In contrast with the turmoil in e-discovery several years ago, e-discovery in 2016 was generally on a stable and very positive trajectory. Highlight of the Year: Courts' Application of the Rule Amendments.
January 17, 2017
Over the last eight years, the German economic recovery seemed very robust to any sort of political and financial turbulences occurring in the EU and world-wide.
January 13, 2017
I. Overview A. Looking Back, Looking Forward Any attempt to assess the past six months is undeniably going to be overshadowed by what lies ahead. The change in administration is likely to be as tumultuous and unpredictable for the SEC as for any other federal agency, and the differences between the enforcement priorities under Chair Mary Jo White and Enforcement Division Director Andrew Ceresney and those of their successors may be more stark than other SEC transitions in recent years.
January 13, 2017
This January more than most, it is tempting to focus on questions regarding what is to come. Aside from the uncertainties associated with a new administration, two key pieces of legislation seem to be heading in opposite directions.
January 12, 2017
The year 2016 has been another of continuing developments in the UK's white collar sector. These have ranged from the Competition and Markets Authority's largest ever fine, to the UK's second deferred prosecution agreement, to the continuing enforcement efforts of the Serious Fraud Office ("SFO"), National Crime Agency ("NCA") and the Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA"), as well as of a myriad range of other enforcement bodies.
January 11, 2017
2016 saw a continuation of some recent trends in criminal antitrust enforcement, including the growth of enforcement efforts outside the United States and Europe, continuing efforts by enforcers to increase their levels of cooperation across borders, and a continuing increase in the complexity and severity of the repercussions of collusive activity (traditionally in the form of criminal sanctions, but, more-recently, civil penalties as well).
January 10, 2017
The year of 2016 has provided some unexpected political and legal developments impacting on all areas of law, with employment being no exception. A brief overview is provided below. More detailed information is available by clicking on the appropriate links to the Appendix. Holiday payRecent developments on the position of calculating holiday pay have caught many employers by surprise.
January 10, 2017
This Client Alert provides an update on shareholder activism activity involving domestically traded public companies with equity market capitalizations above $1 billion during the second half of 2016.
January 9, 2017
On December 28, 2016, the New York State Department of Financial Services ("DFS") updated its proposed cybersecurity regulations for financial services companies.
January 5, 2017
I. INTRODUCTION What a year. With two Supreme Court decisions and nearly $5 billion in recoveries (among other interesting entries) in 2016's now-closed books, we can say with certainty that 2016 delivered plenty of False Claims Act ("FCA") headlines.
January 5, 2017
The pendulum swung sharply back this year from 2015's record volume of corporate non-prosecution agreements ("NPAs") and deferred prosecution agreements ("DPAs"), but the overall yield remained generally consistent with the prosecutions we have seen since the 2008–2009 economic recession. As we approach 2017 and the changes that the incoming administration will inevitably bring, it is difficult to determine what the future holds for NPAs and DPAs; however, there are several reasons to believe that they will continue to play a prominent role in criminal and civil enforcement, as explored in the sections that follow.This client alert, our seventeenth biannual update on NPAs and DPAs, caps the year in corporate enforcement actions by: (1) summarizing NPA and DPA
January 4, 2017
In December 2016, the Supreme Court decided to review two cases that could change the patent litigation landscape in important ways.
January 3, 2017
2016 was a precedent-setting year for the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA"). After several years of consistent enforcement numbers, the Department of Justice ("DOJ") and Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") produced what arguably is the most significant year of enforcement in the statute's 39-year history.
January 3, 2017
On December 29, 2016, in response to Russia's alleged efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. Presidential election through cyber operations, President Obama issued an Executive Order "Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency with Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities." Through this Executive Order ("E.O."), the Obama administration imposed sanctions on Russia's two leading intelligence services – the GRU and the FSB – as well as four top officers of the GRU and three companies that provided materials support to GRU's cyber operations.
December 30, 2016
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), on December 2, 2016, issued a proposal in the form of a white paper (Fintech Proposal) describing a new special purpose national bank charter for Fintech firms.
December 16, 2016
We are pleased to present Gibson Dunn's fourth "Federal Circuit Year in Review," providing a statistical overview and substantive summaries of the 134 precedential patent opinions issued by the Federal Circuit over the 2015-2016 year.
December 7, 2016
On December 6, 2016, in Salman v. United States, the Supreme Court unanimously resolved a circuit split between the Courts of Appeals for the Second and Ninth Circuits over the meaning of the "personal benefit" element of insider trading law. In doing so, the Court put to rest confusion on this aspect of insider trading jurisprudence. But the murky nature of other aspects of insider trading was left untouched, leaving market participants, courts, and lawyers generally "right back where we started from" before Newman.Bassam Salman was convicted of trading on information he received from a corporate insider, after it was found that the insider had breached a fiduciary duty in giving the information. In order to find that the insider breached a fiduciary
December 7, 2016
It is too early to predict with confidence the direction that antitrust policy will take in the Trump Administration, because the President-elect has not yet announced who will lead the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice ("DOJ") or the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC"). But President-elect Trump's selection of Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General and an antitrust transition team consisting of former Antitrust Division Deputy Assistant Attorney General David Higbee, former FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright, and Alex Pollock of the R Street Institute suggest that some changes to the level and types of federal antitrust enforcement are likely to occur. We think antitrust enforcement and policy in the Trump Administration may roughly track th
December 6, 2016
In the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, this alert discusses tools available to President-elect Trump to implement his campaign positions, as well as their likely efficacy and limits.
November 30, 2016
This November 2016 edition of Gibson Dunn's Federal Circuit Update discusses pending updates to the Federal Circuit Rules of Practice and the upcoming holiday schedule at the Federal Circuit. Also included are summaries of the pending en banc case involving motions to amend claims during inter partes review as well as a series of key recent decisions, including an en banc decision focusing appellate review only on issues meaningfully raised by the parties on appeal, the definition of a covered business method patent, disavowal of claim scope, ineligibility under § 101, and pleading standards for joint infringement.Federal Circuit News The Court will close at 2:00 p.m.
November 30, 2016