What’s New in Practical Guidance – February 2025

February 2025 brings a host of exciting new features and updates to the Practical Guidance product, enhancing its utility across various legal practice areas. This month's updates focus on executive actions, cross-practice resources, corporate and M&A, financial services regulation, healthcare, labor and employment, real estate, and trusts and estates.

Hot Topic Coverage on Executive Actions

Hot topics this month includes a tracker for legal challenges to the 2025 Presidential Executive Orders. This resource is updated weekly and provides comprehensive information to help users make informed decisions and mitigate risks. The tracker is part of an expanding collection of content that monitors the new presidential administration's actions, including the Trump Transition Resource Kit and the Presidential Executive Actions Tracker.

Cross-Practice Area Resources: Environmental Content

In the cross-practice area, the environmental content offering has been expanded. New items include discussions on insurers' subrogation rights related to the Maui fires settlement, a review of the California Environmental Quality Act, and considerations for cleaning up coal ash ponds. Additionally, there is a client alert digest on Trump Executive Orders that remake federal environmental policy.

Corporate and M&A

Corporate and M&A practitioners will benefit from the availability of enhanced M&A agreement templates, including agreements for mergers and asset purchases tailored for both buyers and sellers. The De-SPAC content continues to expand, offering insights into minimum cash and net tangible assets closing conditions, trust account representation, and no business activities representation.

Financial Services Regulation

Financial services regulation sees the addition of two new topics in the State Law Comparison Tool: Consumer Lending Disclosures and Unclaimed Non-estate Property. These topics provide guidance on consumer financial disclosure laws and regulations for unclaimed non-estate property at financial institutions, covering 15 key U.S. states with plans to expand to all 50 states.

Healthcare

Healthcare updates include new practice notes on key AI contracting issues for healthcare providers and Stark Law value-based arrangements. These notes guide attorneys in drafting contracts for AI healthcare products and structuring value-based arrangements to comply with the Stark Law.

Labor and Employment

Labor and Employment updates feature new trackers, surveys, and drafting tips. The Pay Transparency Legislation Tracker covers proposed and enacted legislation on pay disclosure, salary history inquiries, and prohibitions on wage discussions. Additionally, the Captive Audience State Law Survey addresses laws prohibiting employer retaliation against workers who refuse to attend mandatory meetings on union organizing or political matters.

Real Estate

Real estate updates include new templates for residential leases in Illinois and pet agreements, as well as flowcharts for commercial mortgage foreclosure in Florida and Massachusetts. The full update, attached below, provides additional content on evictions and landlord-tenant matters.

Trust and Estates

Trusts and estates features a practice note on estate planning considerations for technology entrepreneurs and a non-jurisdictional template for a Grantor Retained Annuity Trust.

Overall, the February 2025 updates to Practical Guidance offer valuable resources and tools for legal professionals across various practice areas, ensuring they have access to the latest information and templates to support their work.

To view the full update, click here. Stay tuned for what’s coming in March!