Insights

Chicago – June 16, 2026: Four Crowell & Moring attorneys have earned a place in World Trademark Review's WTR Global Leaders 2026 guide. Now in its eighth edition, the guide “brings together the world’s foremost law firm and corporate trademark experts, allowing the wider community to benefit from their insight, experience and perspectives.” 

Washington – June 11, 2026: Crowell & Moring is proud to announce that the firm has been recognized with an Outstanding Achievement Award by the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs at the 2026 Wiley A. Branton Luncheon. The award celebrates the firm's work on behalf of tenants of the Franklin Apartments, a building in northeast Washington, D.C., where residents endured years of deplorable housing conditions before the firm helped secure a landmark settlement. 

London – June 11, 2026: Crowell & Moring Partner Emma Wright has been appointed to the UK Government's newly formed Digital ID Advisory Group, an independent body of experts convened by Right Honorable Darren Jones MP, to support the delivery of a national digital ID system that is inclusive, useful, and trusted. 

On the surface, United States v. Bankman-Fried is a case about the collapse of a cryptocurrency exchange. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s recent opinion — affirming Samuel Bankman-Fried’s conviction on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy — carries important lessons that extend well beyond the world of digital assets.

A Kansas federal court held that inconsistent enforcement of trade secret rights can defeat a claim under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA). In Edelman Financial Engines, LLC v. Mariner Wealth Advisors LLC, No. 2:23-cv-02515-HLT (D. Kan. June 5, 2026), the court applied a selective enforcement theory, holding that when a company does not consistently pursue legal remedies against similarly situated former employees, that inconsistency can be affirmative evidence that it failed to protect its trade secrets. While the selective enforcement theory has appeared in academic hypothetical discussions, the decision appears to be one of the clearest judicial applications of a “selective enforcement” theory in a trade secret case.

On June 9, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a formal opinion concluding that the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission’s (EEOC) existing interpretations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) disparate-impact liability, including the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP), are unconstitutional. According to the opinion, EEOC’s prior interpretations contemplate liability based on disproportionately adverse effects alone, without regard to an employer’s likely intent, rather than treating disparate impact as an evidentiary mechanism to “smoke out” intentional discrimination. DOJ found that this approach functions as a “qualified racial-proportionality mandate” that places “a racial thumb on the scales, often requiring employers to evaluate the racial outcomes of their policies, and to make decisions based on (because of) those racial outcomes.” The opinion fulfills one mandate of Executive Order 14281, which rejected disparate-impact liability insofar as it “creates a near insurmountable presumption that unlawful discrimination exists wherever there are any differences in outcomes among different [demographic groups].”

Calling all dog lovers! Join Crowell & Moring for a program tailored for the in-house community, including members of ACC Southern California. The session will feature a collaborative discussion on three dimensions of well-being and the “superpowers” they can provide in-house teams, along with time to engage with therapy dogs from OC Animal Allies!

Digital Product Passports are set to transform how products are sold across Europe. For consumers, this means unprecedented access to product information. Sustainability and compliance data, alongside other key product details, will become far easier to access and compare than ever before. As a “single source of truth” for products, DPPs may also enable EU authorities to identify non-compliance more quickly and efficiently, potentially restricting or preventing non-compliant products from entering the European market.

In this episode, Crowell’s Rebecca Springer and Cecilia Lahaye discuss the EU Pay Transparency Directive. The June 7, 2026, deadline for member states to transpose the Directive into national laws has passed, but many member states have not yet finalized legislation. This podcast discusses the fundamentals of the Directive and what employers should be thinking about to ensure they are in compliance as the legal landscape evolves. The Lightning Round podcast is Crowell's monthly rundown on developments and trends in the Labor and Employment space.

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