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With our extensive expertise, collaboration among our attorneys enables us to provide the requisite knowledge and skill to effectively serve our clients.
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Cline Williams represents a diverse range of individuals and institutions with widely varying legal needs, which is reflected by our practice areas.
Since 1857
Our professional excellence runs deep.
For over 160 years, we have represented leading citizens, businesses, and institutions in communities, large and small, throughout the Midwest. We take pride in providing clients the highest level of expertise, advocacy, and guidance in helping them achieve their goals, and in building the places we call home.
Company Culture
Community focused.
We live, work and thrive best when we do it together. Cline Williams has made our home in the Great Plains, and we believe in building strong communities through service. We support our communities through board service, volunteering, and contributing financial and other resources. Your community is our community and we are proud to support many charitable organizations throughout the Great Plains.
On May 15, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (DOL) published a technical amendment to update the salary level regulations for the “white-collar” exemptions to overtime requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
U.S. Supreme Court Reject’s Internet Service Provider Liability for Downstream Piracy
On March 25, 2026, the United States Supreme Court published a 9-0 opinion reversing the Fourth Circuit’s decision Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment, authored by Justice Thomas, with Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Jackson, concurring in the judgment. The Fourth Circuit affirmed in part a jury verdict in favor of Sony, based on a claim of contributory liability for copyright infringement. The Supreme Court rejected the Fourth Circuit’s interpretation of contributory liability and held that a service provider must intend that their services be used to infringe on copyrighted works to be contributorily liable for copyright infringement.
Update: CBP’s IEEPA Tariff Refund Portal Launching April 20, 2026
As a follow-up to our earlier alert regarding potential refunds of IEEPA-based tariffs following the Supreme Court’s decision in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that its new online refund system—the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (“CAPE”) portal, built within the Automated Commercial Environment (“ACE”)—will launch on April 20, 2026. Importers who paid duties under the unlawful IEEPA tariff programs can take several steps now to be ready to submit claims as soon as the system goes live. Notably, the CAPE process is being deployed in phases, and the initial phase is limited to certain unliquidated entries and certain entries that are no more than 80 days past their liquidation date. CBP has published additional guidance on the IEEPA duty refund process at https://www.cbp.gov/trade/programs-administration/trade-remedies/ieepa-duty-refunds, and we encourage all potentially affected importers to review that guidance, begin preparing their entry data, and contact Cline Williams if you have any additional questions.
