The much awaited revised new regulations governing who qualifies for the FLSA white collar exemption has finally been revealed by the Department of Labor. It did so on March 8 by publishing anNPRM(“Notice of Proposed Rule Making”). In December of 2016, a Texas federal court entered a nationwide injunction halting the implementation of new regulations which would have dramatically increased the salary threshold for exempting most white collar employees from overtime ...
On the heels of the DOJ Criminal Division’s revisions to itsCorporate Enforcement Policyto encourage cooperation, the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch has issued its owncooperation guidelinesthat identify a non-exhaustive list of types of cooperation that may entitle entities or individuals to cooperation credit ...
On Saturday, April 4, 2020, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued a business review letter to a number of providers of Personal Protective Equipment (“PPE”) and pharmaceutical products, stating that the DOJ “presently does not intend to challenge” their efforts to expedite and increase manufacturing, sourcing, and distribution of PPE and medications in connection with Project Airbridge ...
On May 9, 2018, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein released a new “Policy on Coordination of Corporate Resolution Penalties” (“Policy”) in an effort to ameliorate the unwarranted “piling on” of penalties by the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and other law enforcement agencies outside of the DOJ. The Policy’s teeth come in the form of the new section 1-12.100 to the United States Attorney Manual, which requires U.S ...
The Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice recently issued an updated guidance document on theEvaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs. The new document, which significantly expands on the prior version issued in early 2017, largely follows the structure of its predecessor but provides much more detail than ever before. Indeed the new version is more than double the length of the prior version ...
Among the many benefits of investing in a qualified opportunity fund (QOF) is the deferral of tax on current capital gains. Specifically, if an amount equivalent to a current capital gain is invested in a QOF within 180 days of the realization event, the tax generally will not come due until the earlier of the year in which the QOF investment is disposed of or 2026 ...
As Congress begins to work on the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (“MAP 21”), the bill to reauthorize highway funding for the next five years, policy makers are confronting the challenge of how to bridge the estimated $400 billion gap in funding between federal revenues and transportation infrastructure investment needs ...
On Friday, January 25, 2019, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s Office held the fourth of its six public forums in connection with its rulemaking process for the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”). The purpose of the open forum, which was held in Los Angeles at the Ronald Reagan State Building, was to provide an initial opportunity for the public to participate in the CCPA rulemaking process ...
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced its Final Rule increasing the minimum salary level employees need to be paid in order to be deemed an exempt white collar employee, provided the employees otherwise meet the applicable duties and salary basis tests. The rule has been long-awaited since the predecessor Obama administration-era rule was enjoined by a Texas federal court in 2016 ...
On November 5, 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division announced the establishment of a Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF) to deter, detect, investigate, and prosecute criminal schemes that undermine the integrity of the government procurement process. One of the highlights of the PCSF is to reprioritize prosecutions of cartel conduct after a several-year decline ...
On September 2, 2020, we issued an e-alert discussing the deferral of the employee portion of Social Security taxes (“SS Tax Deferral Program”), as directed by the Presidential Memorandum dated August 28, 2020, and as implemented by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) pursuant to Notice 2020-65 (“Notice”) issued on August 28, 2020 ...
On August 13, 2020, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum directing the Secretary of the Treasury to use his authority to defer the withholding, deposit and payment of the employee portion of Social Security taxes (“SS Tax Deferral Program”). On August 28, 2020, the Secretary of the Treasury and IRS issued Notice 2020-65 (“Notice”) to implement the SS Tax Deferral Program ...
Impact of Trump Administration, Midterm Elections and the Rise of Automotive M&ARespondents to Dykema’s 14th Annual M&A Outlook Survey expressed the highest level of optimism for the M&A market in the 14-year history of the firm’s survey. Sixty-five percent of respondents expect the M&A market to strengthen over the next 12 months, significantly up from the mid- to high 30s where it has remained for the past several years ...
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in the matter of Lucia v. SEC, 585 U.S. (2018), which held that administrative law judges of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are considered Inferior Officers of the United States, therefore subject to the Appointments Clause (Article II, Sec. 2) of the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mr ...
On March 27, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia addressed the question of discovery costs in a long-running False Claims Act case,U.S. ex rel. Barko v. Halliburton (No. 19-7064, March 2020) (“Barko”). In Barko, a former employee claimed that an affiliate of Halliburton, Kellogg Brown & Root Services (KBR), inflated costs and received kickbacks from subcontractors during the Iraq war during the early to mid-2000s ...
Long before the creation of limited liability companies, the best practice for companies or individuals that operated multiple distinct businesses or held multiple significant assets, such as real estate, was to segregate each distinct business or asset into a separate entity so that the liabilities of one of the businesses or assets would not affect the other businesses or assets ...
As an eventful 2018 comes to a close, we look ahead to 2019 and our “Top 10 List” of key issues U.S. financial institutions, non-banks providing financial services, and financial technology (fintech) entities should plan for and watch throughout the upcoming year. The first five items on the list are discussed below, and the remainder of our list will follow shortly in another post ...
Dykema attorneys were recently involved in an interesting infrastructure project finance transaction relating to the rehabilitation of a portion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Dykema represented the lender in this transaction. To complete the transaction, a fairly unusual structure had to evolve ...
Federal authorities have recently issued a large number of new policies, guidance, etc., in response to the coronavirus pandemic. These include the following: Flexibility in Submitting Required Signatures on Applications The USCIS has announced it will accept application forms with reproduced original signatures ...
Gilda Radner’s character Rosanne Rosannadanna always ended her routines on Saturday Night live by saying, “It’s always something.” She might well have been talking about COVID-19, the effects of which are just beginning to be felt throughout the world. Schools are closed, supply chains may be cracked, travel is slowing and events are being postponed or canceled outright, with more impacts probably to come ...
Households and businesses across the country continue to take safety precautions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the federal government is preparing an unprecedented federal response to the health, safety and economic challenges. In the coming weeks, we expect a wide variety of private businesses to partner with federal agencies and receive funds to address the health crisis ...
