Expert Analysis

• Ch. 11 Ruling Informs On Social Media Ownership Rights

  

  Social media users now have useful guidance regarding account ownership rights following a federal bankruptcy court's recent ruling in the Vital Pharmaceuticals Chapter 11 case, which rejected the notion that advertised content alone could create a presumption of ownership for the advertised business, say Deborah Enea and Thomas Dockery at Troutman Pepper.

• The Hurdles Of Class Noticing In Crypto Class Actions

  

  Amid the growing number of cryptocurrency-related class action lawsuits, there are challenges relating to notifying potential class members, as the methods for traditional class actions may not work in these cases, say Loree Kovach and Nicholas Schmidt at Epiq.

• Immigration Program Pitfalls Exacerbate Physician Shortages

  

  Eliminating shortcomings from U.S. immigration regulations and policies could help mitigate the national shortage of physicians by encouraging foreign physicians to work in medically underserved areas, but progress has been halted by partisan gridlock, say Alison Hitz and Dana Schwarz at Clark Hill.

• Parsing FTC's Intercontinental-Black Knight Merger Challenge

  

  The Federal Trade Commission's recent Article III case challenging a merger between Intercontinental Exchange and Black Knight suggests the agency is using a structuralist approach to evaluate the merger's potential anti-competitive harm, says David Evans at Kelley Drye.

• Perspectives

  Mallory Gives Plaintiffs A Better Shot At Justice

  

  Critics of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern claim it opens the door to litigation tourism, but the ruling simply gives plaintiffs more options — enabling them to seek justice against major corporations in the best possible court, say Rayna Kessler and Ethan Seidenberg at Robins Kaplan.

• And Now A Word From The Panel: 55 Years Of The JPML

  

  As the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation marks its 55th birthday, Alan Rothman at Sidley looks back at its history and finds that, while some features of MDL jurisprudence have changed over the decades, the most remarkable aspect of the panel's practice has been its consistency.

• Employer Pointers From Tiger Woods' Legal Dispute With Ex

  

  Ex-girlfriend Erica Herman's sexual harassment suit against Tiger Woods, which was recently sent to arbitration, highlights the need for employers to understand their rights and responsibilities around workplace relationships, nondisclosure agreements and arbitration provisions, say Stephanie Reynolds and Sean McKaveney at Fisher Phillips.

• Why Seminole Tribe Sports Betting Ruling Is A Net Positive

  

  The D.C. Circuit Court’s recent ruling that a gambling compact between Florida and the Seminole Tribe is lawful even though it allows for online sports betting expands the tribe's offerings while maintaining exclusivity and is a win for individuals who wish to legally wager on sports within Florida, says Daniel McGinn at Dean Mead.

• Courts Can Overturn Deficient State Regulations, Too

  

  While suits challenging federal regulations have become commonplace, such cases against state agencies are virtually nonexistent, but many states have provisions that allow litigants to bring suit for regulations with inadequate cost-benefit analyses, says Reeve Bull at the Virginia Office of Regulatory Management.

• Opinion

  Harsh 11th Circ. Rebuke Should Inspire Changes At CFPB

  

  The Eleventh Circuit's recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Brown decision, which found the CFPB's conduct had been egregious in a debt collection enforcement action, should encourage some reflection at the bureau regarding its level of attention to the reasonable due process concerns of regulated institutions, says Eric Mogilnicki at Covington.

• Keep Up With Telemarketing Compliance: State Law Roundup

  

  As more states enact mini-Telephone Consumer Protection Acts to seemingly fill the "autodialer" void left by the U.S. Supreme Court's Facebook v. Duguid ruling, compliance will become a difficult game of whack-a-mole — some of the laws regulate equipment, while others restrict to whom calls can be made, and more, say attorneys at Blank Rome.

• Tales From The Trenches Of Remote Depositions

  

  As practitioners continue to conduct depositions remotely in the post-pandemic world, these virtual environments are rife with opportunities for improper behavior such as witness coaching, scripted testimony and a general lack of civility — but there are methods to prevent and combat these behaviors, say Jennifer Gibbs and Bennett Moss at Zelle.

• New Fla. Immigration Law May Have Crippling Effects

  

  Florida's new immigration law, which went into effect on July 1, will be especially burdensome in industries where retaining adequate staff is already an issue, so employers must assess their staff and thoroughly examine their employee records to check that all documentation is valid to avoid crippling fines and loss of licenses, says Trent Cotney at Adams and Reese.

• Employer Drug-Testing Policies Must Evolve With State Law

  

  As multistate employers face ongoing challenges in drafting consistent marijuana testing policies due to the evolving patchwork of state laws, they should note some emerging patterns among local and state statutes to ensure compliance in different jurisdictions, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

• Tide May Be Turning On Texas Two-Step Bankruptcy Strategy

  

  Recent developments in several high-profile bankruptcy cases suggest that the use of the Texas Two-Step to shield solvent companies from tort claims may be falling out of favor, but until the U.S. Supreme Court hears one of these cases the strategy will remain divisive and the subject of increased scrutiny, say attorneys at Rivkin Radler.