New Electronic Discovery Rules Approved
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 04.19.06
As will be discussed in more detail at our upcoming Ounce Of Prevention Seminars in D.C. (April 27-28) and Irvine (May 11-12), the United States Supreme Court recently approved each of the proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure concerning the discovery of electronically stored information. The amendments, which will take effect on December 1, 2006, are designed to acknowledge the differences between electronically stored information and traditional paper files, including the vastly greater volume of electronic material; differences in the way that electronic files are created, stored, collected, and archived; and the particular challenges parties face when trying to identify, preserve, and produce potentially relevant electronic material.
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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
