Contract Negotiation

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied Anthropic's emergency request on April 8, 2026, to block the Pentagon's March 3 designation of the AI company as a supply-chain risk under 41 U.S.C. 4713 and 10 U.S.C. 3252. The blacklist remains in effect, barring Anthropic from new Pentagon contracts and requiring defense contractors to stop using its Claude AI system in military work. A three-judge panel—Judges Henderson, Katsas, and Rao—ruled that the government's national security interests during active military conflict outweigh Anthropic's financial harm. The court expedited oral arguments to May 19.

Venable LLP has published a legal analysis identifying a critical gap in U.S. law: traditional agency doctrine does not clearly govern autonomous AI systems, leaving liability allocation ambiguous when these systems act beyond their intended scope. Unlike human agents, AI systems lack independent legal status, forcing courts to apply existing doctrines—attribution, apparent authority, negligence, and product liability—in unprecedented ways. At least one jurisdiction has already moved forward. In Moffatt v. Air Canada, British Columbia courts held a company liable for inaccurate statements made through an AI chatbot, signaling that courts are beginning to assign responsibility despite the legal framework's uncertainty.

Epstein Becker Green released Episode 23 of its "Speaking of Litigation" podcast on April 22, 2026, titled "How to Protect Your Business from a Counterparty's Financial Crisis." The episode features EBG attorneys discussing practical strategies for businesses managing distressed counterparties, including early legal consultation, security interests, guarantees, debtor-in-possession financing, and critical vendor program positioning in bankruptcy scenarios.

OpenAI announced a partnership with seven major consulting firms—Accenture, Capgemini, PwC, CGI, Cognizant, Infosys, and Tata Consultancy Services—to commercialize and scale Codex, its AI coding agent. The initiative, branded Codex Labs, will combine OpenAI's technology with the consulting firms' enterprise relationships and implementation expertise to integrate the tool into real-world workflows across knowledge work beyond pure software development. OpenAI reported that Codex has reached 4 million weekly active users, up from 3 million two weeks prior.

On March 30, 2026, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed an amicus brief in Art Center Holdings, Inc. v. WCE CA Art, LLC before the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District. Bonta argued that succession agreements in management services organization–professional corporation (MSO-PC) structures violate California's corporate practice of medicine doctrine by granting MSOs impermissible control over physician ownership. The brief supports a 2024 trial court ruling that found the defendants engaged in unlicensed practice of medicine through a succession agreement that gave the MSO unfettered discretion to replace the physician-owner, effectively creating a "captive PC" regardless of whether that control right was actually exercised.

On March 26, 2026, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14398, titled “Addressing DEI Discrimination by Federal Contractors,” targeting “racially discriminatory DEI activities” by federal prime contractors and subcontractors at all tiers.[1][3][4][6][10][15] The EO mandates a new contract clause—requiring agencies to insert it into all federal contracts and contract-like instruments within 30 days (by April 25, 2026)—prohibiting such DEI practices, imposing record-keeping, audit access, subcontractor monitoring/reporting obligations, and tying compliance to False Claims Act (FCA) liability, contract termination, suspension, or debarment.[3][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]