Insights

Los Angeles – August 19, 2026: The Daily Journal has named Crowell & Moring's Amy Karnikian to its "Top 40 Under 40" list for 2026. The annual list recognizes leading California lawyers under the age of 40 for their achievements, impact, and promise within the legal profession. 

August 4, 2026: Crowell & Moring represented Antares, a nuclear fission energy company developing compact microreactors for defense and space applications, in connection with its $470 million Series C funding round. The round was co-led by Paradigm and Caffeinated Capital, with participation from Point72 Ventures, Shine Capital, Industrious Ventures, and others.

Chicago – July 30, 2026: Managing Intellectual Property has recognized nine Crowell & Moring attorneys and five practice areas in its 2026 IP Stars rankings for the United States, underscoring the depth, breadth, and technical strength of the firm’s global Intellectual Property practice, which includes more than 100 attorneys, patent agents and technical advisors. The guide “covers a variety of IP practice areas and more than 80 jurisdictions, making it the most comprehensive and widely respected IP practitioner guide in the legal profession.”  

We are pleased to announce that Crowell & Moring and Crowell GovCon Strategies will be exhibiting at Farnborough International Airshow (FIA 2026), one of the world's premier aerospace, defence and space events. FIA is where the aerospace, defence and space industry comes together. It is where deals are made, partnerships are formed, and the future direction of the sector takes shape. For businesses operating in this environment, navigating complex regulation, competing for government contracts, protecting critical intellectual property and managing international trade across multiple jurisdictions demands the right legal and strategic counsel.

On May 6, 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published a long-awaited Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would create a formal process for designating drone-free zones — known as Unmanned Aircraft Flight Restrictions (UAFRs) — over critical infrastructure facilities. The proposed rule has significant implications for the entire drone ecosystem. Facility operators across a broad range of industries would gain a potential pathway to restrict unauthorized drone access to their airspace, while commercial drone operators and companies that rely on UAS services face new compliance obligations, operational constraints, and potential criminal liability in designated zones.

On January 28, 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it would reopen the comment period for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) titled “Normalizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations” for fourteen days. This NPRM, jointly published with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on August 7, 2025, introduces performance-based regulations for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operations and the third-party services that support them. Although the NPRM’s initial comment period closed on October 6, 2025, the FAA is now accepting additional feedback through February 11, 2026, with a particular focus on the proposed rule’s right-of-way and detect-and-avoid requirements. The FAA previously rejected formal requests to extend the initial comment period, citing the deadline imposed by Executive Order 14307.

The ABA Forum on Air and Space Law will hold its 2020 Washington Update Conference (WUC) at the W Hotel in Washington, DC. The 2020 WUC will include preeminent aviation and aerospace lawyers, senior airline, airport, and labor union executives, and key government decision makers. The Forum hosts this session each year to encourage industry-wide dialogue on the most important regulatory topics in aviation. This year’s conference will feature panels addressing leading issues in the air cargo industry, drones and aircraft certification.

Traditionally, space law was mainly limited to States and international organizations, but now the “commercialization” of Space is steep and accelerating.  In a report dated May 2022, Citi expects the space industry to reach $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2040, after the global space economy’s value reached $424 billion in 2020, having expanded 70% since 2010.  Whereas State actors were the only real driving forces behind the development of Space activities until about 15 years ago, private interests have no doubt driven the development of this nascent industry.