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.

ArentFox Schiff is proud to be a sponsor of the 63rd Annual Hawaii Tax Institute Conference, where partners Cindy Brittain, Brian Janowsky, and Christine Quigley, along with Senior Associate Xiang Qu and Associate Jiahua Wang, will be presenting.

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.

Privacy & Data Security Practice Group Leader, D. Reed Freeman, and Associate, Perry Jackson, will present on recent developments in Federal Trade Commission (FTC) privacy enforcement and policy. During the session, he will discuss enforcement actions under the Trump/Ferguson leadership, highlighting the issues, industries, and data practices that are currently drawing FTC scrutiny.

International Trade & Investment Special Legal Consultant, Ucheora Onwuamaegbu, and Partner and AI & Emerging Technologies Industry Group Co-Leader, Michael Scarpati, Ph.D., will participate in Quantum Computing: The Next Frontier in International Arbitration during Washington Arbitration Week on October 30 in Washington, DC. Uche will moderate the discussion, which will bring together legal, academic, and industry leaders to examine how advances in quantum computing may transform international arbitration and the broader legal landscape.

Partner and Executive Committee Member M. Scott Peeler was quoted in a recent article discussing the AFS Fellows Program, a three-year leadership development program that has given more than 100 ArentFox Schiff attorneys opportunities to develop leadership skills, deepen their understanding of themselves and group dynamics, and contribute to initiatives that strengthen the firm.

Partner Adam Littman will join fellow legal professionals as a panelist for “The Law of Technology” at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts on November 4, 2026.

In a previous alert, we noted that 2027 will bring important changes to the US state privacy landscape.

In Daikin Applied Americas Inc. v. Russo, et al., the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) affirmed the denial of a preliminary injunction that would have barred two former employees and their new company from soliciting 75 of their former employer’s customers for one year.

On October 28, 2026, members of ArentFox Schiff’s International Trade & Investments and False Claims Act Investigations & Litigation practices, including Jackson D. Toof, Nadia Patel, Mario Torrico, and Rebekkah Stoeckler, will lead a webinar examining the US Department of Justice’s and Department of Homeland Security’s expanding enforcement efforts targeting customs and trade fraud under the False Claims Act through their joint Trade Fraud Task Force (TFTF) and the newly established Global Trade and Commerce Enforcement Section (GTCES).

Partner J. Michael Showalter was quoted examining provisions in the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 that would send certain challenges to federal permitting decisions directly to federal appeals courts.

Pencils down, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Division of Examinations has once again previewed (some of) the test.

As Virginia moves toward the opening of its regulated adult-use cannabis market, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia has returned a marijuana-related indictment against Virginia power-broker, State Senator L. Louise Lucas and six co-defendants.

The Second Circuit has joined the Fifth Circuit in holding that health care providers have no private right of action to enforce independent dispute resolution (IDR) awards under the No Surprises Act (NSA).

Building owners should not have to treat functioning, federally compliant equipment as obsolete simply because a state or city adopts a building-wide energy target.

Welcome to the October 2026 issue of “As the (Customs and Trade) World Turns,” our monthly newsletter where we compile essential updates from the customs and trade world over the past month. We bring you the most recent and significant insights in an accessible format, concluding with our main takeaways — aka “And the Fox Says…” — on what you need to know.

Headlines that Matter for Companies and Executives in Regulated Industries

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.”

ArentFox Schiff represented CSB Theatres, Inc., in its $12 million acquisition of the historic Somerville Theatre building at 55 Davis Square in Somerville, Massachusetts. The transaction gives the theatre’s current operators ownership of the 112-year-old building that has been home to the Somerville Theatre since 1914.

AFS Partner and Deputy General Counsel Paula Ketcham will take part in a panel discussion at the ACIC 2026 Fall Annual Meeting and Education Conference.

In Adem Arslani v. Microsoft Corporation, et al., the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted motions to dismiss a pro se plaintiff’s Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) claim as untimely, holding that the plaintiff’s own allegations showed that he knew of the alleged misappropriation of his health care consulting methodologies in late 2021, more than three years before he filed suit.

Last week, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (which covers Alabama, Florida, and Georgia) overruled a 1985 precedent, Mason v. Continental Group, Inc., that required employees to exhaust their benefit plan’s internal claims resolution process before suing for violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

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

On October 14, Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg announced the formation of his office’s first Corporate Crime and Antitrust Task Force.

Can a company be too green for a red state and not green enough for a blue one? Increasingly, that is not just a political question. It is a business and legal one.