After the highlights of the Environment Act 2021 and COP26 in 2021, what does this year hold for environmental law and policy? Here are our top five predictions. 1. The Office for Environmental Protection gets down to work The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) is a new independent body, established by the Environment Act 2021 (EA 2021), tasked with holding public bodies to account for the environment ...
A look at trends and influences which we expect to impact mid-market banking and finance in 2022. Last year’s article heavily featured COVID-19, its impact, and expected patterns of recovery. While the pandemic continues to have a huge impact on our lives, most stakeholders have learnt to live with this uncertainty and businesses have adapted accordingly ...
The 2022 tax assessment of real and personal property have been determined by the local Assessor and a Notice of Assessment was issued and mailed to property owners. Property owners should make sure to check the mail for a copy of the Notice in order to determine whether an appeal of their taxable value should be filed ...
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 ...
A summary of the key takeaways from a recent webinar on 2023 Changes to the Immigration Rules. The webinar was hosted by Pavan Sumal and Rachel Harvey and a recording of the webinar can be found below along with a summary of the key takeaways ...
Having experienced unprecedented levels of M&A activity in 2021 and the first half of 2022, followed by the market uncertainty of Q3 and Q4 of 2022, what can we expect from the M&A landscape in 2023? Here are some of our key predictions ...
The year ahead will see a better resourced FCA announcing and implementing reform in many different markets. It will see a focus on protecting consumers in the current economic climate and a focus on understanding newer and faster paced markets, particularly those where consumer detriment is a real risk. In a written statement to Parliament on the 9 December 2022, the chancellor set out an ambitious list of reforms that, at any other time, the financial services sector would run towards ...
In some ways, the 2023 proxy season might be met with a sigh of relief as some extraneous factors impacting United States capital markets—such as the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict—have stabilized in terms of their increased effect. In that same vein, some changes that may have once been viewed as “trends” in disclosure are very much here to stay ...
Fintech companies and their partners are on alert as a flurry of new state and federal cybersecurity requirements take effect. The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) both recently finalized changes that will create additional compliance obligations, expand existing regulations to new entities and mandate that banks and fintech firms move quickly to update their cybersecurity policies and incident-response capabilities ...
By: Sarah Andrzejczak With a new year comes new employment laws, and Colorado is no exception. The following is a brief, non-exhaustive list of key law changes employers should be aware of for the 2024 year: Colorado’s FAMLI program will begin providing paid leave benefits to employees as of January 1, 2024 ...
Jon Bew and Wayne Gibbard, co-heads of the Financial Services Sector at Shoosmiths, comment on upcoming trends and developments to expect in 2024 for the sector. Everyone is feeling it, the rumbling of a technological storm. The immergence of generative AI, RegTech and increased fraud and cyber risk, have swept clouds of uncertainty across the Financial Services Sector… ...
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 ...
As the American press focuses on the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act, the wheels have been set in motion to implement new health care legislation that enjoys strong bipartisan support. The 21st Century Cures Act (the “Act”), signed by President Obama on December 13, addresses a broad range of health care priorities, including drug innovation, biomedical research, and mental health reform ...
January 2, 2024 By: Braeden Mansouri and Alicia Guerra The California Legislature’s laser focus on addressing the state housing crisis did not subside during the 2023 legislative session. While legislators proposed over 150 housing bills, only a fraction of those bills were approved by both chambers. Still, Governor Gavin Newsom signed 56 housing bills into law ...
Governor Wolf announced that 24 Pennsylvania counties will move from the red phase to the yellow phase of the reopening plan beginning at 12:01 a.m. Friday, May 8. The 24 counties announced today are: Bradford, Cameron, Centre, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Montour, Northumberland, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Union, Venango and Warren ...
On January 29, 2003, pursuant to the requirements of Section 307 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the SEC issued a release adopting a new Rule 205 entitled “Standards of Professional Conduct for Attorneys Appearing and Practicing Before the Commission in the Representation of an Issuer” (the “Standards”) ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on March 13 issued a highly consequential decision in U.S. Securities andExchange Commission v. Rashid, interpreting and applying the mental state for liability of investment advisers under the Investment Advisers Act. Over a strong dissent, the court reversed a finding of liability of the defendant investment adviser under basic principles of negligence law, and in doing so, provided a road map for future enforcement actions under the act ...
The joint employer rule has been a hot topic in the last several years, mostly in the context of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Recall the drama of the Trump administration's narrower definition of a joint employer for wage purposes, followed by the Biden administration's almost immediate rescission of that rule. Gig economy workers have battled about overtime and their entitlement to it under the FLSA's definitions ...
The False Claims Act (FCA) was enacted to punish and deter fraud against the United States, and to recover moneys obtained through such fraud. Whether an alleged fraud was actually against the United States is a threshold question not posed in the typical FCA case, where allegations usually involve claims for payment submitted to the Army, Navy, Medicare, or other entity clearly part of the federal government. But some cases are not so clear ...
The glacial pace at which the federal government has implemented cannabis policy–particularly in light of the rapid evolution of cannabis laws at the state level–is at the same time predictable and frustrating to those seeking a measure of certainty ...
As U.S. hospitals and health clinics continue preparing for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patient surges, federal regulatory agencies are developing resources to help health care providers comply with myriad regulatory requirements. In this context, the U.S ...
On April 1, 2019, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) launched a secure website that lists the maximum price drug manufacturers may charge 340B-covered entities for 340B-eligible drug purchases (the 340B Ceiling Price Site). Drug manufacturers and 340B-covered entities may access the 340B Ceiling Price Site through their HRSA Office of Pharmacy Affairs information system (the 340B OPAIS) account here: https://340bopais.hrsa ...
