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Regulatory Affairs

Compliance counsel and regulatory response.

What This Covers

Before opening the firm, I was an enforcement attorney in the Consumer Protection Division of the Nebraska Attorney General’s office, where I enforced new and existing state laws. That side of the table shapes how I advise businesses now.

Most of the work is staying out of trouble: reviewing advertising, sales practices, subscription terms, and data handling against consumer protection law, and reading new statutes the way an enforcement office will. When a regulator does reach out, whether with an inquiry letter or a civil investigative demand, I help businesses understand what’s being asked, respond carefully, and work toward a resolution.

I also counsel public power districts and other public and regulated organizations on the obligations that come with answering to a regulator or a public board.

How the Work Starts

It starts with a first meeting about your business, the regulator involved, and what’s ahead. If you’ve received an inquiry letter or a civil investigative demand, reach out promptly and have the letter in hand, since response deadlines are often short. See how engagements work.

What Shapes the Scope

Cost depends on whether the work is ongoing compliance counsel or a response to a specific inquiry, the regulator involved, and the volume of documents. Ongoing compliance counsel is usually a fixed monthly fee.

Questions people ask

Questions About
Regulatory Affairs

Quick answers to the things owners ask before they call.

Take it seriously and act quickly. Note the response deadline, preserve every document that could be relevant, including pausing any routine deletion, and talk to counsel before you respond. The scope and timing of a demand can often be discussed with the office that sent it, and a careful first response shapes everything that follows.

No. Inquiry letters and civil investigative demands are investigative tools, and many investigations end without a lawsuit, through an explanation, a change in practices, or a negotiated agreement. How you respond affects which way it goes. If a matter does head to court, I’ll help you determine the appropriate next step.

Start with the law’s thresholds, exemptions, and effective date, then look at who you sell to and what information you handle. The harder question is how the law will be enforced, since enforcement offices don’t always read a statute the way an industry expects. I help businesses answer both.

Yes, and that’s the least expensive time to do it. Common areas for review include advertising claims, pricing and fee disclosures, automatic renewal and subscription terms, cancellation processes, and how customer data is handled. Fixing an issue before complaints arrive costs far less than fixing it during an investigation.

Counsel on the obligations that come with being a public entity: board governance and decision-making, open meetings and public records compliance, contracts and procurement, policies, and keeping track of recurring filings and deadlines. The goal is that decisions are made correctly and documented that way.

Former government lawyers can’t represent clients in matters they worked on personally and substantially while in government, unless the government consents, and can’t use confidential government information they learned there. I check every new matter against those rules. Apart from those limits, the experience is an advantage: I know how enforcement attorneys read a response.

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