Emily AnneMerrifield

Jenner & Block lawyers from across the firm represented a cohort of Afghanistan students from the Asian University for Women that caught one of the last flights out of Kabul as the city fell to the Taliban in 2021. These women were forced to flee their homes in Afghanistan fearing for their lives because of their gender, ethnicity, or political opinion opposing the Taliban regime, among other things. Most of them experienced acts of violence and persecution during several harrowing attempts at e

On Friday, September 8, the Florida Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, et al. v. State of Florida, et al., a case challenging Florida’s House Bill 5 (HB 5) which bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The 15-week ban, which has been in effect since last July, has harmed patients across the state. While the case challenges a 15-week ban, the impacts of the state supreme court’s decision could go far beyond that. If the court upholds

In a recent article for Just Security, Jenner & Block Partner Jason Hipp along with Associates Emily Merrifield and Susanna Evarts explain how authoritarian regimes use transnational repression tactics to threaten dissidents who come to the United States for a new life.

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, Jenner & Block has had more than a dozen active asylum cases for refugees to bring them to safety. On March 24, 2023, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) granted asylum to client Fawzia. This was one of four asylum cases that the firm handled, in partnership with Tahirih Justice Center, on behalf of young Afghan women forced to flee the country as the Taliban took control and this is the first grant of asylum.

As we enter the seventh month of Russia’s unjustified war in Ukraine with the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines and a sham referendum annexing Ukrainian territory, there continues to be an unprecedented global response – via sanctions, export controls, and other tools of foreign policy. In our prior February 25, 2022, March 11, 2022, and June 1, 2022 alerts, we discussed the significant, coordinated sanctions the US, EU, UK, and numerous other jurisdictions have imposed on Russia’s leadershi

Working in partnership with abortion service providers and civil liberties groups, a Jenner & Block team filed a lawsuit in Florida to block the implementation of a new state law that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and could put doctors in jail for providing essential care beyond that point.

Starting in February, lawyers from Jenner & Block and our client Cboe worked together to host a series of clinics aimed at helping individuals renew their status under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Within two months of the clinics, eight people received their renewals from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

A class action lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois reveals the egregious living conditions for approximately 1,000 prisoners at the Northern Reception Center in Crest Hill, the point of entry for most prisoners into the Illinois Department of Corrections prison system.

On October 15, 2021, the US Department of the Treasury’s (Treasury) Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued guidance to help the virtual currency industry navigate and comply with OFAC sanctions. The guidance improves on earlier FAQs by providing sanctions compliance best practices tailored for the virtual currency industry and reflects Treasury’s commitment to “modernize and strengthen” US sanctions programs to adapt to what Treasury’s October 18, 2021 report on the 2021 Sanctions Review

Partners Rachel K. Alpert and Shoba Pillay and Associate Emily A. Merrifield examine recently updated guidance from the Office of Foreign Assets Control to companies on defending against ransomware attacks in this article published by Bloomberg Insights. OFAC’s guidance “identifies ‘mitigating factors,’ includes the first designation of a virtual currency platform, and it highlights risks faced by entities that facilitate ransomware payments and companies that may be considering making payment

Litigation Department Co-Chair Reid J. Schar, together with E.K. McWilliams and Philip B. Sailer, have released an updated edition of A Guide to Civil RICO Litigation in Federal Courts, one of Jenner & Block’s Practice Series Guides. This 300-plus page publication is designed to assist lawyers, both in-house and in private practice, as they navigate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”) in civil cases. This fully revised and updated treatise seeks to demystify RICO by f

Colleges and universities have grappled with many challenging issues throughout the COVID-19 crisis, but federally sponsored research has generally provided stable and (comparatively) uncomplicated revenue- and work-streams through this period. In some cases, federal grants were easier to obtain and comply with as additional funding came available through the CARES Act and federal guidance reduced certain compliance requirements. Ongoing compliance efforts may have suffered as a result. As the