This week’s kitchen sink for January 16, 2026 (with meme from Gates Dogfish) discusses Dr. Phil & allegations of deleted texts, who’s winning and losing the AI race, the musical Tilly Norwood & more!
The post The Kitchen Sink for January 16, 2026: Legal Tech Trends appeared first on eDiscovery Today by Doug Austin.
United States and Taiwan Sign Agreement on Trade & Investment
On January 15, 2026, the United States and Taiwan agreed to a trade deal to establish “a strategic economic partnership … to decisively strengthen U.S. domestic semiconductor supply chains and secure America’s technological and industrial leadership.” While the text and full terms of the trade deal were not released, the Department of Commerce released a fact
Moving on from “Vote All Proxies”: SEC Investment Management Director, Brian Daly, Encourages a Reevaluation of Adviser Proxy Voting Practices
The SEC encouraged a discussion of advisers’ proxy arrangements in response to President Trump’s recent proxy voting executive order. In a December 11, 2025, Executive Order, President Trump directed the SEC to consider a number of actions to materially reshape the proxy advisory landscape, including a direction to address the influence that proxy advisors
AI Can Help You Draft a Contract But Beware
Artificial intelligence (AI) is here to stay.
Clients are now using it all the time. For many it is the first step before contacting a lawyer, if they contact a lawyer at all now. And yes, people are absolutely using ChatGPT and other AI tools to draft contracts.
Recently, a client sent me an agreement
AI Legislation in the U.S.: What Founders Need to Know Before Deploying
There is currently no comprehensive federal statute specifically governing AI; however, regulatory agencies and state legislatures have issued guidance, enforcement actions, and laws that collectively form a developing patchwork of AI-related regulations. Founders face conflicting obligations from state legislatures, federal agencies, and political shifts that swing with each administration.
The Biden administration issued a non-binding
The Hidden Legal Minefield: Compliance Concerns with AI Smart Glasses, Part 4: Data Security, Breach Notification, and Third-Party AI Processing Risks
As we have discussed in prior posts, AI-enabled smart glasses are rapidly evolving from niche wearables into powerful tools with broad workplace appeal — but their innovative capabilities bring equally significant legal and privacy concerns.
- In Part 1, we addressed compliance issues that arise when these wearables collect biometric information.
- In Part 2,
WIRTW #786: the ‘propaganda’ edition
What the hell is going on at the Department of Labor?
On January 10, the DOL posted this on X: “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage. Remember who you are, American.”
Read that again. Slowly. If that doesn’t make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, it should.
Myriad people immediately
The Week in Weed: January 16, 2026
Welcome back to The Week in Weed, your Friday look at what’s happening in the world of legalized marijuana. This week, we see yet another attempt to legalize adult-use cannabis in New Hampshire. A new federal funding bill would continue to deny a retail market for adult-use cannabis in DC. Another federal bill would delay the hemp ban. And finally, mushrooms are learning how to make psilocybin.
Kaiser Permanente Affiliates Settle Medicare Risk Adjustment Fraud Case for $556 Million
On January 14, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that five Kaiser Permanente affiliates agreed to pay $556 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by submitting unsupported diagnosis codes for Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries to increase reimbursement from the federal government. The relators will receive approximately $95 million as their share of the recovery.
Digital Governance After the AI Act
The European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act is now law. Some provisions are already in effect, but others are still being finalized, so boards are being asked to take digital governance seriously while the legal floor under their feet is still moving.
The question for directors is no longer whether artificial intelligence and data systems matter.