Photo of Allan Topol

Allan Topol

Allan Topol is a resident in the firm’s Washington office.  While practicing law with Covington, he has written ten novels of international intrigue and numerous articles dealing with foreign policy issues in The Huffington Post, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Military.com.

Allan’s law practice has involved extensive civil and criminal litigation, with an emphasis on water, air and major hazardous waste enforcement cases, as well as international environmental law and toxic torts.  He has also advised clients on many of these environmental issues assisting them in dealing with immediate problems as well as developing long term strategies.

In addition, Allan has represented clients in IP and commercial litigation, including patent infringement and contract cases.  He was admitted to the U.S. Patent Office in 1971.

Contact:Read more about Allan TopolEmail

FCA Issues Reminder on Board and Executive Management D&I Disclosure Obligations

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) has provided a reminder to primary market participants in its Primary Market Bulletin 44 of the need to make diversity and inclusion-related (“D&I”) disclosures in their annual reports. The obligations were introduced last year through amendments to the Listing Rules  and the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules (“DTRs”), as set out in the FCA’s Policy Statement PS 22/3 (and covered in our previous blog post here).

At a glance, the amendments to the Listing Rules oblige in-scope companies to disclose annually on a “comply or explain” basis whether they meet specific board diversity targets, and to publish standardised data on the composition of their board and senior management, in each case in relation to sex or gender and ethnic background.

Changes to the corporate governance rules were introduced (through the amendments to the DTRs) to encourage a broader consideration of diversity at a board level, including with respect to a wider pool of diversity characteristics, spanning ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, and socio-economic background

The rules are intended to increase transparency with better, more comparable information on the diversity of companies’ boards and executive management. The FCA believes that greater transparency will provide improved data for companies and investors to assess progress in this area, and inform shareholder engagement and investment decisions, thereby enhancing market integrity and promoting greater D&I.Continue Reading FCA Primary Market Bulletin No. 44

On Tuesday, February 14, 2023, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled “Protecting Our Children Online.”  The witnesses included only consumer advocates, and no industry representatives.  As Committee Chair, however, Senator Durbin (D-IL) indicated that he plans to hold another hearing featuring representatives from technology companies.

The key takeaway was that there continues to be strong bipartisan support for passing legislation that addresses privacy and online safety for minors.  Both Senator Durbin and Senator Graham (R-SC), the Committee’s Ranking Member, were in agreement that the Committee will mark up relevant legislation, which could happen within the next six months—making the next couple months particularly important for negotiations.  Notably, all of the previously introduced legislation that was discussed had passed at least its respective Senate Committee last Congress.

Senators focused on four bills that could be included as part of a legislative package:

  1. Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) (to be reintroduced).  KOSA would apply to “covered platforms,” which the previous bill defined as a “commercial software application or electronic service that connects to the internet and that is used, or is reasonably likely to be used, by a minor.”  Among other things, KOSA would impose a duty of care on covered platforms that would require them to “prevent and mitigate the heightened risks of physical, emotional, developmental, or material harms to minors posed by materials” on the platform.

Continue Reading Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing on Children’s Online Safety

Late last week, the Seventh Circuit affirmed a trial court’s ruling granting dismissal at summary judgment of claims against FCA US LLC (“FCA,” formerly known as Chrysler) and Harman International Industries, Inc. (“Harman”) for lack of Article III standing.  See Flynn v. FCA US LLC, — F. 4th —-…

Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Class Claims Based Upon Speculative Hacking Risk

Majority party coalitions can be hard to manage, but a functioning congressional majority requires both wings of the Republican Party to come together on tough votes to produce at least 218 votes in the House and (most often) 60 votes in the Senate. The conservative House Freedom Caucus has a…
Continue Reading The new dealmaking in Congress reveals an old truth: majority wins

The legislative debate over patent legislation began again yesterday with the reintroduction of the Innovation Act by Chairman Goodlatte.  In a piece that appeared in The Hill on February 5, Covington’s Aaron Cooper, formerly Chief Intellectual Property and Antitrust Counsel for Senator Leahy on the Senate Judiciary Committee, encourages …
Continue Reading Developing Consensus on Patent Legislation

As the new year begins, numerous Latin American issues have moved to the center stage, including Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, and Cuba.  To gain some insights into what lies ahead for our southern neighbors, Global Policy Watch (GPW) spoke with Dr. Arturo Valenzuela, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere …

Continue Reading Latin America in 2015: A Year of Challenges and Opportunities