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‘One-of-a-Kind’ Practice Celebrates Milestone Year, Launches New Client-Centered Site, troutmanpepperstateag.com

NEW YORK – Troutman Pepper’s nationally recognized State Attorneys General practice celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The practice has become a go-to for clients seeking assistance with state attorneys general enforcement, litigation, and compliance matters, and is one of only five ranked nationwide by Chambers USA in the category. View an interactive site showcasing what makes it one of a kind.

The Oregon Legislature’s 2023 regular session kicked off with a bang for the tobacco industry when House Bill 2128 (HB2128) was introduced at the request of Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum who also happens to the be president-elect of the National Association of Attorneys General. If passed, HB2128 would replace Oregon’s escrow deposit system, applicable to tobacco product manufacturers that are nonparticipating manufacturers (NPMs) under the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), with an equity assessment. While HB2128 was only recently introduced and has a number of hurdles to overcome before it becomes law, we are not aware of any other state that has made a similar proposal to retroactively change escrow deposit systems for NPMs. Thus, HB2128 is worth monitoring, not only for its potential impact to Oregon NPMs, but also to see whether similar legislation will be introduced in other states.

In recognition of National Human Trafficking Month, state attorneys general nationwide took steps in January to raise awareness about human trafficking, educate the public about how to identify and prevent this crime, and utilize their offices’ resources and expertise to prosecute and prevent human trafficking. While numerous state and U.S. AGs take action year-round to rid the country of human trafficking, below find highlights of a few significant initiatives announced this month.

On January 26, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita issued a press release, endorsing Indiana House Bill 1008, which codifies Indiana Public Retirement System (INPRS) policy to prioritize the financial returns of public retirement funds ahead of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) corporate policies. While still in the House, legislators expect the bill to pass by its effective July 1 date.

On January 24, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation of California-based title security company Home Title Lock for potential violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. In its civil investigative demand (CID), the AG alleged the company may have misled consumers by making deceptive statements regarding its “home title monitoring and/or home title resolution services.”

As discussed here, on December 7, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) made a preliminary conclusion that a New York commercial financing law was not preempted by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). The Bureau indicated it was also considering whether to make a preemption determination regarding similar state laws in California, Utah, and Virginia. On January 20, 2023, California Attorney General Rob Bonta submitted a letter to the CFPB agreeing with its preliminary determination that California’s Commercial Financing Disclosures Law (CFDL) is not preempted by TILA because the CFDL only applies to commercial financing and not to consumer credit transactions within the scope of TILA. Attorney General Bonta further urged the CFPB to “revisit the Federal Reserve Board’s (Board) vague and overbroad articulation of the TILA preemption standard. The CFPB should articulate a narrower standard that emphasizes that preemption should be limited to situations where it is impossible to comply with both TILA and the state law or where the state law stands as an obstacle to the full purposes TILA, which is to provide consumers with full and meaningful disclosure of credit terms in consumer credit transactions.”

Published in Law360 on January 25, 2023. © Copyright 2023, Portfolio Media, Inc., publisher of Law360. Reprinted here with permission.

In recent months, there has been an explosion of artificial intelligence tools that have given even technophobes an opportunity to test AI’s power from the comfort of their favorite web browser.

From DALL-E’s ability to generate digital images from natural language prompts to ChatGPT’s ability to answer questions, write blog posts, essays, poetry or even song lyrics, today’s AI tools can be used by anyone who can open a web browser.

In a video, Solicitor General Liz Baker Murrill (R) confirmed her candidacy for Louisiana attorney general. “Louisiana elects a new AG in 2023. Let’s go with our best advocate, the one protecting our families, our future, and our freedom,” a voiceover in the video said. According to her website, Murrill kept convicted criminals in prison, advocated for the unborn, fought tirelessly against federal overreach and invasive mandates, and argued five cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

New York Attorney General Letitia James led a bipartisan multistate coalition to reach a $24 million settlement with cryptocurrency company Nexo for allegedly offering and selling unregistered securities and commodities. As noted in AG James’s press release, each of the 53 U.S. jurisdictional North American Securities Administration Association (NASAA) members will be eligible to claim a settlement of more than $424,000. In a parallel action, Nexo agreed to pay $45 million in penalties to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).