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U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jacqueline P. Cox recently found that three Illinois attorneys violated their ethical obligations by failing to return their client's phone calls. She ordered the attorneys to return roughly half of their already-court-approved, and paid, flat fee. In In re: Molnar in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois in February, the debtor filed a petition under Chapter 13 ...

On January 10, 2024, the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) published a final rule (the “Final Rule”), which became effective on March 11, 2024, modifying the DOL’s guidance on how to analyze who qualifies as an employee or an independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) ...

On February 15, 2024, the United States Copyright Office published a notice of proposed rulemaking, proposing to create a new group registration option for published two-dimensional artwork.  Currently, the Copyright Office permits group registration of up to ten unpublished two-dimensional artworks, and it also permits the registration of individual published two-dimensional artworks ...

Many founders are familiar with tax-exempt charitable organizations. These nonprofit entities—which are commonly known by reference to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code—are operated exclusively for a broad range of charitable purposes.  501(c)(3) organizations come in a wide range of flavors, including private foundations, donor-advised funds, and public charities ...

You may already be aware of a new federal law called the Corporate Transparency Act (the CTA), which became effective on January 1, 2024.  The CTA was enacted as part of the National Defense Authorization Act and mandates that certain business entities (“Reporting Companies”) report identifying information to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) ...

The New York State Education Department (“SED”) has proposed an amendment to Title 8, Section 3.59 of the Rules of the Board of Regents that would clarify how a New York State institution of higher education (an “IHE”) might enter into certain corporate relationships with a “highly qualified out-of-state institution ...

The last installment of our three-part series explains U.S. tax considerations of a divided interest strategy for the bare owner who is a U.S. person. In most situations involving global families, it is the bare owner, rather than the holder of the usufruct, who is a U.S. person. The usufruct holder is often a nonresident alien who puts in place the property division for foreign estate planning purposes. In many instances, one or more members of the younger generation move to the United States ...

As discussed in our February 4, 2022 client alert and our December 15, 2022 client alert, certain legal entities are now subject to new reporting requirements in the United States about their beneficial ownership pursuant to the requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”).  As mandated by the CTA, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a final rule (the “Final Rule”) to implement the CTA ...

Recent bills in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate demonstrate legislators’ concerns about several issues related to nonprofits, including: (1) admissions practices at institutions of higher education; (2) cross-border grantmaking by U.S ...

Embezzlement and fraud within nonprofit organizations has reached epidemic proportions. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiner’s (2020) Global Study which contains an analysis of 2,504 cases of occupational fraud that were investigated between January 2018 and September 2019, 70 percent of frauds occurred in nonprofit organizations ...

On November 17, 2023, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law Senate Bill 4516, amending General Obligation Law Section 5-336 (GOL 5-336). As set forth in our earlier alert from when the law was first enacted, Section 5-336 limited employers’ use of nondisclosure provisions in agreements releasing claims involving sexual harassment ...

Over the last three years, the U.S. Department of Justice has pursued its first-ever criminal antitrust cases targeting alleged deals between companies to avoid poaching each other's employees and to fix wages. In total, the DOJ has brought six cases. Four resulted in acquittals, while just one case yielded guilty pleas. Last month, the DOJ voluntarily dismissed its sixth and last case without explanation. A number of lessons can be drawn from this wave of labor-market prosecutions ...

Most founders are familiar with Section 1202 of the Internal Revenue Code, which provides a tax exemption for the sale of Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS).  Less well known is Section 1202's cousin, Section 1045, which provides certain tax benefits for a "rollover" of proceeds from the sale of QSBS into replacement QSBS. The basic rules are as follows: The original QSBS must be owned for at least 6 months prior to its sale ...

Since the enactment of the statutory donor-advised fund (“DAF”) rules under the Pension Protection Act of 2006, sponsoring organizations that manage DAF programs have relied on the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC” or the “Code”) and certain limited administrative guidance to structure and operate DAFs ...

On September 29, 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) published new proposed enforcement guidance ("the Proposed Guidance”) on harassment in the workplace. This is the first proposed EEOC guidance on workplace harassment since the turn of the century ...

On Tuesday September 12, Patterson Belknap Partner Bill Cavanaugh delivered the opening statement on behalf of a coalition of the Attorney Generals from 38 states and other jurisdictions in the trial of a historic monopoly antitrust lawsuit against Google involving its search engine.  Bill was appointed by the Attorney Generals of Colorado and Nebraska, the lead plaintiffs in the states' case, to serve as lead trial counsel ...

In 1968, the Supreme Court held in Bruton v. United States that a defendant was deprived of his rights under the Confrontation Clause when a nontestifying codefendant's confession naming the defendant as a participant in the crime was introduced in their joint trial, regardless of any instruction that the jury should consider the confession only against the confessing defendant ...

We are deeply saddened at the passing of our dear friend and Patterson Belknap colleague, Robert M. Pennoyer, on August 13, 2023.  He was a leader of the firm in every way, and he was indefatigable in his service to the firm’s clients and to our community.  Bob was born on April 9, 1925, in the house of his grandfather J.P. Morgan on Madison Avenue. His commitment to service was instilled from a young age ...

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler is pleased to announce the publication of the latest edition of the New York Commercial Division Practice Guide. As with previous editions, the guide is organized into various chapters containing useful information about litigating in the Commercial Division of the New York State Supreme Court, the “premier forum” for litigating commercial cases ...

Patterson Belknap has once again been included on The American Lawyer’s “A-List” of 20 leading law firms in the United States. The 2023 A-List is based on five criteria: pro bono performance, associate satisfaction, diversity of lawyers, percentage of women equity partners, and financial performance ...

In recent years, TikTok has become one of the most popular social media apps in the United States, with more than 150 million users,[i] and the most popular smartphone app in the United States.[ii]  Despite its widespread popularity in the United States, TikTok has come under regulatory scrutiny due to data security concerns relating to its Chinese parent, ByteDance, and the United States government has even threatened to ban the TikTok app nationally if ByteDance does not sell the app ...

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP is pleased to announce that the firm has been recognized by Chambers High Net Worth 2023 in the following practice areas: Art and Cultural Property Law – USA Private Wealth Law – New York Chambers rankings are based on extensive research and interviews with peers and clients around the country ...

The court’s decision in Mallory could have profound implications for larger-sized companies that operate in multiple states throughout the country. And nowhere is this truer than in New York, where the state’s status as a global hotspot for foreign investment has attracted myriad out-of-state companies to register to do business within its borders. For over half a century, the U.S ...

On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc., v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc., v. University of North Carolina (collectively “SFFA”) that Harvard and the University of North Carolina (“UNC”) violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by impermissibly considering race when making undergraduate admissions decisions ...

ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence program, has grabbed wide attention since its first introduction to the public. It has become the fastest-growing consumer application in history with more than 100 million monthly active users. People are amazed by its ability to respond intelligently to complex queries. ChatGPT is only one of the many AI tools that are being developed and used in various industries to improve efficiency and customer service ...

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