Insights

Washington – June 1, 2023: Crowell & Moring earned 82 rankings for 68 lawyers across 48 categories, as well as 37 national and statewide practice area rankings, in the Chambers USA 2023 guide. The rankings are driven by independent interviews of clients and lawyers at peer firms.

Washington – February 27, 2023: Global Investigations Review has named Crowell & Moring’s Investigations and White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement groups to its prestigious GIR 100 list, an annual guide to the world’s leading cross-border investigations practices. Based on extensive research, GIR selects 100 firms from around the world that it deems most able to handle sophisticated cross-border government-led and internal investigations. This is the eighth consecutive year that Crowell & Moring has made the list.

As collaboration tools and ephemeral messaging applications become ubiquitous in the modern workplace, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) are making clear that their content must be preserved like traditional modes of communication. On Friday, January 26, the DOJ and the FTC announced that they are updating language in their standard preservation letters and specifications for all second requests, voluntary access letters, and compulsory legal process, including grand jury subpoenas. Manish Kumar, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division in charge of criminal enforcement, noted that both DOJ and the FTC expect that companies and their current and former employees will preserve any and all responsive messages, regardless of their default settings to autodelete. An intentional failure to produce these communications may be treated as obstruction of justice.

Public companies now have a pathway to request a delay in their cybersecurity incident disclosure to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). On December 6, 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) Cyber Division published the “Cyber Victim Requests to Delay Securities and Exchange Commission Public Disclosure Policy Notice” (the “Policy Notice”) in response to the SEC’s finalized disclosure rules (the “Final Rules”). Published on July 26, 2023, the Final Rules established guidelines around cybersecurity risk management, strategy, governance, and incidents for public companies subject to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Among several requirements under the Final Rules, companies are required to disclose cybersecurity incidents within four days of a materiality determination by filing an SEC Form 8-K.

On October 30, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) filed a civil lawsuit charging SolarWinds Corporation (“SolarWinds” or the “Company”) and its chief information security officer, Timothy G. Brown (“Brown”), with securities fraud, internal controls failures, misleading investors about cyber risk, and disclosure controls failures, among other violations.  The SEC’s claims arise from allegedly known cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities at SolarWinds associated with the SUNBURST cyberattack that occurred between 2018 and 2021.

This summit will cover what impacts the day-to-day business of broader Corporate Australia. Corporations, their officers and employees must be prepared for the imminent increase in regulatory activity including the rise of criminal investigation and prosecution, by looking to the broader domestic and international regulatory context.

The 2019 American Bar Association (ABA) White Collar Crime National Institute marks its 33rd consecutive year. This institute has been attended by leading federal and state judges and prosecutors, law enforcement officials, defense attorneys, corporate in-house counsel, and members of the academic community. The faculty regularly includes some of the top members of the white collar bar in the United States and abroad. Among the audience are nationally renowned lawyers, as well as many who are beginning to concentrate in the white collar area. 

Each year, this National Institute draws elite officials from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an exclusive educational and professional forum to examine current legal and ethical issues relating to securities fraud.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, Federal and State enforcement agencies have been on the lookout for corporate misconduct, leading to the formation of new task forces, and an increased focus on investigations of companies across the spectrum – with a particular focus on companies operating in the Federal and State procurement arena. As the initial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic recede, companies of all sizes should be ready for increased scrutiny from Federal and State enforcement agencies.

Crowell & Moring panelists will discuss antitrust compliance issues for both US and European syndicated loan transactions. The session is particularly timely as the European Commission is currently reviewing potential antitrust concerns raised by syndicated lending arrangements with plans to issue a report by year end. When the Commission launched this review, it noted that syndicated lending “exhibits close cooperation between market participants in opaque or in transparent settings, such as over-the-counter (OTC) activities, which are particularly vulnerable to anti-competitive conduct.” Experienced antitrust and lending experts will: 

Please join us for the next edition of Third Thursday – Crowell & Moring’s Labor and Employment Update, a webinar series dedicated to helping our clients stay on top of developing law and emerging compliance issues.

Crowell & Moring's "Government Contracts Classroom" is a podcast that covers a wide range of topics relevant to government contractors and provides training and information designed to help you navigate the complexities of government contracting. In this inaugural episode, counsel Megan Wolf talks with partners Daniel Zelenko and Gail Zirkelbach about the DOJ’s new Procurement Collusion Strike Force, answering the most common questions they have received since the Strike Force was announced.