On December 4, 2024, Tucker Ellis wrapped up its 11th annual In-House Counsel Summit series with four virtual sessions, following four in-person sessions held on October 29.

The four virtual sessions covered the following topics.

1.  Putting the Pieces Together: Practices, Policies, and Procedures for Managing the Changing Landscape of Employment Regulation

Melissa Kelly – with Megan Kleinman, Assistant General Counsel for Labor and Employment with Rogue Fitness – covered recent and impending developments in employment law through two perspectives: a substantive discussion of the requirements of relevant laws and regulations and a practical approach to implementing and managing their requirements with a large and varied workforce. Topics included the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the revamped DOL overtime threshold, challenges to non-competition provisions, pay transparency, and pay equality.

2.  PFAS – Forever Generating Legal Issues

For decades, attorneys have asked, “what is the next asbestos?” The answer, unfortunately, appears to be PFAS or “forever chemicals.” This collection of chemical compounds can be found almost everywhere in the environment and the blood of people and animals all over the world. A wide variety of products contain PFAS, including product packaging, fire-fighting foam (AFFF), food, clothing, and cosmetics. There are currently tens of thousands of PFAS-related lawsuits pending for personal injury, medical monitoring, water provider contamination, and environmental contamination and cleanup (i.e., CERCLA). The settlements for a small portion of these cases already exceeds $15 billion. The extensive and yet-to-be-quantified liability risks are also significantly affecting M&A and real estate transactions. Tucker Ellis attorneys Joe Koncelik, Mike Ruttinger, and Seth Wamelink – with Howard Zwirn, Senior Environmental Project Manager with TRC Corporation Inc. – addressed the medicine and environmental science underlying these claims, and strategies to protect a company in litigation, regulatory compliance, and transactions.

3.  Recent Decisions and Trends in Bankruptcy Cases and Lessons for Trade Creditors

A number of important decisions and trends have emerged in bankruptcy cases in the past several years – and, in some cases, the past several months – that affect and inform trade creditors as they seek to maximize recovery from customers that are in chapter 11. During this session, Tom Fawkes, Brian Jackiw, and Jason Torf discussed a cornucopia of various decisions and trends, as well as their impact on trade creditors and what trade creditors can learn to aid in maximizing recovery. Topics included third-party releases, the “Texas two-step,” critical vendor status, consignments, and subchapter V bankruptcy.

4.  Data Security & Privacy Update: Privacy & AI; Lessons from Recent Data Breaches; Evolving Best Practices

As technology advances year over year and artificial intelligence promises to accelerate the pace and productivity of business, profound legal and data risks continue to increase. Deepfakes, ransomware, and business email compromise remain as primary threats to data security. All the while, governmental entities are enacting new consumer privacy legislation and ramping up enforcement on businesses that fail to comply with novel consumer data privacy statutes. In this session, Tucker Ellis Chief Information Officer Scott Rolf joined Paul Malie, Ed Racek, and Lance Bird to discuss the cybersecurity and data privacy threats that businesses face today and how to mitigate risk.