White Collar

Expert Analysis

• Opinion

  Punishing Bar Exam Policies On Menstrual Products Must Go

  

  Law graduates across the states are sitting for the grueling two-day bar exam this week despite menstruation-related barriers, such as inadequate menstrual product and bathroom access, which could be eradicated with simple policy tweaks, say law professors Elizabeth Cooper, Margaret Johnson and Marcy Karin.

• Takeaways From DOJ Fraud Section's Pandemic Year

  

  The U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division report on the Fraud Section's accomplishments in 2020 reveals impressive enforcement productivity, despite pandemic-related limitations, and we should expect to see a significant increase in prosecution later this year, say Kevin Muhlendorf and Holly Wilson at Wiley.

• It's Time For Law Firms To Start Loving And Leveraging Data

  

  The volume and diversity of data managed by law firms today — from client files to internal financial records — may seem daunting, but when properly organized, good data can help practitioners stay competitive by providing sharper insight into firm resources and cost of work, say Jaron Luttich and Barry Wiggins at Element Standard.

• Keys To Protecting Clients During Law Firm Dissolution

  

  Whether a law firm dissolution is amicable or adversarial, departing attorneys should take steps to maintain their legal and ethical responsibilities toward clients, and beware client confidentiality pitfalls when joining new firms, say John Schmidt and Colin Fitzgerald at Phillips Lytle.

• Compliance Lessons From Toyota's Clean Air Act Settlement

  

  The recent Clean Air Act settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Toyota holds important lessons for companies about the importance of robust compliance programs and the perils of disregarding prior agreements with the government, says Jeffrey Corey at Parsons Behle.

• When Domestic Securities Fall Outside Scope Of Federal Law

  

  The Second Circuit’s recent opinion in Cavello Bay Reinsurance v. Stein, which held a private securities sale was extraterritorial despite several ties to New York, underscores that how transaction agreements are structured could affect whether a deal may be subject to federal securities laws — especially in an increasingly remote world, say attorneys at Cleary.

• 2nd Circ. Brady Ruling Highlights Use Of Classified Info Act

  

  The recent Second Circuit decision in U.S. v. Stillwell, remanding claims that the U.S. Department of Justice withheld Brady material, illustrates how a little-known section of the Classified Information Procedures Act can be applied to protect information in criminal cases, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.

• How Case Management Orders Can Support New Attorneys

  

  Courts are leading the way in ensuring oral argument opportunities for newer attorneys by incorporating innovative language in a variety of orders, and private parties can and should follow suit by incorporating similar language into case management orders, say Megan Jones and Halli Spraggins at Hausfeld.

• Effective E-Discovery Of Chat Apps In Gov't Investigations

  

  With the increasing reliance on multiple messaging applications for business conversations in the remote working environment, companies can implement several best practices for collecting, reviewing and producing data, despite an absence of guidance on discovery obligations in government investigations, say Jason Weinstein and Katie Dubyak at Steptoe & Johnson.

• An In-House Counsel's Guide To Better Work Management

  

  Amid economic uncertainty and increasing pressure on corporate legal departments to do more with less, work management processes should be aimed at tracking legal teams' every contribution, including routine matters that can be reallocated to nonlegal staff, says Aaron Pierce at LexisNexis CounselLink.

• The Best Ways To Respond To Enforcement From SEC, CFTC

  

  Steven Peikin and James McDonald at Sullivan & Cromwell draw on their experience leading the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Enforcement Divisions to share effective strategies for responding to enforcement investigations amid expectations the Biden administration will increase regulatory scrutiny.

• Avoiding Materially Adverse Conflicts After New ABA Opinion

  

  The American Bar Association's recent guidance on what constitutes materially adverse interests between clients makes clear that lawyers should not take comfort in a current representation just because a former client is not on the opposite side of the v., and those hoping to avoid disqualification should consider five steps, says Hilary Gerzhoy at Harris Wiltshire.

• Start Preparing For Germany's Corporate Sanctions Act

  

  Germany’s soon-to-be-adopted Corporate Sanctions Act carries a presumption of mandatory prosecution but also a defense in cases where reasonable precautions fail to prevent nonmanagers from committing crimes, so companies should start putting such compliance programs into place now, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

• UK Top Court Fraud Ruling Could Reshape Int'l Discovery

  

  A recent U.K. Supreme Court ruling that KBR didn't have to provide documents held overseas to the Serious Fraud Office reveals the U.K. to be taking a divergent approach from the U.S. and has important implications for cross-border discovery and criminal investigations, say Katherine Toomey and Eric Lewis at Lewis Baach.

• Opinion

  It's Time To Ramp Up Punishment For Wall Street Wrongdoers

  

  Regulators and prosecutors under the Biden administration have an opportunity to crack down on Wall Street corruption through meaningful punishment that holds individuals and firms accountable for their involvement in financial crimes, rather than monetary penalties that have so far done little to deter banking industry wrongdoing, says Dennis Kelleher at Better Markets.