Resources

On March 31, 2026, Anthropic, the company behind the Claude artificial intelligence system, accidentally published the entire source code of a product called Claude Code inside a routine software update. A missing line in a configuration file shipped 512,000 lines of proprietary code to the public. No hack. No breach. Human error.

On March 26, 2026, the White House fundamentally reframed how diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs are evaluated in the context of federal contracts. With the issuance of Executive Order 14398, “Addressing DEI Discrimination by Federal Contractors,” DEI is no longer treated primarily as a cultural or human-capital initiative. Instead, for covered contractors and subcontractors, DEI has become an express contractual risk factor, carrying the potential for termination, suspension, debarment, and False Claims Act liability.

In 2012, financier and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick made a transformative donation to his alma mater, Haverford College, a small liberal arts school in Pennsylvania. Over time, Lutnick’s contributions — reportedly totaling roughly $65 million — helped fund major campus initiatives, including the college’s library, which now bears his name. More than a decade later, the institution finds itself confronting a difficult governance question. Following renewed scrutiny surrounding Lutnick’s past associations with Jeffrey Epstein, Haverford students and community members have begun asking whether the college should reconsider the recognition attached to that gift.

When you restructure into a C corporation for qualified small business stock (QSBS) treatment but miss even one of Section 1202’s technical requirements, the IRS can deny the exclusion entirely—even if the business itself is an ideal candidate. The central risk in S-corp / LLC-to-C-corp planning is that the restructuring steps are easy to do “almost right,” yet still fail the original-issuance, eligibility, or documentation rules that QSBS depends on.

Virginia’s steady march away from employer-friendly noncompete law continues. What began in 2020 as a targeted prohibition on noncompetes for “low-wage” workers has now expanded into a far broader restriction that reaches employees at every level of the organization. With the General Assembly’s passage of Senate Bill 170 (SB 170), Virginia employers must now confront a new reality: a noncompete is unenforceable if an employee is laid off without severance or other disclosed compensation.

Like other states, Virginia’s business landscape is supported by a network of organizations that often sound similar but may serve very different purposes. Chambers of commerce, business improvement districts (BIDs), and business alliances all work to strengthen the local and regional business environment, but they do so through distinct organizational structures, funding mechanisms, and missions. For business owners, developers, and civic leaders, understanding these differences is more than academic: it can shape where you spend your time, how you spend your money, where your dues go, who advocates on behalf of your business, and which organization best aligns with your business objectives. This overview explains how each model operates in Virginia, where it came from, and how to determine which one best fits your needs.

The U.S. Department of Labor recently released a report to Congress highlighting continued growth in employee ownership and outlining a new federal initiative aimed at expanding worker ownership opportunities. Business owners, private companies, and boards evaluating succession or liquidity strategies should take note. Federal agencies are not only tracking the expansion of employee ownership structures but are actively promoting policies intended to increase their adoption. As regulatory attention intensifies, companies considering ESOPs or other ownership models should evaluate both the opportunities and compliance expectations that may follow.

Few questions in U.S. employment law have proven as persistent or as disruptive for businesses—as determining whether a worker is an “employee” or an “independent contractor.” Since the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was enacted in 1938, employers have struggled with a statute that imposes sweeping wage-and-hour obligations on employers for “employees” while offering little statutory guidance on who qualifies as an “independent contractor.”

Artificial intelligence is now embedded in modern hiring, applicant screening, employee promotion, and performance evaluation systems. From resume scanners to video interview analytics and automated promotion recommendations, algorithmic decision tools are becoming increasingly common. But one message from federal enforcement agencies is becoming unmistakably clear: you are responsible for your AI.

On January 27, 2026, the Virginia Court of Appeals issued a pivotal decision interpreting Virginia’s increasingly restrictive approach to employee noncompetition agreements. In Sentry Force Security, LLC v. Barrera, the court resolved a question that had been looming since Virginia first began limiting noncompetes for lower‑paid workers: how far those restrictions extend to customer and employee non-solicitation agreements.

Few workplace events generate as much consternation for employers as receiving notice that an employee or former employee has filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). While the arrival of a charge can set off alarm bells, it is important for employers to recognize that the charge is not a finding of wrongdoing. Instead, it is the beginning of an administrative process designed to investigate the charge allegations and determine whether federal anti-discrimination laws may have been violated.

In the span of 48 hours this week, the three largest commercial real estate services firms in the world collectively lost tens of billions of dollars in market capitalization. CBRE Group saw its stock decline more than 20% over two trading sessions. JLL and Cushman & Wakefield each fell by double digits. By Wednesday afternoon, the sell-off had spread to office landlords, with SL Green, BXP, and Kilroy Realty all posting steep losses.

Many employers have historically treated restrictive covenant agreements as standardized documents, developed once, applied to employees nationwide, and updated only periodically. That approach is becoming increasingly obsolete, particularly in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) region. Recent legislative changes across these neighboring jurisdictions have reshaped how non-compete agreements operate and, in many cases, whether they can be enforced at all.

As we move into February 2026, the Northern Virginia land use landscape is being reshaped by a distinct “top-down” pressure. While local Boards continue to grapple with the political fallout of data center density and affordable housing mandates, the Commonwealth has signaled a forceful move toward administrative streamlining. For developers, the last 30 days have provided a critical window to audit pipelines against new state-level mandates and shifting local conditional use thresholds.

For many nonprofit organizations, the annual Form 990 is treated as a routine accounting exercise. It is prepared by staff or outside advisors, perhaps reviewed briefly (if at all), and hopefully filed to satisfy minimum IRS requirements. In practice, however, Form 990 functions as something far more consequential for nonprofits. It is a public-facing document that shapes how regulators, donors, journalists, and counterparties assess an organization’s governance, credibility, and overall financial health.

We have spent an intense year helping our nonprofit clients through a wide variety of threats and risks. During that time, we have seen and heard many repetitive concerns and worries expressed across a wide variety of organizations. Rather than siloing this information, we wanted to start a conversation around sharing best practices and approaches to what appears to be a completely new universe for clients in the nonprofit space.

Paid sick leave legislation has reemerged in Richmond as a focal point of employment law reforms in Virginia that have been going on since 2020. Current proposed legislation would create paid sick leave obligations for employers that extend well beyond the narrow sector-specific mandate now in place, bringing Virginia closer to the employee paid sick leave benefits adopted in a growing number of other states.

For many businesses, classifying employees as “exempt” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) can feel routine—almost administrative. Yet this single decision often carries with it significant legal and financial consequences. When an employee is treated as exempt from overtime but does not actually meet the FLSA’s strict exemption criteria, as discussed below, the misclassification can expose the employer to substantial liability. In recent years, federal and state agencies, as well as plaintiffs’ attorneys, have intensified their scrutiny of wage‑and‑hour practices, making misclassification one of the most common and costly compliance pitfalls for employers of all sizes.

Selecting a contractor is one of the most consequential decisions an owner or developer makes during a construction project. Whether the work involves a residential renovation, a commercial tenant build-out, or a larger development effort, owners reasonably expect that contractors performing the work are properly licensed, insured, and qualified. Unfortunately, and despite the best intent from contractors, these safeguards often fail to exist.