The U.S. Justice Department's already making big moves on foreign-lobbying enforcement—we've got the details below. Plus: a Latham team has some insight on the CFTC's foreign-bribery moves, and scroll down for Who Got the Work, and our roundup of the latest big moves and announcements. Thanks for reading—and please continue to send feedback. I appreciate hearing about what's on your plate—observations, trends, new clients. I'm at [email protected] and 202-828-0315, or follow me on Twitter @cryanbarber.

FARA Maneuvering at Main Justice

In the latest sign of stepped up scrutiny of foreign influence efforts, the U.S. Justice Department has signaled it could soon require more detailed disclosures from lobbyists working in the United States for companies based overseas.

Lobbyists for foreign companies have long been able to avoid the more rigorous disclosure requirements of the Foreign Agents Registration Act by using an exemption that allows them to instead report their influence activities under the Lobbying Disclosure Act.

That exemption—commonly known as the LDA or commercial exemption—has been understood for years to be available to lobbyists so long as their advocacy was not principally benefiting a foreign government or political party.

But the Justice Department's enforcement of FARA is entering a new era.

The DOJ's new advisory opinion, detailed in a recent blog post by Covington & Burling partners Rob Kelner and Brian Smith, providers further evidence that the FARA unit is tightening its fist. Kelner leads the firm's election and political law practice.

According to Covington's blog, the Justice Department sent its message in a footnote: “There are situations in which a foreign government or political party may not be the principal beneficiary, but a principal beneficiary of lobbying activities in which the LDA exemption would not apply.”

Kelner and Smith said the apparent narrowing of the exemption is “especially important to private sector companies, including U.S. subsidiaries of foreign corporations.”

“Although no court has ruled on the meaning of 'the principal beneficiary,' FARA practitioners generally have relied upon its plain meaning: The LDA exemption is not available if a foreign government or political party is the main beneficiary of the activities,” Kelner and Smith wrote.

Earlier DOJ regulations, according to the Covington team, were more stark: either the beneficiary of the advocacy was a foreign company or it was a government.

“We wonder whether the footnote indicates that the department is contemplating a new FARA rulemaking to replace 'the principal beneficiary' with 'a principal beneficiary.' If it does not, the new interpretation could be open to court challenge because it conflicts with the text of the regulation,” Kelner and Smith wrote.

Compliance Reads: Banks Using AI; No Longer Fearing Trump Tweets; Feds Win Tariff Case

>> CFTC Enters the Market for Anti-Corruption Enforcement. A team from Latham & Watkins, including partner Alice Fisher (above), a member of the firm's executive committee, offer a snapshot of what the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is doing on the foreign-bribery front. “With responsibility for prosecuting FCPA violations residing with the DOJ and SEC, the CFTC has surprised many in the industry by announcing that it will devote precious enforcement resources to foreign corruption,” the Latham team wrote in a post at NYU School of Law's Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement. [NYU Law]

>> Banks Use AI to Catch Rogue Traders Before the Act. “Imagine if, instead of being bogged down in 10,000 emails a day with words like 'fraud,' compliance teams could instead detect changes in tone and other subtle tics that show a trader's behavior is changing.” [Financial Times]

>> Trump Victorious in Court Case Against Steel Tariffs. “The U.S. Court of International Trade on Monday upheld the constitutionality of President Donald Trump's use of a law that he used to impose significant tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum tariffs for national security reasons.” [Politico] Read the decision by the International Trade Court. Legal scholar Steve Vladeck tweeted: “This is a significant but unsurprising ruling. The plaintiffs were not challenging whether the tariffs were justified by national security; instead they (unsuccessfully) argued that Congress had unconstitutionally delegated the power to make that decision to the president.” My colleague Tom McParland has more here.

>> Lawyers Should Engage with Engineers, Says Cisco's General Counsel. From Mark Chandler, chief legal officer and chief compliance officer for Cisco Systems: “Customer requirements and expectations these days far outstrip the legal requirements with respect to privacy. If you take a customer-centric approach, the legal compliance requirements should fall into place.” [Bloomberg Law]

>> How Companies Learned to Stop Fearing Trump's Twitter Wrath. “Despite Mr. Trump's efforts to compel companies to build and hire, they appear to be increasingly prioritizing their balance sheets over political backlash.” Gene Grabowski, a crisis communications specialist, said: “I don't think there's as much fear. At first it was a shock to the system, but now we've all adjusted. We take it in stride, and I think that's what the business community is doing.” [NYT]

>> SEC Wanted Muzzle on All of Elon Musk's Tesla Statements, Court Filing Says. “Regulators who sued Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk last year for allegedly misleading investors with his tweets wanted the company to preapprove anything the executive said publicly about the auto maker. Mr. Musk didn't agree to the condition, saying his ability to freely talk about the company and its products was crucial to Tesla's success.” [WSJ] Read more at Bloomberg: Elon Musk's Fate Is in the Hands of This Federal Judge. “The question of whether Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk is in contempt of court for recent tweets falls to Alison Nathan, a federal judge in Manhattan appointed by former President Barack Obama.”

>> As Social Media Platforms Up Their Fintech Offerings, Regulatory Challenges Await. “The idea of 'move fast and break things' doesn't work as well when you're in a highly regulated [industry],” said Rebecca Simmons, a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell's financial services and capital markets groups. “So we do see people sometimes surprised at the amount of time it takes.” [The Recorder]

Who Got the Work

>> The law firms Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore; Healy Hafemann Magee & Thomas; and Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard represented whistleblower Joseph Thomas in a case against Duke University that has settled for $112.5 million. Read the U.S. Justice Department's statement here, and my colleague Sue Reisinger has more. Thomas, a former Duke University lab employee, will receive $34 million. Duke, which said it would enact compliance reforms, said in a statement: “This is a difficult moment for Duke. This case demonstrates the devastating impact of research fraud and reinforces the need for all of us to have a focused commitment on promoting research integrity and accountability.” Duke was represented by lawyers from Womble Bond Dickinson; Reed Smith; and Norton Rose Fulbright.

>> Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd. selected Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck to serve as government relations advisors to Kobre & Kim LLP with respect to the firm's legal representation of the company, according to new filingsmade under the federal Foreign Agents Registration Act. The company agreed in January to pay $85,000 monthly. Brownstein Hyatt said it “will provide federal government relations services to Kobre on behalf of Jinhua. These services are in connection with and in anticipation of certain legal proceedings.”

>> “Covington & Burling, Skadden, and Nixon Peabody have joined a growing number of Big Law firms that have signed on to represent defendants in the college bribery scandal, bringing the number of major firms involved to at least 13,” Bloomberg Law reports. A Ropes & Gray team is on the defense for Gordon Caplan, the Willkie Farr partner who's been charged in the scandal.

>> Marriott has hired a Brownstein Hyatt team to lobby on “tax and regulatory parity for lodging providers and facilitators, work related to their properties in Cuba,” according to a new registration. The nine-person team includes Russ Sullivan, former Senate Finance Committee staff director; David Reid, senior policy advisor; and Nadeam Elshami, former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

Notable Moves & Announcements

• Jeff Taylor (above) has been named chief litigation counsel at Fox Corporation. Taylor, reporting to Viet Dinh, chief legal and policy officer, will oversee litigation, labor and employment and compliance. Taylor recently served as deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer for General Motors Co. He joined General Motors in 2015 from Raytheon, where he had been general counsel. My colleague Philip Bantz has more here at Corporate Counsel.

• Paul Ray, deputy administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, is the acting head now, succeeding newly confirmed D.C. Circuit Judge Neomi Rao. Ray joined the U.S. Labor Department in 2017 from Sidley Austin, where he was an associate. Read his financial disclosure here.

• “Proskauer has lost some 20 attorneys to Kirkland & Ellis in Los Angeles, including the West Coast head of its corporate and securities practice, as Kirkland launches a new transactional team. Michael Woronoff, who also helped run the private equity and M&A group at Proskauer, will lead the new team at Kirkland along with partners Monica Shilling, Philippa Bond, Jonathan Benloulou, Anne Kim, and Chris Wu,” Bloomberg Law reports. My colleague Meghan Tribe has more.

• Former Nevada attorney general Adam Laxalt has joined litigation boutique Cooper & Kirk, where he will split time between Nevada and the firm's home office in Washington, my colleague Ryan Lovelace reports.

• Anne Salladin, a former senior counsel in the U.S. Treasury Department's office of assistant general counsel for international affairs, has joined Hogan Lovells' international trade practice as a partner in Washington.

• Seth DuCharme, former head of the criminal division in the Eastern District of New York, is joining the staff of U.S. Attorney General William Barr, my colleague Colby Hamilton reports. Succeeding DuCharme is Jacquelyn Kasulis, who'll serve as acting criminal division chief. The former Kirkland & Ellis litigation associate joined EDNY in 2008.

• Mark Mandel, a securities litigator, has joined Troutman Sanders as a partner in the firm's New York office. Mandel formerly was New York chief of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's division of broker-dealer enforcement, and he previously practiced at Hunton Andrews Kurth.

• Marc Mukasey and two other former shareholders from Greenberg Traurig have launched a new boutique law firm in New York called Mukasey Frenchman & Sklaroff. The boutique's partners include Mukasey, Robert Frenchman and Jeffrey Sklaroff.

• Roland Steinmeyer and Patrick Späth have joined Morrison & Foerster's investigations and white-collar practice in Berlin.