False Claims Act Insights - How a Marine Fisheries Dispute Opened an FCA Can of Worms
False Claims Act Insights - If Everything Matters, Nothing Does: Parsing Materiality in FCA Disputes
Podcast: Non-binding Guidance: SEC Disclosure Issues for Life Sciences Companies
Life Sciences Quarterly (Q3 2019): SEC Enforcement and Class Actions Regarding FDA Communications
As we previously reported, in February, the CFTC’s DOE issued an enforcement advisory (the DOE Advisory) to provide guidance to market participants on how the DOE will evaluate a company’s or an individual’s conduct in the...more
On April 1, 2025, the First Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a nearly $95 million judgment against our client Commonwealth Financial Network related to the sufficiency of Commonwealth’s revenue-sharing disclosures. The First...more
On April 17, 2025, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Market Participants Division (MPD), the Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR), and the Division of Market Oversight (DMO)—collectively the Operating...more
The three operating divisions of the CFTC (Division of Market Oversight, Market Participants Division, and the Division of Clearing and Risk, together the Operating Divisions) issued an advisory on April 17, explaining the...more
On April 17, 2025, three operating divisions of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) jointly issued an advisory to provide guidance on the materiality or other criteria they will use in deciding whether to make a...more
On April 1, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit vacated a summary judgment ruling in favor of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Commonwealth Equity Services, LLC, also known as Commonwealth...more
On April 1, the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit vacated a $93 million judgment for the SEC against Commonwealth Financial, including a $65 million disgorgement award. The three-judge panel concluded that the...more
On April 1, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit overturned a $93 million judgment issued against Commonwealth Financial Network (“Commonwealth”) nearly one year ago in a case by the Securities and...more
The court rejects the SEC's per se materiality argument and requires proof of a causal connection between the defendant's allegedly inadequate disclosures and purported unlawful profits....more
When state law provides that an insurance contract can be rescinded for misrepresentations only if they are “material,” can an insurer contract around that rule by adding an exclusion for all claims based on any...more
Cases on Material Adverse Effect (“MAE”) clauses (also known as Material Adverse Change, or MAC, clauses) rarely come before the English courts, so there are limited English authorities on their construction. The High Court...more
The materiality standard in fraud cases may soon shift dramatically if the comments of Supreme Court justices during a recent oral argument are any indication. A rollback of the materiality standard would be the latest in a...more
On January 27, 2025, US Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Hester Peirce gave the keynote address at the Northwestern Securities Regulation Institute in which she offered her personal views on how public...more
Although discretionary, it is well-known among commercial practitioners that the Commercial Division justices generally like a Rule 19-a statement of material facts included with the submission of a summary judgment motion....more
Bradley’s Government Enforcement and Investigations Practice Group is pleased to present the False Claims Act: 2024 Year in Review, our annual review of significant False Claims Act (FCA) cases, developments and trends. ...more
On January 23, 2025, Judge James C. Dever III of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina dismissed a putative securities class action against an auto parts retailer (the “Company”) and...more
The first year of a new significant regulatory obligation is often more notable for the absence of regulatory enforcement actions as regulators often observe compliance efforts and challenges, offer guidance, and look for...more
With most S&P 500 companies well underway on their CSRD materiality assessments, it’s not surprising that there is a fast-growing number of them that have completed – or are in the process of completing – “double” materiality...more
Host Jonathan Porter welcomes Husch Blackwell litigator Tanner Cook to discuss how the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision from earlier this year could have a major influence on False Claims Act litigation. The Court’s...more
In late June, the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance released five new compliance and disclosure interpretations regarding the disclosure of material cybersecurity incidents...more
SEC Penalizes Director for Misleading D&O Questionnaire Response - The SEC recently brought an enforcement action against a director for causing violations of the proxy rules by failing to disclose a close personal...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's ("SEC") Division of Enforcement has recently brought a spate of enforcement actions relating to key topics for public companies. These include enforcement actions related to...more
The FCA’s Climate Financial Risk Forum has published a paper on “Nature-related Risk: Technical Data Guidance for Financial Institutions” (the ‘‘Paper’’). What does the FCA’s Paper cover?...more
All breaches are not created equal. A minor, technical breach may be deemed “immaterial.” Other breaches – so-called “material” breaches — deprive the non-breaching party of something important or essential to the purpose of...more
Indemnification is a key component in virtually every M&A deal, serving as a detailed and nuanced contractual risk allocation device between the Buyer and Seller. Though drafted in a two-way fashion, indemnity operates in the...more