ALL BRIEFS · PAGE 4

Brief index

Every ATLAS brief, in desk order. Use the desk rail to filter by practice area, or the research console for a direct query.

IMMImmigration Strategy & StatusIMM desk →FINFinancial Regulation & Digital AssetsFIN desk →CORPCorporate Operations & RiskCORP desk →LITLitigation & Dispute ResolutionLIT desk →EMPEmployment & WorkforceEMP desk →FAMFamily TransitionsFAM desk →PROPProperty & DevelopmentPROP desk →PRIVPrivacy, Cyber & AIPRIV desk →IPIntellectual Property & MediaIP desk →ESTEstate, Tax & SuccessionEST desk →CRIMConsumer & Criminal ProcedureCRIM desk →

PRIV-04 · 43

Contracting With AI Vendors: Training Data, Output Rights, Security, and Liability

9 MIN · PRIV

Buying an AI system transfers your data and imports someone else's legal exposure. This brief works the seven terms that decide who carries that risk, with realistic fallback positions.

Default vendor terms often permit training on customer inputs; the restriction must be written, cover outputs, and bind subprocessors.
Output ownership is assigned by contract, but assignment cannot create copyright the law does not grant to purely machine-generated material.
IP indemnity is the term most negotiated and most conditioned; read the exclusions, caps, and required-use conditions before relying on it.

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IP-01 · 44

Intellectual Property License Agreements: Scope, Exclusivity, Royalties, and Termination

9 MIN · IP

A license is four separate decisions wearing one sentence. This brief takes apart the grant clause, then follows the money through royalty definitions, audits, and the end of the term.

The grant clause sets four independent levers — field of use, territory, term, and exclusivity — and each should be drafted separately.
Exclusivity means whatever the contract says; a licensor that fails to exclude itself has granted a sole license, not an exclusive one.
Royalty disputes almost always turn on the definition of net sales and on deductions, not on the headline percentage rate.

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IP-02 · 45

Right of Publicity: Commercial Use of Name, Image, Voice, and Likeness

9 MIN · IP

There is no national right of publicity. This brief explains what each state protects, how expressive-use defenses are tested, and how voice and synthetic-media statutes changed the analysis.

The right of publicity is state law; scope, duration, registration, and defenses differ enough that no single national clearance rule works.
Post-mortem protection ranges from none in some states to decades or a century in others, and some require registration to preserve it.
Tennessee's ELVIS Act, enacted in 2024, expressly extended the state's publicity statute to voice and to tools producing unauthorized simulations.

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IP-03 · 46

DMCA Takedown and Counter-Notice Procedures for Online Content

9 MIN · IP

Section 512 gives copyright owners a fast removal route and gives accused users a statutory answer. This brief maps both filings, their clocks, and the liability each one creates.

A takedown notice must carry six statutory elements; only the authorization statement is sworn under penalty of perjury, not the infringement claim itself.
A counter-notice does not decide who owns anything. It restarts a clock and forces the sender to sue or let the material return.
Storage providers that follow the statute restore contested material not less than 10 and not more than 14 business days after a valid counter-notice.

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EST-01 · 47

Buy-Sell Agreements and Business Succession After Death or Disability

8 MIN · EST

A buy-sell agreement decides who buys a departing owner's interest, at what price, and with whose money. Those three answers must work together, because they fail together.

Structure, valuation, and funding are one system. A well-drafted price clause with no funding produces a lawsuit, not a purchase.
Cross-purchase gives the surviving buyers a cost basis in what they acquire; a redemption by the company does not.
In 2024 the Supreme Court held in Connelly that insurance proceeds funding a redemption obligation count in valuing the company for estate tax.

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EST-02 · 48

Fiduciary Duties of Executors and Trustees: Loyalty, Records, and Distributions

8 MIN · EST

Fiduciary duties are enforced from documents, long after the decisions were made. This brief pairs each duty with the record a court will look for and the failure it exposes.

Fiduciary law is state law. Most states have adopted a version of the Uniform Trust Code, but the local statute and the instrument control.
Self-dealing is judged by the transaction's structure, not its outcome. A fair price does not cure a conflicted purchase in most states.
The duty to inform and report is what starts limitation periods running; a fiduciary who never reports keeps the exposure open.

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CRIM-01 · 49

Identity Theft Recovery: Reports, Credit Freezes, Disputes, and Documentation

9 MIN · CRIM

Identity theft recovery is a sequence, not a checklist. Each step produces the document or the report that unlocks the legal right used in the step after it.

The FTC identity theft report generated at identitytheft.gov is the key document; several federal rights are unavailable without it.
Credit bureaus must block information resulting from identity theft within four business days of a complete request under FCRA Section 605B.
Security freezes have been free nationwide for every consumer since the 2018 federal law, including freezes for children and protected consumers.

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CRIM-02 · 50

Plea Agreements and Collateral Consequences Beyond the Criminal Sentence

9 MIN · CRIM

A sentence ends. The consequences attached to a conviction often do not. This brief maps what a plea agreement gives up and how to inventory the aftermath before signing.

Federal pleas come in three shapes; only one binds the judge to a specific sentence, and only that one lets the defendant withdraw if the judge refuses.
The plea colloquy establishes that the plea is knowing and voluntary, which is precisely what makes it hard to undo afterwards.
Courts must warn non-citizens that a conviction may cause removal, and counsel has a constitutional duty to advise on immigration effects.

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IMM-13 · 51

The EB-5 Investor Route: Capital, Job Creation, and Regional Centres

8 MIN · IMM

An EB-5 case is an evidence problem before it is an investment. This brief sets out what the capital must do, how jobs are counted, and what the 2022 Reform and Integrity Act changed.

EB-5 requires capital invested in a new commercial enterprise that creates at least ten full-time positions for qualifying employees.
The 2022 Reform and Integrity Act set standard and targeted-employment-area investment tiers and reserved visas for rural, high-unemployment, and infrastructure projects.
Lawful source and path of funds is the most document-intensive element and the most common reason petitions draw extended review.

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IMM-14 · 52

The Diversity Visa Lottery: Entry, Selection, and the Fiscal-Year Deadline

7 MIN · IMM

Selection in the diversity lottery is permission to apply, not a visa. This brief works the registration rules, the rank-number system, and the hard September deadline that ends unfinished cases.

The diversity visa is an annual registration with random computer selection from qualifying entries; there is no fee to register on the official site.
Selection is not a visa and confers no status, no travel right, and no work authorisation — it only permits an application to proceed.
Selectees receive a rank number that must become current in the monthly bulletin before a case can be scheduled or decided.

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IMM-15 · 53

Employment Authorisation Documents: Categories, Renewals, and Gaps

8 MIN · IMM

The two characters printed in the category box decide almost everything about an employment authorisation document. This brief explains what each family of categories means and how renewals go wrong.

An employment authorisation document is proof of permission to work; it is not immigration status and it does not extend the status underneath it.
The category code printed on the card determines eligibility, renewal timing, and whether an automatic extension applies when a renewal is filed.
Automatic extension on timely renewal covers only listed categories filed in the same category, and its length has been changed by rulemaking more than once.

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IMM-16 · 54

Section 214(b) Refusals: Why Nonimmigrant Visas Are Denied and What Follows

7 MIN · IMM

The most common visa refusal is not a finding of wrongdoing. It is a finding that the applicant did not rebut a statutory presumption, and it can only be answered by applying again on different facts.

Section 214(b) presumes every nonimmigrant applicant intends to immigrate; the applicant carries the burden of overcoming that presumption at interview.
A 214(b) refusal is not a ban, a fraud finding, or a permanent ineligibility — but it is recorded and visible to officers at later applications.
There is no appeal and no formal reconsideration; the only route is a new application supported by materially changed circumstances.

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IMM-17 · 55

Visa Revocation: Prudential Revocation, Notice, and Consequences

8 MIN · IMM

A visa can be withdrawn after it is issued, sometimes without meaningful notice. This brief explains the discretionary power behind revocation, the prudential variety, and what the holder can actually do about it.

INA 221(i) lets a consular officer or the Department revoke a visa at any time, in its discretion, after issuance.
Prudential revocation is used when information surfaces suggesting a possible ineligibility that has not yet been formally adjudicated.
A revoked visa cannot be used to travel; boarding may be refused abroad or admission refused at the port of entry.

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IMM-18 · 56

The Visa Waiver Programme and ESTA: Limits Travellers Underestimate

7 MIN · IMM

Travelling without a visa is convenient and expensive in rights. This brief sets out what the programme requires, what it forbids, and what a traveller gives up at the moment of entry.

Travel under the programme requires an approved electronic travel authorisation obtained before boarding; approval is permission to travel, not a guarantee of admission.
Admission is capped at 90 days and generally cannot be extended, and time spent in Canada, Mexico, or adjacent islands normally counts toward it.
Programme entrants generally cannot change to another nonimmigrant status, and adjustment to residence is restricted with a narrow immediate-relative exception.

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