Since taking office, President Trump has issued sweeping executive orders targeting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives across federal agencies and directing agencies to take action to encourage private organizations to follow suit. On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed executive orders (EOs) titled Ending Racial and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. The following day, he issued another EO titled Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity. On January 22, 2025, the White House published a Fact Sheet providing guidance related to these orders. Many states were early adopters of such initiatives—e.g., in 2023 Florida passed a bill banning DEI initiatives in public colleges—or are now following suit in dismantling these programs as well within state agencies and institutions (such as Indiana, Mississippi, West Virginia, among others).
Considering the complex structure of commercial insurance programs—typically purchased in annual “towers” of insurance—risk managers and in-house counsel often do not pay sufficient attention to arbitration-related provisions, which the insurance industry is more frequently including in its policies. That’s like playing only one board in a game of three-dimensional chess. Discrepancies among such provisions can lead to obstacles policyholders later must surmount when coverage disputes arise. This article highlights critical issues to consider and offers recommendations to avoid these obstacles wherever possible.
As of January 13, Southern California’s ongoing wildfires have reportedly destroyed more than 12,000 structures. Insured loss estimates exceed $25 billion, and the strong Santa Ana winds fanning the blazes are expected to continue into Wednesday.
Over the past decade, technological innovations have quickly transformed how companies operate their IT infrastructure. Traditional on-site servers and hardware have often been replaced or supplemented by off-site solutions such as cloud computing, SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), virtualized servers, or “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) programs. These developments allow a business’s IT operations to be spread across a complex IT ecosystem rather than confined to physical devices located on its premises. They have the potential to reduce costs while expanding the computing capabilities at a company’s fingertips.
Just as the oilfield fuels the modern economy, master service agreements (MSAs) fuel the modern oilfield. But while almost every MSA contains indemnity and insurance clauses, experienced oilfield lawyers will advise their clients that no two are identical. Determining how these unique contractual provisions apply to losses and interact with available liability coverage is a nuanced process that frequently results in litigation.
In the last few years, the video game industry has been hit with 
In the aftermath of two powerful hurricanes the process of assessing the damage and rebuilding begins. Businesses suffered billions of dollars in losses during hurricanes Helene and Milton, both in physical property damage and disruption of their business (i.e., lost profits). That is precisely why businesses purchase property and other commercial insurance—to indemnify them when disaster strikes. However, it is not uncommon for businesses to be unpleasantly surprised when they present a claim to discover that their insurers are unwilling to stand behind the full insurance coverage they promised. This is particularly so in the case of a substantial loss, and even more so in the aftermath of a wide-area catastrophe—such as a hurricane or other natural disaster—because such catastrophes have negative repercussions on insurers given the number of impacted policyholders.