EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Invalidated: Does Your Company Have a Plan B?
Verrill, July 2020

On Thursday, July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) invalidated the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield (“Privacy Shield”) in Data Protection Commissioner v. Facebook Ireland and Maximillian Schrems (Case C-311/18) The CJEU’s ruling voiced concern that the Privacy Shield does not adequately protect EU data subjects’ personal data from U.S...

read more

FDA Announces Updates to Guidance on Conducting Clinical Trials During COVID-19 and Notes Availability of its COVID MyStudies App
Verrill, June 2020

On June 3, 2020, the US Food & Drug Administration (“FDA”) again updated its guidance on the “Conduct of Clinical Trials of Medical Products during COVID-19 Public Health Emergency”. The update contains new information on the use of electronic signatures on clinical trial records and a reference to FDA’s COVID MyStudies App as an option for obtaining electronic informed consent. (See guidance here.) This follows a prior update released by FDA on May 14, 2020, also described below. To learn more about FDA’s guidance in this area, please see our prior alerts on our COVID-19 resource center for health care and life sciences clients here...

read more

Does a Property Insurance Policy Still Provide Coverage if a Business does not Reopen after the COVID-19 Stay At Home Orders are lifted?
Verrill, June 2020

Most property insurance policies in today’s market include a provision that causes coverage to lapse if the property is vacant (as defined by the policy) for a period in excess of 30 days. Fortunately, insurers have generally not enforced this limitation while businesses were under the COVID-19 orders that precluded them from being open to the public. As a result, in most situations, the property policies continued to provide coverage even if the buildings were arguably vacant. If you are not certain about your insurer’s stance, and closure orders remain in place, it makes sense to be in touch with your agent or insurer to confirm that your coverage is secure...

read more

PPP Math for the Self-Employed: And, Yes, There is Still Time
Verrill, May 2020

The Small Business Administration reports that as of May 23 it still had nearly $150 billion of untapped Paycheck Protection Program funds. The Program has been underutilized by self-employed business owners, in part due to complexity. Those micro-businesses, however, make up a significant slice of the U.S. economy and generally would be eligible for PPP funding. This article illustrates potential PPP benefits for a self-employed owner with no employees. If you are employed through your S corp or C corp, this article is not for you...

read more

Juggling the Costs of Reopening and Litigation: Try Mediation
Verrill, May 2020

State governments are creating paths to restart their economies. Businesses desperately want to start generating income and put the COVID-19 crisis behind them. Companies and their management are closely studying the guidelines issued by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other governmental entities, keeping track of their Paycheck Protection Program expenditures with the hope of converting the loan to a grant, and calculating the cost of reopening with all of the new safety measures in place...

read more

All maine COVID-19 articles | All Articles by Verrill