Insights & Events

New year, new sheriffs on the block. In 2025, we saw a precipitous decline in federal criminal and regulatory action in “deprioritized” areas like consumer protection, public corruption, and environmental enforcement. In 2026, we expect a significant responsive uptick in state attorney general enforcement to fill this vacuum left by the Department of Justice and other federal regulators.

Specifically, state attorney general offices, like New York and California, have bureaus or sections within the larger office that focus on the office’s priorities. For instance, the New York Attorney General’s office has an “Environmental Protection Bureau” that is housed in the “Social Justice” Division and “plays a central role in protecting New York’s environment and public health.” Likewise, California has its “Bureau of Environmental Justice” that is focused on protecting “people and communities that endure a disproportionate share of environmental pollution and public health hazards.” Beyond environmental litigation, both New York and California have units focused on consumer protection, public integrity, financial crimes, and “investigations” more broadly. Texas recently brought enforcement action in the environmental sphere against a public service company that allegedly caused the largest wildfire in recorded Texas history. Other states, including New Jersey, Illinois, and Washington, all have similar units or initiatives meant to target certain activities.

State attorneys general often pool resources and combine forces with other states to pursue priorities against specific companies or industries. In December 2025, 42 state attorneys general published a letter that highlighted allegations of harm caused by generative AI “chatbot” products and warned that investigations and/or litigation against the producers of generative AI products—including potential criminal penalties—would be a priority moving forward. The letter’s tone is an implicit warning to companies that state attorneys general are ready and willing to pursue action involving AI products, regardless of federal inactivity on the issue. In a consumer protection matter, 36 state attorneys general recently reached a settlement agreement with two major car manufacturers requiring anti-theft upgrades on their vehicles in the wake of allegations that their safety technology was not up to industry standards. These types of joint task forces also include bi-partisan issues, like the “Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force,” which targets companies breaking Federal Communications Commission rules designed to prevent robocalls. Notably, this task force is comprised of 51 state attorneys general, signaling the strength of the political will to bring enforcement actions against offending parties into the new year.

With federal enforcement on a wide range of issues likely to continue its decline in 2026, individual or combined actions by state attorneys general will become more prevalent. Companies should keep an eye on areas and industries that in past administrations would be covered by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Environmental Protection Agency, and select divisions within the Department of Justice, like areas focused on corporate enforcement, fraud, environment and natural resources, and public corruption—just to name a few. As mentioned above, many state attorney general offices have divisions or sections directly focused on these areas and will work to fill in the gap left by a lack of federal enforcement. Companies in these industries should think about ways to mitigate risk by conducting product stewardship reviews, reviewing internal policies to ensure compliance with laws in states with an active attorney general, and working with outside counsel to track trends in state enforcement and put in place strategies to respond.

— By Kyle McWaters