Regulatory Oversight Podcast

Hosted by Stephen C. Piepgrass, Ashley L. Taylor, Troutman Pepper Locke

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Jun 2026

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About the show

Regulatory priorities can seemingly shift overnight with one lawsuit, investigative news article, election, or bill signing. Troutman Pepper Locke’s Regulatory Oversight Podcast analyzes the underlying trends that drive enforcement activity and provides expert perspectives on key focus areas. Featuring insights from members of the firm’s Regulatory Practice Group, including its nationally ranked State Attorneys General practice, with guest commentary from business leaders, regulatory experts, and current and former government officials, our podcast examines a range of topics affecting companies operating in highly regulated industries. Whether related to cybersecurity and data privacy, advertising and marketing, financial services and fintech, or emerging technology, Troutman Pepper Locke’s regulatory team offers informed counsel to clients, drawing on decades representing clients in their most critical regulatory challenges. Our lawyers rely on their regulatory experience in private practice as well as their tenure in state AG offices, at the FTC, CFPB, U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, and other federal and state enforcement bodies to develop legal strategies that align with each client’s goals. The Regulatory Oversight Podcast allows us to share our acumen and approach directly with our listeners.

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June 12, 202632 min

Back to Basics: Inside the SEC's New Enforcement Priorities

In this episode of Regulatory Oversight, co-host Stephen Piepgrass sits down with Jay Dubow and Ghillaine Reid, co-leaders of the firm's Securities Investigation + Enforcement practice, to explore how the SEC's enforcement agenda is evolving under Chairman Paul Atkins and what that means for public companies, financial institutions, and their executives. The discussion begins with the SEC's rescission of its long‑standing "gag rule," which had barred settling parties from publicly denying enforcement allegations. The guests explain why the change is significant, how it intersects with First Amendment challenges in the Powell case, and the potential risks for companies or executives who now choose to speak out about future or past settlements. The episode then turns to broader enforcement trends: a sharp drop in total cases and public‑company actions following the transition from Gary Gensler to Atkins, a "back to basics" focus on insider trading, accounting fraud, and disclosure, and resource constraints from staff reductions. The group also highlights hot‑button areas such as crypto registration, "AI washing," and proposed disclosure reforms, emphasizing that despite a perceived enforcement downturn, companies should not relax their compliance efforts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

June 3, 202626 min

AI State Regulatory Frontiers: Emerging Issues on AI, Privilege, and Work Product in Legal Practice

In this episode of Regulatory Oversight's "AI State Regulatory Frontiers" series, co-host Ashley Taylor is joined by colleagues Gene Fishel and Dan Waltz to examine how AI is reshaping expectations for attorneys, clients, and regulators. The discussion focuses on the emerging contours of privilege, work product, and ethics in an era where both attorneys and pro se litigants increasingly rely on AI tools. Using recent federal decisions as case studies, the episode explores how courts are beginning to draw lines around confidentiality, reasonable expectations of privacy, and the proper role of AI in legal work. The conversation then broadens to the growing patchwork of state bar opinions, court rules, and state regulatory activity on AI, and what that means for law firms and in-house counsel. Gene and Dan offer practical guidance on AI governance, platform selection, client counseling, and how to integrate AI into legal and corporate workflows in a way that is defensible, ethical, and aligned with evolving regulatory expectations. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

May 20, 202621 min

Lessons From a Senate Insider: Legislative Strategy With Jason Smith

In this episode of Regulatory Oversight, host Stephen Piepgrass is joined by his new colleague Jason Smith, a veteran Senate lawyer and strategist who spent more than 15 years on Capitol Hill. Jason's tenure includes advising Senators John Fetterman, Patty Murray, and Mark Begich on high-stakes issues ranging from voting rights and immigration reform to pharmaceutical policy and international trade. Jason shares how his insider experience — leading major legislative teams, driving tough oversight investigations, and helping secure over $300 million in congressionally directed spending for Pennsylvania communities — now powers the strategic, 360-degree solutions he delivers for clients at Troutman Pepper Locke's Regulatory Investigations, Strategy + Enforcement (RISE) practice. Stephen and Jason discuss how to "speak the language" of legislators and regulators, avoid missed opportunities in critical meetings, and bridge the gaps between litigation, compliance, and government relations to actually move the needle in a gridlocked environment. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

May 5, 202634 min

AI State Regulatory Frontiers: Inside the New Wave of State AI Laws

In this episode of Regulatory Oversight, host Ashley Taylor continues the multipart series on artificial intelligence with colleagues Ghillaine Reid, David Stauss, and Matt Berns for a practical look at how states are actually regulating AI in 2025–26. Framed through a consumer protection lens, the discussion moves beyond theoretical federal proposals to real bills and regulations moving through state legislatures today. David surveys the national landscape, noting that nearly all state legislatures are active and that roughly 500 AI-related bills have been introduced, with major themes around pricing rules, consumer-facing interactive AI, health-related AI, provenance requirements, and the Colorado AI Act. Matt then focuses on the rapid growth of algorithmic pricing laws — 2025 statutes in Connecticut, New York, and California restricting the use of competitors' data and requiring disclosure of personalized or "surveillance" pricing, as well as 2026 proposals in states like Maryland, New Jersey, and California that increasingly target personalized pricing in groceries and other essential sectors. Ghillaine turns to transparency in synthetic content, contrasting New York's broad but stalled GenAI warning bill with its more precise "synthetic performers" law and tying those developments to California's AI Transparency Act (SB 942), which requires watermarking and detection tools for large generative AI platforms. The conversation rounds out with an overview of new state rules on chatbots and "companion AI," particularly in California, New York, and other states, describing requirements to clearly disclose when users — especially minors — are interacting with AI, protocols for handling suicidal ideation, and growing concerns over mental health use cases and broad private rights of action. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

April 29, 202622 min

AI State Regulatory Frontiers: How Existing Laws Regulate AI

In this episode of Regulatory Oversight, host Ashley Taylor continues his multipart series on artificial intelligence (AI) with returning guests Gurkan Ay and Andrew Coles of Resolution Economics. Together, they move beyond headlines and hypotheticals to focus on how AI is being regulated today — and what companies should be doing now to manage risk. Instead of waiting for a single federal AI law, the conversation explores the reality of "regulation by litigation" and enforcement. Ay and Coles explain how existing legal frameworks — such as anti-discrimination, employment, and privacy laws — already shape how AI can be used, and why the specific use case is critical. They walk through real-world examples using the same sentiment-analysis tool in two different ways, showing how differences in data, time horizon, and impact on employees can create very different risk profiles, even with identical technology. The discussion also tackles the perceived tension between innovation and safeguards, and ongoing debates over a national AI framework and preemption of state AI laws. Rather than framing AI as a choice between speed and safety, the guests argue that organizations can foster innovation while still being thoughtful about how AI affects employees, customers, and other stakeholders. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

April 15, 202630 min

AI State Regulatory Frontiers: Predictive, Generative, and Agentic Risk

In this episode of Regulatory Oversight, co-host Ashley Taylor, co-leader of Troutman Pepper Locke's State Attorneys General team, kicks off a multipart series on artificial intelligence (AI) with guests Gurkan Ay and Andrew Coles of Resolution Economics. They unpack what people really mean by "AI" today and why it is critical for risk, compliance, and legal exposure to distinguish among the three primary "flavors" of AI: predictive, generative, and agentic. In practical terms, they explain how predictive tools that score, rank, and classify individuals rely on historical data, how generative AI enables natural-language interaction but introduces risks like hallucinations, and how emerging agentic AI can autonomously plan and execute complex, multistep workflows, creating new governance challenges. The conversation then turns to how existing legal frameworks are being applied to these technologies, and how regulators are beginning to grapple with different AI use cases without a one-size-fits-all rule set. The guests discuss whether AI truly creates new categories of legal risk or primarily amplifies existing ones through scale, speed, and accessibility, and they highlight the growing role of "regulation by litigation" as courts and enforcers apply long-standing laws to new tools. They close with practical themes: organizations must understand their specific AI use cases, align them with existing legal and consumer expectations, and build defensible, consistent governance and compliance programs to manage legal and operational risk. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

February 25, 202621 min

California DFPI's Next Target: Credit Reporting Industry

In this special crossover episode of Regulatory Oversight and FCRA Focus, Kim Phan is joined by Michael Yaghi, partner in Troutman Pepper Locke's Regulatory Investigations, Strategy, and Enforcement practice group, to unpack the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation's (DFPI) latest effort to require registration for the credit reporting industry. They discuss DFPI's second request for comment, how it fits into California's broader push to regulate nonbank financial services, and which entities may be swept in beyond the "big three" consumer reporting agencies — such as furnishers, data brokers, specialty credit reporting agencies, resellers, and fintechs. Kim and Michael also explore how narrowly (or broadly) the rules might be drawn, potential overlap and tension with existing FCRA requirements, what registration and reporting could mean in practice for covered entities, and what companies should be doing now as the February 26 comment deadline approaches. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

February 10, 202621 min

Trading, Gambling, or Something Else? Prediction Markets and the Payments Puzzle

In this crossover episode, Regulatory Oversight host Stephen Piepgrass teams up with Payments Pros host Keith Barnett to unpack how prediction markets, gaming, and payments intersect in a rapidly evolving and legally uncertain landscape. Drawing on Keith's extensive regulatory experience, they explain what prediction markets are, why these contracts are treated as swaps rather than securities, and how that distinction affects insider trading issues. Stephen and Keith then address the growing tension between federal regulators and state attorneys general over whether these products are trading or unlicensed sports betting, the CFTC chair's recent criticism of "regulation by enforcement," and the NCAA's push to pause college sports contracts. They close by examining what this means for banks, payment processors, and other service providers navigating know-your-customer and "lawful transaction" obligations while the law remains in flux. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

January 29, 202619 min

New Jersey's Big Bet on Disparate Impact: What the AG's New Rules Mean for Lenders and AI

In this special crossover episode of Regulatory Oversight and The Consumer Finance Podcast, Chris Willis is joined by colleagues Lori Sommerfield and Matthew Berns to discuss New Jersey's sweeping new disparate impact regulations under the Law Against Discrimination. They break down one of the most comprehensive state-level disparate impact rules in the U.S., the contrasts with traditional federal standards, and implications for enforcement in financial services. The discussion dives into credit scores, underwriting models, AI and automated decision-making tools, and the difference between New Jersey's approach and the Trump administration's effort to scale back disparate impact at the federal level, offering practical takeaways for lenders and other covered entities navigating this shifting landscape. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

January 9, 202621 min

From Vegas to Venezuela: High-Stakes Predictive Markets

In this episode of Regulatory Oversight, host Stephen Piepgrass, who leads Troutman Pepper Locke's Regulatory Investigation Strategy and Enforcement (RISE) practice, is joined by partner Lu Reyes for a deep dive into the national security and enforcement implications of predictive markets. The discussion centers on a headline‑grabbing Polymarket trade that appeared to anticipate former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's capture and yielded roughly $400,000 in profit, raising questions about insider trading and classified information leaks.Stephen and Lu discuss how current regulatory frameworks and enforcement tools struggle to keep pace with emerging predictive markets, particularly where anonymity and digital assets can make it difficult to identify traders or trace funds. Drawing on Lu's experience as a senior national security official in the Bush administration, they explore how markets that allow betting on geopolitical and military outcomes could place a cash bounty on secrets, potentially encouraging espionage, recruitment of insiders, and even attempts to influence events rather than merely predict them.The episode also highlights key differences between predictive markets and traditional gambling, including post hoc event definitions and asymmetric access to information, and considers how regulators, Congress, and market operators might respond. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.