Cianan M.Lesley

Jenner & Block has published the 2023 edition of Protecting Confidential Legal Information: A Handbook Analyzing Issues under the Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine, a comprehensive look at issues related to attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine. First published in 1984, the guide remains one of the firm’s most popular publications and an invaluable resource.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s recent opinion in Majestic Oil, Inc. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's, London Subscribing to Policy Number W1B527170201, No. 21-20542 (5th Cir. Mar. 17, 2023), offers important guidance for practitioners in insurance coverage cases faced with offering new or supplemental expert opinions after the expert report deadline. Moreover, the opinion provides insight into how a recent articulation of Texas’ concurrent causation doctrine could a

On April 14, 2023, in Axon Enterprise, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission and the companion case Cochran v. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Supreme Court held that district courts have jurisdiction to hear structural challenges to the constitutionality of the FTC and the SEC while an agency enforcement action is pending against the challenger. Although litigants have always had the ability to raise such arguments, previously it was unclear if a litigant had to wait until administrative pro

In this article, Partners Charles Riely and Gabriel Gillett and Associate Cianan Lesley explore the implications of a decision by a divided Fifth Circuit panel in Jarkesy v. Securities & Exchange Commission, which found that the use of in-house administrative law judges by the SEC is unconstitutional. The authors describe the issues at play in the case and discuss how the continuing uncertainty of the constitutionality of the SEC’s in-house forum may affect the agency going forward.

When Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act, it expanded the SEC’s power to use its in-house administrative forum to bring enforcement actions. Supporters said this change promoted investor protection by giving the SEC a more efficient avenue in an expanded set of cases. Almost a decade after Dodd-Frank was passed, however, this benefit has not materialized. Instead, the SEC’s in-house forum has been subject to repeated constitutional attacks and has been criticized for failing to serve as a fair fo