Cline Williams is pleased to welcome its 2026 class of Summer Associates. Each year, Cline Williams selects a group of talented law students to join the firm as Summer Associates. Through the program, Summer Associates have the opportunity to work with our attorneys in a wide variety of practice areas, providing valuable insight into the firm's work and the legal profession.
Microsoft's migration of Teams private channel data to a new storage model has stalled for some organizations, and affected private channels will be permanently deleted if IT administrators do not act by the end of July 2026. There is no warning within Teams or Microsoft Purview alerting organizations to the problem. Organizations that use Teams private channels should review their migration status now and update their eDiscovery, legal hold, and retention policies to account for the new storage model.
Cline Williams has been ranked in the 2026 edition of its Chambers USA Guide, with three of the firm's practice groups and nine attorneys recognized across six practice areas.
Chambers USA is a leading legal research and analytics guide that identifies and ranks top lawyers and law firms across the United States. Its rankings are based on independent research and in-depth analysis, including client feedback, and are widely regarded as a trusted resource for evaluating legal talent and client service.
On July 18, 2026, the Nebraska Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (“Nebraska WARN Act” or “Act”) will become effective. The Act was signed into law on April 14, 2026, and will heighten the requirements for notifying employees of layoffs or closures beyond what federal law requires. Employers should be aware of the increased requirements created by the Nebraska WARN Act.
In short, the Act requires that employers give at least ninety days’ notice before a business closing or mass layoff. The Act specifies which employers are covered by this Act, which closures or layoffs trigger the notice requirement, who must be sent notice, how notice must be sent, and what employers must include in the notice.
Super Lawyers annually recognizes the top attorneys in each state through a trusted selection process. In the 2026 Super Lawyers Edition, 13 Cline Williams attorneys were honored – 11 were named Nebraska Lawyers and two were recognized as Rising Stars.
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.
Potential Refunds of IEEPA-Based Tariffs Following Supreme Court Decison
The United States Supreme Court recently held that tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) were not authorized by statute. Accordingly, importers that paid duties under these programs may have the opportunity to recover those payments. The process for obtaining refunds continues to develop. The United States Court of International Trade has already begun addressing remedies for importers and the federal government is working to establish an online claims portal for importers. Recent representations by U.S. Customs and Border Protection indicate a streamlined system for IEEPA tariff refund claims could be ready as early as mid-April 2026. Businesses that acted as importers of record during the relevant period of the tariffs should begin preparing now to preserve and pursue potential refund claims.
On December 1, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment, a case centered around the obligations of internet providers in addressing illegal actions by their users. Sony has sued Cox, rather than its users, for copyright infringement based on Cox’s failure to terminate the internet access of suspected copyright infringers. Sony won at trial and before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, but during oral arguments, several SCOTUS Justices expressed reservations about holding Cox liable for the downstream actions of its subscribers.
