Insights

Analysis from the front lines of IP & technology law.

Our attorneys write about the developments shaping intellectual property — from the PTAB and the Federal Circuit to the practical realities of protecting fast-moving technology.

CriminalVictims' Rights

Crime Victims' Rights: Notice, Participation, Restitution, and Compensation

Victims of crime hold a set of rights that exist on paper in every jurisdiction and are honored unevenly in practice, largely because nobody tells victims what they are or how to assert them. This article explains the federal Crime Victims' Rights Act and the state constitutional amendments that parallel it, the eight rights they confer and how they are enforced, the victim impact statement and the constitutional decision permitting it, mandatory restitution and the collection problem that follows a restitution order, state compensation funds and the eligibility rules that exclude people who need them, the specific protections for sexual assault survivors, address confidentiality and employment protections, and the separate civil remedies that exist alongside the criminal case.

Casey Scott McKayApril 9, 202629 min read

ArbitrationAlternative Dispute Resolution

Arbitration: A Comprehensive Guide to Alternative Dispute Resolution

Arbitration is a consensual, private method of dispute resolution in which parties agree to submit their conflicts to one or more impartial arbitrators for a final and binding decision enforceable across most of the world. This guide examines every stage of the arbitral process—from drafting the arbitration agreement through the rendering and enforcement of the award—and the strategic considerations that separate effective practice from mere procedural compliance. It treats both the domestic U.S. regime under the Federal Arbitration Act (separability, delegation, preemption, class-waiver enforcement, and the limited grounds for vacatur) and the international regime under the New York Convention and the UNCITRAL Model Law. It explains where arbitration sits on the broader ADR spectrum alongside mediation, and it reflects developments through early 2026, including the UK Arbitration Act 2025 and the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act. Written for legal professionals, executives, and in-house counsel, it follows a single cross-border dispute to make the doctrine concrete.

Casey Scott McKayApril 8, 202659 min read

EducationSpecial Education

IEP, Evaluation, and Dispute Checklist: A Practical Checklist

A checklist for the whole special education sequence. It runs the written evaluation request that starts the legal clock, what to do when a district refuses, the records to demand before every meeting, the four tests every goal must pass and the four elements every service must specify, the predetermination warning signs, the follow up email that becomes the record, the independent evaluation request, the service log audit that produces the most provable violation in the field, the disciplinary day count and manifestation determination, extended school year and transition, and a forum selection guide matching each type of problem to the right dispute path.

Casey Scott McKayApril 6, 20269 min read

Government BenefitsSocial Security Disability

Social Security Disability Toolkit: Evidence, Hearings, and Federal Court Review

This toolkit supplies the operative documents of a Social Security disability practice. It includes the medical source statement request that produces vocationally usable answers, a records request letter, a function report drafting guide with paired weak and strong answers, a listing analysis worksheet, a grid rule analysis table, a pre-hearing brief template, a vocational expert cross examination outline built around the two questions that decide most hearings, an Appeals Council issue checklist, a federal court error inventory, and the fee, waiver, and expedite requests that surround the merits. It is written for representatives, attorneys, and organized claimants.

Casey Scott McKayApril 5, 202613 min read

Labor and EmploymentWage and Hour

Wage and Hour Self-Audit Checklist: A Practical Checklist

Most wage and hour exposure is created by a system configured once and never tested, not by a decision anyone made to underpay. The classifications were set when the roles were created, the payroll system was configured at implementation, and the rounding rule has run untouched for six years. This checklist tests each of them. It works through exempt classification against the duties test rather than the job description, the regular rate calculation that catches employers who pay overtime diligently and still get it wrong, timekeeping practices including rounding and automatic meal deductions and remote work, the compensability of travel and on-call and training time, contractor classification, deductions, and recordkeeping. It closes with quantifying an exposure and the choices available for remediation.

Casey Scott McKayApril 4, 202610 min read

PropertyShort-Term Rentals

Running a Short-Term Rental Legally: A Practical Guide

This guide takes a short-term rental from the research a prospective host should do before buying or listing through the daily operation and the problems that end permits. It sets out the five documents to read and the five calls to make first, and why answering the city's question does not answer the HOA's, the lender's, or the insurer's. It covers the permit application and the conditions attached to it, the insurance conversation that prevents the single largest exposure in this field, and the tax registration that survives platform collection. It then covers operation: the safety inspection that is a defense, the house rules that are enforceable, the local contact requirement that revokes more permits than anything else, and the long-stay threshold that can accidentally create a tenancy. It closes on complaints, claims, and renewal.

Casey Scott McKayApril 4, 202628 min read

HealthMedical Billing and Debt

Medical Bill Dispute and Debt Response Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a medical bill from the envelope through collections, judgment, and discharge. It covers the four documents to collect and the specific errors to look for in each, the four reductions available and the order they must be done in, the surprise billing analysis and complaint route, the thirty-day validation window and the partial-payment trap that revives dead debt, the affirmative defenses waived if not raised in an answer, and the exemption claims that protect wages and benefits after a judgment. Deadlines that forfeit rights are flagged throughout.

Casey Scott McKayApril 4, 20268 min read

Intellectual PropertyPatent

Overcoming Obviousness Rejections: A Comprehensive Guide to Section 103 Analysis

Obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 is the single most common and most consequential ground on which patent claims are rejected and invalidated. This guide explains the governing framework from Graham v. John Deere through KSR v. Teleflex, the death of the rigid teaching-suggestion-motivation test, and exactly what an examiner or challenger must show to make out a prima facie case. It then walks through the substantive rebuttals available to a patent owner -- attacking the motivation to combine and the reasonable expectation of success, teaching away, non-analogous art, change in principle of operation, and the full set of objective indicia of nonobviousness together with the all-important nexus requirement. The article translates each doctrine into concrete prosecution and litigation strategy, including claim amendments, declarations under 37 C.F.R. 1.132, examiner interviews, the duty of candor, and the distinct burdens that govern obviousness disputes before the examiner, at the PTAB, and in district court. Worked hypotheticals illustrate how the pieces fit together so that lawyers, judges, and inventors alike can follow the analysis.

Casey Scott McKayApril 3, 202654 min read

CriminalPost-Conviction

Post-Conviction Toolkit: Sentencing Memoranda, Appeals, and Habeas Petitions

This toolkit assembles the working documents of sentencing and post-conviction practice: a presentence report objection letter, a sentencing memorandum skeleton, a character letter request and allocution outline, notice of appeal and transcript order language, an issue screening worksheet and appellate brief outline, a trial file demand and police file records request with a preservation demand, a witness affidavit template, structures for ineffective assistance and Brady claims, a state post-conviction petition outline with an evidentiary hearing request, a habeas deadline worksheet and exhaustion chart, a compassionate release motion outline, and a counsel request letter.

Casey Scott McKayApril 2, 202614 min read

Family LawAdoption

Adoption Law: Agency, Private, Stepparent, and Interstate Placements Under the ICPC

Adoption permanently severs one legal parent-child relationship and creates another, which is why the procedures are formal, the consents are hedged with revocation periods, and courts scrutinize the paperwork closely. The structure differs sharply by route — an agency placement, a private placement arranged between the parties, a stepparent adoption, or a foster care adoption each carries distinct consent, home study, and termination requirements. Two federal overlays reach nearly every case: the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children, which must be satisfied before a child crosses a state line, and the Indian Child Welfare Act, which imposes heightened standards and placement preferences whenever a child may be a member of a tribe. This article covers the routes, consent and termination, the interstate and tribal frameworks, intercountry adoption, and the effects that follow finalization.

Casey Scott McKayApril 2, 202625 min read

ConsumerAir Travel

Air Travel Claim Toolkit: Refund Demands, Baggage Claims, and DOT Complaints

This toolkit provides the scripts, letters, and worksheets that turn a flight disruption into a paid claim, ordered from the gate outward. It opens with gate scripts and a disruption log to capture the facts while they exist, then a refund demand that uses the exact language needed to decline a voucher, an ancillary fee demand itemizing the charges airlines never volunteer, and a denied boarding compensation demand that specifies cash. It includes baggage damage and delay claims keyed to the short contractual deadlines, a mobility device damage claim invoking the assistive device exception, a contract of carriage citation worksheet, an airline complaint letter, a DOT complaint narrative, a credit card chargeback letter, a trip delay benefit claim, a small claims outline framed as contract, and a one-page claim summary.

Casey Scott McKayApril 1, 202619 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrade Secrets

Cybersecurity Incident Response and IP Protection: Preventing Trade Secret Loss During Data Breaches

When a breach hits, the incident-response machine almost always points itself at one target—personal data and the notification clock—while the theft of trade secrets, often far more financially devastating, goes unrecognized until the window for protective action has closed. This article explains how to fold intellectual property protection into incident response, following a fictional manufacturer whose breach exposes both customer data and a proprietary process. It covers why post-breach conduct can preserve or forfeit trade secret status under the Defend Trade Secrets Act's "reasonable measures" standard, how to spot trade-secret-targeted intrusions, the legal steps and remedies available under the DTSA and Economic Espionage Act, forensic documentation built to litigation rather than regulatory standards, the privilege traps that snared Capital One, the fragmented cyber-insurance landscape, and how to write IP into an incident-response plan. The throughline: trade secret protection cannot be an afterthought addressed only after the privacy boxes are checked.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 31, 202654 min read