 6-3 to overturn the long-standing and widely applied legal precedent known as “Chevron deference,” it has agreed to hear a case that could entirely shift the...more
In a surprise decision likely to add further fuel to the fires calling for permitting reform and uncertainty to the environmental review process for federal funding and approval, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of...more
The intersection of the Davis-Bacon Act (DBA) and General Services Administration (GSA) leasing has undergone significant changes over the past year, raising important issues for lessors, legal practitioners and government...more
In July, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found the FCC’s Universal Service Fund (USF) to violate the Constitution in several ways. This decision reversed an earlier decision by a panel of the court...more
Today's post is a digression into Roman history and etymology, two of my long-time interests....more
On Labor Day fifty years ago, September 2, 1974, President Ford signed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) into law. It is a combination of tax and labor law incorporating trust law like fiduciary...more
On August 12, 2024, the Federal Circuit published its decision in Celanese International Corp. et al. v. International Trade Commission. The Federal Circuit concluded that, under the America Invents Act (AIA), patent claims...more
Twenty-six states filed litigation in courts nationwide to prevent the enactment of President Biden’s April 2024 revisions to the Title IX statute aimed at increasing protections for LGBTQIA+ athletes, pregnant and parenting...more
The United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (“USPTO”) Appeals Review Panel (“the Panel”) recently clarified that means-plus-function claims do not require that the specification disclose equivalents. See Ex parte...more