All Perspectives

AFS International Team Co-Leader and Partner Sarah Fitts will serve as moderator for a webinar hosted by the International Bar Association (IBA) on November 19 at 11:00-12:00 GMT.

Chicago Partner Matt Prewitt will serve as a moderator at the IP Strategy Summit: New York, hosted by CenterForce, on November 19 in New York.

International Trade & Investment Counsel, Matt Nolan, will speak at the Steel Networking Summit 2026 in Istanbul, Türkiye, on October 26, 2026. Matt will participate in the session, “Transatlantic Steel Outlook: Navigating Trade, Policies and the Growth Process.”

AFS Partner Ann MacDonald will be a panelist at the 2026 Hotel & Lodging Legal Summit hosted by Georgetown Law on October 23, 2026.

Partner and Customs Practice Leader, Angela M. Santos, will moderate the panel “Navigating the New Trade and Tariff Landscape: Legal Strategies for U.S. Importers, Exporters and Global Trade Partners in an Era of Unprecedented Trade Disruption” at the NYSBA International Section 2026 Global Conference on October 21 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Privacy & Data Security Practice Group Leader D. Reed Freeman and Agriculture & AgTech Industry Group Leader Karen Carr will lead a webinar hosted by the National Agricultural Law Center on October 21, 2026.

On October 19, 2026, International Trade & Investment Partner Megan Barnhill will speak on a CLE webinar titled Reciprocal Trade, Real Impact: Navigating the Evolving US–EU Trade Landscape.

Health Care Partner Hillary Stemple will give a presentation titled “Examining the Current Administration’s Stand on ACA and Pharmacy Costs and What This Means for the Industry” at Q1 Productions’ 17th Annual Managed Markets & Account Management Strategies Conference on October 15, 2026.

AFS Partner Sara Judge will moderate a panel at the 2026 NADC Fall Conference, taking place October 11 - 13, 2026 in Nashville, Tennessee.

ArentFox Schiff Partner Thorne Maginnis will moderate “Building Winning Products Under Very Different Rules” at TiECon East 2026 on October 2, 2026, at the Boston Marriott Burlington. The session will explore how companies are building and scaling products in rapidly evolving AI markets, creating durable competitive advantages, translating AI capabilities into meaningful customer value, and driving product-led growth, adoption, and retention.

ArentFox Schiff Partner Lauren Schaefer will speak at Practising Law Institute’s (PLI) Noncompetes and Restrictive Covenants: What Every Lawyer, Human Resources Professional, and Key Strategic Decisionmaker Should Know program on October 1, 2026.

AFS Partner and Family Office Co-Leader Kevin Matz will present at ACTEC’s 2026 Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland September 26, 2026.

AFS partner and Family Office Co-Leader Kevin Matz will present at the Trusts & Estates and Elder Law & Special Needs Section 2026 Joint Fall Meeting hosted by the New York State Bar Association on September 24, 2026.

Trademark Partner, Luna Samman, will speak on the “Fame or Foe? Risks for Traditional and Non-Traditional Trademarks” panel at the MARQUES 2026 Annual Conference in Lisbon, Portugal.

Partner Janine Carlan will speak at the 2026 Women’s IP Forum in Ashburn, Virginia on September 23, 2026.

Partner and Customs Practice Leader Angela Santos will speak on the panel, “Policy, Trade, Tariffs, Credits: From Solar 1 to 232 and Everything in Between,” at Solar Manufacturing USA 2026 on September 22, 2026, in Austin, Texas. The session will take place from 5:40 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and will close out the first day of the conference.

Partner and Longevity & Healthspan Industry Group Co-Leader, Thorne Maginnis, will moderate the “Status, Wellness & the Evolving Consumer Economy” panel at Brand Forward, The Fashion Law’s annual conference, on September 17, 2026.

International Trade & Investment Counsel, Sylvia Costelloe, will speak at the Society for International Affairs (SIA) 2026 AI Regulations Workshop on September 16.

AFS Counsel Fredrick Weber will present at the Greater North Shore Estate & Financial Planning Council’s breakfast meeting on September 16, 2026, in Skokie, Illinois.

On September 3, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed to rescind Rule 206(4)-5 under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended, commonly known as the “pay-to-play” rule, along with related recordkeeping requirements under Rule 204-2(a)(18).

ArentFox Schiff is pleased to announce that Nonprofits & Associations Industry Group Co-Leader Shira Helstrom has been appointed as Chair of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section Nonprofit Organizations Committee.

In Silver Fern Chemical, Inc. v. Lyons et al., No. 2:23-cv-00775-TL (W.D. Wash. Aug. 25, 2026), the US District Court for the Western District of Washington denied the defendants’ renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law and motion for a new trial following a jury verdict awarding $1,916,137 in damages for trade secret misappropriation under both the Washington Uniform Trade Secrets Act (WUTSA) and the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA).

Headlines that Matter for Companies and Executives in Regulated Industries

Partner and Executive Committee Member M. Scott Peeler, along with several AFS Fellows Program alumni, were recently quoted in the Bloomberg Law article, “One Big Law Firm Bet on Leadership Training, and It’s Paying Off.” The article examines the success of ArentFox Schiff’s AFS Fellows Program over the past decade, highlighting its impact on leadership development, attorney advancement, retention, and firm culture.

In January 2025, the Gulf of Mexico became the Gulf of America by executive order. Then, on August 27, a second executive order was signed renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America.”