Over the past month, the SEC has signaled the primacy of ESG in its mission for 2021 and beyond. Seemingly daily, there have been updates regarding ESG initiatives, whether from the Division of Enforcement or the Division of Corporation Finance. This week, it was the Division of Investment Management’s turn ...
Recently, we have seen a flurry of congressional and executive activity on the issue of nondiscrimination in banking. In October 2020, Senators Warren and Booker, along with other Democratic senators, introduced the Fair Access to Financial Services Act of 2020. This bill seeks to prevent discrimination in banking based on “race, color, religion, national origin, and sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity) ...
Republic Act No. 11523, also known as “An Act Ensuring Philippine Financial Industry Resiliency Against the COVID-19 Pandemic” (FIST Act)1, which seeks to assist banks and financial institutions (FIs) in dealing with the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, took effect on February 18, 2021 upon its publication in the Official Gazette and in a newspaper of general circulation ...
As the COVID-19 vaccine becomes more widely available, more employers are considering bringing their employees back to the office. In doing so, many employers have questions about whether or not they can require their employees to receive the vaccine before returning. Preliminary guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) suggests that employers can mandate vaccination ...
New law provides up to four hours of paid leave for vaccination: On March 12, 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation entitling New York employees to up to four hours of paid leave to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, effective immediately ...
On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (“ARPA”) which is another coronavirus stimulus package aimed at speeding up the United States’ recovery from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic ...
The Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, 1993 (“COIDA”) provides for compensation for disablement caused by occupational injuries or diseases sustained or contracted by employees in the course of their employment, or for death resulting from such injuries ...
Now that we have persevered through one year of the COVID-19 pandemic, much has been written about pandemic fatigue and associated social isolation, mental stress, and anxiety. Employers may be seeing an increase in the incidence of mental illness claims in their workplaces ...
This digest is a curated list of Bradley content regarding the coronavirus. In an effort to provide our clients with the easiest way to find information that may be beneficial in responding to the impact of COVID-19, we have provided links to our most recent blog posts, news alerts, webinar recordings and more. Additionally, this digest will now be deployed on a weekly basis in an effort to reduce the number of emails our clients receive ...
The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is one that attracts its fair share of attention, not all of it good, and too much of it from organizations named with that part of the alphabet — SEC and DOJ — that can strike fear in the heart of a business person. And Texas is often the center of the investigators’ focus ...
As a reminder to our life sciences clients including drug manufacturers, medical device manufacturers, and group purchasing organizations, all Open Payments data from the 2020 program year must be reported to CMS by no later than March 31, 2021. Organizations that participate in the Open Payments program are also reminded that they must submit a final attestation that their data is timely, complete and accurate in addition to reporting data from fiscal year 2020 ...
Competition & Antitrust Resolution No. 237/2021 of the Secretariat of Commerce: New prices information regime for companies (SIPRE) By Agustín Waisman and Mercedes Pando Through Resolution No ...
A new version of the Instructions for the obtention of permits for movement within zones under quarantines or restrictive measures is in force as of March 15. The most relevant amendments to the former version are the following: Regarding the “Temporary Individual Permit for traveling to polling stations”, a new “permit for voting in the national, regional or local elections” is created ...
On March 11th, 2021, the National Consumer Service (hereinafter “ SERNAC ”) published a new interpretative circular which sets rules for the notification of breaches regarding financial portability and other monitoring data (the “ Circular ”). The Circular revokes SERNAC's Exempt Resolution No ...
As we mentioned last week, the signals coming from the SEC on ESG matters are increasing in volume and significance. On March 15, acting SEC Chair Allison Herren Lee added two more data points. The first concerned the Division of Corporate Finance’s disclosure program ...
Last week upon final passage by Congress, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA or Act) into law.[1] The $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill provides a comprehensive package of available funds to qualifying individuals and businesses in the form of direct payments, industry-specific grants, and tax credits ...
Courts nationwide have struggled for years with the question of when a subjective opinion is false under the False Claims Act. The Supreme Court’s decision to deny review of two cases involving health-care providers that had allegedly submitted false claims for payment based on subjective clinical judgment still leaves us without a uniform, national answer, says Nicholas A. Danella. The U.S ...
On March 9, 2021, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a 45-day extension of the public-comment period for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to modify the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. OCR first released the NPRM to the public on the HHS website on Dec. 10, 2020, and it was published in the Federal Register on Jan. 21, 2021 ...
On 11 March 2021, the Information Regulator published an invitation to apply for prior authorisation, together with a Guidance Note, on the application for prior authorisation and the form to be used by responsible parties in obtaining such prior authorisation. The invitation to apply for prior authorisation encourages responsible parties to submit their applications as soon as possible ...
Deciding what happens to employees in a TUPE transfer where there is more than one transferee is never straightforward. However, developments in this area continue to add complexity to the situation, adding cost and uncertainty to employers. Recent developments In the recent case of McTear Contracts Ltd v Bennett & ors the EAT looked at a situation where there were two transferees in the context of a service provision change ...
On March 10, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), in association with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), issued updated guidance for nursing homes to resume visitation options during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nursing homes have been devastatingly effected by COVID-19, with outbreaks causing high rates of infection and death ...
The SEC Division of Examinations issued a Risk Alert on Feb. 26, 2021, providing the Division’s observations made during examinations of investment advisers, broker-dealers and transfer agents regarding digital asset securities. For purposes of the Division, digital asset securities are those digital assets that are securities ...
Corporate & Commercial Recognition of UK Insolvency Proceedings in Malta Post-BrexitSimon Pullicino comments on the impact of Brexit with respect to cross-border insolvency and the implications for the recognition and enforcement of UK proceedings in Malta and vice-versa ...