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Congress Enacts Major Overhaul to HSR Filing Fees for M&A Deals
On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed into law The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (also known as The Omnibus Appropriations Bill), which includes the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act. The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act, which marks the most...
TSA’s New Cyber Directive for Freight & Passenger Railroad Carriers are the Agency’s Latest Move to Keep the Nation on Track
In its continued efforts to enhance the cybersecurity of transportation and other critical infrastructure systems across the country, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued on October 19, 2022 a new security directive for passenger and freight railroad carriers. The Enhancing...
Check It Once, Check It Twice: OFAC Requests Daily Screenings of SDN List for Sanctions Compliance
A recent OFAC enforcement action against MidFirst Bank highlights the five essential components of an effective sanctions compliance program that will serve to mitigate exposure in the event of a violation: Senior management commitment to developing a culture of compliance...
Federal Privacy Legislation – Is it Finally Happening?
Proposed federal privacy legislation is not a new thing. But the latest iteration – the American Data Privacy and Protection Act – has many wondering if this will be the legislation that finally goes the distance. This is the first...
Not So Fast—NCAA Issues NIL Guidance Targeting Booster Activity
Recently, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors issued guidance to schools concerning the intersection between recruiting activities and the rapidly evolving name, image, and likeness legal environment (see Bracewell’s earlier reporting here ). The immediately effective guidance was in...
More Wiggle Room for White Hat Hackers?
On May 19, 2022, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced significant clarifications to its policy on charging Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) violations that give some comfort to cyber security consultants who engage in network testing and related operations...
CFTC 2022: A New Commission, A New Agenda, Same Aggressive Enforcement
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “Commission” or “CFTC”) experienced a year of transition on both the enforcement and regulatory fronts during its Fiscal Year 2021, which runs from October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021 (“FY 2021”). The Division...
Supreme Court Set to Resolve Impasse Over US Discovery in International Arbitration
The future of discovery in private international arbitration is in the Supreme Court’s hands following oral argument last month in two consolidated cases concerning the interpretation of 28 U.S.C. § 1782. A relatively arcane provision that has recently attracted headlines...
Supreme Court Takes Up Andy Warhol's "Prince Series" Fair Use Circuit Split
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last week to review the Second Circuit’s decision that Andy Warhol’s well-known “Prince Series” was not a “transformative” fair use of the copyrighted Lynn Goldsmith photograph that Warhol used as source material (see Bracewell’s earlier...
HSR Notification Thresholds Increase for 2022
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has announced the annual revisions to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act (“HSR Act”) thresholds, which will become effective on February 23, 2022. The revised thresholds will apply to any merger or acquisition closing on or...
New UAE Commercial Companies Law: Summary of Key Changes
Background Federal Law No. 32 of 2021 on Commercial Companies (the New Companies Law ) has repealed and replaced Federal Law No. 2 of 2015 on Commercial Companies (the Repealed Companies Law ). The New Companies Law, which came into...
Ransomware: An Enterprise Risk for the Unprepared
For a company with robust data protection and recovery practices, a ransomware attack may cause a few extra headaches, but it won’t wipe the company out. Companies without those protections in place, however, risk allowing ransomware to bankrupt their entire...
FTC Warns Use of "Full Legal Authority" on Companies That Ignore Log4j Risk
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent a strong message to organizations in the wake of the Log4j security vulnerability : patch now or face regulatory scrutiny and potential legal action. In the notice issued last week , the FTC acknowledged...
CPRA Countdown: It's Time to Brush Up on California's Latest Data Privacy Law
On November 3, 2020, California voters approved Proposition 24, a ballot initiative which enacted the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”). The CPRA amends the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), the most sweeping consumer data protection law in the U.S. This...
Patch Up – Log4j and How to Avoid a Cybercrime Christmas
A vulnerability so dangerous that Cybersecurity and Infrastructure (CISA) Director Jen Easterly called it “one of the most serious [she’s] seen in [her] entire career, if not the most serious” arrived just in time for the holidays. On December 10...