Ballard Spahr LLP

The back to school buzz is in the air! Ballard Spahr LLP is thrilled to help welcome new law students across the country as the semester gets underway. Last week, our Phoenix lawyers had the pleasure of hosting ASU’s incoming 1Ls for a special dinner at our office. The evening was filled with valuable networking opportunities and, of course, some fun swag! >> To the 1Ls: Wherever you are, we wish you the best of luck as you embark on this exciting new phase of your careers.  We look forward to meeting you along the way! 

Rebecca Leaf, a labor lawyer in Ballard Spahr’s Baltimore office, spoke to Davis Giangiulio of NBC News for a piece on the zeal with which the National Labor Relations Board and its General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo have pursued a pro-labor course of action. “The Trump administration had reversed too many Obama-era policies, and [Abruzzo] wanted to go back to them, but then I think she wanted to go even further,” Rebecca said. What the future holds for the NLRB and labor activity depends on the upcoming presidential election. Read more of the article here: https://bit.ly/3MfKYUm #BallardLitigation #LaborAndEmployment #NLRB

Please join attorneys from our Labor and Employment Group at the 2024 HR Legal Summit, organized by Ballard Spahr and SEPA SHRM. This Sept. 19 in-person event will feature presentations and sessions on some of the timeliest issues facing the Human Resources field. SHRM and HRCI certification and CLE credits are available. Register here: https://bit.ly/46Ro9zZ #BallardLitigation #LaborAndEmployment #HR

Why might a Fintech want to become a bank? In this week’s episode of the Consumer Finance Monitor podcast, Alan Kaplinsky moderates a discussion between Scott Coleman, who has represented banks and bank holding companies for 30 years, and Michele Alt, a co-founder of investment and advisory firm Klaros Group. Together, the three discuss what leads Fintechs to consider becoming banks, the reasons they may not want to, and what regulators seem to think of the Fintech-to-bank transition. Listen in: https://bit.ly/3WOJLrS #Fintechs #BallardBusinessandTransactions #ConsumerFinancialServices

In the age of maximum information, as Technical.ly CEO Christopher Wink puts it on his Builders Live web interview series, what’s the role of a start-up attorney? “We’re going to help you get the deal done. We’re going to help you get the deal closed, and we’re going to help you do the thing you want to do operationally. We’re going to get you over the finish line,” Kimberly Wexler Klayman told him. “If you have a great lawyer, you have one you helps you get from Point A to Point Z with as little friction as possible.” Listen to more of what Kim, who’s a member of the firm’s Emerging Companies and Venture Capital Group, and Chris had to discuss: https://bit.ly/3SYJ2U4

On August 20, 2024, the U.S. District Court in Texas vacated the final Rule that the FTC enacted to ban noncompete agreements. Jay Zweig and Nalee Xiong, attorneys in our Labor and Employment Group, discuss the Texas Court’s nationwide blockage of the FTC Rule and implications for employers that use noncompetes and other restrictive covenants. Read the full blog post here: https://bit.ly/3WZrMz4. #BallardLitigation #LaborandEmployment #HR #Noncompetes

Challenges to the CFPB's funding have reached "a critical mass," as American Banker puts it. Alan Kaplinsky spoke to Kate Berry about how and why legal challenges to the CFPB’s funding by the Federal Reserve System deserve serious consideration in light of the fact that the CFPB is statutorily required to be funded only out of Federal Reserve earnings, and the Federal Reserve has been unprofitable since September 2022. Read more of what he had to say here: https://bit.ly/3STIcIf

Thanks to Steve Cassell for leading the largest Team Jake Cassell ever for this year’s B2B. Team Ballard is so very proud to partner with them again. Confident we will soon surpass our $100,000 goal.

Christina Benson and Kim Kusterman from Allianz Life joined Kristen Larson and Katie LaGrange on the links for the Driving to Donate Charity Golf Tournament, which raises money for the Alzheimer's Association® -Minnesota North Dakota Chapter. We were pleased to participate in such a fun event that benefits a good cause!

For Shanae T. Jones Jones, Ballard Spahr’s summer associate program not only helped her develop the skills she’ll need as a lawyer, but helped her determine what kind of lawyer she wants to be. “I liked that the structure of the program allowed me to learn about several different areas of law,” she said. “As a 1L, I thought I wanted to be a litigator, but I didn’t know what being a transactional lawyer looked like. The attorneys I met over the course of the summer were very open to providing me with new experiences and shaping my understanding of the firm’s practice groups. When I returned as a 2L, I could say with certainty that I wanted to litigate, and my mentors saw to it that I got the kind of work that interested me. I found myself making meaningful contributions to the litigation process, which was invaluable to me as an aspiring litigator.” Read more about our summer associate program in this Spotlight: https://bit.ly/4fJgNCG #BallardFirm #SummerAssociate #LawFirm