RopesTalk

As global regulations proliferate and become more complex, so too do the challenges of maintaining a high-performing global ethics & compliance program. While no two days are alike for compliance officers, they do face some common risks and challenges. In this podcast, Ropes & Gray litigation & enforcement partner Ryan Rohlfsen is joined by Glenn Leon, Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, to discuss best practices for mitigating risks and meeting global expectations.

April 2018, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in SAS Institute. As a result, petitioners and patent owners needed to immediately grapple with significant practice changes. In this podcast, Doug Hallward-Driemeier, chair of Ropes & Gray’s appellate and Supreme Court practice, and Scott McKeown, chair of Ropes & Gray’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board practice, discuss the strategic implications of SAS for litigating parties, as well as preview further changes to come, including the potential for further patent reform legislation.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) is experiencing significant practice changes thanks to recent feedback from the Supreme Court. In addition, the new U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (“USPTO”) Director has committed to bringing further change to the PTAB. In a bold move, the Director has proposed a significant change to PTAB claim construction practices after only a few months on the job — with further proposals to come. In this podcast, Doug Hallward-Driemeier, who leads Ropes & Gray’s appellate and Supreme Court practice, and Scott McKeown, who leads Ropes & Gray’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board practice, discuss these changes and what they might mean for stakeholders.

With the increase in the number of hedge fund and private equity managers starting or considering starting a credit fund, it is more important than ever to understand and address the challenges and risks as they relate to insider trading. Dan O’Connor and Matt McGinnis will discuss the state of play for insider trading law as applied to debt instruments and other assets often held by credit funds, including what to expect from the SEC in this space in the future. They will also discuss various tools and strategies managers can implement in order to mitigate the risks associated with trading in debt instruments, including developing bespoke and nimble policies and procedures, single-firm restricted lists, ethical walls, internal trainings and ongoing risk monitoring.

Although larger sponsors have been running PE funds simultaneously alongside credit funds for quite some time, over the last few years there has been a steady increase in the number of private equity firms expanding their product offering to include credit funds. A key consideration for a PE firm deciding to enter the credit space is how to address and minimize potential conflicts of interest that arise when one sponsor has funds investing in both equity and debt. In the fourth installment of our credit funds podcast series, our attorneys take up this topic in their discussion on how to implement walls, develop appropriate policies and procedures, and navigate disclosure in key conflict scenarios, such as handling material nonpublic information (MNPI), investing in different levels of a portfolio company’s capital structure and allocating investment opportunities.

Implementing effective compliance programs is challenging, especially where third-party risk management is involved. In this podcast, Ropes & Gray litigation & enforcement partner Amanda Raad is joined by ethics and compliance consultant Hui Chen, who served as compliance counsel in the Department of Justice, to discuss how companies can tell if a compliance program is working.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, tax partner Kendi Ozmon and tax counsel Gil Ghatan discuss one of the key provisions for tax-exempt organizations from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) – the new unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) rules for certain fringe benefits. As of January 1, section 512(a)(7) now treats certain employee fringe benefit expenses as giving rise to UBTI for tax-exempt employers, including expenses related to providing transportation-related benefits. This Ropes & Gray podcast explains new section 512(a)(7), provides examples of how it works in the real world and explores the necessity for future guidance as tax-exempt employers consider estimated tax payments.

The rules regarding truthful, non-misleading communications by medical product manufacturers have long been unclear. In recent years, there have been significant developments in the case law, as well as in FDA guidance and DOJ policy, with regard to manufacturer communications about unapproved uses of their medical products. In this Ropes & Gray podcast, life sciences partner Kellie Combs is joined by government enforcement and litigation partners Joan McPhee and Doug Hallward-Driemeier to discuss the most recent developments in this area, relating both to FDA policy development and DOJ enforcement priorities.

Compliance programs are difficult to design, and implementing and enforcing policies and procedures is challenging, especially in complex, global organizations. In this podcast, the first in a series on challenges and best practices in risk mitigation and management, litigation & enforcement partner Amanda Raad and ethics and compliance consultant Hui Chen, former Department of Justice compliance counsel, discuss how companies can transform policies into a culture of compliance.

Today’s asset managers are increasingly multi-platform, regularly managing private equity funds, hedge funds and credit funds all under the same roof. Invariably, it might make business sense for some of these funds to engage in transactions with or alongside one another which give rise to potential conflicts of interest.