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Regulation

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Insights from Acting Director Stewart’s Decisions on Discretionary Denial under the New Interim Processes for PTAB Workload Management Image

Insights from Acting Director Stewart’s Decisions on Discretionary Denial under the New Interim Processes for PTAB Workload Management

Lea Speed & Dominic Rota

Just three months ago, Acting Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Coke Morgan Stewart rescinded existing guidelines governing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) discretion to deny petitions for inter partes review (IPR) and post-grant review (PGR) when parallel litigation is already pending in federal district court or the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). Acting Director Stewart replaced those guidelines with new interim processes that rely on the Director to issue decisions on patent owners’ requests for discretionary denials.

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When Sanctions Fail: The Ovsiannikov Case and Why Enhanced Due Diligence Must Become a Compliance Standard Image

When Sanctions Fail: The Ovsiannikov Case and Why Enhanced Due Diligence Must Become a Compliance Standard

Matt Winlaw

As geopolitical tensions escalate and global sanctions regimes become more aggressive, the Ovsiannikov case serves as a stark warning: checkbox compliance is no longer sufficient. EDD must become the operational standard — not just in banking, but across every sector involved in high-risk transactions.

Features

Navigating DOJ’s New White-Collar Playbook Image

Navigating DOJ’s New White-Collar Playbook

Randy Grossman & Kareem Salem & Sareen Armani

Key Risks for Government Contractors, Tech Companies and Healthcare EntitiesThe DOJ recently unveiled a series of policy updates that shifted the white-collar enforcement landscape. These updates — an emphasis on the False Claims Act, a shift away from the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and increased incentives for self-disclosure and whistleblowers — are poised to reshape how companies approach compliance.

Features

Sentencing Stats Show That the Trial Penalty Is Substantially Overstated In the Vast Majority of White Collar Cases Image

Sentencing Stats Show That the Trial Penalty Is Substantially Overstated In the Vast Majority of White Collar Cases

Frederick P. Hafetz & Mark Allenbaugh

The focus of this article is on the spectrum of white collar cases in which the lawyer believes there is a credible chance of winning based not only on an assessment of weaknesses in the government’s case but also of other factors such as loss of the opportunity to favorably litigate outcome-determinative evidentiary issues. Too often in these situations defense lawyers recommend a guilty plea in the mistaken belief that conviction at trial will result in a significant trial penalty far greater than a plea bargain sentence. By reviewing empirical sentencing data we hope to dispel this widely held, but ultimately mistaken view.

Features

New Whistleblower Rewards Program Includes Monetary Incentive Image

New Whistleblower Rewards Program Includes Monetary Incentive

Carl W. Hittinger & Jacqueline Romero & Tyson Y. Herrold

On July 8, 2025, the DOJ, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and the USPS Office of Inspector General entered into a memorandum of understanding creating a whistleblower rewards program “to enable whistleblowers to report specific, credible and timely information about possible federal criminal violations.” The first of its kind, it creates a monetary incentive for whistleblowers to report criminal antitrust violations involving such conduct as price fixing, bid rigging, market allocation and even certain types of predatory conduct by monopolists.

Features

Foreign Sovereign Immunity May Be Obstacle to DOJ Enforcement Efforts Image

Foreign Sovereign Immunity May Be Obstacle to DOJ Enforcement Efforts

Andrew St. Laurent & Joseph DeBlasi

In May, Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, issued a department-wide memorandum setting forth the department’s enforcement priorities in the white-collar crime sphere. In it, the department announced an effort to combat crime that “poses a significant threat to U.S. interests,” including the “enabling of shadow-banking and sanctions evasions by hostile nation-states and terror regimes.” A potential obstacle to these enforcement efforts is the doctrine of foreign sovereign immunity. This doctrine, as its name suggests, has been used by courts to grant judicial immunity to foreign states, their instrumentalities, and their respective heads of state.

Features

New and Conflicting Regulations, Not Tariffs, Are Top Concern for Compliance Pros Image

New and Conflicting Regulations, Not Tariffs, Are Top Concern for Compliance Pros

Trudy Knockless

As regulatory shifts grow more unpredictable, corporate legal departments are stepping up their role in risk management — even as many feel they’re navigating in the dark. Their top concern? A surge in new — and often conflicting — regulations spanning everything from consumer privacy and AI governance to tax and trade.

Features

Breaking Down DOJ’s New FCPA Enforcement Guidelines Image

Breaking Down DOJ’s New FCPA Enforcement Guidelines

Mark Mendelsohn & Benjamin Klein

On June 9, the DOJ released its Guidelines for Investigations and Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, ending a months-long pause on FCPA enforcement and outlining DOJ’s go-forward criteria for evaluating whether to bring FCPA actions. Here’s a breakdown of the key themes in the guidelines.

Features

DOJ Regulation to Protect Americans’ Personal Data Takes Effect Image

DOJ Regulation to Protect Americans’ Personal Data Takes Effect

Matthew Baker & Nick Palmieri & Justin Bryant

In a show of continuity between administrations, the Biden-era Executive Order 14117 — designed to restrict foreign access to Americans’ most sensitive personal data — has been allowed to take effect in the second Trump administration.The Department of Justice’s implementing regulation for this Order, finalized in late December 2024, became enforceable in April 2025.

Features

DOJ Shifts White-Collar Crime Enforcement Strategies Image

DOJ Shifts White-Collar Crime Enforcement Strategies

Sean B. O’Connell & John S. Ghose & Sabrina Marquez

The DOJ announced on May 12, 2025, a strategy shift in its approach to white collar enforcement, identifying specific high-impact areas of focus; an expansion of whistleblower and self-disclosure incentives; and a narrowed use of corporate monitorships. These strategic shifts present significant opportunities for companies and individuals currently facing government investigations, particularly where those investigations no longer align with DOJ priorities.

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