EU ESG due diligence directive set to take effect

Final approval of the regulatory action is expected to happen soon. When it does, U.S. companies doing $300M in EU business must show they're meeting sustainability and other goals. 

By Neil D’Souza • Jan. 24, 2024

Conservative approach called best way to meet independent contractor test

Erring on the side that your workers are employees, not independent contractors, is the safest way to protect against challenges under the upcoming 6-prong federal rule.  

By Jessica Mach • Jan. 23, 2024

Five takeaways for chief legal officers from Biden’s executive order on AI

Staying informed, proactive and adaptable will allow in-house legal teams to more easily navigate the complex landscape and harness the power of AI responsibly and effectively. 

By Eric Gorman, Jill Fukunaga and Jeff Isaacs • Jan. 19, 2024

Importance of boards before, during and after a cyber incident

The best practice is to get members of the board involved at the right time. 

By Robert Freedman • Jan. 11, 2024

Cloud concentration poses challenges for businesses, survey finds

“The risk associated with cloud concentration is fast losing its ‘emerging’ status as it is becoming a widely recognized risk for most enterprises,” a Gartner director said.

By Lyle Moran • Jan. 10, 2024

6 in-house legal trends to watch in 2024

AI, labor, antitrust, bankruptcies, women GCs and cross-collaboration are among the headlines in-house counsel can expect this year.  

By Lyle Moran and Robert Freedman • Jan. 9, 2024

DOL independent contractor final rule announced, will take effect March 11

The rule largely tracks the agency’s October 2022 proposed rule, adopting a six-factor, “totality-of-the-circumstances” framework for analyzing worker-employer relationships.

By Ryan Golden • Jan. 9, 2024

Compensation committees face busy dockets in 2024, experts say

Incentive plan performance ranges and the use of discretion in incentive payouts are among the issues compensation panels are likely to confront. 

By Lyle Moran • Jan. 8, 2024

Chevron blames regulations, cleanups for $4B write-off in Q4

The energy giant said California’s regulatory landscape and cleanup of decommissioned Gulf of Mexico sites are estimated to cost the company at least $3.5 billion.

By Lamar Johnson • Jan. 4, 2024

Cyber risk strategies in hot seat as SEC rules go live

The SEC wants to make sure companies are better prepared to mitigate material breaches, ransomware or nation-state espionage attacks.

By David Jones • Dec. 21, 2023

SEC likely to find other ways to curb stock buybacks after court vacates rule

The agency could use interpretive guidance and filing reviews to spur company transparency on share repurchases as it decides whether to redo its controversial rule.

By Robert Freedman • Dec. 21, 2023

Rite Aid settles with FTC after facial recognition debacle

The company can’t restart a crime-deterrent program based on people’s biometric data until it puts in place safeguards to prevent a flood of false positives that left many customers humiliated.

By Robert Freedman • Dec. 20, 2023

Unilever under UK investigation for alleged greenwashing of products

The British competition regulator will scrutinize environmental claims for consumer goods made by the CPG giant, including Dove, Comfort and Cif.

By Iulia Gheorghiu • Updated Dec. 20, 2023

Courts could shun new FTC-DOJ merger guidelines

The agencies lowered the threshold for calculating market concentration and increased the focus on labor-market harm among other changes in a revamp to how they look at deals from an antitrust standpoint.

By Robert Freedman • Dec. 19, 2023

Regulatory compliance tops risk concerns for GCs, report finds

Chief legal officers are also increasingly concerned about emerging data sources such as collaboration tools and chat applications, but feel unprepared to handle the associated risks. 

By Lyle Moran • Dec. 18, 2023

SEC won’t budge on crypto regulation

In denying a petition submitted by Coinbase, the agency has concluded rulemaking isn’t needed for issuers and intermediaries to know which – and how – crypto assets fit within securities law.

By Robert Freedman • Dec. 15, 2023

3 tips for SEC cyber rule stragglers

The Dec. 18 compliance deadline applies to all covered entities other than smaller reporting businesses, which will be subject to the breach reporting mandates as of June 5 of next year.

By Alexei Alexis • Dec. 14, 2023

Vanguard, Arjuna Capital issued House Judiciary subpoenas over ESG probe

The committee is seeking information from the two asset management firms for its investigation into whether industry climate alliances violate antitrust law.

By Lamar Johnson • Dec. 12, 2023

Aligning SEC, existing clawback policies

Companies that already have a policy for going after compensation can help ensure it doesn’t conflict with the mandatory SEC policy taking effect in 2024 by employing tie breakers, says an attorney.

By Robert Freedman • Dec. 11, 2023

Legacy menace, modern peril: spoliation’s evolution in a data-driven age

While the growth of data presents new challenges, it also feeds into one of the oldest: Spoliation.

Dec. 11, 2023

Pay transparency laws risk colliding with antitrust concerns

In-house counsel walk a fine line helping their organizations comply with pay disclosures without setting off alarms over pay collusion.

By Ramona Dzinkowski • Dec. 8, 2023

How GCs add value by improving corporate transparency

Doing just enough in your reporting to meet compliance requirements won’t give stakeholders everything they need to know about your company.

By Broc Romanek • Dec. 8, 2023

Final SEC climate disclosure rule pushed to April 2024

The Department of Treasury and Federal Trade Commission also have a number of upcoming rules that could affect companies’ environmental, social and governance policies.

By Lamar Johnson • Dec. 7, 2023

Don’t sit on concerns before self-disclosing, DOJ official says

To get a guilty-plea bye or penalty waiver, self-disclosure of suspected misconduct must be timely, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Arun Rao says.

By Robert Freedman • Dec. 7, 2023

NYC adds height, weight to protected workplace categories

Employees who think they’ve been denied a position or other opportunity because of their stature have grounds to file a complaint under a law now in effect.

By Robert Freedman • Dec. 1, 2023