Governance/Regulation & Compliance

The fight against corruption, and the implementation of compliance programs to prevent bad practices in public and private companies, is more accessible than ever before, thanks to blockchain technology.

Lawyers warn that companies need to police themselves now, to ensure their ESG disclosures are "able to withstand public and regulatory scrutiny."

New legislation from Senator Elizabeth Warren would make price gouging anywhere in the supply chain illegal, and would give the FTC and state attorneys general leeway to investigate companies for charging excessive prices.

Musk says he wants Twitter to foster a "public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive." In other words, the trust and safety program shouldn't be used to censor speech.

Even before the invasion of Ukraine focused attention on Europe's dependence on fossil fuels from Russia, regulatory changes and climate litigation were converging to make 2022 a pivotal year for climate change law in Europe.

"We're trying to read the tea leaves of what the Russian government is most concerned about when they have threatened foreign companies that have halted operations or pulled out of Russia," said Thad McBride, a partner with Bass, Berry & Sims.

Russian alternative to SWIFT may begin processing bilateral payments to and from India, providing a path for Russia to bypass the strict Western sanctions regime.

"The SEC's climate disclosure proposal is the most extensive, comprehensive and complicated disclosure initiative in decades," said Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr partner Meredith Cross, a former SEC official.