DROPLETS
The EEOC sent OIRA a draft final rule on October 6, 2026 that would withdraw its 2012 guidance on using arrest and conviction records under Title VII, reshaping disparate-impact exposure for multistate employers.
On October 6, 2026, OIRA received a draft final rule from the EEOC that would rescind the agency's 2012 Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions under Title VII. That guidance had explained how criminal-history screening could trigger disparate treatment and disparate impact liability and endorsed combining the three Green factors with nine individualized assessment factors — a framework many employers have used for roughly fourteen years.
Why counsel should care: rescission would not itself defeat private disparate-impact claims, which rest on Title VII and case law rather than agency guidance, but employers are likely to argue the withdrawal undercuts them. The larger shift is that EEOC disparate-impact enforcement is already paused in favor of right-to-sue letters, while the FCRA and proliferating state and local background-check statutes remain fully in force and are being actively pursued by some state agencies. Compliance risk therefore migrates from federal guidance to a patchy state-law landscape.
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CMS has finalized a Medicare Part B drug-pricing model built on most-favored-nation benchmarks, a pricing-policy shift with direct implications for manufacturer reimbursement, contract economics and litigation risk.
What the reporting indicates: CMS has finalized the "GLOBE" model, applying most-favored-nation drug-pricing logic to drugs furnished under Medicare Part B, per a Jones Day alert dated 11 October 2026. Only the alert's headline and framing were available in this cluster, so the model's operative mechanics, scope, covered drugs, implementation timetable and any transition provisions should be verified against the final rule text and sub-regulatory guidance before reliance.
Why sophisticated counsel should care. Part B is a large, fast-growing channel for high-cost specialty, oncology and biologic products, and a benchmark-linked pricing construct is not a rebate tweak: it can reach list prices, price-reporting obligations, and the economics of distribution agreements with buy-and-bill providers, hospitals, distributors and PBMs. For manufacturer, provider and plan-side clients, finalization resets the baseline for pricing negotiations, revenue forecasting, compliance programs and government-pricing exposure.
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Signed September 30, 2026 and effective January 1, 2027, SB 951 adds technology-displacement content and a mandatory banner to Cal/WARN notices for layoffs caused in whole or substantial part by AI or automation.
On September 30, 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 951, amending the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act to add disclosure duties where a mass layoff, relocation, or termination is caused in whole or in substantial part by artificial intelligence or other automated technology; the law takes effect January 1, 2027. Covered notices must state the number of technology-attributable separations by occupation and work location, the job functions to be automated, the category or type of technology involved, and carry the statement "This notice is for a technology displacement" at the top. The statute's AI definition — an engineered or machine-based system varying in autonomy that infers from inputs how to generate outputs influencing physical or virtual environments — is broad enough to reach workforce software employers may not think of as AI. The Employment Development Department must publish summaries of filed notices and a quarterly statewide displacement tally, and must report to the legislature by January 1, 2028 on AI's effect on hiring, a signal that broader notice d
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The EEOC sent OIRA a draft final rule on October 6, 2026 that would withdraw its 2012 guidance on using arrest and conviction records under Title VII, reshaping disparate-impact exposure for multistate employers.
On October 6, 2026, OIRA received a draft final rule from the EEOC that would rescind the agency's 2012 Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions under Title VII. That guidance had explained how criminal-history screening could trigger disparate treatment and disparate impact liability and endorsed combining the three Green factors with nine individualized assessment factors — a framework many employers have used for roughly fourteen years.
Why counsel should care: rescission would not itself defeat private disparate-impact claims, which rest on Title VII and case law rather than agency guidance, but employers are likely to argue the withdrawal undercuts them. The larger shift is that EEOC disparate-impact enforcement is already paused in favor of right-to-sue letters, while the FCRA and proliferating state and local background-check statutes remain fully in force and are being actively pursued by some state agencies. Compliance risk therefore migrates from federal guidance to a patchy state-law landscape.
…
The EEOC sent OIRA a draft final rule on October 6, 2026 that would withdraw its 2012 guidance on using arrest and conviction records under Title VII, reshaping disparate-impact exposure for multistate employers.
On October 6, 2026, OIRA received a draft final rule from the EEOC that would rescind the agency's 2012 Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions under Title VII. That guidance had explained how criminal-history screening could trigger disparate treatment and disparate impact liability and endorsed combining the three Green factors with nine individualized assessment factors — a framework many employers have used for roughly fourteen years.
Why counsel should care: rescission would not itself defeat private disparate-impact claims, which rest on Title VII and case law rather than agency guidance, but employers are likely to argue the withdrawal undercuts them. The larger shift is that EEOC disparate-impact enforcement is already paused in favor of right-to-sue letters, while the FCRA and proliferating state and local background-check statutes remain fully in force and are being actively pursued by some state agencies. Compliance risk therefore migrates from federal guidance to a patchy state-law landscape.
…
Signed September 30, 2026 and effective January 1, 2027, SB 951 adds technology-displacement content and a mandatory banner to Cal/WARN notices for layoffs caused in whole or substantial part by AI or automation.
On September 30, 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 951, amending the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act to add disclosure duties where a mass layoff, relocation, or termination is caused in whole or in substantial part by artificial intelligence or other automated technology; the law takes effect January 1, 2027. Covered notices must state the number of technology-attributable separations by occupation and work location, the job functions to be automated, the category or type of technology involved, and carry the statement "This notice is for a technology displacement" at the top. The statute's AI definition — an engineered or machine-based system varying in autonomy that infers from inputs how to generate outputs influencing physical or virtual environments — is broad enough to reach workforce software employers may not think of as AI. The Employment Development Department must publish summaries of filed notices and a quarterly statewide displacement tally, and must report to the legislature by January 1, 2028 on AI's effect on hiring, a signal that broader notice d
…
CMS has finalized a Medicare Part B drug-pricing model built on most-favored-nation benchmarks, a pricing-policy shift with direct implications for manufacturer reimbursement, contract economics and litigation risk.
What the reporting indicates: CMS has finalized the "GLOBE" model, applying most-favored-nation drug-pricing logic to drugs furnished under Medicare Part B, per a Jones Day alert dated 11 October 2026. Only the alert's headline and framing were available in this cluster, so the model's operative mechanics, scope, covered drugs, implementation timetable and any transition provisions should be verified against the final rule text and sub-regulatory guidance before reliance.
Why sophisticated counsel should care. Part B is a large, fast-growing channel for high-cost specialty, oncology and biologic products, and a benchmark-linked pricing construct is not a rebate tweak: it can reach list prices, price-reporting obligations, and the economics of distribution agreements with buy-and-bill providers, hospitals, distributors and PBMs. For manufacturer, provider and plan-side clients, finalization resets the baseline for pricing negotiations, revenue forecasting, compliance programs and government-pricing exposure.
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Grade 3 — worth a glance, not the full analysis.
- New Jersey AG Announces Two Natural Resource Damages Settlements
New Jersey's AG and DEP announced finalized natural resource damages settlements with Hess Corp. and Hercules LLC; the only source is truncated, so amounts, terms and site specifics are unverified.
- FinCEN Withdraws Convertible Virtual Currency Rule Proposals
FinCEN announced the withdrawal of two proposed rules that would have imposed requirements on financial institutions relating to convertible virtual currencies.
- Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in DHS Third-Country Removal Case
The Supreme Court granted review on September 29, 2026 in DHS v. D.V.D. (No. 26-426), a challenge to the administration's "third-country removal" procedures, per a Dorsey & Whitney case update.
- California's AB 2116 pulls factoring and MCA into the Financing Law
Signed September 30, 2026, AB 2116 extends the California Financing Law to providers and brokers of factoring, merchant cash advances and other commercial-purpose business financing.
- Perkins Coie publishes Q3 2026 CMA merger watch digest
A quarterly summary of the UK Competition and Markets Authority's merger decisions and related activity in Q3 2026, aimed at tracking clearance patterns and deal-timing risk.
- Pillsbury Alert Traces Legal Risk in GPU-Backed AI Infrastructure Debt
A single-source Pillsbury Winthrop alert maps an emerging asset-backed finance product — lending against the GPUs inside data centers rather than the real estate — and the security, valuation and diligence questions it raises for lenders.
- EU Product Liability Directive and Collective Redress Raise Cross-Border Class Action Risk
DLA Piper's alert traces how the EU Product Liability Directive and expanding global collective redress regimes are converging with US-style class exposure for life sciences and device makers.
- FCA keeps TCFD rules aligned to UK SRS, rejecting mandatory climate reporting
In-scope issuers must report against UK SRS S2 climate disclosures, including Scope 3 emissions, on a comply-or-explain basis after the FCA ruled mandatory reporting disproportionate.