Health Canada’s evolving regulatory framework for machine learning-enabled medical devices

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:8 mins read

The rapid adoption of machine learning-enabled medical devices (MLMDs) is transforming patient care, offering unprecedented opportunities to enhance diagnostics, treatment, and healthcare efficiency. However, the regulatory landscape is evolving to address the novel challenges these technologies introduce, particularly regarding safety, effectiveness, and adaptability. In response, after releasing draft guidance in…

Navigating Trump’s FCPA Enforcement Pause: Strategic Recommendations for Corporate Leaders

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:8 mins read

Overview President Trump’s February 10th Executive Order (EO) titled “Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement to Further American Economic and National Security,” has introduced significant uncertainty into FCPA enforcement. Despite this companies should remain committed to their compliance efforts and consider whether this is an appropriate time to amplify to staff…

Federal Court Preliminarily Blocks Key Parts of President Trump’s Orders Restricting DEI at Private Employers

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:7 mins read

Quick Hits A federal court in Maryland preliminarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing executive orders that seek to eliminate DEI programs and initiatives in the federal government and private sector. The court found the executive orders are likely unconstitutionally vague, lack clear definitions, and potentially discriminate against certain viewpoints…

Le Tribunal administratif du travail confirme le congédiement d’un cadre supérieur pour fautes graves

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:10 mins read

BLG vient d’obtenir un deuxième jugement favorable pour sa cliente, Kleen-Flo Tumbler Industries Limited. Dans l’affaire Desaulniers c. Kleen-Flo Tumbler Industries Limited, 2025 QCTAT 471, la terminaison d’emploi d’un cadre supérieur mettait en cause des allégations de détournement de cartes-cadeaux et de divulgation d’informations confidentielles et sensibles appartenant à l’employeur.…

Hold on Tight: Last-Minute Changes to Michigan’s Earned Sick Time Act

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:9 mins read

Quick Hits On February 21, 2025, Michigan Governor Whitmer signed an amendment to the Earned Sick Time Act, providing several employer-friendly changes. Employers with ten or fewer employees now have until October 1, 2025, to comply. Highlights of the amendment include clarifications regarding covered employer qualifications, benefit accruals, employee eligibility,…

Country of origin for customs purposes

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:4 mins read

Determining country of origin From a customs perspective, determining the country of origin of imported goods are crucial for several reasons, including: determining whether imported goods are entitled to most-favoured-nation (MFN) or preferential tariff treatment; determining whether imported goods are subject to tariffs or safeguard measures (e.g., anti-dumping or countervailing…

Introducing Azure AI Foundry Labs

  • Post category:Microsoft
  • Reading time:5 mins read

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of Azure AI Foundry Labs, a hub for developers, startups, and enterprises to explore groundbreaking innovations from research at Microsoft. Today we’re launching Azure AI Foundry Labs, a hub for developers, startups, and enterprises to explore groundbreaking innovations from research at Microsoft. Foundry Labs…

Elon Musk Is Kicking Down the Barn, Not Building a Better Government

This commentary originally appeared in Newsweek. The views expressed are the author’s own. Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is not about reforming anything. It’s about cutting costs indiscriminately and gaining control over all the levers of government power. The result is that vital activities are being hastily cut…

Lessons from the Lighthouses

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:9 mins read

After six years, the Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) has expanded from 16 to 189 Lighthouses, representing factory, sustainability, and end-to-end value chain categories across 33 countries and 35 subsectors—four times greater than the number of subsectors in 2018 (Exhibit 1). The latest 36 Lighthouses—awarded in October 2024 and January 2025—have…

Senate hears update on federal policy matters, approves research policy changes

The Faculty Senate approved proposed modifications to the Research Policy Handbook from the Committee on Research and received an update from the president and provost on federal policy matters during its meeting Thursday.Federal policy updatePresident Jonathan Levin highlighted concerns about federal support for university research that have been exacerbated by…

SCO and the Democratisation of the Global Financial System

Development of digital currencies Aside from the payment systems, digital currencies, including central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and cryptocurrencies, constitute another pillar of the economic resilience of the SCO. China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Russia have already launched CBDC operation and Belarus is in the pilot phase. The SCO is…

Product of Canada vs Made in Canada: What are the requirements for Canadian country of origin claims?

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:5 mins read

With growing consumer demand for Canadian-made products, companies are choosing to make various forms of Canadian country of origin claims on products, e.g. “Product of Canada”, “Made in Canada” etc. (Canadian Product Claims). Companies should be aware that different laws and regulations1 may apply to Canadian Product Claims, and this…

Announcing the 2025 Imagine Cup semifinalists

  • Post category:Microsoft
  • Reading time:7 mins read

We’re excited to announce the next phase of the 2025 Imagine Cup – meet the startups who were selected to advance to the Semifinals! These student founders are the future, and their innovative ideas are sure to capture your interest and perhaps spark your own new idea. The semifinalists will…

Why managing culture is critical for value creation in M&A

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:11 mins read

An organization’s culture—or the common set of behaviors, mindsets, and beliefs that shape how people work and interact—is a driving force for its success. In companies with strong cultures, employees at all levels understand the business’s mission and purpose, how decisions are made, how performance is measured, and individuals’ roles…

Gaza as an Arena for the US Promotion of Middle Eastern Economic Peace

As an attempt to appeal to pan-Arabism, albeit with no international legal basis, Donald Trump's idea of ​​transferring control over the Gaza Strip to the US, in economic respects, resembles past regional initiatives such as those put forward during his first presidential term. In this regard, regardless of the prospects…

UK peatland fires are supercharging carbon emissions as climate change causes hotter, drier summers

More fires, taking hold over more months of the year, are causing more carbon to be released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.Fires on peatlands, which are carbon-rich, can almost double global fire-driven carbon emissions. Researchers found that despite accounting for only a quarter of the total UK land area…

Early Elections in Germany and the Global Turn to the Right

On February 20, 2025, the Valdai Club hosted an expert discussion ahead of the early Bundestag elections, titled “The Phenomenon of Modern Germany: Where Is German Politics Heading?” Fyodor Lukyanov, the moderator of the discussion, noted that the political situation in Europe is currently changing. The era of stable governments…

TotalEnergies’ tightrope transition: A talk with Patrick Pouyanné

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:19 mins read

Among oil and gas majors, TotalEnergies stands alone in its plans to shift a fifth of its business to renewable-led integrated power by 2030. It’s a tightrope walk for the company’s long-time CEO Patrick Pouyanné—essentially a strategy that’s not “enough oil and gas” for traditional investors nor “enough renewables” for…

How to Embed Purpose at Every Level

Research Highlight Leaders must find ways to execute on sustainability aspirations throughout the organization, including prioritizing investments and optimizing operating plans. Stuart L. Hart February 20, 2025 Reading Time: 21 min  subscribe-icon Subscribe Share Aad Goudappel/theispot.com Thoughtful business leaders today recognize that the social and environmental challenges the world now…

What’s the key to successful Retail M&A?

  • Post category:Q5 Partners
  • Reading time:4 mins read

The critical role of people and culture in retail mergers and acquisitions Summary: Many Retail & Consumer M&A deals fail to realise full value due to overlooked people and culture factors. With rising costs and strategic shifts, businesses must balance integrations with maintaining brand DNA, consistency of culture, while ensuring…

Florida Enacts Immigration-Related Laws Expanding Law Enforcement, Restricting In-State Tuition, and Increasing Criminal Penalties

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:3 mins read

Quick Hits Under recently enacted state legislation, undocumented immigrants in Florida will no longer be eligible for in-state tuition benefits at public colleges and universities. Any undocumented immigrant convicted of a capital felony will face the death penalty. A new State Board of Immigration Enforcement will be created, and more…

(Country of) origin story: Navigating country of origin claims in Canada and at the U.S. border

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:3 mins read

The simmering trade war launched by the U.S., Canada’s closest trading partner, is pulling Canadian producers in different directions. On the one hand, Canadian businesses are concerned – and rightly so – that their exports to the U.S.–protected by bilateral and regional trade agreements for nearly forty years – may soon…

Microsoft at Legalweek: Help safeguard your AI future with Microsoft Purview​

  • Post category:Microsoft
  • Reading time:8 mins read

Generative AI is reshaping almost every industry and the legal field is no different. A Thompson Reuters Institute study of legal professionals found “a remarkable 79% of law firm respondents anticipate AI will have a high or transformational impact on their work within the next five years—a significant 10-point increase…

IOI awards £5m to Oxford consortium to develop new therapies for drug-resistant tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is the oldest and most deadly disease in human history, causing over 1.2 million deaths every year. TB is an infectious airborne disease that mainly affects the lungs. It is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb).The main treatment option for TB is long courses of multiple antibiotics.…

Consumer goods: Seeking market expansion and growth

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:5 mins read

The industry overview The consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) industry has historically outperformed most other industries, thanks to high growth and consistent margins. But since 2012, the formula has broken down. Several factors, including inflation (which affects both consumer spending and corporate cost), market saturation, intense competition, changing consumer tastes and behaviors, and…

Generative AI tool marks a milestone in biology

Imagine being able to speed up evolution – hypothetically – to learn which genes might have a harmful or beneficial effect on human health. Imagine, further, being able to rapidly generate new genetic sequences that could help cure disease or solve environmental challenges. Now, scientists have developed a generative AI…

Lifestyle and environmental factors affect health and ageing more than our genes

The researchers used data from nearly half a million UK Biobank participants to assess the influence of 164 environmental factors and genetic risk scores for 22 major diseases on ageing, age-related diseases, and premature death. The study is published in Nature Medicine.Key findings:environmental factors explained 17% of the variation in…

Seyfarth Creates Two C-Suite Roles to Lead Innovation Efforts

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:4 mins read

NEW YORK – February 19, 2025 – Seyfarth Shaw LLP, a pioneer in legal innovation for over two decades, announces the creation of two key leadership roles that reinforce the firm’s longstanding commitment to technology, AI, data-driven insights, and design strategy. Byong Kim will be the firm’s first Chief Data…

The return of the steel tariffs

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:9 mins read

In two separate “national security” proclamations issued last week, the President of the United States “restored” tariffs on steel and aluminum that it had imposed on these same articles in 2018 and had suspended following agreements with the affected parties. One of those parties was Canada. One of those agreements…

3 ways to improve access to justice through court modernization

  • Post category:Microsoft
  • Reading time:10 mins read

The legal maxim that “justice delayed is justice denied” has long been a rallying cry to encourage judges and courts to operate more efficiently. If legal redress or fair relief are potentially available to an injured party but aren’t promptly provided or supported, that is effectively no remedy at all.…

Forcing UK creatives to ‘opt out’ of AI training risks stifling new talent, Cambridge experts warn

The UK government should resist allowing AI companies to scrape all copyrighted works unless the holder has actively “opted out”, as it puts an unfair burden on up-and-coming creative talents who lack the skills and resources to meet legal requirements.This is according to a new report from University of Cambridge…

The Many Faces of Neocolonialism and Modern Africa

On February 19, 2025, the Valdai Club hosted an expert discussion, titled “Neocolonialism in African Countries: Modern Context”. Moderator Oleg Barabanov, programme director of the club, called the topic of neocolonialism very acute for almost all African countries and emphasised that the solidarity that Russia shows to African countries in…

Dealmaking through challenges: Lessons from the automotive industry

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:14 mins read

There has always been an elemental symmetry to M&A: A seller concludes that a business or asset does not fit its enterprise portfolio, and a natural buyer recognizes that the same target is a strategic match. Put simply, there’s a buyer for every seller, or so the logic goes. However,…

How Leaders Champion Culture: Six Essential Lessons

Topics Culture Champions Building a healthy culture is one of the most important — and hardest — leadership jobs. These articles, based on a webinar series and research by Donald Sull and CultureX, share actionable advice from leaders whose cultures produced exceptional business results and a world-class employee experience. More…

A new level unlocked

  • Post category:Microsoft
  • Reading time:3 mins read

Today Microsoft released Muse, a first-of-its-kind generative AI model that we are applying to gaming. But it’s so much more than that. What we’re sharing today is a huge step forward for gameplay ideation. And what’s even more exciting is what this breakthrough represents in our journey of building and using…

Are Trump’s Tariffs Repairing Market Failures or Eroding Global Trust?

This commentary originally appeared in Fortune. The views expressed are the authors’ own. With reports of widespread business uncertainty and confusion leading to an unanticipated 10-year record plunge in January dealmaking, air is rushing out of business’s balloon of early euphoria for the Trump agenda. President Trump’s language of schoolyard…