Ropes & Gray Podcasts

The latest installment of Ropes & Gray’s podcast series, Culture & Compliance Chronicles, explores company culture in times of crisis. In part one of a three-part discussion, litigation & enforcement attorney Amanda Raad talks with three partners at EY—Katharina Weghmann, Maryam Hussain and Melissa Myatt—who focus on behavioral science and decision-making in the corporate context. The group considers what the research says about the drivers of firm culture, how companies and individuals make decisions, and how they’re seeing this play out as companies grapple with the global pandemic. Throughout, they also touch on how regulators are responding to the current environment.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, asset management partners Isabel Dische and Melissa Bender discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity for asset managers to evaluate how their portfolio companies are managing the pandemic (and likewise for institutional investors to evaluate their asset managers). They’ll also discuss how investors may want to apply lessons learned from recent market events to their ESG programs going forward.

Under normal circumstances, credit fund managers that invest retirement plan money face multiple fiduciary and conflict of interest issues under ERISA that require special attention. These issues have been amplified by the current global health emergency and related economic crisis. In this Ropes & Gray podcast, asset management partner Jessica O’ Mary and ERISA & benefits partner Josh Lichtenstein address how credit fund managers that invest on behalf of ERISA accounts can navigate some of these legal challenges as they arise in the current climate.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, asset management partners Matthew Posthuma and George Raine are joined by tax partner Pamela Glazier to discuss the legal, tax and operational issues involved when 1940 Act registered interval funds invest in unregistered open-end real estate funds, as private fund managers look for new sources of capital, and registered fund managers look for alternative investments for their retail investor base.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, asset management partner Isabel Dische is joined by tax partner Dan Kolb and asset management associate Adam Dobson to discuss preferred equity deals in the private funds context. Following a brief explanation of what these deals are, they share why a fund sponsor or an investor may want to pursue a preferred equity financing, and provide details on the structures and certain considerations for these deals that market participants may want to keep in mind.

In the second episode of Ropes & Gray’s podcast series, Culture & Compliance Chronicles, litigation & enforcement attorneys Tina Yu and Amanda Raad, who co-chairs the firm’s global anti-corruption and international risk practice, continue their conversation with Jules Colborne-Baber, a partner and forensic audit expert at Deloitte UK, and Richard Bistrong, CEO of Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC, about behavioral science and compliance. The first part of their conversation focused on the importance of incorporating behavioral science in compliance programs. In part two, they turn their attention to the application of behavioral science in compliance testing and monitoring.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, asset management partner Joel Wattenbarger and associate Gideon Blatt discuss the federal banking agencies’ proposed amendments to the Volcker Rule’s covered fund provisions. They address the existing landscape, the agencies’ notice of proposed rulemaking and the potential impact it may have on the asset management industry.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, asset management partner Mike Doherty and counsel Laura Hirst discuss the 2009 Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) program which the Fed established in response to the 2008-2009 financial crisis and, given current market conditions, what might be expected for the 2020 TALF program.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, asset management partners Isabel Dische and Katie Waite discuss some of the reasons why the credit funds secondaries market has historically been smaller than the private equity secondaries market, and why and how that has been changing recently, including as a result of market declines triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, Joanne De Silva and Alyson Gal, partners in the finance and capital solutions group, discuss the issues lenders are considering in amendment and forbearance discussions with borrowers in light of the current global COVID-19 crisis and growing pressures borrowers face under their credit agreements.

Welcome to Culture & Compliance Chronicles, a new Ropes & Gray podcast series focused on the behavioral sciences approach to risk management. In this inaugural episode—part one of a two-part series—Ropes & Gray litigation & enforcement attorneys Amanda Raad and Tina Yu are joined by special guests Richard Bistrong, CEO of Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC, and Jules Colborne-Baber, a partner and forensic audit expert at Deloitte UK, to take a deep dive into behavioral sciences and compliance, with a focus on how organizations can develop more effective tools to identify misconduct.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, benefits partners Loretta Richard and Josh Lichtenstein discuss the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (also known as the CARES Act) in the context of 401(k) plans and other tax-qualified defined contribution retirement plans, including coronavirus-related distributions and loans that can be taken from qualified defined contribution retirement plans, the issues plan sponsors should focus on under the CARES Act, and other issues and challenges for plan sponsors to consider related to the coronavirus more generally.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, litigation & enforcement partner Dan Ward, ERISA and benefits partner Josh Lichtenstein, and benefits principal David Kirchner discuss the recent $12 million settlement that has been agreed to in the Oracle 401(k) fee litigation, which includes some non-monetary requirements that could have a ripple effect on the routine cross-selling activities of third-party recordkeepers and other service providers to plans.

In the latest episode of Ropes & Gray’s alumni podcast series, Alumni @ RopesTalk, IP litigation partner Matt Rizzolo interviews Alex Roberts, who left the firm eight years ago and is now an associate professor at the University of New Hampshire School of Law. In this lively conversation, Alex gives a vivid picture of her life as a professor—from teaching courses on trademark law and the intersection of pop culture and the law, to publishing cutting-edge scholarship about deceptive practices in influencer marketing. Reflecting on her time at Ropes & Gray, Alex also shares how her experience as an associate at Ropes & Gray helped develop her interest in—and prepare her well for—a career in teaching.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, Isabel Dische, partner in the asset management group, and Molly Moore, counsel in the asset management group, discuss steps buy-side market participants can take to understand and mitigate possible implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on their derivatives contracts. Topics covered include events of default and termination events as well as super-collateral events that may be triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, credit-related considerations, force majeure provisions, and understanding how governmental and trading exchange actions such as market closures, may affect valuation and payment dates or otherwise trigger disruption events.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, Ama Adams and Brendan Hanifin discuss new regulations implementing the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (“FIRRMA”). The new regulations, which took effect on February 13, 2020, significantly expanded the scope of CFIUS’s jurisdiction to review foreign investments in U.S. businesses. This podcast discusses the implications of FIRRMA for U.S. and non-U.S. investors, as well as U.S. businesses that seek foreign investment.

Ropes & Gray’s podcast series, IP(DC), focuses on developments in intellectual property law from the vantage point of Ropes & Gray’s office on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. In this episode of IP(DC), IP litigation partners Scott McKeown and Matt Rizzolo are joined by antitrust partner Chong Park to address Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) and their potential to complicate the roll-out of 5G-enabled products and infrastructure. The discussion explores risks for SEP licensors pending the FTC v. Qualcomm decision on Fair, Reasonable, and Non-discriminatory (FRAND) SEP licensing, refusal to deal, and compliance with Standard Setting Organization (SSO) obligations. On the implementer side, the discussion walks through patent hold-up and anti-competitive patent pooling practices. Matt and Scott also briefly preview 2020 legislative efforts in the patent space.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, Ryan Rohlfsen, a litigation & enforcement partner and one of the co-leaders of the firm’s global anti-corruption and international risk practice, is joined by Momentum Events, the organizers of the annual ACES Compliance Summit. This year’s Summit will be hosted at American University’s College of Law on March 17-18, 2020 in Washington, D.C. The program will cover the intersection of anti-corruption, export controls and sanctions, with a focus on discussing practical solutions and cutting-edge strategies for conquering the latest obstacles currently posing a threat to domestic and global corporate operations. Ryan will be moderating a panel at the Summit discussing the five most significant global anti-corruption developments of the past year, including international enforcement actions, emerging regulations and legislation, trends and anti-corruption priorities worldwide.

In the latest installment of Ropes & Gray’s alumni podcast series, Alumni @ RopesTalk, health care partner Christine Moundas interviews her former colleague, Jennifer Bealer, who left Ropes & Gray in 2017 to become executive vice president and general counsel of Progyny, a leading fertility benefits management company. Within two years of joining Progyny, the company went public. In this engaging conversation, Jen shares her insights about the challenges and rewards of transitioning to an in-house position, executing an IPO and running the day-to-day legal operations of a mission-driven startup—all at the same time.