Features

Fifth Circuit Resolves 'Clash' Between FERC and Bankruptcy Courts
A Chapter 11 debtor's "rejection [(under Code §365(a)] of a filed-rate [natural gas] contract … relieve[d] it of the obligation to continue performance absent the approval of FERC [(the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission]," held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Features

The FTC Gets Into the College Athlete NIL Game
As national champions are crowned in men's and women's basketball, hundreds of thousands of college athletes are entering the influencer marketplace for the first time and now find themselves attractive candidates in the fast growing influencer marketing arena. With influencer marketing potentially providing a 5x return on investment, many brands are eager to get into the industry, but it doesn't come without risks as the FTC Commissioner is taking a closer look at the use of influencers for marketing.
Features

First Dark Web Insider Trading Case Shows Government Active In Policing Tech
In a first of its kind prosecution, the Southern District of New York brought an insider trading case against defendant for selling inside information on the Dark Web. The SEC also brought a civil regulatory action against the defendant for the same conduct. In a rare move, however, SDNY and SEC charged this same conduct under different insider trading statutes. This difference underscores the legal complexities involved when the origin of inside information in the digital world is unknown.
Features

Landlords Turn the Tech to Keep Up With Sustainability Requirements
Government policies are pushing landlords to meet new sustainability requirements, heaping pressure on investors to back up their efforts to go green. In response, more owners are relying on AI and other technologies to help them meet the challenge and avoid steep financial penalties.
Features

Second Circuit 'Connolly' Ruling Shows Limits of Mail and Wire Fraud Statutes
The Connolly decision draws attention to the limits of the mail/wire fraud statutes — laws that are quite expansive but can also be stretched too far when applied to conduct in financial markets, especially markets tied to opaque rules and practices.
Features

SEC Proposed Rules Include Disclosure of Cybersecurity Risk Assessment Strategy
Cybersecurity compliance, already an anxiety-inducing topic for many in-house counsel, is about to get even trickier. The SEC rolled out a host of proposed new cybersecurity rules for public companies.
Features

Wrestling With the Meaning of 'Ordinary' Under the Bankruptcy Code
The Bankruptcy Code protects regular, ordinary commercial transactions between distressed companies and vendors willing to continue the relationship. But what is ordinary?
Features

Inside Cryptocurrency Pump-and-Dump Schemes
Cryptocurrency pump-and-dump schemes (CPDs) are becoming increasingly prevalent. As in the case of traditional "pump and dump" schemes, CPDs lead to short-term trading perturbations — exaggerated increases and/or decreases in prices, volume, or volatility.
Features

How the SEC's ESG Disclosure Rules Might Effect Commercial Real Estate
After years of discussions and hints, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally released its proposed environmental disclosure rule for public company reporting. Getting the information and making the determinations will be a challenge for any sized company that comes under the SEC's purview. But there are significant questions about who is responsible for gathering and reporting information from commercial real estate facilities.
Features

Cyber-Insecurity: Will the Looming Regulatory Crackdown on Cybersecurity Practices Help Protect Financial Institutions from Attack?
A slew of new regulations targeting the cybersecurity practices of financial institutions will come into effect during 2022. But will they have any real bearing on protecting financial firms from attack?
Need Help?
- Prefer an IP authenticated environment? Request a transition or call 800-756-8993.
- Need other assistance? email Customer Service or call 1-877-256-2472.
MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›