While Bitcoin enthusiasts celebrate the stunning success of a newly approved group of exchange-traded funds this week, the FBI continues to search for an unidentified hacker who posted a counterfeit tweet about the ETFs that caused confusion and chaos in the markets. Since the Bitcoin ETF approval date of January 10, the exchange-traded funds have […]

Part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, enacted by Congress in 2021, is the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)[1]. The CTA is intended to enhance the transparency of corporate entities to combat money laundering and other types of fraud by creating a federal database of companies that are not already registered with the government through […]

“Van wasn't talking in terms of what was in his best interest as a lawyer, but mine as a client.” –Eric Lee If you’ve ever had to take your car into the shop, you’ve probably had this feeling: You’ve got a piece of work that needs doing, but you don’t know whether it’s going to […]

As we wrote in April 2023, the Supreme Court recently heard a case involving Jack Daniel’s and a poop-themed dog toy made by VIP Products. On June 8th, the Court held unanimously in favor of Jack Daniel’s. Unlike the approach of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court rejected the applicability of the […]

“Zach was very compassionate, very patient. He gave a thorough answer to every single question I had.” Felicia Alford calls herself an author by accident. She grew up in the shadow of a family tragedy that surviving relatives rarely talked about: A fire that killed seven of eight children in 1964. The story—chronicled in her […]

Listen to oral arguments as recorded live before the Court: When is a poop-themed dog toy just a poop-themed dog toy? That’s the question the Supreme Court considered last month during unusually scatological oral arguments that at times had Justices and observers tittering like middle schoolers. Venerated whiskey maker Jack Daniel’s challenged VIP Products’ claim […]

It’s not unusual for the villains in slasher films to claw their way back from the dead. But in a rare legal victory handed down recently, the screenwriter who brought one of Hollywood’s most famous killers to life clawed back the rights to his creation. More than 40 years after “Friday the 13th” shocked audiences […]

Can dressing up a digital trading platform like a video game lure retail investors into excessive or ill-advised trades with rewards as fleeting as a puff of virtual confetti or a simulated slot machine spitting out cartoon coins? That’s just one of the questions the Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to answer by inviting […]

Last month, German banks completed the first over-the-counter (OTC) interest rate derivative trade using a digital smart contract. DZ Bank and BayernLB were the trading counterparties, while Deutsche Börse’s Eurex Clearing was the central counterparty (CCP) for exposures from the non-settled OTC transaction. 

Since the early 1900s, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) has regulated the collegiate sports world in the United States and the student-athletes within it.  Momentum for changes to that regime has increased in recent years, and in the past few weeks the NCAA, various states, and the U.S. Supreme Court have all acted to […]