Civil Law

Madrid or Miami? Why the Colombian private client should look to Europe

Plaza Mayor de Bogotá, 1846. Edward Walhouse Mark. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

For two generations, a Colombian family that wanted security abroad bought an apartment in Florida and, in time, applied for a green card. Madrid was the respectable second choice. In 2026 that order deserves to be reversed for a family that keeps its business in Colombia. For seven months of this year the United States suspended immigrant visas for Colombian nationals; it still has no income tax … Read the rest

Civil Law

Should AI Agents be legally liable for their actions?

BankInfoSecurity.com reported that “Although U.S. frontier firms created artificial intelligence agents that went on a hacking spree, breaking the laws of at least two countries, the engineers and managers of frontier labs shouldn’t be held liable, a lawyer from OpenAI said Thursday.” The October 8, 2026 article entitled “OpenAI Lawyer: Labs Shouldn’t Be Liable for AI Agent Hacking” (https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/openai-lawyer-labs-shouldnt-be-liable-for-ai-agent-hacking-a-33050) included these comments:

“A lot of it turns on intent,” Alex Iftimie, the company’s deputy general counsel, told a panel discussion … Read the rest

Civil Law

Your Website’s Pixels May Be Wiretaps: 10 Questions Every Business Should Ask About CIPA

The plaintiffs’ bar has been ramping up lawsuits under the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) and federal and state wiretapping statutes for years, and the wave is not receding. Tens of thousands of claims have been filed since 2022, with CIPA wiretapping continuing to accelerate in recent months. Meanwhile, plaintiffs are branching out beyond California to Florida, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, and increasingly relying on the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to reach companies nationwide.

Companies outside of California … Read the rest

Civil Law

Pet Leave on the Horizon? What Employers Should Know (US)

In recent years workplace leave policies and related legal frameworks have expanded to address a broader range of employee needs, including bereavement, pregnancy loss and paid family leave.

Against this backdrop, legislators also are increasingly recognizing the personal and emotional significance of companion animals. As that recognition continues to expand, employers may be seeing early signs of a broader legal shift extending into the workplace, reflected in emerging proposals for pet care and pet bereavement leave laws.

As of the … Read the rest

Civil Law

Frozen Funds, Sinking Deals: Navigating bank delays in ship sales – who should pay?

In the fast-paced world of ship sale and purchase (S&P), timing is everything. When millions of dollars are expected to change hands promptly between counterparties, even short delays can derail closing timelines, lead to contractual defaults, and trigger costly disputes.

With the decline of traditional payment letters and conditional SWIFT messages in maritime transactions, escrow arrangements and balance pre-positioning have become the standard mechanism for de-risking payment flows in ship sales. However, this shift has introduced new complexities. Increasingly, … Read the rest

Civil Law

The FDA and CDC should not be stopped from doing their jobs

Since the start of the Trump Administration, the CDC and FDA have withheld from the public details about a Romaine Lettuce E. coli O157:H7 outbreak that sickened 89 in 15 states with 36 hospitalized, 7 with kidney failure – hemolytic uremic syndrome –  and 1 death.

(Bainbridge Island, WA – April 21, 2025)  “It is disappointing, but with 20,000 employees at Health and Human Services (HHS) being fired, investigating, and reporting on outbreaks and alerting the public to the … Read the rest

Civil Law

Publisher’s Platform: House and Senate should act now on Boar’s Head plant

— OPINION —

The years of inspection reports (Here are the Inspection Reports in PDF.) leave little doubt that the Boar’s Head plant’s food safety plan must have been non-existent. It is hard to wrap your head around how food could be produced in these conditions by this company and under the gaze of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors.

It is time for the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate committees use their authority … Read the rest

Civil Law

EU BANS PRODUCTS MADE USING FORCED LABOUR – WHAT SHOULD COMPANIES EXPECT?

On March 5, 2024, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union reached a “political agreement” on a Regulation prohibiting products made with forced labour (“the EU Forced Labour Regulation” or “the EUFLR“) on the European Union (“EU“) market (see Insight of 6 March 2024 hhttps://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2024/03/eu-political-agreement-on-forced-labor-product-ban). The EUFLR prohibits companies from “placing and making available” on the EU market, or exporting from the EU, products made with forced labour.

Continue reading at Mayerbrown.com.

LexBlog… Read the rest