Regulation by roulette

Do you beat on the walls of the status quo, urgent for change? Do you cry out to tear down the barriers to your vision of the future? Can you not wait until the hidebound and the conventional are replaced? Your time may have come! But grab for a lifeline!

While the airwaves and front pages bemoan the advanced age of our leaders and their fear of being out of touch and behind the times—not comprehending the impact of AI, failing to see the dangers of crypto, questioning advanced science rather than embracing it—well, keep scrolling or turn the page! The legal and regulatory framework on which so much of American commerce is based is careening forward at a breakneck pace, leaving all parties—labor, management, lawyers, and advisors—scrambling to understand and respond.

It appears one of the products of our divided and highly partisan political situation is that each new administration takes the opportunity to rescind and replace as many policies and practices as possible, including some that hadn’t even been touched by the preceding administration. This will to annul is often couched as “righting historical wrongs” or returning to a position more consonant with existing judicial decisions. For the most part, however, the changes are designed to meet policy goals or satisfy political interests, far removed from legal considerations. But there are almost always costs, many unforeseen.