Insights

Washington, D.C.-based Environment & Natural Resources Group partner and steering committee member, Kirsten L. Nathanson, speaks with Law360 regarding the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions last term upholding much of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's cross-state air pollution and greenhouse gas regulations. Nathanson notes that while this year's term doesn't have as many environment-specific cases, the non-environment cases of Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association and Nickols v. Mortgage Bankers Association would have an impact across federal agencies including the EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and others. "The key issue in the case involves an agency's ability to change its mind — and to change its mind on the interpretation of its own regulations, and to do so without having to go through notice and comment," Nathanson said.

Washington, D.C.-based partner and co-chair of the firm's Advertising & Product Risk Management Group, Cheryl A. Falvey, was a featured luncheon speaker at Promotional Products Association International's Product Safety Summit. Falvey's keynote presentation provided her audience with a few of the basics toward building a scalable compliance program for their companies and began by defining what that entails. "The policy needs to be a living, breathing commitment," she advised, "and should lay out your commitment, define your responsibility including who and how, and define legal compliance. You'll need to monitor products out in the marketplace that should be reported to the government." Falvey continued, providing many key points and elements to help companies achieve an ideal compliance program.

Cheryl A. Falvey, a Washington, D.C.-based partner and co-chair of the firm's Advertising and Product Risk Management Group, is featured as one of the NLJ’s "2014 Governance, Risk & Compliance Trailblazers & Pioneers." The National Law Journal highlights the experience Falvey gained as general counsel of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, as well as her outlook for the bright future ahead for consumer safety.

When asked about the recent nomination of Elliot F. Kaye to CPSC commissioner and chairman, Washington, D.C.-based partner, and former CPSC general counsel, Cheryl Falvey, tells BNA that "Kaye is strongly 'committed to the mission" of the agency and worked very hard on some important issues when she was there.'" Additionally, she notes that "Kaye approached some recall issues 'with a problem-solving perspective, which I think is actually good for all the stakeholders. 'He has the consumers' interests at heart; he also wants to find a way to get to yes. '"

Cheryl A. Falvey and Christopher A. Cole, co-chairs of Crowell & Moring's Advertising & Product Risk Management Group, spoke with Consumer Protection Law360 about the regulations to watch in 2014. They discussed the areas of debt collection reform, financial advertising, and data security and the "Internet of Things."

Co-chair of the firm's Advertising and Product Risk Management Group, Cheryl Falvey, talks with Law360 about the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) new proposal to make voluntary recall agreements legally binding. She describes how the current "balance" with the CPSC is going to change, and that companies may now have to worry about, "the effect a legally binding agreement could have on future product liability litigation." Falvey served as CPSC general counsel under both the Bush and Obama administrations.

Cheryl A. Falvey, a Washington, D.C.-based partner and co-chair of the firm's Advertising and Product Risk Management Group, comments on the lasting impact the government shutdown will have on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other product safety agencies. Falvey notes, "The agencies not only lost precious time to fulfill their safety mandates during the shutdown, they lost time beforehand, preparing for the cutoff in funding."

Advertising & Product Risk Management (APRM) Group partners and Group co-chairs Chris Cole and Cheri Falvey are profiled in the Washington Post's Capital Business section for their leadership and growth of the practice. The article highlights the strengths they each bring to the firm, and the unique ability of the APRM Group; "Now the group advises on the entire life cycle of consumer products, from their creation to safety testing, advertising campaigns, product recalls and designing consumer tests to back up marketing claims — which is almost like a science," Cole states. Additionally, Falvey highlights, "part of the reason she joined Crowell was because the firm's leaders understood that the science that must be conducted to back up marketing claims is the same science that federal regulators look at when evaluating the safety of products."

Crowell & Moring LLP's second annual Advertising & Product Risk Management seminar is featured in Bloomberg BNA Product Safety & Liability Reporter in a piece titled, "Planning, Coordination, Consistency Urged In Talks Geared to Business and Its Counsel." According to the piece, "A holistic approach to risk management, integrating legal and business concerns, works best for companies throughout the life cycle of their products."

Washington, D.C. based-partner and chair of the firm's Mass Tort, Product, and Consumer Litigation Group, Clifford J. Zatz, answers questions for Product Liability Law360 in their "Practice Leader Q&A Series." Cliff describes one of the most challenging cases he's been part of, and lessons learned from when he first started practicing law.

Cheryl Falvey, former general counsel of the CPSC and partner in Crowell & Moring LLP's Torts and Advertising & Product Risk Management groups, recently conducted a feature Q&A with the editor of Product Safety Letter. The piece addressed testing methods associated with CPSC rules, the passage of CPSIA, and some of the additional challenges facing the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Crowell & Moring is listed among 17 firms that received praise from corporate counsel for improving their client focus in the BTI Client Service A-Team 2012 report by the BTI Consulting Group Inc.