RopesTalk

Join Ropes & Gray’s life sciences attorneys for a podcast series exploring regulatory, compliance, and enforcement changes emanating from Washington, D.C. and the potential impact on life sciences companies in 2024. In this first episode, we focus on key issues to watch related to FDA enforcement and litigation in 2024. These include potential litigation over FDA’s planned final rule to regulate laboratory-developed tests (“LDTs”), the Supreme Court's review of FDA’s approval of mifepristone for medication abortion, litigation related to FDA discouraging the use of ivermectin in humans during the pandemic, and the potential effects of organizational changes in FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs (“ORA”) on inspections and enforcement.

On part one of this two-part podcast installment, Ropes & Gray litigation & enforcement partner Andrew O’Connor discusses the Strategic Plan for Oversight of Managed Care for Medicare and Medicaid issued in August by the Department of Health & Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”). Part one’s discussion focuses on the first two phases of the managed care life cycle: plan establishment and enrollment and associated enforcement and regulatory actions, and OIG’s compliance priorities for Medicare Advantage (“MA”) plans and how the Strategic Plan implicates regulatory and enforcement developments in the managed care space more broadly.

On this episode of Ropes & Gray’s podcast series, A Word for Our Sponsors, hosts Paul Van Houten and Deb Lussier, the co-leaders of the sponsor solutions practice, chat with Vikrant Raina, CEO and managing partner at BV Investment Partners, about BV’s successful first continuation fund. 

Better Way? co-hosts Zach Coseglia and Hui Chen preview some trends for the New Year, from where artificial intelligence (AI) will take us to how data and story-telling may help humans and organizations be more effective. Start the year with some provocative thoughts on technology, data, and culture and the role we can play in using and shaping them.

On this episode of Ropes & Gray’s California Law for Asset Managers podcast series, asset management partner Catherine Skulan, corporate partner and global ESG, CSR & business and human rights practice head Michael Littenberg and counsel Marc Rotter discuss three new climate and greenhouse gas bills recently signed into California law: AB 1305, SB 261 and SB 253. Each law creates new public disclosure requirements about climate-related issues that may impact asset managers and their portfolio companies.

On this episode of Women @ RopesTalk, hosted by IP transactions partner Megan Baca, capital solutions and private credit partner Alyson Gal interviews Marjorie Goux, chief legal officer at Rodan & Fields. Marjorie shares what it’s like to be CLO at a skincare and haircare company, along with how she prepared to take on the role. She looks back on the “multiple stops” in her legal career, including practicing law at medium- and big-sized firms in London and the U.S. before going in-house to roles at Hewlett-Packard, Clorox and Glad Products. Marjorie describes herself as a “person who looks for opportunities.” Along those lines, she shares helpful networking strategies for lawyers at all stages of their careers.

Wrapping up year one of the Better Way? podcast series, co-hosts Hui Chen and Zach Coseglia share their top themes from the year and discuss how these Better Ways inform the work they do to address organizational challenges. From embracing complexity and expertise to exploring empirical evidence and measuring culture, this episode packs the highlights of 2023 that you won’t want to miss! 

In this installment of Ropes & Gray’s Alumni @ RopesTalk podcast, strategic transactions group co-leader Marko Zatylny interviews alum George Kopcsay, general counsel of Atlas Air. George was an associate at Ropes & Gray for five years before going in-house at Atlas, where he has been for 13 years. George talks about the experience of taking the company private in 2023 and the differences between being a lawyer at a public company versus a private one. In thinking about the role of a corporate generalist, he explains the “quarterbacking” skill that is essential to his job. George also shares a valuable (and easy) thing outside counsel can do to cultivate closer relationships with their in-house colleagues. 

On this episode of Ropes & Gray’s California Law for Asset Managers podcast series, asset management partner Catherine Skulan and counsel Colleen Meyer provide an overview of SB 54, a new California law intended to provide transparency with respect to the diversity of founders in which “venture capital companies” make venture capital investments. The law, while highly relevant for traditional venture capital funds, could implicate traditional private equity and other investment vehicles as well.

On this Ropes & Gray podcast, asset management partners Jason Kolman and Jessica Marlin are joined by Daren Moreira, a partner at Eversheds Sutherland, to discuss the NAIC’s updated Statement of Statutory Accounting Principles No. 26 (SSAP 26). They discuss the background of and guidance in SSAP 26, and its potential impact on rated note fund structures.