Two federal courts recently issued rulings on notable issues impacting whether and how artists can terminate prior assignments of copyrights in their works.
February 01, 2026Stan Soocher
In a post-Purdue world — where non-consensual third-party releases are prohibited — bankruptcy practitioners and courts alike have been required to consider and determine what exactly “consent” means for purposes of soliciting such releases.
February 01, 2026Matthew R. BrooksDuring his speeches and testimonies before the Senate, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has retreated from the expansive “regulation by enforcement” approach of former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler and clarified that “policymaking will be done through notice and comment rulemaking.”
February 01, 2026John Carney and Nikita MistryThe Verification-Value Paradox states that increases in efficiency from AI use “will be met by a correspondingly greater imperative to manually verify” the outputs. The result is that the net value of AI in many legal contexts may be negligible once verification is honestly accounted for. For low-stakes tasks, verification costs are light. For core legal work, verification costs are heavy. That’s the tension.
January 01, 2026Leigh VickeryLegal spend has become a core business issue that now shapes financial planning, operational decision making and risk management. What once lived primarily in the legal department has become a shared responsibility across client legal, finance, and operations teams and their outside counsel.
January 01, 2026Suzanne GanierMany law firm leaders insist that artificial intelligence has no place in their businesses; however, common applications employed daily may be using AI without them knowing. This phenomenon, often referred to as “shadow AI,” highlights a growing risk for firms that have yet to develop comprehensive governance strategies for artificial intelligence.
January 01, 2026Robert PadillaBoth federal agencies are aligning their enforcement priorities with the Administration’s foreign policy goals, signaling heightened scrutiny of cross-border misconduct and increased compliance expectations for multinational organizations and their auditors and advisers.
January 01, 2026Jonathan New and Patrick Campbell and Alaina CicconeSanchez shows the limits of bankruptcy jurisdiction in concrete terms. In the court’s hard-hitting analysis, the decision should at least convince bankruptcy courts to avoid hearing most post-confirmation and unrelated third-party disputes.
January 01, 2026Michael L. CookThere are two key federally created entities whose mission it is to issue licenses and collect royalties on behalf of rights holders for digital transmissions of music: SoundExchange and the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC). This article reports on recent court rulings over whether the plaintiffs had viable causes of action related to SoundExchange and MLC royalty payments.
January 01, 2026Stan SoocherFor rights holders, platforms and brands, the Disney-Open AI licensing deal illustrates an emerging blueprint for commercializing iconic IP in AI-native formats while attempting to manage legal, regulatory, and reputational risk.
January 01, 2026Reber “Mitch” Boult and Joshua Rojas
