Cooley, ACLU File Amicus Brief in Idaho Emergency Abortion Care Case

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:4 mins read

San Francisco – March 29, 2024 – Cooley, alongside the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and ACLU of Idaho, filed an amicus brief with the US Supreme Court on March 28 in Idaho and Moyle, et al. v. United States in support of allowing emergency abortion care to any patient…

Cooley, Cybersecurity Leaders File Brief Opposing SEC’s SolarWinds Cyberattack Case

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:5 mins read

Updated March 29, 2024 – Joined by over 50 cybersecurity leaders, including 20+ new signers, Cooley filed an updated amicus brief that supports SolarWinds’ motion to dismiss the SEC’s amended complaint, which contains more than 50 pages of additional allegations against SolarWinds and its chief information security officer. The brief’s latest…

FCC Adopts New Minimum Standards for Broadband Services

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:4 mins read

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in a Report to Congress, has adopted new standards for determining when internet services are fast enough to qualify as broadband services. The report sets the speed threshold at 100 megabits per second (Mbps) for downstream traffic and 20 Mbps for upstream traffic for fixed…

Tri-Seal Compliance Note Highlights Broad Reach of US Trade Controls, Obligations of Non-US Persons

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:6 mins read

On 6 March 2024, the US Department of Commerce, Department of the Treasury and Department of Justice issued a Tri-Seal Compliance Note (compliance note) advising foreign-based companies and individuals to assess their obligations with respect to US export control and sanctions laws and regulations (trade controls) and implement appropriate measures…

California Releases Workplace Violence Prevention Guidance

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:8 mins read

California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) recently published guidance to assist employers in complying with Senate Bill 553 ahead of the law’s employer compliance date of July 1, 2024. As we reported in November 2023, SB 553 requires virtually all employers to develop, implement, and maintain an “effective”…

UK Introduces Export Controls for Emerging Technologies

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:4 mins read

On 12 March 2024, the UK Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU) announced that UK export control regulations would be amended to introduce new controls on the export of emerging technologies and provide a number of technical updates. Implemented through the Export Control (Amendment) Regulations 2024, the amendments are set to…

Cooley Recognized for Three Deals of the Year in China

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:3 mins read

Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai – March 19, 2024 – Cooley was honored for its work on three Deals of the Year in 2023 by China Business Law Journal (CBLJ). The publication noted the firm for deals across three practice areas – including mergers & acquisitions, private equity financing, and…

Playing Nice in the Sandbox: FDA (Finally) Harmonizes Medical Device Manufacturing Requirements With ISO

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:12 mins read

On February 2, 2024, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a much-awaited final rule: the Quality Management System Regulation (QMSR).1  By issuing this rule, FDA amended the medical device current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) requirements of 21 CFR Part 820 – the Quality System Regulation (QSR) – to…

Federal District Court Rules Corporate Transparency Act Unconstitutional, but Law Remains in Effect

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:4 mins read

Last Friday, a federal court in Alabama ruled in National Small Business United v. Yellen that the beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirements established by the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) are unconstitutional. These CTA provisions, implemented through the BOI reporting rule promulgated by the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes…

Full attention on Critical Technology in the EU

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:4 mins read

The European Commission’s Recommendation on critical technology areas for the EU’s economic security, issued on October 3, 2023, kick-started an urgent risk assessment by policymakers and private sector stakeholders across the European Union. While this work will be completed over the next few months, policymakers have already given a strong…

10-Step Plan for Employers Using Artificial Intelligence in Employment Processes

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:11 mins read

Artificial intelligence has transformed the way we live, work and even think. While AI offers seemingly endless potential benefits in the workplace – including improvements in efficiency, cost cutting and innovation – employers must balance those benefits with the legal risks of using AI tools in employment processes. Employers using…

District Court Confirms ‘Human Authorship’ Requirement, Sets Copyright Boundary for AI-Generated Works

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:4 mins read

On August 18, 2023, Judge Beryl A. Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued a first-of-its-kind federal court decision in Thaler v. Perlmutter, et al., agreeing with the US Copyright Office that works generated entirely by artificial intelligence are not copyrightable for lack of human…

EU Adopts Mandatory ESG Reporting Standards

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:11 mins read

In January 2023, the European Union adopted the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires EU and non-EU companies with activities in the EU to file annual sustainability reports alongside their financial statements. These reports must be prepared in accordance with European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). On July 31, 2023,…

Cooley Secures Landmark Victory – Whistleblower Safeguards for Charities

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:3 mins read

San Diego – August 4, 2023 – The California Supreme Court yesterday issued a landmark decision in Turner v. Victoria et al., which ensures essential whistleblower protections for more than 110,000 charities across California. Cooley represented plaintiff and appellant Debra Turner in successfully petitioning the court to review her case…

UK Government Announces Upcoming Changes in Employment Law

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:8 mins read

The UK government has announced its intention to limit the duration of noncompete post-termination restrictions in employment contracts to a maximum of three months. Noncompete covenants are designed to provide business protection to an employer by seeking to restrict a former employee from undertaking employment with a rival competitor for…

EU Launches Crypto-Assets Regulation

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:8 mins read

In September 2020, the European Commission adopted a digital finance package with the aim of creating a supportive regulatory framework to enable the digital transformation of the European Union’s financial industry. It established the groundbreaking piece of regulation – the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) – to provide a harmonised…

Latest Guidance on Employers’ Use of AI Tools

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:6 mins read

Recently, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) made clear that it intends to make discrimination caused by artificial intelligence (AI) tools an enforcement priority over the next four years. This enforcement priority follows the EEOC’s 2021 announcement of its Artificial Intelligence and Algorithmic Fairness Initiative, which launched an agency-wide…

Considerations for Cash Management Policies

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:10 mins read

Stock issued by a corporation is treated as qualified small business stock (QSBS) only if, among other requirements, at least 80% of its assets (by value) are used by the issuing corporation in the active conduct of one or more “qualified trades or businesses” (the active business requirement) during substantially…

New York Minimum Wage: Increase for 2024 and Beyond

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:3 mins read

On May 3, 2023, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation into law increasing New York’s minimum wage for most employees beginning January 1, 2024, through 2026. Enacted as part of the state’s budget legislation, increases to the minimum wage beginning in 2027 and beyond will be indexed to the…

UK Government issues National Semiconductor Strategy

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:8 mins read

On 19 May 2023, the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology published the National Semiconductor Strategy, setting out the UK’s 20-year vision to grow deep foundations in semiconductor technology, while also bolstering the UK’s national security and resilience in an industry that has suffered supply chain issues and geopolitical…

Assessing Overlapping Boards After DOJ Crackdown

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:11 mins read

Over the past year, the U.S. Department of Justice has garnered headlines by issuing press releases announcing that directors have stepped down from 10 company boards, in response to DOJ concerns that their roles violated the Clayton Act's Section 8 prohibitions on interlocking directorates. In October 2022, the DOJ announced the resignation of…

Companies Implementing ‘Super-Voting Preferred Stock’ as Stockholder Meeting Solution

  • Post category:Cooley Law Firm
  • Reading time:18 mins read

Increasingly, many small-cap and microcap public companies are failing to secure stockholder approval of critical proposals, particularly for reverse stock splits and authorized share increases. With heavy concentration of shares held in street name (i.e., by retail investors in US brokerage accounts), these companies historically have relied on brokerage firms…