On May 30, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) released four new opinion letters addressing important Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) compliance issues. These letters provide updated guidance on (1) exempt employees performing additional hourly work, (2) the treatment of certain bonus payments for overtime purposes, (3) compensability of time during meal periods, and (4) the permissibility of rounding practices for hospital employees. This alert summarizes each letter and its practical implications for employers.

On May 18, 2026, after a five-week trial, a federal jury in Boston awarded over $884 million in single damages against Takeda Pharmaceuticals for entering into an anticompetitive “pay-for-delay” settlement of patent litigation that delayed generic competition. With automatic trebling, the verdict is expected to balloon to over $2.6 billion. Not only is the exposure significant, but this is the first time that a jury has found a patent holder liable for delaying generic pharmaceuticals in the 13 years since the Supreme Court decided FTC v. Actavis.  This bulletin discusses the relevant allegations, the jury’s findings, and the implications, including the potential for the Supreme Court to revisit such challenges.

On May 21, 2026, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a memo changing the process for foreign nationals filing Adjustment of Status applications seeking U.S. Permanent Residency. The memo reverses the pattern and practice that has been standard policy of the immigration service for the past decades whereby a foreign national can apply for U.S. Permanent Residency while remaining in the United States while the application is reviewed and approved. The new policy changes the process based on the notion that “adjustment of status under section 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is a matter of discretion and administrative grace not designed to supersede the regular consular processing of immigrant visas.”

The United States Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently overhauled the Form I-9 Inspection Under the Immigration and Nationality Act § 274A Fact Sheet (“2026 Fact Sheet”). In doing so, the federal government significantly departed from many of its deeply-rooted historical practices and created new standards for substantive and technical violations, which collectively expose employers to greater liability for non-compliance.

Brokers should promptly review their carrier-selection practices, insurance coverage, and compliance programs in light of the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, No. 24–1238 (May 14, 2026). The Court held that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (“FAAAA”) does not preempt state-law negligent-hiring claims brought against transportation brokers, resolving a longstanding circuit split and significantly expanding brokers' potential exposure to tort liability.

Virginia has delivered a wave of employment legislation that takes effect in 2026. Here’s what’s changing and what employers should do to prepare for these changes.

In the rapidly evolving world of labor and employment law, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has signaled a significant shift with respect to the framework for joint employer liability. Indeed, the DOL recently unveiled a new proposed rule with the hope of promoting “greater uniformity and consistency [with respect] to the Department’s enforcement actions by adopting a transparent nationwide analysis, which could have benefits for all interested parties.”

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence tools across the financial services and fiduciary sectors presents significant opportunities, but it also introduces legal and regulatory risks that fiduciaries — whether individual trustees, corporate fiduciaries, banks, trust companies, or investment advisers — must carefully evaluate. As the SEC's Investor Advisory Committee has emphasized, compliance with an ethical framework for the use of AI is consistent with the fiduciary duties of advisers, including their affirmative duties of care, loyalty, honesty, and utmost good faith. We highlight four critical areas of risk at the intersection of AI and fiduciary responsibility.

On April 7, 2026, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to reform anti-money laundering/Bank Secrecy Act (AML/BSA) compliance requirements, superseding an earlier July 2024 NPRM. On April 8, 2026, FinCEN and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) jointly published a separate NPRM implementing the framework set forth by the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (the GENIUS Act) for permitted payment stablecoin issuers (PPSIs). Both proposals shift AML/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) policy toward effectiveness-driven, risk-based programs. Every covered institution faces the same substantive obligations, but the enforcement framework differs by charter type.

The Tenth Circuit’s recent decision in Liberty Global Inc. v. United States affirmed the district court’s denial of the taxpayer’s refund claim under the codified economic substance doctrine in §7701(o). The court’s central holding was not simply that a transaction with some business purpose must also produce economically meaningful non-tax effects; rather, the court concluded that the doctrine was relevant where the taxpayer used a highly structured series of steps to obtain a tax benefit the court viewed as not intended by Congress, and the taxpayer had conceded that key steps failed the statutory economic substance test.

Businesses increasingly rely on website-derived data to drive analytics, personalization, and product development. That same data, together with insights, models, and other intellectual property generated from it, must be collected and protected under a coherent legal framework.

Effective April 9, 2026, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) launched the PCT Informed Examination Request (PIER) Pilot Program, a one-year initiative that introduces a mandatory decision point for selected U.S. national stage applications filed under 35 U.S.C. § 371.1

On April 22, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor published a proposed rule titled Joint Employer Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. The rule aims to establish a clear, unified standard for determining when multiple employers are jointly liable for wage and hour violations, filling a regulatory gap that has persisted since the prior rule was rescinded without replacement.

The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration has issued a proposed regulation clarifying the fiduciary duty of prudence under ERISA Section 404(a)(1)(B) in connection with selecting designated investment alternatives for participant-directed individual account plans. While designed to provide investment fiduciaries with increased flexibilities to consider adding alternative assets to their investment menus, the proposal will also compound the complexity of the investment review process and saddle fiduciaries with increased diligence responsibilities. We encourage ERISA fiduciaries to reach out to qualified ERISA counsel to review their existing procedures in light of the proposal and the proliferation of alternative assets.

In February 2026, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it “secured a landmark settlement” with Express Scripts—one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers.  Formalized as a consent order, the settlement represents a milestone in efforts to rein in PBMs, whose practices largely escaped regulatory scrutiny until the FTC launched an industry-wide inquiry in 2022. That inquiry eventually led to the FTC bringing an administrative action against the “Big 3” PBMs in 2024, alleging that they inflated the list price of insulin drugs through rebate and other anticompetitive and unfair practices.

Retail bankruptcies are back. Commercial Chapter 11 filings hit a 10-year high in 2025. January 2026 continued the trend: 956 filings, up 76% from 544 a year earlier. Small business filings surged even faster. The stress runs from national chains to local operators. These cases move quickly. Courts set budgets and hear lease motions in the first weeks. If you are not in those early conversations, you lose leverage—and often money.

The Virginia Assembly passed Senate Bill 170, which adds new limits on the enforceability of noncompetes against terminated employees. Governor Spanberger is expected to sign this into law. The employer cannot enforce a noncompete unless it pays "severance benefits or other monetary payment" to the employee. Moreover, the employer must notify an employee of the benefit or payment to trigger the enforcement of the noncompete upon termination. This applies to all employees regardless of salary. Any noncompete agreed, amended, or renewed after July 1, 2026 is affected.

The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) recently rescinded its 2024 Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace (“Guidance”), which included guidance related to gender identity discrimination and harassment against LGBTQ+ workers. This rescission, while expected, signals an ongoing shift in priorities at the federal level, which creates confusion and uncertainty and raises compliance issues for employers. Based on this change, employers should stay up-to-date on the evolving guidance and best practices for creating and maintaining a compliant and inclusive workplace.

The intersection of emerging technologies and intellectual property law has never been more critical. As quantum computing advances from theoretical research to practical application, it presents both unprecedented challenges and opportunities for IP practitioners and their clients. This article examines how post-quantum cryptographic developments implicate core IP concerns, including patent strategy, trade secret protection, and the safeguarding of confidential information, and outlines practical considerations for organizations navigating this rapidly evolving landscape.

The federal government has made considerable changes to H-1B Lottery by replacing the purely random selection model with a wage-weighted registration selection model. We are answering the most important questions that employers are asking themselves as a result of this significant shift.