Insights

McGrath North is excited to participate in the 2023 Heartland Pride Festival. We firmly believe in the power of diversity and inclusion and recognize that everyone deserves equal rights and fair treatment under the law, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.  

Last week, McGrath North’s Intellectual Property group hosted a CLE seminar titled “Intellectual Property Basics for Non-IP Practitioners" in Sioux City, IA. This educational event helped attendees gain a comprehensive understanding of IP rights.  

McGrath North Board Member and Shareholder Abbey Moland is a co-host and panelist for an educational and networking event focused on Modern Models of Success for Women in Law on Thursday, February 2, 2023. Over 100 women from Omaha’s legal community will be at this first post-pandemic relationship building event by Drinks Among Friends, a grassroots organization dedicated to bringing women in the legal community together, to empower them in their legal practices, in their roles as businesswomen and in their aspirations to lead.  

As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology increases in scope and frequency, AI providers have begun to take the initiative to provide greater transparency about how they use data collected from users of their products. In particular, two software companies, Twilio and Salesforce, have taken steps that emphasize such transparency by providing key information on current AI developments and technology. Critically, based on research conducted by Twilio, less than half of customers trust AI providers to keep their data secure and to use it responsibly. The primary purpose of providing increased transparency is to build customers’ trust in software providers’ use of AI technology, which, up to this point, has been met by some customers with skepticism and wariness.  

On August 24, 2023, twelve international data protection and privacy regulators announced a joint statement (the “Statement”) on their global expectations for social media companies and providers of websites to safeguard against unlawful data scraping. The jurisdictions that have promulgated the Statement are the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, China, Switzerland, Norway, New Zealand, Colombia, Jersey, Morocco, Argentina, and Mexico. The Statement appears to respond to the increased use of data scraping technology and reiterates guidance previously provided by some regulators.  

When a borrower files for bankruptcy, one of the key issues in the case is often whether the borrower’s bankruptcy plan proposes making payments to its secured lender that have a present value of at least the allowed amount of the lender’s secured claim. The need to calculate present value often gives rise to disputes about the appropriate discount rate to be used in making the calculation.  

Over the past year and a half, there has been a rise in litigation and class actions alleging violations of Sections 631(a) and 632.7 of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA). These claims are based on the use of chatbots and live chat technology, with a new wave of claims alleging that certain practices constitute wiretapping. To this point, most courts have dismissed these claims, but there is little indication that the number of new claims will be declining any time soon.  

Co-Authored By: Steve Case and Neil McCarthy (Graduate Clerk)  

This year’s Nebraska Legislative Session was particularly eventful in regard to the State’s Tax and Incentive Policies. The Legislature enacted several significant Tax and Incentive changes, which collectively improved the State’s Business Climate. These changes are positive impacts on at least 8 of the 22 State and Local Site Selection Features:  

Co-Authored By: Steve Case and Neil McCarthy (Graduate Clerk)  

When employees decide to leave their employer and engage in competition, they frequently overlook their duty of loyalty. Absent a non-compete or non-solicitation restriction, an employee may believe that he or she can freely engage in discussions with clients and customers regarding their intention to leave employment and engage in a competitive business.  

Data protection certifications are a great way to give your organization an edge against your competitors when it comes to scoring new clients and proving up your data privacy and security compliance. However, understanding all the different certifications available and which certifications will provide the most value for organization can be tricky. This month, Stacey Shadden and Caroline Pieper discuss the most common types of certifications and how they can be beneficial for your organization as you consider getting certified!  

This month’s episode of Privacy is Power focuses on the importance of employee privacy and security training. Reports show that as many as 90% of breaches start from social engineering or phishing attacks that an organization’s technical security solutions can’t protect against. Training an organization’s workforce who handle sensitive data will have an immediate impact on an organization’s level of data security, and not properly training the workforce can be costly and detrimental. Don’t trust that employees know how to properly protect data or implement proper procedure, reach out to McGrath North’s Privacy and Cybersecurity team today to create a tailored training guide to efficiently ensure employees know proper protocol.   

2021 is already heating up with privacy and security regulatory changes. Congress is getting closer to federal legislation, regulatory agencies are finding ways to get involved and the first national cyber director in history was sworn in by the White House. Check out this month’s episode of Privacy is Power to get up to speed on the top 5 newsworthy data privacy and security topics to help your organization implement updates and prepare for future changes in the world of data privacy and security.  

As the pandemic continues to wind down and vaccines are more widely distributed, employers are bringing employees back to work and may be collecting or accessing data through the use of vaccine cards, temperature checks, COVID-19 screening questions, workplace monitoring apps, and more. Join us for Episode 4, where we discuss not only the data privacy considerations associated with bringing employees back to work, but also the labor and employment considerations. This month, a guest speaker from McGrath North’s labor and employment group, Cody Brookhouser-Sisney, joins Caroline and Stacey for a panel discussion.