Eric W. Orts

Delaware corporate law demands neither omniscience nor infallibility from directors, but rather a good-faith effort. The Delaware Court of Chancery reaffirmed that principle yesterday in a decision dismissing claims that current and former directors of Boeing breached their oversight duty in connection with the January 2024 midair blowout of a Boeing jet's door plug.

In August 2025, the two leading U.S. prediction market platforms processed a combined $1 billion in monthly transaction volume. By July 2026, that figure had climbed to nearly $46 billion, according to

Today [August 18], the Commission continues its work to restore American leadership in capital formation by developing tailored, fit-for-purpose rules that are designed to support innovation in crypto asset markets.

Kalshi and other prediction markets have been inundating the CFTC with self-certifications of binary options (i.e., prediction products or event contracts). The figure below shows total self-certifications to the CFTC and self-certifications from Kalshi since it began operating in 2021. As background, since the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, derivatives exchanges can self-certify products instead of seeking prior authorization to list a product from the CFTC.

On July 23, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) announced that it would revive targeted Second Request investigations and published a revised model timing agreement.

The European Union's Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (the “ECGTD”) makes important changes to the rules on how companies make environmental and other sustainability claims in relation to products or services sold to individual consumers, and changes to consumer rights in relation to the durability and repairability of certain products.

Widely overlooked in the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark campaign finance decision this term is a surprising and robust affirmation of disclosure for combating corruption. With this principle reinforced, we expect many states to strengthen and expand their campaign finance disclosure laws to capture political activity that is currently not disclosed, including contributions to trade associations and advocacy organizations that make political contributions and expenditures.

Prediction markets are in the regulatory crosshairs. In the United States, within the span of a few months this year, federal prosecutors brought the first criminal insider trading case involving an event contract against an Army master sergeant with a top-secret clearance who allegedly traded on classified information about an upcoming military operation. Next the CFTC and DOJ pursued a Google engineer who made about $1.2 million trading contracts on Google's unreleased “Year in Search” rankings. A House Oversight Committee investigation and at least eight bills in the 119th Congress quickly ensued.

On August 18, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published a rule officially establishing the National Fraud Enforcement Division (the Fraud Division).

The growth of private credit has been remarkably fast. Direct lenders have displaced banks and broadly syndicated lenders in much of the mid-market sector, promising borrowers speed and flexibility while offering investors high returns.