Compliance Stuff

Key point: Oklahoma becomes the 20th state to enact a broad consumer data privacy law. On March 20, 2026, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed  SB 546  into law. In doing so, Oklahoma becomes the 20th state to enact a broadly applicable consumer data privacy law. Passage of a consumer data privacy law in Oklahoma has been a multiyear process. The Oklahoma House first passed a consumer data privacy bill authored by then-Representative Collin Walke in 2021, but the bill stalled in the Senate. The House again passed a bill in 2022, and it again stalled in the Senate. The new law is a more business-friendly blend of the 2022 version of Virginia’s consumer data privacy law and the Texas consumer data privacy law. Ultimately, entities subject to other state privacy laws will not have any new compliance obligations. In the below article, we provide an overview of the new law. Applicability The law applies to controllers and processors that conduct business in Oklahoma or produce a p...

On March 23, 2026, Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed into law a bill banning nearly all noncompete agreements for employees and independent contractors, e ffective June 30, 2027. The law, Substitute House Bill (SHB) 1155, declares that all “noncompetition agreements” are “void and unenforceable” after that date, and prohibits employers from enforcing such restrictions. 00:00 24:53 Quick Hits On March 23, 2026, Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed a bill into law that will ban noncompete agreements for employees and independent contractors. The law will declare all current employment-based and independent contractor-based “noncompetition agreements” to be void and unenforceable, and will prohibit employers from enforcing them. The law will prohibit entering into new employment-based and independent contractor-based noncompetition covenants. The ban will not apply to certain other restrictive covenants, including narrowly-drafted nonsolicitation agreements. The law takes effect ...

Health care organizations are under pressure to shore up their cybersecurity response efforts. Much of this pressure is coming from the  US  Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights ( OCR ) , which has made clear through recent enforcement actions that conducting a proper risk assessment under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPAA ) Security Rule is not optional. These enforcement actions ratcheted up during the Biden Administration and have continued during the Trump Administration, signaling that risk analysis remains a top compliance priority for organizations charged with complying with HIPAA. HIPAA’s Risk Assessment Requirement and Why It Matters Under the HIPAA Security Rule (as codified in 45 C.F.R. § 164.308), all HIPAA covered health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses (covered entities), and their business associates (collectively, regulated entities) must “[c]onduct an accurate and thorough a...

 A federal court in Colorado refuses to join the US Department of Labor implementing EO 14026. The Tenth Circuit Court finds that the EO had a sufficient connection to promoting economy and efficiency in the federal government contracting, thus making it permissible under the Procurement Act .   The Tenth Circuit has jurisdiction over federal courts in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming. Source(s): JacksonLewis , received on May 17, 2024; Office of Federal Procurement Policy , accessed on May 17, 2024.