Expert Analysis

• Musk Pay Fight Shows Investor Approval Isn't Universal Cure

  

  The Delaware Court of Chancery's recent denial of a motion revising its prior rescission of Elon Musk's nearly $56 billion compensation package is a reminder of the heightened standard corporate boards must meet in conflicted controller transactions and that stockholder approval doesn't automatically cure fiduciary wrongdoing, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

• Data Privacy Landscape After Mass. Justices' Wiretap Ruling

  

  In Vita v. New England Baptist Hospital, Massachusetts’ highest court recently ruled that the state’s wiretap law doesn’t prohibit all tracking of website user activity, but major financial and reputational risks remain for businesses that aren't transparent about customer’s web data, says Seth Berman at Nutter.

• Opinion

  Justices Rightly Corrected Course In Nvidia And Facebook

  

  By dismissing both the Nvidia and Facebook class actions, over investors' ability to hold corporations accountable for fraud, the U.S. Supreme Court was right in refusing to favor corporations over transparency, and reaffirmed its commitment to corporate accountability, investor protection and the rule of law, says Laura Posner at Cohen Milstein.

• Del. Dispatch: The 2024 Corporate Cases You Need To Know

  

  The Delaware Court of Chancery in 2024 issued several decisions that some viewed as upending long-standing corporate practices, leading to the amendment of the Delaware General Corporation Law and debates at some Delaware corporations about potentially reincorporating to another state, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

• When US Privilege Law Applies To Docs Made Outside The US

  

  As globalization manifests itself in disputes over foreign-created documents, a California federal court’s recent trademark decision illustrates nuances of both U.S. privilege frameworks and foreign evidentiary protections that attorneys must increasingly bear in mind, say attorneys at Hunton.

• How A 9th Circ. Identicality Ruling Could Affect AI Cos.

  

  If the Ninth Circuit agrees to settle a district court split over whether the Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires a copy to be identical to an original to support an actionable claim for removing copyright management information, the decision could have important ramifications for artificial intelligence businesses, says Maria Sinatra at Venable.

• Why Class Cert. Is Unlikely In Cases Like Mattel 'Wicked' Suit

  

  A proposed class action recently filed in California federal court against Mattel over the company's "Wicked" doll boxes accidentally listing a pornographic website illustrates the uphill battle plaintiffs face in certifying a class when many consumers never saw or relied on the representation at issue, says Alex Smith at Jenner & Block.

• What 2024 Trends In Marketing, Comms Hiring Mean For 2025

  

  The state of hiring in legal industry marketing, business development and communications over the past 12 months was marked by a number of trends — from changes in the C-suite to lateral move challenges — providing clues for what’s to come in the year ahead, says Ben Curle at Ambition.

• Series

  Group Running Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  The combination of physical fitness and community connection derived from running with a group of business leaders has, among other things, helped me to stay grounded, improve my communication skills, and develop a deeper empathy for clients and colleagues, says Jessica Shpall Rosen at Greenwald Doherty.

• Cos. Must Brace For New PFAS Regulations And Litigation

  

  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed adding over 100 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances to the Toxic Release Inventory — and with increasing scrutiny of PFAS from the states and the plaintiffs bar as well, companies should take steps to reduce risks in this area, say attorneys at Dechert.

• Opinion

  6 Changes I Would Make If I Ran A Law School

  

  Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner identifies several key issues plaguing law schools and discusses potential solutions, such as opting out of the rankings game and mandating courses in basic writing skills.

• Using Data To Inform Corporate Disclosure Decisions

  

  With today’s market volatility and regulatory factors requiring public companies to confront competing transparency and protection demands, incorporating stock price reaction analysis of company-specific news into the controller's role could be beneficial for disclosure determinations, say Liz Dunshee at Fredrikson & Byron and Nessim Mezrahi at SAR.

• Firms Still Have The Edge In Lateral Hiring, But Buyer Beware

  

  Partner mobility data suggests that the third quarter of this year continued to be a buyer’s market, with the average candidate demanding less compensation for a larger book of business — but moving into the fourth quarter, firms should slow down their hiring process to minimize risks, say officers at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

• Risk Disclosure Issue Remains After Justices Nix Meta Case

  

  After full briefing and argument, the U.S. Supreme Court recently dismissed Facebook v. Amalgamated Bank as improvidently granted, leaving courts with the tricky endeavor of determining when the failure to disclose a past event in an Item 105 risk disclosure is materially misleading, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

• Think Like A Lawyer: 1 Type Of Case Complexity Stands Out

  

  In contrast to some cases that appear complex due to voluminous evidence or esoteric subject matter, a different kind of complexity involves tangled legal and factual questions, each with a range of possible outcomes, which require a “sliding scale” approach instead of syllogistic reasoning, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.