Expert Analysis

• Strategies For Retailers, Landlords In M&A Portfolio Reduction

  

  With more retailers likely to merge or be acquired in 2026, both landlords and companies looking to renegotiate their real estate footprints can strike successful deals through advance planning, understanding rights allocations and maintaining realistic leverage assessment, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

• 4th Circ. Navy Federal Decision Illustrates Nuances Of Rule 23

  

  The Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Oliver v. Navy Federal Credit Union helpfully clarified how class action defendants can use Rule 23(c)(1)(A) to eliminate exposure early, along with the limitations of such an approach, say attorneys at Duane Morris.

• NYC Energy Storage Guidance Clarifies Compliance Pathways

  

  The New York City Department of Buildings’ recently issued bulletin provides long-awaited clarity on how battery storage systems may generate greenhouse gas emissions deductions, materially expands compliance pathways for building owners and creates new opportunities for providers, say attorneys at Hodgson Russ.

• Takeaways From CFPB's Retreat On Immigrant Fair Lending

  

  Practices discouraged under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Justice Department's 2023 statement on the treatment of immigration status under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act may now be permissible following its recent withdrawal, making it crucial for lenders to follow unfolding fair lending developments in this area, say attorneys at Steptoe.

• How New Texas Law Streamlines Eviction Proceedings

  

  A recent legislative change to the Texas Property Code overhauls the state's eviction process and makes it more difficult for nonpaying tenants to challenge evictions, likely yielding a faster and cheaper procedure that will encourage timely rent payment and lease compliance, says Maddison Craig at Munsch Hardt.

• Exploring Good Faith And Bad Faith, From Dock To Doorstep

  

  Evolving in different contexts, property and maritime insurance take almost opposite views on the foundational concepts of good faith and bad faith, but, as evidenced by two recent decisions, they dovetail on the idea that trust is the currency of risk, says Nicole Connors at Cozen O'Connor.

• How Blockchain Could Streamline Real Estate Transactions

  

  As U.S. real estate markets face pressure to adopt digital frameworks, blockchain technology offers a credible solution for consolidating execution, payment and recording into a single record, with a unified ledger potentially replacing fragmented processes with digitally authenticated events, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

• Del. Dispatch: Workplace Sexual Misconduct Liability In Flux

  

  Following the Delaware Court of Chancery's recent contradictory rulings in sexual misconduct cases involving eXp World, Credit Glory and McDonald's, it's now unclear when directors' or officers' fiduciary duties may be implicated in cases of their own or others' sexual misconduct against employees, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

• Tips For Consumer Finance GCs Navigating AI In Pro Se Suits

  

  There are several avenues for consumer finance in-house counsel to make artificial intelligence use disclosure requirements a standardized tool when facing pro se litigants, including preservation demands and discovery requests to ease friction and root out inaccurate legal representations, says Lee Barrett at Planet Home Lending.

• OCC Mortgage Escrow Rules Add Fuel To Preemption Debate

  

  Two rules proposed in December by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which would preempt state laws requiring national banks to pay interest on mortgage escrow accounts, are a bold new federal gambit in the debate over how much authority Congress intended to hand state regulators under the Dodd-Frank Act, says Christian Hancock at Bradley Arant.

• When Tokenized Real-World Assets Collide With Real World

  

  The city of Detroit's ongoing case against Real Token, alleging building code and safety violations across over 400 Detroit residential properties, highlights the brave new world we face when real estate assets are tokenized via blockchain technology — and what happens to the human tenants caught in the middle, say Biying Cheng and Cornell law professor David Reiss.

• How Lenders Can Be Ready For Disparate Impact Variabilities

  

  Amid state attorneys general's and regulators' mixed messaging around disparate impact liability, financial institutions can take several steps to minimize risk, including ensuring compliance management aligns with current law and avoiding decisions that impede growth in business and service, says Elena Babinecz at Baker Donelson.

• Reflections From High Court Oral Args Over Fed Gov. Removal

  

  In the oral arguments last month for Trump v. Cook, which asks the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify the circumstances under which the president can remove a Federal Reserve Board governor, the justices appeared skeptical about ruling on the substantive issues in view of the limited record and analysis, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.