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Expert Analysis

• 1st Circ. Ruling Widens Split Over Sentencing Enhancements

  

  In U.S. v. Salvador-Gutierrez, the First Circuit recently switched sides in a circuit split by holding that certain sentencing enhancements apply only where the defendant used a minor in the commission of the crime, deepening a divide over the scope of role adjustments, says Sarah Sulkowski at Gelber & Santillo.

• A Cautionary Fed. Circ. Tale On Design Patents

  

  The Federal Circuit's decision last month in Floyd highlights a risk in design patent prosecution — attempting to claim priority to a utility application, says John Hemmer at Morgan Lewis.

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  Power To The Paralegals: An Untapped Source For Biz Roles

  

  Law firms looking to recruit legal business talent should consider turning to paralegals, who practice several key skills every day that prepare them to thrive in marketing and client development roles, says Vanessa Torres at Lowenstein Sandler.

• Google Case Amicus Briefs Reveal Patent Damage Fault Lines

  

  The 21 amicus briefs filed before the en banc rehearing of EcoFactor v. Google offer opposing viewpoints on important patent damages issues that extend beyond the specific question the Federal Circuit eventually ruled on, helping practitioners anticipate and address likely objections to future damages opinions, say attorneys at Stout.

• Using Federal Forum Provisions To Nix State Securities Cases

  

  A California appeals court's recent decision in Bullock v. Rivian clarifies that underwriters may enforce federal forum provisions to escape state court Securities Act claims, marking progress in restoring such lawsuits to federal court and reducing the litigation costs arising from duplicative state court litigation, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

• 30 Years Later: 2nd Circ.'s Road To Arbitral Preemption

  

  The Second Circuit's recent decision in Lloyds of London v. 3131 Veterans Blvd. overturns its own 1995 precedent and squares its position with decades of circuit court jurisprudence holding that international arbitration agreements must take primacy over state anti-arbitration insurance laws, say attorneys at Linklaters.

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  Playing Poker Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  Poker is a master class in psychology, risk management and strategic thinking, and I’m a better attorney because it has taught me to read my opponents, adapt when I’m dealt the unexpected and stay patient until I'm ready to reveal my hand, says Casey Kingsley at McCreadyLaw.

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  Law School's Missed Lessons: Becoming A Firmwide MVP

  

  Though lawyers don't have a neat metric like baseball players for measuring the value they contribute to their organizations, the sooner new attorneys learn skills frequently skipped in law school — like networking, marketing, client development and case evaluation — the more valuable, and less replaceable, they will be, says Alex Barnett at DiCello Levitt.

• 9th Circ. Ruling Clarifies Derivative Suit Representation Test

  

  The Ninth Circuit's recent ruling in Bigfoot Ventures v. Knighton clarifies the test used to assess the adequacy of a plaintiff's representation in a shareholder derivative action, and will likely prove useful to litigants by ensuring that courts can fully examine all relevant circumstances, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

• Patenting AI And Machine Learning In The Wake Of Recentive

  

  Though the Federal Circuit's recent decision in Recentive Analytics v. Fox Corp. initially appears to doom patents related to artificial intelligence and machine learning, a closer look shows that strategies for successfully drafting and prosecuting such patents offer hope despite increased pushback from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, say attorneys at Banner Witcoff.

• Age Bias Suit Against Aircraft Co. Offers Lessons For Layoffs

  

  In Raymond v. Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, an aircraft maker's former employees recently dismissed their remaining claims after the Tenth Circuit rejected their nearly decade-old collective action alleging age discrimination stemming from a 2013 reduction in force, reminding employers about the importance of carefully planning and documenting mass layoffs, say attorneys at Cooley.

• Trade Secrets Would Likely See Court Protection From GenAI

  

  The advent of generative artificial intelligence has given rise to debate about how this technology will affect intellectual property rights and trade secret protections in particular, but courts to date have protected owners when technological advances have facilitated new means for trade secret theft, say attorneys at Kilpatrick Townsend.

• How Mass Arbitration Defense Strategies Have Fared In Court

  

  As businesses face consumers who leverage arbitration agreements to compel mass arbitration, companies are trying defense strategies like batching arbitration cases to reduce costs, and escaping specific mass arbitrations without rejecting the process completely, with varying results in the courtroom, say attorneys at Montgomery McCracken.

• FTC Focus: Interlocking Directorate Enforcement May Persist

  

  Though the Federal Trade Commission under Chair Andrew Ferguson seems likely to adopt a pro-business approach to antitrust enforcement, his endorsement of broader liability for officers or directors who illegally sit on boards of competing corporations signals that businesses should not expect board-level antitrust scrutiny to slacken, says Timothy Burroughs at Proskauer.

• How Cos. Can Navigate Risks Of New Cartel Terrorist Labels

  

  The Trump administration’s recent designation of eight drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations gives rise to new criminal and civil liabilities for companies that are unwittingly exposed to cartel activity, but businesses can mitigate such risks in a few key ways, say attorneys at Steptoe.