Coffee Chats With WIN: Kathryn Daniel (Podcast)

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and IRS recently issued temporary regulations that provide an immediately effective framework for establishing and administering “Trump Accounts,” including broad automatic enrollment and large-scale contributions funded by governmental and charitable donors. The regulations became effective September 30, 2026, apply to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, and expire September 30, 2029.

The IRS has released Revenue Procedure 2026-24, establishing new inflation-adjusted limits for Health Savings Accounts and high-deductible health plans effective in 2027. These updates include increased contribution limits, higher minimum deductibles, and expanded out-of-pocket maximums, along with new provisions for direct primary care service arrangements under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act. How will these changes impact employee benefit planning and healthcare coverage strategies?

On Tuesday, October 20, 2026, the Allegheny County Council passed legislation requiring employers with at least 15 workers to provide 12 weeks of paid parental leave, ending months-long debate on the proposal. We previously reported on the initial 18-week proposal in May 2026 (summarized here), the revised proposed legislation (summarized here), and the Allegheny County Board of Health passing the legislation (summarized here). The measure was passed in an 11-4 vote. It will become effective in one year, as County Executive Sara Innamorato signed the bill on, October 22, 2026.

The Trump Administration has launched an unprecedented enforcement action suspending permanent labor certification processing for eight major employers, linking immigration sponsorship to layoff histories and recruitment practices. This development signals a fundamental shift in how the government evaluates employer access to H-1B and green card programs, with investigations already underway and subpoenas served.

Maryland employers must comply with new posting requirements under the Worker Freedom Act, which prohibits penalizing employees who decline attendance at employer-sponsored meetings on religious or political matters. The Maryland Department of Labor has released official notices in English and Spanish that must be displayed prominently in workplaces and provided to new hires starting November 1, 2026.

On March 27, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a notice in the Federal Register seeking to restructure the calculation used to issue prevailing wages for employers seeking to hire temporary foreign employees...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security published a final rule that will shift the H-1B cap registration selection process from a random lottery to a weighted selection process...

OSHA's revised Hazard Communication Standard requires covered employers to update chemical labels, written hazard communication programs, and employee training by November 20, 2026. The revisions align with the UN's Globally Harmonized System and introduce new hazard classifications, downstream use considerations, and updated requirements for compressed gases and aerosols. Employers must navigate separate compliance timelines for chemical mixtures while ensuring their workplace practices meet the updated st

Donald Dowling says abusive labor practices are a huge problem around the world, and often the smaller local manufacturers, miners and growers within countries that are committing labor...

Illinois employers face new requirements for Equal Pay Registration Certificate submissions as the state Department of Labor eliminates the "prefers not to identify" option for employee demographic data. Starting January 1, 2027, businesses must report definitive sex and race information for all employees, raising questions about data collection methods and compliance strategies.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has filed a lawsuit against the CFTC challenging its approval of Kalshi's bitcoin perpetual futures contract, arguing that perpetual contracts should be classified as swaps rather...

The U.S. Copyright Office recently released a report on the human authorship requirement for materials to qualify for copyright protection.

The U.S. government has filed a Statement of Interest of the United States of America under 28 U.S.C. § 517 in the Southern District of New York multidistrict litigation over OpenAI’s use of copyrighted works to train large language models. The filing appears to be the federal government’s first direct intervention in the wave of artificial intelligence (AI) training copyright cases, and it advises the court to treat model training (separate from use of AI to generate outputs) on copyrighted text standing alone as a highly transformative fair use under current law.

Generative AI has transformed the digital marketing industry, including the ways advertisers connect with their consumers. Now, a new and more sophisticated way of using AI is becoming available: AI agents.

On May 29, 2026, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) took a series of coordinated actions to establish a domestic regulatory framework for perpetual contracts on digital commodities.

The SEC proposed new rules under the Investment Company Act and amendments to Advisers Act Rule 206(4)-2 (the Custody Rule) to address the custody of crypto assets held on behalf of clients of investment advisers and regulated funds.

The New York Stock Exchange and NYSE American have adopted new continued listing requirements establishing a 25-cent minimum trading price threshold that will trigger immediate suspension and delisting proceedings upon a single-day breach, with no cure period available. With the rules taking effect July 1, 2027, companies trading near this threshold face critical decisions about reverse stock splits...

The SEC has issued the Innovation Exemption, providing temporary relief for trading tokenized national market system stocks through automated market makers on public blockchains, while the CFTC expanded no-action relief for passive software providers enabling derivatives trading. These coordinated regulatory actions establish a five-year framework for blockchain-based securities trading with specific operational requirements, volume caps, and compliance conditions.

As ICANN prepares to launch hundreds of new domain extensions in 2026, companies face escalating cyber risks from domain-based attacks amplified by artificial intelligence. This comprehensive analysis examines how weak domain security enables costly fraud, business interruption, and brand impersonation, while providing actionable controls and contractual strategies to protect against the coming wave of exposure.

Lowenstein Sandler achieves groundbreaking SEC no-action relief enabling zero cash balance brokerage accounts, while global regulators advance digital asset infrastructure and issue new guidance on AI supervision and prediction market contracts. How are these developments reshaping the intersection of traditional finance, emerging technology, and regulatory oversight?