On February 10, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order (“Order”) directing a 6-month moratorium on the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), while the Attorney General revises Department of Justice (DOJ) policies and guidelines governing FCPA enforcement. The Order instructs that these changes be made in the interest of promoting US companies’ ability to compete in foreign markets. While the Order introduces uncertainty for the future of FCPA enforcement, companies are advised to stay the course on compliance and exercise caution when considering any shifts in compliance practices and resourcing in the near term.

A recent memorandum from Attorney General Pam Bondi signals a potential shift in the Department of Justice’s FCPA enforcement priorities. According to the memorandum, FCPA enforcement should prioritize foreign bribery linked to Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs), potentially altering the landscape of white-collar corporate enforcement. While traditional FCPA cases will likely continue, the new directive grants local US Attorneys’ Offices greater latitude in conducting FCPA investigations touching on Cartels and TCOs.

In Snyder v. United States, the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision authored by Justice Kavanaugh, significantly limited the federal statute criminalizing gratuities in state and local jurisdictions. Snyder, a mayor, awarded a USD 1.3 million contract and received a USD 13,000 payment from the benefiting company. The Supreme Court ruled that the relevant statute, Title 18 section 666, applies only to bribes paid or promised before an official act, not after-the-fact gratuities.

The annual updates on enforcement trends and priorities this year build upon last year’s guidance by substantially sweetening the calculus for whistleblowers and voluntary self- disclosures, and reflecting the nation’s rapid adoption of disruptive technology tools especially including AI. Previous trends, such as the government’s ongoing enforcement effort aimed at protecting U.S. intellectual property from perceived threats by foreign adversaries, are not letting up, but instead are increasing in specificity as to related corporate compliance expectations. As companies increasingly engage in the race to use and sell AI tools and the datasets that fuel them, now is a great time to also put in place corporate compliance strategies to avoid becoming the next poster child for the government’s deterrence efforts.

Data is a critical asset in today’s globally connected economy. Rapidly evolving technologies have made it easier than ever for companies to collect, use and transfer data throughout the world. Yet strict data protection, privacy and cybersecurity regulation is evolving rapidly, imposing complex and often inconsistent standards. Our Global Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Handbook is updated annually to help you keep up with the dynamic legal landscape. We provide detailed overviews and allow a comparative perspective of the increasingly complex and sophisticated data privacy and cybersecurity standards in over 50 countries.

On Tuesday, 23 January 2024 we are hosting an in-person client event in our New York office on Generative AI: Harnessing the Power and Mitigating Risk. The program includes an exciting in-house counsel panel featuring key speakers from Calix, Wolters Kluwer and Tiffany & Co. We’ll also hear from a cross-discipline Baker team who will discuss legal and regulatory considerations and mitigating risk when using Gen. AI,

On 26 July 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the final rules for Cybersecurity Risk Management, Strategy, Governance, and Incident Disclosure. The SEC first proposed amendments to its rules on disclosures regarding cybersecurity risk management, strategy, governance, and incident reporting by public companies on 9 March 2022.

Baker McKenzie, in partnership with Accenture LLP, invites in-house corporate legal teams and interested business stakeholders to join us in person on Thursday, 1 June 2023, to discuss how various legal departments are addressing AI and how companies are managing these challenges and risks. The event will take place in the Baker McKenzie Chicago office.

ESG disputes pose one of the top risks to organizations in the coming year, particularly the increasing concern of governance disputes. Join Baker McKenzie’s global team on 31 January 2023 as they discuss key risks to your organization as well as how to manage these and adapt to changing demands.

Looking to the year ahead, Baker McKenzie commissioned a survey of 600 senior lawyers across the globe and uncovered that corporations expect more disputes this year, driven by economic uncertainty, global trade shifts and altered business models. Disputes around cybersecurity/data and ESG rank as emerging risk areas, while tax and employment disputes remain a constant consideration for organizations. To help stay abreast of emerging challenges and prepare to navigate the changing disputes landscape, join our experts across the globe in a series of webinars as they unpack findings from our latest report, The Year Ahead: Global Disputes Forecast 2023, and uncover a practical, actionable way forward.