On February 10, 2026, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York issued a bench ruling holding that a defendant’s use of generative AI to analyze legal exposure is not protected under attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine. See When AI Isn’t Privileged: SDNY Rules Generative AI Documents Not Protected. On February 17, 2026, Judge Rakoff issued a written opinion confirming the bench ruling and adding important analysis. This client alert outlines what the written opinion adds on confidentiality, work product, and waiver, and details the practical implications and open questions left by Judge Rakoff’s opinion.

On February 12, 2026, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the settlement of an enforcement action against IMG Academy (“IMG”) that highlighted the sanctions risks that U.S. academic institutions face and the steps OFAC recommends the institutions to take the address the risks.  The enforcement action stemmed from IMG accepting tuition payments from two Specially Designated National (“SDN”) individuals who had been sanctioned under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act for providing support to a sanctioned Mexican Drug Trafficking Organization (“MDTO”).

IMG is an elite sports training and boarding school for grades 6-12 that is located in Bradenton, Florida.  IMG’s student body includes athletes from all over the world. In two separate instances, SDNs enrolled their children in IMG’s boarding programs, entering into yearly tuition contracts for each academic year. One child of an SDN attended IMG for five academic years, from 2018 until graduation in 2023.  The other child attended IMG for two academic years, from 2020 to 2022. Tuition for each child was around $100,000 a year.