Expert Analysis

• What Attorneys Need To Know About H-1B Lottery Changes

  

  The newly revamped H-1B lottery process opened Wednesday and promises to bring more fairness to securing highly competitive slots, giving more companies a chance to access highly skilled workers, say Renée Mueller Steinle and Elizabeth Chatham at Stinson.

• High Court Social Media Speech Ruling Could Implicate AI

  

  In Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether certain state laws can restrict content moderation by social media platforms, but the eventual decision could also provide insight into whether the first amendment protects artificial intelligence speech, say Joseph Meadows and Quyen Dang at GRSM50.

• Bid Protest Spotlight: Conflict, Latent Ambiguity, Cost Realism

  

  In this month's bid protest roundup, Markus Speidel at MoFo examines a trio of U.S. Government Accountability Office decisions with takeaways about the consequences of a teaming partner's organizational conflict of interest, a solicitation's latent ambiguity and an unreasonable agency cost adjustment.

• Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC

  

  The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

• The Corporate Transparency Act Isn't Dead Yet

  

  After an Alabama federal court's ruling last week rendering the Corporate Transparency Act unconstitutional, changes to the law may ultimately be required, but ongoing compliance is still the best course of action for most, says George Singer at Holland & Hart.

• Employer Pointers As Wage And Hour AI Risks Emerge

  

  Following the Biden administration's executive order on artificial intelligence, employers using or considering artificial intelligence tools should carefully assess whether such use could increase their exposure to liability under federal and state wage and hour laws, and be wary of algorithmic discrimination, bias and inaccurate or incomplete reporting, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

• Webpages Must Meet Accessibility Standard To Be Prior Art

  

  The Patent Trial and Appeal Board's First Solar Inc. v. Rovshan Sade decision, that an available internet resource doesn't necessarily qualify as a prior art "printed publication" that is publicly accessible, serves as a reminder of the unforgiving requirements that must be satisfied to establish that a reference is a printed publication, say attorneys at Akin.

• Employers, Prep For Shorter Stock Awards Settlement Cycle

  

  Companies that provide equity compensation in the form of publicly traded stock will soon have one less day to complete such transactions under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Nasdaq rules — so employers should implement expedited equity compensation stock settlement and payroll tax deposit procedures now, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

• The Pros And Cons Of Protecting AI As Trade Secrets

  

  Despite regulatory trends toward greater transparency of artificial intelligence models, federal policy acknowledges, and perhaps endorses, trade secret protection for AI information, but there are still hurdles in keeping AI information a secret, say Jennifer Maisel and Andrew Stewart at Rothwell Figg.

• Complying With Enforcers' Ephemeral Messaging Guidance

  

  Given federal antitrust enforcers’ recently issued guidance on ephemeral messaging applications, organizations must take a proactive approach to preserving short-lived communications — or risk criminal obstruction charges and civil discovery sanctions, say attorneys at Manatt.

• New FinCEN Guide Provides Useful BOI Context For Banks

  

  Financial institutions should review a new Financial Crimes Enforcement Network compliance guide for helpful details about how the agency's beneficial ownership information database should be used, though questions remain about the access rule and whether it will truly streamline bank borrowers' Corporate Transparency Act due diligence, says George Singer at Holland & Hart.

• What's New In FDA's Updated Data Monitoring Guidance

  

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new guidance on the use of data monitoring committees in clinical trials is set to replace the agency's 2006 guidance on the topic, with notable updates including stronger language indicating a more stringent stance against financial conflicts of interest and adaptation to recent changes in DMC structure, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.

• Strategies For Single-Member Special Litigation Committees

  

  The Delaware Supreme Court's recent order in the Baker Hughes derivative litigation allowing testimony from a single-member special litigation committee highlights the fact that, while single-member SLCs are subject to heightened scrutiny, they can also provide unique opportunities, says Josh Bloom at MoloLamken.

• How Firms Can Ensure Associate Gender Parity Lasts

  

  Among associates, women now outnumber men for the first time, but progress toward gender equality at the top of the legal profession remains glacially slow, and firms must implement time-tested solutions to ensure associates’ gender parity lasts throughout their careers, say Kelly Culhane and Nicole Joseph at Culhane Meadows.

• Bracing Cos. For Calif. Privacy Agency's Restored Authority

  

  A recent California state appeals court decision greenlights the California Privacy Protection Agency's enforcement of certain consumer privacy regulations, which may speed up compliance requirements, so businesses considering use of artificial intelligence, for instance, may want to reassess their handling of privacy notices and opt-out requests, say Kevin Angle and Matthew Cin at Ropes & Gray.