Corporate & Commercial

UPDATE: U.S. Attorneys’ Offices Adopt Policy Incentivizing Self-Disclosure of Corporate Misconduct (Feb. 27, 2023)

On January 17, 2023, Assistant Attorney General (AAG) Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. delivered remarks to an audience at the Georgetown University Law Center, announcing changes to the Criminal Division’s Corporate Enforcement Policy (CEP). These changes to the CEP follow the September

On Jan. 5, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a sweeping rule that would bar almost all non-compete clauses in contracts with workers and in other agreements. A notice-and-comment period provides an opportunity for stakeholders to comment on the proposed rule. If adopted, the rule, which would not take effect for several months, would upend longstanding

A bi-partisan coalition of 33[1] state Attorneys General sent a comment letter[2] to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) highlighting the risks to consumers from corporate surveillance and data collection. The November 17, 2022, letter was filed as part of the FTC’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Commercial Surveillance and Data Security.[3]

On December 15, 2022, the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a lengthy Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement beneficial ownership information (“BOI”) access and safeguards provision of the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”) (the “Access NPRM”).  The Access NPRM provides a framework by which authorized recipients may access BOI, providing different

On Monday November 28, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Ciminelli v. United States. The Court will decide whether the “right-to-control” theory of fraud used by the Second Circuit is a valid basis for property fraud liability under the federal wire fraud statute. Courts and prosecutors have used the right-to-control theory to

On Oct. 28, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated and remanded for reconsideration a district court order certifying a class of mortgage borrowers. The decision, which relies on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, provides further ammunition for the argument that all putative class members must have a

On October 13, 2022, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Board”) announced multiple enforcement actions against former employees of several financial institutions because the former employees made false statements to obtain economic injury disaster loans and grants from the U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”) or paycheck protection loans from SBA-approved lenders.  The

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recent guidance on withholding transcripts from students with debts revealed that the CFPB is using a broad definition of “private education loan” that may apply to the practices of some not-for-profit schools. Additionally, while the CFPB characterized this practice as “abusive,” its analysis suggests that these practices may also be

Compliance with out of state investigative requests, like warrants, just got a little trickier for California companies. Under existing law, California technology and communications companies are required to produce specified user data in response to an out of state warrant as if that warrant was issued by a California court. But now there is one

At long last, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a final rule establishing a beneficial ownership information reporting requirement for corporations and companies both large and small. In its announcement earlier today, FinCEN explained that the rule will require most companies and corporations registered to do business in the United States to report information