Federal

Expert Analysis

• Speed Jigsaw Puzzling Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  My passion for speed puzzling — I can complete a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle in under 50 minutes — has sharpened my legal skills in more ways than one, with both disciplines requiring patience, precision and the ability to keep the bigger picture in mind while working through the details, says Tazia Statucki at Proskauer.

• Documenting Business Purpose After IRS' 10th Circ. Win

  

  Following the Tenth Circuit’s recent Liberty Global v. U.S. decision, which held the economic substance doctrine does not require a threshold relevancy determination, taxpayers can prepare for potential audits by maintaining contemporaneous documentation and taking other steps that demonstrate the business purpose of transactions, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

• 2 AI Snafus Show Why Attys Can't Outsource Judgment

  

  The recent incident involving Sullivan & Cromwell where citations in a filed motion were fabricated by artificial intelligence, as well as a punitive ruling from the Sixth Circuit in U.S. v. Farris, demonstrate that the obligation to supervise AI has belonged and always will belong to lawyers, says John Powell at the Kentucky School Boards Association.

• How Data Center Accounting May Draw Enforcement Scrutiny

  

  As public and media scrutiny of the data center industry intensifies, regulators, enforcement authorities and Congress will likely focus on accounting judgments that rely on aggressive assumptions, opaque financing structures or rapidly evolving collateral classes, heightening the risk of investigations and inquiries, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

• Improving Well-Being In Law, 10 Years After Landmark Study

  

  An important 2016 study revealed significant substance abuse and mental health issues among lawyers, and while the findings helped normalize the conversation around these topics, a decade later, structural change is still needed, says Denise Robinson at PLI.

• How To Gear Up For Trump's Pharma Tariffs

  

  President Donald Trump's proclamation establishing tariffs on certain pharmaceutical products holds a few areas of ambiguity that companies should review and prepare for before the tariffs come into effect later this year, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

• Steps To Consider As DOJ Launches Fraud Division

  

  The establishment this month of the National Fraud Enforcement Division within the U.S. Department of Justice is a significant reorganization that suggests an increase in enforcement activity involving federally funded programs but leaves a number of important questions unanswered, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

• What To Expect From The SEC's New SOX Group

  

  In a potential shift away from Public Company Accounting Oversight Board enforcement, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's formation of a new group to investigate and litigate potential violations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act brings both risks and benefits for auditors, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

• Hungary CPAC Funding Probe Could Implicate US Entities

  

  A Hungarian anti-corruption investigation into claims that the former prime minister used taxpayer funds to support the Conservative Political Action Conference could include potential cross-border political and financial dimensions that create multiple touchpoints for U.S. regulatory and enforcement interest, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

• Mitigating Multistate Risks As California Expands Tax Reach

  

  Though California's new sourcing rules and extension of the pass-through entity election have created uncertainty, practitioners should file protective returns to respect the law's ambiguity and take certain other steps to protect clients from the costs of losing a future audit, says attorney Delina Yasmeh.

• E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On ESI Control

  

  Several recent federal court decisions have perpetuated a split over what constitutes “control” of electronically stored information — with judges divided on whether the standard should turn on a party's legal right or practical ability to obtain the information, say attorneys at Sidley.

• Anticipating The Justices' Potential Ruling On Tax Takings

  

  Recent oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court case Pung v. Isabella focused on rules for valuation, timing and administrability of tax auction proceeds and whichever method the court adopts for determining just compensation, it will have far-reaching impacts on tax collection, homeowners' equity and the secondary market for tax-foreclosed property, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

• 2 Discovery Rulings Break With Heppner On AI Privilege Issue

  

  While a New York federal court’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner suggests that some litigants’ communications with AI tools are discoverable, two other recent federal court decisions demonstrate that such interactions generally qualify for work-product protection under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, says Joshua Dunn at Brown Rudnick.