RopesTalk

Ropes & Gray’s podcast series, IP(DC), focuses on developments in intellectual property law from the vantage point of Ropes & Gray’s office on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. In this episode of IP(DC), IP litigation partners Scott McKeown and Matt Rizzolo are joined by antitrust partner Chong Park to address Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) and their potential to complicate the roll-out of 5G-enabled products and infrastructure. The discussion explores risks for SEP licensors pending the FTC v. Qualcomm decision on Fair, Reasonable, and Non-discriminatory (FRAND) SEP licensing, refusal to deal, and compliance with Standard Setting Organization (SSO) obligations. On the implementer side, the discussion walks through patent hold-up and anti-competitive patent pooling practices. Matt and Scott also briefly preview 2020 legislative efforts in the patent space.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, Ryan Rohlfsen, a litigation & enforcement partner and one of the co-leaders of the firm’s global anti-corruption and international risk practice, is joined by Momentum Events, the organizers of the annual ACES Compliance Summit. This year’s Summit will be hosted at American University’s College of Law on March 17-18, 2020 in Washington, D.C. The program will cover the intersection of anti-corruption, export controls and sanctions, with a focus on discussing practical solutions and cutting-edge strategies for conquering the latest obstacles currently posing a threat to domestic and global corporate operations. Ryan will be moderating a panel at the Summit discussing the five most significant global anti-corruption developments of the past year, including international enforcement actions, emerging regulations and legislation, trends and anti-corruption priorities worldwide.

In the latest installment of Ropes & Gray’s alumni podcast series, Alumni @ RopesTalk, health care partner Christine Moundas interviews her former colleague, Jennifer Bealer, who left Ropes & Gray in 2017 to become executive vice president and general counsel of Progyny, a leading fertility benefits management company. Within two years of joining Progyny, the company went public. In this engaging conversation, Jen shares her insights about the challenges and rewards of transitioning to an in-house position, executing an IPO and running the day-to-day legal operations of a mission-driven startup—all at the same time.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, finance partner Leonard Klingbaum is joined by Colin Adams, a managing director and senior professional at the investment and advisory firm M3 Partners, to discuss one of the most critical issues for clients in the stressed and distressed space: attention to documentation, or the lack thereof. From both a legal and business perspective, this podcast explores the prevalent concerns lenders and borrowers have faced regarding (1) voting provisions, (2) pro rata provisions and (3) EBITDA, as well as the opportunities that arise when these areas are reviewed competently.

In December 2019, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a report in relation to undue short-term pressure on companies. In this Ropes & Gray podcast—the latest in a series of podcasts on ESG and corporate social responsibility issues—asset management partner Eve Ellis will provide an overview of the ESMA report and analyze key issues addressed in the report, such as the need for greater institutional investor engagement; amending existing EU legislation to address ESG disclosures; and reducing the focus on short-term investment pressure to help companies meet sustainability goals.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, Isabelle Farrar, an associate in the tax controversy group, is joined by Elizabeth Smith, counsel in the tax controversy group, and Jennifer Romig, a partner in the health care group, to discuss the state taxation of digital products, an evolving area in several states. Specifically, they will discuss how new technologies are rapidly shifting the delivery of health products and services, and how these new technologies are creating uncertainties in the sales and use tax world.

The eighth installment of Ropes & Gray’s podcast series Non-binding Guidance looks at SEC disclosure issues for life sciences companies. In this episode, Ropes & Gray partners Kellie Combs and Emily Oldshue discuss when to disclose, how to frame the disclosure, and how the responses to both of these questions are informed by SEC enforcement actions and securities litigation, as well as their experience working with life sciences companies in various stages of development. Emily and Kellie will dive into how to craft SEC disclosures involving a variety of FDA regulatory issues, such as clinical trial results, adverse findings from regulatory audits and inspections, and FDA interactions that occur during review of a pending application or post-market.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, asset management partners Isabel Dische and Leigh Fraser discuss the three no-action letters that were published by the CFTC on December 17, 2019 to provide relief to market participants as they transition swaps that reference the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and other interbank offered rates (or IBORs) to swaps that reference alternative benchmarks.

Regulators around the world are increasingly warning against the danger of a check-the-box compliance program and encouraging companies to evaluate their respective cultures and the corresponding impact on compliance. A growing emphasis on behavioral sciences, which involves looking more deeply into why an individual makes certain decisions or acts a certain way, is becoming an increasingly important aspect of this shift. In this podcast, litigation & enforcement attorneys Amanda Raad and Tina Yu sit down with Richard Bistrong, CEO of Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC, to discuss his journey from being prosecuted by U.S. and UK authorities for bribery violations to becoming an outspoken proponent of using a behavioral sciences approach to compliance.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, asset management partner Lindsey Goldstein and ERISA partner Josh Lichtenstein discuss ERISA plan fiduciary proxy activities, addressing what the existing regulatory guidance provides as well as some of its ambiguities, and what clarifications we hope new guidance will include.