Jenifer Keenan, counsel in the firm’s Products Liability Group, was quoted in a Law360 article, “4 Ways to Make Sure Comments on Agency Rules Count," discussing ways to make sure stakeholder comments on proposed regulations are composed correctly and how to make them count.
“If there are some minor things you can live with, it's better to focus your attention on the bigger issues, rather than address every single comma and subpart," Keenan said.
According to Keenan, there's strength in numbers when it comes to winning an agency's attention and companies should consider working with a trade organization on comments or forming a coalition of industry members.
"You don't have direct control like you would if you submitted your own comment, but I think the benefits outweigh that," she said. "The more companies sign on to your comment, [the more it] strengthens the impact of the comment."
“Trade organizations often circulate draft versions of comments for input from their members and if the trade group takes a position that a company disagrees with, the company can always withdraw its name from the comment and submit its own,” Keenan said.
“In addition, teaming up for a comment better allows companies to use their proprietary data when making a point,” she added.
“A trade group can take confidential financial data from a host of companies and aggregate it so that companies can show how a proposal will affect an industry financially without giving away proprietary information.”
“If there are some minor things you can live with, it's better to focus your attention on the bigger issues, rather than address every single comma and subpart," Keenan said.
According to Keenan, there's strength in numbers when it comes to winning an agency's attention and companies should consider working with a trade organization on comments or forming a coalition of industry members.
"You don't have direct control like you would if you submitted your own comment, but I think the benefits outweigh that," she said. "The more companies sign on to your comment, [the more it] strengthens the impact of the comment."
“Trade organizations often circulate draft versions of comments for input from their members and if the trade group takes a position that a company disagrees with, the company can always withdraw its name from the comment and submit its own,” Keenan said.
“In addition, teaming up for a comment better allows companies to use their proprietary data when making a point,” she added.
“A trade group can take confidential financial data from a host of companies and aggregate it so that companies can show how a proposal will affect an industry financially without giving away proprietary information.”