State AG Pulse | A FAIR Go For NY Consumers
NYS Gov. Hochul’s 2025 State of the State – Legislative Recap
Florida’s Equine Landscape
Unveiling Gender-Affirming Care: Why It Matters and What’s at Stake – Diagnosing Health Care
AI Law in the Commonwealth of Virginia - Recent Developments
Proof in Trial: Moore v. Harper
Video: Things to Remember in Q1 when Preparing 2024 Federal Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) Reports
Podcast: Discussing Florida’s 2024 Legislative Session
33rd Annual Legislative Seminar - Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.
33rd Annual Legislative Seminar - Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill
Orrick Public Policy Podcast #23 – A Conversation with Virginia Delegate Schuyler VanValkenburg
Overview of 87th Texas Legislature
Labor & Employment Law: Vermont and Federal Legislative Update
Lowndes Client Corner Podcast Episode 5 - Winter Park Distilling Company Brews One-Of-A-Kind Facility in Winter Park
On June 3, 2025, a bipartisan group of 260 state lawmakers sent a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate expressing “strong opposition to the provision in Subtitle C, Part 2 of the tax and budget...more
New York’s Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (“the Commission”) announced the following adopted emergency rules on June 4, 2025: (i) the Commission adopted an emergency amendment of Part 943 of Title 19 NYCRR to...more
On June 2, the Texas legislature passed the Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act, (TX AI Act or bill) which heads to the governor for his signature or veto. The bill will take effect January 1, 2026, if...more
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed legislation making it clear that debt collection emails sent between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. do not violate Florida law....more
The state legislature in North Dakota recently passed House Bill 1127. This bill made a simple amendment to a 1970s-era law called the Money Brokers Act ("MBA")....more
The 2025 Texas Legislative Session concludes on June 2, and new regulations impacting homeowners’ associations and condominium owners’ associations will be implemented on September 1, 2025....more
The 95th Arkansas General Assembly convened on January 13, 2025, and entered into an extended recess on April 16, 2025...more
Recently, the Texas House of Representatives introduced HB 5007, along with its companion bill SB 2117. The legislation—“Relating to the establishment of the Texas Committee on Foreign Investment to review certain...more
On May 16, the Colorado legislature sent HB25-1209 to Governor Jared Polis to sign into law. The prime sponsors of the bill—Representatives William Lindstedt and Jenny Willford, as well as Senators Julie Gonzales and Robert...more
Nearly nine years after voters authorized the regulated sale of adult use cannabis in Massachusetts, the Joint Cannabis Committee is addressing the challenges (and that’s an understatement) the industry is facing with a very...more
The past several weeks (May 11-27, 2025) saw a surge of activity targeting intoxicating consumable hemp products, as states move to enact new regulations. These are the latest developments in the field of consumable hemp...more
Indiana and Maryland join seven other states in enacting laws that specifically regulate earned wage access (EWA) providers. EWA is an on-demand payment product that allows workers to access their wages as they are...more
What is the CHOICE Act? On April 24, 2025, Florida state lawmakers passed the Contracts Honoring Opportunity, Investment, Confidentiality, and Economic Growth Act or CHOICE Act. The CHOICE Act is a law reforming...more
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. That’s been the tenor of what I’ve heard and read from stakeholders in the Alabama hemp industry in response to the enactment of comprehensive hemp reform legislation earlier this...more
As regularly reported by the Environmental Law Monitor, state legislatures have increasingly been taking action independent of federal government regulation to address the significant challenge of eliminating per- and...more
The North Carolina General Assembly is considering various alcohol bills during the long 2025 session. Proposed changes include legalizing happy hour, authorizing Sunday sales by ABC stores, clarifying special one-time...more
On May 6, 2025, the Pennsylvania Senate passed Senate Bill 349 by a vote of 49-1. A week later, on May 13, 2025, the legislation was referred to the state House Environmental and Natural Resource Protection Committee to begin...more
As Rich Andreano blogged on April 15, 2025, legislation to prohibit or restrict so-called “trigger leads” in the home-buying process has been reintroduced in the House and Senate. The legislation has broad industry and...more
Trending in Telehealth highlights monthly state legislative and regulatory developments that impact the healthcare providers, telehealth and digital health companies, pharmacists and technology companies that deliver and...more
Are cannabis beverages poised to take over the market for intoxicating beverages from alcoholic beverages, or are they simply the latest fad set to give way to alcoholic beverages’ century of dominance? A decade ago, the...more
At Ward and Smith, we are closely monitoring these developments to help our clients with the potential impacts on their businesses. Below is an overview of what stakeholders in the hemp industry need to know about this...more
In Q1 of 2025, there have been significant regulatory and policy developments at the state, federal, and international level regarding artificial intelligence (“AI”). In Europe, the phased implementation of the European...more
Within the past two months, three states have adopted the Money Transmission Modernization Act (MTMA). The governors of Virginia, Mississippi, and most recently Colorado, signed bills that implement the MTMA, and two other...more
In 2024, Colorado passed the first comprehensive state-level law in the U.S. regulating the use of artificial intelligence, the Artificial Intelligence Act (the Act). It imposed strict requirements on developers and users of...more
“Compromise” sometimes gets a bad rap. And history teaches us that there can be bad compromises. But as your resident glass-is-half-full contributor who has also been closely following debate over access to consumable hemp...more