There are two reasons why Latin American clients keep coming to US law firms to handle their cross-border M&A deals. The first reason is our execution capabilities: US law firms have been advising on cross-border M&As for more than 100 years. The second reason is the predictability of a tried and tested legal system: US law remains the preeminent choice for large cross-border M&A deals because of the certainties and guarantees it offers to everyone involved ...
As noted in our January 2015 Haynes and Boone Alert on “Stretching Your Borrowing Base,” the spring borrowing base redetermination season is upon us. Borrowing base reductions seem a certainty for many oil and gas producers ...
“Waters of the United States” or “WOTUS” in the esoteric taxonomy of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”), is a term with which many are becoming increasingly familiar. This deceptively simple phrase is anything but simple in its application. The oil and gas industry is increasingly experiencing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) proclivity finding CWA jurisdiction through WOTUS interpretation. New proposed regulatory language issued by the EPA and the U.S ...
The 2015 Mergers Control Survey by Margaret Huang and Victor Chang of LCS & Partners reviewed the merger control regime in Taiwan for IFLR. 1. REGULATORY FRAMEWORK1.1 What is the applicable legislation and who enforces it?The Fair Trade Act (FTA), which entered into force in 1992, is the main legislation governing Taiwanese merger control. Merger control is enforced by the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission (TFTC) ...
This coming Sunday, March 29, CME Group plans to launch the first ever physically-delivered crude oil storage futures contract. CME Group is able to make this contract available having teamed up with LOOP LLC (“LOOP”) (LOOP owns and operates the deepwater port and associated onshore terminal with significant crude oil handling, storage and re-distribution capabilities located in Clovelly, Louisiana, sometimes called the “Clovelly Hub”) and NEO Markets Inc. (“NEO”) ...
On Tuesday, March 24, 2015, the Supreme Court issued its decision inOmnicare Inc. v. Laborers District Council Construction Industry Pension Fund, 575 U.S. __ (2015). The ruling identifies two avenues by which a company’s statements of opinion in registration statements for initial public offerings can lead to liability under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933 ...
In a monumental decision, today the United States Supreme Court ruled that Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) decisions carry preclusive effect in subsequent federal district court decisions so long as the ordinary elements of issue preclusion are met. The ruling implicates that, where use is the “paramount” issue in a court case, a TTAB decision that at least peripherally contemplates marketplace use will have preclusive effect ...
The new Myanmar Electricity Law was enacted by the Myanmar Parliament on October 27 last year, replacing the old Electricity Law of 1984. The old electricity law was enacted during Myanmar’s socialist period and lacked the legal framework to include private sector participation in power projects and independent power producers ...
“Families that play together, stay together”. That’s what my late grandfather always used to say. But what does his message have to do with developing business opportunities in a law firm? In my opinion, everything. Business development is about people. It’s about relationships. Not just momentary relationships, but committed relationships. Relationships one would most likely find in a family. What unites a family and makes it strong? Trust, common values and support ...
As part of our series on legal issues arising out of the plummeting commodity prices, this article looks at one distinct factor in the commodity finance equation: hedging. Hedging is usually thought of in terms of cash-settled derivatives offered by lenders as part of a broader financial relationship tied together by a credit agreement and perhaps collateral documents. But many other transactions blend hedging and finance attributes ...
On January, 22, 2015, in thematter of Betteto Frett v National Bank of the Virgin Islands[i](theBank), the BVIHigh Court reinforced the principle that injunctive relief would not be easilygranted against a bank validly exercising its power to sell real property usedas security for bank loans ...
On March 4, 2015 the Official Daily of the Mexican Federation published the Regulations to the Law on Navigation and Maritime Commerce, which regulates the activities of the Merchant Maritime Authority and the activities of the persons that participate in maritime and port matters provided by the Law on Navigation and Maritime Commerce. Said Regulations are effective 30 calendar days after its publication in the Daily of reference, that is, on April 3, 2015 ...
In an opinion that should give pause to mineral lessors, the Texas Supreme Court revisited the scope of the duty that an executive rights holder owes a non-executive, holding that a lessor’s negotiation of an above-market bonus (for itself) and below-market royalty (shared with the non-executive) may give rise to liability to the non-executive.KCM Financial LLC v. Bradshaw, No. 13-0199, 2015 Tex. LEXIS 220, --- S.W.3d --- (Tex. Mar. 6, 2015) ...
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. recently agreed to pay $16.2 million to settle Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) charges for conduct related to two subsidiaries in sub-Saharan Africa. Goodyear’s settlement highlights the government’s expansive interpretation of the books and records provision under the FCPA ...
On March 1st, 2015, the federal Minister of Finance, Joe Oliver, and the federal Minister of Natural Resources, Greg Rickford, announced important new measures to support Canada’s mining industry in a speech at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) 2015 Convention ...
The new Myanmar Electricity Law was enacted by the Myanmar Parliament on October 27 last year, replacing the old Electricity Law of 1984. The old electricity law was enacted during Myanmar’s socialist period and lacked the legal framework to include private sector participation in power projects and independent power producers ...
The new Myanmar Electricity Law was enacted by the Myanmar Parliament on October 27 last year, replacing the old Electricity Law of 1984. The old electricity law was enacted during Myanmar’s socialist period and lacked the legal framework to include private sector participation in power projects and independent power producers ...
Prior articles in our series demonstratedways to stretch a borrowing base and how to address defaults on oil and gasloans. If a producer ultimately finds itself with a shrunken borrowing base andlimited liquidity, the producer in turn might not be able to pay balances dueto its contractors. An unpaid contractor may be able to file a mechanic’s andmaterialman’s (“M&M”) lien on the producer’s mineral property ...
On 19 February 2015, the Financial Services Commission removed restrictions on the use of the following words in the names of BVI Business Companies – 1.“BVI”;2.“British Virgin Islands”;3.“Council”;4.“Ntl”;5.“Int”;6.“Intl”;7.“VI”; and 8.“Virgin Islands” ...
Last week, President Obama issued an executive order promoting cybersecurity information sharing. Specifically, the executive order directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to encourage the development and formation of Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations (ISAO) ...
On January 13, 2015, New Mex Canada Inc. ("New Mex"), an Ontario corporation and employer in that same province, was sentenced to pay a fine of $250,000 while two of its officers each received 25-day prison terms after pleading guilty to several offences under the Ontario occupational health and safety legislation and regulations. The proceedings were instituted following a workplace accident in which a worker died after a fall ...
An amendment to the Competition and Consumer Protection Act went into force on 18 January 2015. The changes are sweeping.The Act of 10 June 2014 Amending the Competition and Consumer Protection Act and the Civil Procedure Code was published on 17 July 2014 and went into force six months later, on 18 January 2015.Below we review some of the key changes introduced by the amending act, which we also reported on several times during the course of the legislative process ...
The Texas Supreme Court recently declined to reach a question of significant interest to energy companies and landowners—whether deep subsurface wastewater migration can give rise to trespass liability when the wastewater crosses lease lines. See Envt’l Processing Sys., L.C. v. FPL Farming Ltd., No. 12-0905 (Tex. Feb. 6, 2015) ...
You can’t open up the paper these days without news of declining oil prices and fears of uncertainty for the oil and gas industry. As part of Haynes and Boone’s alert series on this topic, we continue our review, this time focusing on the contango spread and how market participants are responding. It seems like there is a sprint taking place to lock in the benefits of the current contango spread ...
The False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729, et seq. (“FCA”) continued to be a significant focus of government and whistleblower activity in 2014. This 2014 False Claims Act Year in Review highlights key developments, including: statistics showing that the rate of FCA filings remains very high, with the number of suits filed by whistleblowers exceeding 700 for the second year in a row,a report by the U.S ...
