S. Douglas Bunch, a partner in our Securities Litigation & Investor Protection practice, has been invited to speak to William & Mary Law students on pursuing a plaintiff’s practice on November 15, 2023 at 12:50 p.m.

Mr. Bunch (’06) joins a panel of other plaintiffs lawyers and William & Mary Law School alumni.

In addition to having a distinguished career as a securities litigator, Mr. Bunch has also had the unique honor of being appointed by President Joseph R. Biden as Public Delegate of the United States to the United Nations.

The lunch hour panel discussion is hosted by William & Mary Law’s Plaintiffs’ Law Society and the Office of Career Services.

Register and learn more about William & Mary Law School and Office of Career Services.

Michelle C. Yau, chair of Cohen Milstein’s Employee Benefits/ERISA practice, has been invited to speak at Practising Law Institute’s annual 2023 ERISA: The Evolving World, a CLE program, accessible online and in person on July 31 – August 1.

Michelle joins leading ERISA attorneys who will discuss a broad array of topics, including regulatory updates, evolving trends in the offering of investment products and services, opportunities and challenges in implementing new Department of Labor exemptions, trends in asset management, updates on ERISA litigation and plan governance as well as issues relating to corporate transactions and health and welfare plans.

Who Should Attend

This program is appropriate for attorneys, human resources practitioners, and other professionals who work in the areas of employee benefits and retirement plan services.

Register and learn more on Practising Law Institute.

Sharon Robertson has been invited to speak at the 50th Anniversary Milton Handler Lecture on Antitrust at the New York City Bar Association on Thursday, May 25, 2023 at 6:30 p.m.

Program Description:

This year’s Handler Lecture will be given by Timothy Wu, Julius Silver Professor of Law, Science and Technology at Columbia Law School, and recent Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy.  Prof. Wu will speak on: “A New Era: The Biden Administration’s Antitrust Policy.”  His remarks will be followed by questions presented by a Panel of prominent antitrust attorneys

Keynote Speaker: 

  • Timothy Wu, Julius Silver Professor of Law, Science and Technology, Columbia Law School

Panel:

  • Debbie Feinstein, Head of Global Antitrust, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, LLP
  • Kellie Lerner, Co-Chair, Antitrust Practice Group, Robins, Kaplan, LLP
  • Sharon Robertson, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, PLLC
  • Ian Conner, Latham & Watkins, LLP

Moderator:

  • Daniel Francis, Asst. Professor of Law, NYU School of Law

Learn more about the program on the New York Bar Association website.

Tel Aviv, Israel

Ms. Fryszman’s panel topic was The Long Arm of the Law: Extra-Territorial Application of Labor and Employment Law:
 
Multinational employers and unions face particular challenges in reconciling the dictates of labor and employment laws across borders. In this program, speakers will consider case studies including professional sports leagues in North America and also in the airline industry, where Homeland Security regulations impact all who fly into the United States. The panelists also will review implications of decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court including Spector v. Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd. and Daimler AG v. Baumanand their effect on human rights. Our panel will discuss these cases as well as the broader principles of extra-territorial application of law with particular emphasis on the role of arbitration and cross-border enforcement.

Carol V. Gilden, a partner in our Securities Litigation & Investor Protection practice is invited to speak at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s Center for Business Law program: “Financial Regulators Under Siege.”

Ms. Gilden’s panel discussion, “The View from the Litigation Trenches,” assess the performance of the U.S. regulatory system and securities laws from a litigators perspective, given the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-led global lockdown, the influx of unregulated cryptocurrency and Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, and recent bank failures. They will discuss these matters and more, particularly as it relates to investor protections and litigation.

Visit Loyola University of Chicago for registration and more information on this CLE program.

Daniel McCuaig, a partner in Cohen Milstein’s Antitrust practice, has been invited to participate in a mock trial addressing price-fixing and bid-rigging at the 71st Antitrust Law ABA Spring Meeting on March 30, 2023 at 1:30 p.m. EST at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C.

Come watch as two distinguished trial teams tackle some of the challenging fact issues raised in recent, high-profile cases – from poultry to healthcare – and watch how a jury responds to them and the economics on which they turn.

SESSION CHAIR/MODERATOR William M. KATZ, Holland & Knight LLP, Dallas, TX

SPEAKERS

  • Hon. James DONATO, U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco, CA
  • Divya MATHUR, Analysis Group, Chicago, IL
  • Daniel MCCUAIG, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, Washington, DC
  • Veronica S. MOYE, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Dallas, TX
  • Anna T. PLETCHER, O’Melveny & Myers LLP, San Francisco, CA
  • Subbu RAMANARAYAN, NERA Economic Consulting, Washington, DC
  • James WEINGARTEN, Deputy Chief Trial Counsel, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC

Kai Richter will speak on the panel “401(k) Plan Fiduciary Fundamentals,” part of the Practising Law Institute (PLI) program ERISA Fiduciary Investment Basics 2023, on March 23. The panel will discuss key definitions and fiduciary concepts that apply to defined contribution plans for where participants direct investment of their accounts.

The one-day course employs presentations and case studies to provide an overview of ERISA fiduciary law. The 2023 program will focus on principles that apply when investing plan assets.

Visit the ERISA fiduciary Investment Basics 2023 course page to learn more and to register for the program.

Leslie Kroeger will speak on the panel “Hot Topics in Class Actions” and Laura Posner will speak on the panel “Securities Class Actions” on March 1 during the Epiq Mass and Class Summit 2023 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

The three-day summit includes court appointed neutrals, judges and some of the best plaintiff and defense attorneys who specialize in mass tort and class action issues.

Our Complex Tort Litigation team, co-chaired by Leslie M. Kroeger, is proud to once again partner with Safe Kids of Palm Beach County for our bi-annual booster seat and car seat giveaway this Saturday, February 25, 2023, at the Boynton Beach Fire Rescue – Station 5 in Boynton Beach, Florida.

Saturday, February 25, 2023

9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Boynton Beach Fire Rescue – Station 5
2080 High Ridge Rd., Boynton Beach, FL 33426

Free child car seats and booster seats will be given away to families whose children have outgrown their car seats. A child must be present to receive a free seat.

Since 2012, we have distributed and helped ensure the proper installation of more than 1,100 car seats and booster seats to some of the most vulnerable families in Palm Beach and Martin Counties.

To receive information about our booster seat giveaway or to learn how you can help encourage child safety, please call us at (561) 515-1400.

We are a leader in child car seat and booster seat litigation and advocacy. We help families of children injured in child car seats and booster seats hold companies accountable for defective design, manufacture, advertising, sale, and warranty.

In Florida, we helped led the charge by lobbying the Florida legislature, resulting in the passage of SB 518, a state law requiring children under age five to be secured in federally approved child-restraint devices.

We are dedicated to protecting the children of Florida, as well as across the nation.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) held a public hearing on Tuesday, January 31, 2023, examining the implications of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) technology on equal employment opportunity. According to EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows, “The goals of this hearing were to both educate a broader audience about the civil rights implications of the use of these technologies and to identify next steps that the Commission can take to prevent and eliminate unlawful bias in employers’ use of these automated technologies.” Prior to the January 31st, the EEOC most recently held a public hearing concerning AI technology in 2016. On Tuesday, twelve panelists from academia, law and industry grappled with preventing what panelist Suresh Venkatasubramanian, Deputy Director, Data Science Initiative and Professor of Computer Science, Brown University, labeled “the inevitable harm that comes when AI is used without appropriate guardrails.”

Panelists testified to various ways in which AI tools can carry implicit or explicit biases, but largely focused their remarks on how the EEOC can play a role in preventing the discriminatory use of AI by publishing additional regulatory guidance. Panelists suggested that the EEOC require employers to abide by several best practices in their use of AI, including: providing specific notice that an AI tool or process is being used to anyone who will be assessed using it; regularly reviewing the source and quality of data being considered by AI decisionmaking; ensuring that all decisions relating to the development, validation, scoring, and interpretation of AI-based assessments are documented for independent verification; and conducting such audits and verifications on an ongoing and regular basis. Many panelists suggested practices which align with the Institute for Workplace Equality’s recently published Technical Advisory Committee Report: EEO and DEI&A Considerations in the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Employment Making Decisions.(Christine E. Webber, co-chair of Cohen Milstein’s Civil Rights & Employment practice, contributed plaintiff-side perspective to this report.)   

Several panelists also called on the EEOC to squarely reject the Four-Fifths Rule as a guideline for quantifying adverse impact under Title VII. Chair Burrows asked several prepared questions regarding the Four-Fifths Rule, potentially signaling that the EEOC will formally review, and perhaps re-write the Four-Fifths Rule as a measurement of adverse impact under Title VII in its future guidance.

The EEOC’s January 31st hearing follows up on its January 10th announcement of its draft Strategic Enforcement Plan for FY2023-2027, which includes increased enforcement efforts aimed at discrimination resulting from AI decision making tools. In its draft plan, the EEOC proposes to further its AI and Algorithmic Fairness Initiative by prioritizing the elimination of barriers to recruitment and hiring posed by “the use of automatic systems, including artificial intelligence or machine learning, to target advertisements, recruit applicants, or make or assist in hiring decisions where such systems intentionally exclude or adversely impact protected groups.” Last May, the EEOC published a technical assistance document titled “The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Use of Software, Algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence to Assess Job Applicants and Employees,” as part of this initiative. Given the EEOC’s stated goals for its January 31st hearing, its publishing similar technical assistance concerning Title VII appears likely.