Photo of Stephen C. Piepgrass

Stephen leads the firm’s Regulatory Investigations, Strategy + Enforcement (RISE) Practice Group. He focuses his practice on enforcement actions, investigations, and litigation. Stephen primarily represents clients engaging with, or being investigated by, state attorneys general and other state or local governmental enforcement bodies, including the CFPB and FTC, as well as clients involved with litigation, with a particular focus on heavily regulated industries. He also has experience advising clients on data and privacy issues, including handling complex investigations into data incidents by state attorneys general other state and federal regulators. Additionally, Stephen provides strategic counsel to Troutman Pepper’s Strategies clients who need assistance with public policy, advocacy, and government relations strategies.

This edition of Regulatory Oversight spotlights recent RICO Report Podcast episode “Pattern of Racketeering Activity,” featuring two firm Regulatory Practice Group attorneys Chris Carlson and Mary Grace Metcalfe. In this episode, podcast host and White Collar and Litigation Partner Cal Stein sits down with Chris and Mary Grace to discuss the RICO element requiring a pattern racketeering activity:

This article was originally published on August 19, 2022 in Reuters and is republished here with permission.

Companies today face increased risks from numerous regulatory bodies at the municipal, state, and federal levels. As we discussed in our previous article, “Preparing Companies for a New Day in Multistate AG Investigations,” sophisticated regulators —

This article was originally published in Westlaw Today and is republished here with permission.

As detailed in our articles[1] earlier this year, the “right to repair” movement has gained significant steam in the last year. The right to repair movement is an effort focused on ensuring that consumers and aftermarket businesses have the ability

In this episode of Regulatory Oversight, Troutman Pepper attorneys Nick Ramos, Christina Sava, and Stephen Piepgrass offer thoughts on how to incorporate, or not incorporate, regulatory approaches from the alcohol industry into the cannabis industry.

The cannabis industry’s rapid U.S. evolution poses many unique questions, most interestingly: What cannabis regulation will look like under federal legalization. Although (legal) cannabis is a brand new industry, it is not the first time the United States has come out of a prohibition era. So, learning from the regulatory schemes governing the highly regulated alcohol industry should assist in a smoother transition to a world where recreational cannabis usage is no longer considered a taboo in our society.

Please join Troutman Pepper Partner Chris Willis and guests Troutman Pepper Associates Chris Carlson and Susan Nikdel as they discuss the multistate coalition of state attorneys general calling on many of the nation’s largest banks to eliminate overdraft fees. The conversation focuses on what was done, which state attorneys general participated, the current controversy surrounding overdraft fees, and several key takeaways for the industry going forward.

In a keynote address at the Consumer Federation of America’s 2022 Consumer Assembly, CFPB Deputy Director Zixta Martinez squarely took aim at “rent-a-bank schemes” in some of the first (if not the first) such comments by a senior CFPB official. Historically, the CFPB has confined itself to “true lender” litigation against participants in high-rate

Until the early 2000s, companies developing innovative business models or technologies could make reasoned predictions regarding how their innovations would be treated by government by analyzing the text of statutes and implementing regulations and interpreting case law, enabling them to make calculated decisions about how to proceed based on risk tolerance.

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On May 24, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron sent a letter to the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), expressing concerns about perceived partisanship. Joined by the attorneys general of Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia, the letter explains that these eight attorneys general believe “NAAG needs structural reform [t]o avoid partisanship”

2022 primary elections for attorneys general are in full swing with 31 state attorneys general elections to be held this November. While there will be at least nine new state attorneys general due to term limits or incumbents choosing not to seek another term, there is also a historically high number of contested primaries, including

In Episode 3 of the Regulatory Oversight Podcast, Ohio Solicitor General Ben Flowers joins Troutman Pepper Partner Misha Tseytlin to discuss the history of the major questions doctrine, recent cases involving the statute, and how the statute has evolved over recent years. Solicitor General Flowers also discusses the recent interest in cutting back Chevron deference and the impact we could see in the regulatory and litigation landscape.