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Elonis Facebook Case Has Life Beyond 2015 SCOTUS Decision
Many thanks to the excellent SCOTUSblog for tagging our second cert petition in the Elonis Facebook free speech case as its "Petition of the Day" (June 23, 2017). The case has run a long, interesting course.
Navigating the Cloud's Data Security and Legal Hazards
The Legal Intelligencer recently published my article, “Cloud Control: Data Security Hazards and How to Avoid Them,†in their 2017 Cybersecurity Supplement. The article looks at what businesses need to be thinking about in terms of cybersecurity and compliance issues associated with cloud computing - a model that has largely been embraced by the business world as the rule rather than the exception.
Off Label-Marketing and Free Speech: Report from APhA 2017 Annual Meeting
On March 26th, I presented to pharmacy professionals, clinicians, researchers, and educators in San Francisco for the American Pharmacists Association's (APhA) 2017 Annual Meeting & Exposition. There was a lot of buzz about the growing opioid epidemic, the proliferation of illegal online pharmacies, and off-label marketing.
Liability for What Goes on Behind Closed Doors: Sex Trafficking and the Hospitality Industry's Privacy Tightrope
Earlier this month, the Philadelphia hotel, Roosevelt Inn, its corporate parents, its New York management company, and an individual owner/manager of the hotel, were sued for allegedly allowing trafficking of sex involving a minor to take place on the hotel's premises. The case - the first of its kind invoking Pennsylvania's recently-amended human trafficking law - raises an abundance of difficult legal and ethical questions regarding hotels' legal responsibilities for and obligations concerning their guests' conduct, and how to meet those responsibilities while also respecting guests' privacy.
Employment Taxes: A Look at Changing Enforcement Patterns
Roughly seventy percent of the federal government's revenues come from employment taxes, including FICA and income taxes withheld from employees' wages. Consequently, threats to that source are taken quite seriously. All employers need to be aware of the significant changes in employment tax enforcement that have increased the risks faced by the non-compliant.
New York Proposed Cybersecurity Regulations: A Predictor of Things to Come for the Finance and Insurance Industries
The proposed regulations would be the most prescriptive data security requirements yet to be imposed. They would require all covered financial institutions and insurers to establish and maintain cybersecurity programs and policies addressing a list of minimum requirements, "to the extent applicable to the Covered Entity's operations."
Pete Vaira's "2017 Wish List for Lawyers and Judges"
Hopefully, the suggestions in my recent Business Crimes Bulletin article on the DOJ's misuse of “speaking indictments" gather some momentum, as former E.D. Pa. U.S. Attorney Pete Vaira cited it in his January 17, 2017 article in Philadelphia's The Legal Intelligencer.
Government Contests Assertion of Attorney-Client Privilege in Assessing Cooperation
However else one characterizes 2016, it was a very good year for the government's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) profit center. Twenty-seven companies paid about $2.48 billion to resolve FCPA cases, a record. Although the incoming Administration may shift priorities, there exists considerable institutional momentum behind continued FCPA enforcement. In that light, it's worth taking a look back at one of the last FCPA cases of 2016.
Talk Is Cheap: The Misuse of 'Speaking' Indictments
I recently discussed the government's use of 'speaking' indictments and practical defense responses to them in ALM's November 2016 Business Crimes Bulletin. In white collar fraud, public corruption and other high-profile cases, DOJ prosecutors often go well beyond the Fed.R.Crim.P. 7(c)(1) notice requirement of a "plain, concise, and definite written statement of the essential facts" and draft thick indictments advocating the government's narrative...
False Claims Act Update: The First Wave of Materiality Decisions Post-Escobar
In our earlier post, we discussed the U.S. Supreme Court's implied false certification decision of Universal Health Services Inc. v. Escobar, in which the Court rejected a bright-line rule on the False Claims Act's (FCA) materiality standard and adopted a fact-specific standard that is being litigated on a case-by-case basis. We've now seen about a dozen FCA decisions on motions to dismiss or for summary judgment informed by the Court's opinion in Escobar.
Pennsylvania's Medical Marijuana Law, Health Care Providers, and Enforcement
With other members of our Firm's Regulated Cannabis Group, I recently co-authored an article for the Life Sciences, Pharmaceuticals, and Health Care Supplement of The Legal Intelligencer. We examined Pennsylvania's April 2016 medical marijuana law from four essential legal standpoints - professional liability, health care law, employment law, and enforcement - and the related implications for health care providers in the state.
FCC Commissioner Seeks Investigation of Wi-Fi Hotspot Limitations at Presidential Debate
At Monday's presidential debate, host Hofstra University ruffled feathers by reportedly moving to prevent journalists, attempting to file stories from the scene, from relying on their own wireless hotspots to get online. The move was seen by some as an effort to force reporters to use the venue's wireless service, said to cost $200, and caught the attention of the FCC. If correct, these factors may distinguish the Hofstra scenario from prior FCC enforcement actions, sufficiently to avoid an enforcement proceeding.