The discretion of the Securities and Exchange Commission to use its own in-house judges to hear cases was dealt a body blow on May 18 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. That Court determined that defendants in such cases are deprived of their Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial, and
In a 2021 Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, President Biden referred to antitrust as the “first line of defense against the monopolization of the American economy.” Now—in the parlance of a time-honored coaching cliché—the Administration is strengthening that defense by going on offense.
During remarks at two recent American Bar
In the early afternoon on January 9, 2022, 8,888 “Frosties” non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were sold for 0.04 Ether each, selling out in just forty-eight minutes. These NFTs promised purchasers a unique NFT digital “Frostie” image, staking, NFT breeding, and additional rewards tied to a yet-to-be-released metaverse game. The only problem? None of the associated benefits
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) released its statistics on civil fraud enforcement actions for the 2021 fiscal year (which ended September 30, 2021). In total, DOJ hauled in more than $5.6 billion in judgments and settlements from civil fraud and False Claims Act (“FCA”) cases, the second largest total ever, and the
In the spirit of the new year, we offer a review of the first five years of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”). The DTSA, 18 U.S.C. § 1831 et seq., was signed into law on May 16, 2016. It provides for a federal civil cause of action for trade secret misappropriation and criminal penalties
In October, the annual “SEC Speaks” event took place, where the SEC Chair, Commissioners, senior leaders and other staff provided public remarks and updates on the initiatives and priorities of the agency. One of the speeches was given by Gurbir Grewal, the new SEC Director of the Division of Enforcement. Director Grewal’s speech focused on
On June 3, 2021, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Van Buren v. United States, Case No. 19-783. Van Buren is a former police sergeant from Georgia. Relevant to the case, Van Buren accepted money to use his patrol car computer to access a database and retrieve information about a license plate. He was
On September 8, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit released an opinion that rejected a defendant’s Fourth Amendment challenge to the government’s use of pen registers to obtain data for a single internet protocol (“IP”) address that was then used to prove that the defendant had launched a cyberattack against his
On May 17, 2021, we discussed the reality that lawyers – namely, Rudy Giuliani – are not immune from searches by federal agents. In that post, we touched on the Department of Justice’s use of “taint teams,” lawyers and federal agents tasked with screening items seized by search warrants to protect privileges. Despite their
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic—and thus nearly a year and a half ago—the federal government implemented a massive stimulus program to prop up the economy. A key component of that stimulus was the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The PPP allowed businesses to obtain forgivable loans to be used for payroll and related expenses;