On June 28, 2024, in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 144 S.Ct. 2244 (2024), the Supreme Court overruled its 1984 Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. NRDC, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984), decision and the legal doctrine of Chevron deference with it. In doing away with Chevron deference, the Court has broken from the accepted regulatory landscape of the last 40 years, which will have dramatic effects on environmental law for decades to come. Environmental attorney Jennifer Cave and summer associate Noah S. Dunaway take a look the Court’s decision and its impacts on regulated entities, beginning with an analysis of what Chevron deference was in this Stites & Harbison Client Alert.

On Tuesday, August 20, 2024, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas entered an order preventing the FTC’s rule on noncompetes from going into effect nationwide. For the time being, employers do not need to comply with the FTC’s rule, which was scheduled to go into effect on September 4, 2024. Employment attorneys Shannon Hamilton, Robin McGuffin, and Zac Losey take a look at that decision in this Stites & Harbison Client Alert.

On July 23, 2024, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied a company’s motion to enjoin the enforcement of the FTC’s rule banning nearly all noncompetes. This contradicts the Northern District of Texas’s order on July 3, 2024, which granted a preliminary injunction enjoining the rule as it applies to the plaintiffs in that case. With opposing rulings, employers remain in limbo as the rule’s September 4, 2024 enforcement date approaches. Employment attorneys Shannon Hamilton, Robin McGuffin, and Zac Losey take a look at what happened.

The United States Patent and Trademark office (“USPTO”) has stated that it will be holding a roundtable on August 5, 2024, to address whether current laws are sufficient to protect individuals from the unauthorized reproductions of their voice, image, or likeness commonly referred to as “deepfakes.” Attorney TJ Mihill takes a look at the what the USPTO is looking for in this Stites & Harbison Client Alert.