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.

On March 13, 2026, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued supplemental guidance that should make it easier to seek design patent protection for computer-generated interfaces, icons, and other digital visual designs. At first glance, the guidance appears to make only a narrow procedural change: the Office removed the prior examination requirement that applicants depict at least a portion of the computer, display, or screen in solid or broken lines when claiming a graphical user interface (GUI) or icon. In practice, that requirement often amounted to little more than a dashed-line box around the claimed design. Applicants may now simply depict the icon or interface itself.

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.

On February 20, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a Delaware district court’s summary judgment of ineligibility, holding that REGENXBIO's gene therapy patent claims are not directed to a natural phenomenon. In doing so, Judge Stoll—joined by Judges Dyk and Hughes—provided a masterclass in how to properly apply the “markedly different characteristics” test from Diamond v. Chakrabarty to modern biotechnology. And the biopharma world is collectively exhaling.

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.

On February 18, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed additional amendments to the reporting requirements on Form N-PORT for certain registered investment companies that will, if adopted, provide those funds with relief from existing requirements, as well as adding certain new reporting requirements. The SEC is seeking public comments on the proposal, which will be due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will stop collecting IEEPA tariffs at 12:00am ET February 24th, and start imposing a new additional global 10 percent Section 122 tariff (Trade Act of 1974) at 12:01am ET on February 24th.

The Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision ruled today that President Trump's imposition of tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) - which constitute about half of the tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration - was not lawful. The Supreme Court did not explain how refunds would be processed.

On February 8, 2025, I was watching Super Bowl LIX. On came a commercial by Him & Hers offering to deliver weight loss medications to your door. And they looked a lot like Ozempic® and Wegovy®. Being a pharma patent geek watching with another pharma patent geek, we stopped talking about using MALDI-TOF in infringement analyses and started asking a question that Novo Nordisk single-handedly made vogue last week. Why don’t compounders run afoul of patent law all the time? Or do they?