Corporate and Business  Law Journal

By: Olivia Stitz

Gone are the days where companies are forced to decipher and interpret the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) published declination letters. After supplementing Title 18 Sentencing Guidelines with its April 2019 Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, the DOJ left a gaping hole in how they would evaluate Inability-to-Pay claims.

By: Ryan Lee
Facebook announced that it has agreed to pay $550 million to settle a class action lawsuit. The class action began over Facebook’s use of facial recognition technology in Illinois on Illinois residents. The case, In re Facebook Biometric Information Privacy Litigation (15-cv-03747-JD) (N.D. Cal.), comes specifically from a photo-labeling service rolled out by Facebook to make it easier to identify the people in your photos and then to tag them. The service, known as Tag Suggestions, uses a face-matching software to suggest the names of people in users’ photos.

By: Jada Allender

Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda is currently before the Supreme Court to determine whether discrimination based on sexual orientation is prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1 1964. Oral argument was heard on October 8, 2019 and a decision is expected in 2020.

By: Adina Weisberg

BigLaw has been slow on improving diversity; top law firms will not even be close to mirroring law school classes until 2057 (for gender diversity) and 2084 (for racial diversity). To address this issue, five firms will work with Diversity Lab, through its Move the Needle Fund (“MTN”), on incorporating experimental methods based on research and data.

By: Kyle Broadfoot

T-Mobile and Sprint are the third- and fourth largest wireless service carriers in the United States, and they want to merge to create a cellular giant to compete with Verizon and AT&T. The two announced the plan in April 2018, when T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced that the two had reached an agreement on a $26 billion deal, followed by an application for approval by the Federal Communications Commission in June 2018.

By Tyler Godbehere

On April 28th, the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced new rules restricting exports to China, Russia, and Venezuela. These changes to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) remove license exceptions , mandate additional reporting requirements , and provide broad licensing requirements for all “military end users.” Changes to export controls represent a major shift in U.S. policy since President Trump took office.

By: Rezarta Mataj

Since January 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic has consumed conversations in the news, ads, and TV shows, creating common phrases and buzzwords such as “Covid-19,” “Corona Virus,” “Pandemic,” “Social Distancing,” “Patient Zero,” “Self-Isolation” and countless others. Consequently, this has resulted in a wave of pandemic-related trademarks hitting the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). Because distinctiveness is one of the primary features that characterizes a trademark, individuals and companies seeking to use pandemic-related marks are now caught in a race to register their marks with the USPTO.

By: Jacqueline Pakula

Rising student loan debt has been a prevalent issue in the lives of many Americans, both young and old. With tuition costs on the rise, the primary concern with student loans is that they seem to be taking longer to pay off and are accompanied by higher interest rates or repayment plans. Many students face hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loan debt as soon as they graduate from a university or college. The problem is widespread, and many students unfortunately find themselves in bankruptcy—unable to pay off their total debts.

By: Jacklyn Brandby

In 2017, a former Uber employee published an essay describing the details of her work experience as a site reliability engineer. In this essay, the employee wrote about inappropriate behavior by her manager and stated that when it was reported to human resources, the company provided no relief.