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Expert Analysis

• The SEC's Administrative Law Courts Are At A Crossroads

  

  The U.S. Department of Justice's recent departure from its prior defense of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's administrative law judges' legitimacy moves the forum deeper into a constitutional limbo that likely requires congressional action, says Dean Conway at Carlton Fields.

• SEC's Noteworthy Stablecoin Guidance Comes With Caveats

  

  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently issued a statement concluding that a narrow class of stablecoins doesn't involve the offer or sale of securities — a significant step forward in recognizing that not all crypto-assets are created equal, though there remains a pressing need for broader regulatory clarity, say attorneys at A&O Shearman.

• Electronic Shelf Labels Pose Myriad Risks For Retailers

  

  While electronic shelf labels offer retailers a new way to convey pricing and other product information to consumers, the technology has attracted the attention of U.S. policymakers and consumer advocates, so businesses must assess antitrust, data privacy and discrimination risks before implementation, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

• Series

  Power To The Paralegals: The Value Of Unified State Licensing

  

  Texas' proposal to become the latest state to license paraprofessional providers of limited legal services could help firms expand their reach and improve access to justice, but consumers, attorneys and allied legal professionals would benefit even more if similar programs across the country become more uniform, says Michael Houlberg at the University of Denver.

• What Greenwashing Looks Like, And How To Navigate Claims

  

  Recent cases show that consumers seeking to challenge sustainability claims as greenwashing face significant legal hurdles, and that companies can avoid liability by emphasizing context, says Felicia Boyd at Norton Rose.

• AI Use In Class Actions Comes With Risks And Rewards

  

  The use of artificial intelligence in class actions holds promise for helping to analyze complex evidence, but attorneys and experts must understand how to use it correctly, and how to explain it clearly, say Simone Jones and Eric Mattson at Sidley and Anna Shakotko at Cornerstone Research.

• Pay Cos. That Adapt Can Benefit As Gov't Ends Paper Checks

  

  Recent executive orders, instructing the government to cease issuing paper checks and to modernize and fraud-proof federal payments, will likely benefit financial services providers that facilitate government disbursements — provided they can manage the challenges and risks of transitioning to fully digital payments, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

• Staying The Course On Consumer Financial Law Compliance

  

  Although there may be some regulatory uncertainty, with many rule changes on hold, and enforcement actions and investigations terminated, 11 fundamental laws and rules governing consumer financial services are unlikely to change, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

• 10 Soft Skills Every GC Should Master

  

  As businesses face shifting regulatory and technological uncertainty, general counsel will need to strengthen certain soft skills to succeed, from admitting when they make a mistake to maintaining a healthy dose of dispassion, says Douglas Brown at Manatt.

• An Unrestrained, Bright-Eyed View Of Legal AI's Future

  

  Todd Itami at Covington offers a bright-eyed, laughing-all-the-way, skydive look at what the legal industry could look like after an artificial intelligence revolution, which he believes may happen much sooner and more dramatically than we expect.

• Ban On Reputation Risk May Help Bank Enforcement Defense

  

  The Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s recent commitment to stop examining banks for reputation risk could help defendants in enforcement actions challenge unfavorable assessments and support defendants' arguments for lower civil money penalties, says Brendan Clegg at Luse Gorman.

• Tracking The Evolution In Litigation Finance

  

  Despite continued innovation, litigation finance remains an immature market with borrowers recieving significantly different terms as lenders learn to value cases, which firms need a strong handle on to ensure lending terms do not overwhelm collateral value, says Robert Wilkins at Lightfoot Franklin.

• Addressing Antitrust Scrutiny Over AI-Powered Pricing Tools

  

  Amid multiple recent civil complaints alleging antitrust violations by providers and users of algorithmic pricing tools, such as RealPage and Yardi, digital-era measures should feature prominently in corporate compliance programs, including documentation of pro-competitive benefits and when to use disclosures, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

• Opinion

  In Vape Case, Justices Must Focus On Agencies' Results

  

  With the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. Food and Drug Administration v. Wages and White Lion Investments having put off the question of whether agency decisions arrived at erroneously are always invalid, the court should give the results of agency actions more weight than the reasoning behind them when it revisits this case, says Jonathan Sheffield at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

• How Calif., NY Could Fill Consumer Finance Regulatory Void

  

  California and New York have historically taken the lead in consumer financial protection, and both show signs of becoming even more active in this area during the second Trump administration amid an enforcement pullback at the federal level, say attorneys at Sidley.