Insights

Washington – June 24, 2024: Crowell & Moring has been recommended in eight practice areas in the 17th edition of the Legal 500 United States. In addition, partner Daniel Forman, co-chair of the firm’s Government Contracts Group, has been named to the Legal 500’s “Hall of Fame” for Government Contracts.

Washington – February 8, 2024: Crowell & Moring’s Privacy and Cybersecurity Group has been named a Practice Group of the Year for 2023 by Law360.

New York – January 16, 2024: Linda Malek, Jason Johnson and Blaze Waleski are joining Crowell & Moring’s Health Care and Privacy & Cybersecurity groups and will be based in the New York office.

On Thursday, July 18, 2024, Judge Paul Engelmayer, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York, dismissed the bulk of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) landmark civil securities law claims against SolarWinds and its Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Timothy Brown.  The Court dismissed all allegations based on SolarWinds’ public disclosures made after SolarWinds became a victim of the well-publicized SUNBURST cybersecurity attack, and also dismissed the SEC’s claims relating to SolarWinds’ internal accounting controls and disclosure controls and procedures.  However, the Court declined to dismiss claims of securities fraud against SolarWinds and its CISO based on SolarWinds’ pre-SUNBURST disclosures, finding that the SEC had properly pleaded that the company’s publicly-posted “Security Statement” was materially false and misleading. 

On January 11, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) published in the Federal Register a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) to modify the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (“COPPA Rule”), a set of regulations implementing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) statute. Overall, the NPRM seeks to strengthen and clarify the COPPA Rule in response to technological advances and changes in the way children interact with online offerings. In particular, the NPRM follows a public comment period in which the FTC noted novel issues affecting the COPPA Rule, including the educational technology sector, voice-enabled connected devices, and platforms directed to general audiences that host third-party content directed to children. Comments on the NPRM are due on March 11, 2024.

On July 24, 2023, an en banc Eleventh Circuit joined the majority of circuits to find that just one text is sufficient to establish standing to bring a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) claim. The decision, Drazen v. Pinto, --- F.4th ---, 2023 WL 4699939 (11th Cir. July 24, 2023), not only undoes the panel’s original holding, but also reverses course from the Eleventh Circuit’s prior decision in Salcedo v. Hanna, 936 F.3d 1162 (11th Cir. 2019), which held that a Plaintiff who received a single text message did not have TCPA standing.  

Silicon Legal Strategy and Crowell & Morning are pleased to present discussions in San Francisco and Los Angeles on a number of important data privacy issues affecting companies in California. The events will feature experienced privacy lawyers from the firms’ offices in California, New York, Washington, DC, and Brussels. The discussions in both cities will be followed by receptions. 

Silicon Legal Strategy and Crowell & Morning are pleased to present discussions in San Francisco and Los Angeles on a number of important data privacy issues affecting companies in California. The events will feature experienced privacy lawyers from the firms’ offices in California, New York, Washington, DC, and Brussels. The discussions in both cities will be followed by receptions. 

The 2019 Hotel and Lodging Legal Summit is brings together top hotel and lodging attorneys from worldwide companies to identify the most pressing legal issues and topics facing the hospitality industry. 

With companies paying out millions of dollars in ransoms and recent statements by government officials making clear that ransomware attacks now take their place alongside supply chain attacks, cyber-theft, and disinformation campaigns as national security threats in the digital age, it’s no surprise that ransomware is all over the news. While there’s no question that these attacks pose a significant risk to global companies, developing a solid plan for preventing and responding to attacks before they happen – and following that plan when they do – isn’t always an easy task. Fortunately, Crowell & Moring is here to help.

Every business is potentially vulnerable to a cyber attack or data breach.What do you do when you are attacked by an insider or hacked from outside? As the world becomes more “connected,” how do you protect yourself from attempts to access the personal information that you hold or disrupt your services or even attempts to take virtual control of connected devices? As businesses compete in an electronic world where marketing has moved from flyers and pamphlets to “robo calls” and direct text messages, how is it possible for a legitimate business to be liable for tens of thousands of illegal telemarketing calls to consumers?