Blogs

Business and Financial Services

Section 875 of the FY2026 NDAA: What DoD Contractors Need to Know About Bid Protest Payment Withholding

Section 875 of the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act creates a new payment-withholding risk for certain incumbent Department of Defense contractors that file GAO bid protests. The provision directs DoD to revise the DFARS to establish procedures allowing contracting officers to withhold up to five percent of payments owed to an incumbent contractor during a protest-related bridge…

May 21, 2026

Divorce and Family Law

What Older Couples Need to Know About a “Gray Divorce” in Virginia

Divorce is rarely simple, but when it occurs later in life, often called a “gray divorce,” it brings a distinct set of legal and financial challenges. As more couples over 50 choose to end long-term marriages, questions about retirement assets, Social Security, spousal support, and estate planning become central to the divorce process. Virginia law provides a clear structure for divorce proceedings, but gray divorces require nuanced legal strategies that account for retirement timelines, fixed…

May 20, 2026

Business and Financial Services

What is Worrying Our Nonprofit Clients – Part II: Funding and Economics

As part two of our series, it is perhaps a truism that the first answer would always be money. The need for consistent and appropriate resources to execute on mission is a constant drumbeat for nonprofits. What is new is the pace of change, rapid shifts in sources of funds, changes in demand for services,…

May 11, 2026

Business and Financial Services

Estate and Gift Tax Savings Strategies: Planning Opportunities for Preserving Wealth

Estate planning is not only about deciding who receives assets at death. For high-net-worth individuals, business owners, investors, and families with appreciating assets, a well-designed estate plan can also reduce estate tax, gift tax, generation-skipping transfer tax, income tax, and capital gains tax exposure. The right strategy depends on the size of the estate, the type of assets involved, family goals, charitable intent, liquidity needs, and applicable federal and state tax laws. In the…

May 6, 2026

Employment Law

Virginia’s New Paid Leave Era Has Arrived: What 2026’s Paid Family Leave and Paid Sick Leave Laws Mean for Employers—and Why Preparation Can’t Wait

Virginia employers are standing at the edge of one of the most consequential shifts in workplace regulation the Commonwealth has seen in decades. During the 2026 General Assembly session, lawmakers enacted two sweeping paid leave measures — the Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) insurance program and a new statewide paid sick leave mandate —…

May 5, 2026

Employment Law

The Meta AI Glasses Lawsuit: What It Signals for Employers Using (or Confronting) Wearable Technology in the Workplace

Smart glasses, fitness trackers, smartwatches, body cams, and location-based wearables have moved quickly from novelty to mainstream tools, both in consumer life and in the workplace. For employers, these technologies hold the promise of productivity, safety, and efficiency gains. They also create a rapidly fast-expanding set of privacy, surveillance, and compliance risks that are still…

April 27, 2026

Business and Financial Services

A Bombshell for Preemption Precedent- The Supreme Court’s Decision in Hencely v. Fluor and What It Means for Government Contractors

Facts of the Case On Wednesday, the Supreme Court released its opinion in Hencely v. Fluor– reversing the Fourth Circuit, which relied on the “battlefield” preemption rule to dismiss the individual’s tort claims against Fluor. An independent contractor of Fluor’s subcontractor carried out a suicide attack at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. The plaintiff, Hencely, intervened…

April 24, 2026

Employment Law

OSHA Doubles Down on Workplace Heat Enforcement: What Employers Need to Know About the Expanded Heat National Emphasis Program

With record spring heat impacting the eastern half of the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has taken significant additional steps to elevate workplace heat hazards to the forefront of its enforcement agenda. On April 10, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a substantial update to OSHA’s National Emphasis Program (NEP)…

April 23, 2026

Employment Law

March 2026 OHR Guidance Highlights Ongoing Harassment Reporting and Training Obligations in the District

March 2026 materials from the District of Columbia Office of Human Rights (OHR) provide employers with a useful snapshot of the agency’s continuing focus on harassment reporting, workplace investigations, and employee training obligations. Although OHR did not release a formal new harassment rule package in March, the agency did update its notices, fact sheets, and…

April 20, 2026

Business and Financial Services

512,000 Lines, One Night, Zero Permission: The Claude Code Leak and the Legal Crisis of AI Clean Rooms

On March 31, 2026, Anthropic, the company behind the Claude artificial intelligence system, accidentally published the entire source code of a product called Claude Code inside a routine software update. A missing line in a configuration file shipped 512,000 lines of proprietary code to the public. No hack. No breach. Human error. An important distinction:…

April 13, 2026