Environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations have taken on an increased significance in recent years, and the pace of change is accelerating. ESG performance is becoming an additional standard by which businesses are being judged by consumers, investors and other stakeholders ...
Amy Leech, employment law associate and Shoosmiths’ mental health and wellbeing champion, considers the benefits of having an employee led mental health champion network within your business. As an employer, you will have lots of opportunities to look after your employees’ mental health. However, many organisations are still just paying lip service to it ...
On March 30, 2022 the Division of Examinations of the United States Securities & Exchange Commission published the 2022 Examination Priorities. As in other years, the 2022 Examination Priorities document provides certain data regarding the scope of the examination program and the growth of the investment adviser community ...
Decree-Law 30-A/2022was published on 18 April to approve the exceptional measures intended to ensure the simplification of the procedures for producing energy from renewable sources. These measures came into force on 19 April and will be in force for a period of 2 years. These exceptional measures have been published by the Government in the current macroeconomic and geopolitical situation ...
SmartAir, a social enterprise that educates the public about air pollution, has been shortlisted for the “Powered by Pro Bono Award” at this year’s TrustLaw Awards. This award highlights NGOs or social enterprises that have used pro bono legal advice to scale up their operations, improve the delivery of their social mission or pivot their activities to make a greater impact on the businesses and people they support ...
ESG—environmental, social, and [corporate] governance—is the focus of socially responsible investing, reflecting the notion that corporations should serve the interests of not only their shareholders, but of all their stakeholders. This paper suggests NEPA’s EIS process provides a possible go-by for corporate decision-makers to use in ensuring that their ESG policies consider the big picture--the cons as well as the pros of their ESG policies ...
Companies may purchase third party technology from time to time. When acquiring patents from outside the company, or from related entities, there are important factors to be considered. Here are certain issues for buyers when preparing a patent acquisition agreement. The buyer should first determine that all the record owners of the purchased Intellectual Property are party to the patent acquisition agreement. A particular patent may be assigned to a subsidiary of the seller ...
A summary of the key takeaways from a recent webinar on reducing scope 3 investment-related emissions. Shoosmiths is delighted to be sponsoring United Nation Global Compact Network (UNGC) UK’s series of webinars on ‘Reducing Scope 3 Emissions’ ...
Kudun and Partners team headed to the Sirindhorn International Environmental Park in Cha-am, Phetchaburi province earlier to participate in a mangrove forest planting activity in honor of Earth Day, which is observed worldwide on April 22nd to raise environmental awareness and encourage environmental protection. According to the Earth Day Network, each year between 2015 and 2020, 10 million hectares of forest were cleared throughout the world ...
Gov. Kate Brown on March 10, 2020 issued Executive Order 20-04, which directs state agencies to take actions to reduce and regulate greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Oregon Legislature’s goal of achieving greenhouse gas levels at least 75 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 ...
For more than a century, since Winters v. United States, 207 U.S. 564 (1908), the Supreme Court has recognized that when the United States establishes a Native reservation, it impliedly reserves sufficient water rights to support that reservation. But many of these Winters rights, like those held by the Navajo Nation, remain unadjudicated and unquantified, creating uncertainty for junior right holders ...
There is concern the race to achieve carbon net-zero is leading to the loss of productive agricultural land to forestry. Investors recognise land with planting potential as an excellent investment, which has had a distorting effect on land values. To some extent, this is simply the operation of market forces. A landowner with an unprofitable farming business may well be tempted to sell land to a forestry investor and there are no restrictions on their ability to do so ...
On March 3, 2022, President Biden signed the long-titled Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021. Seen as a result of the #MeToo movement, this fairly simple amendment to Title 9 of the United States Code prohibits private employers from mandating that employees submit to arbitration of sexual assault and sexual harassment claims ...
Changes to the rules relating to the use of red diesel will come into effect from April 1 2022 as a result of amendments to the Hydro Carbon Oil Duties Act 1979. The new rules set out a list of “excepted machines” which are allowed to use red diesel. A vehicle that is used for a purpose related to agriculture, aquatic farming, horticulture and forestry is allowed to use red diesel and can be used on the public road if the use is for one of those purposes ...
A summary of the key takeaways from a recent webinar on reducing scope 3 business travel emissions. Shoosmiths is delighted to be sponsoring United Nation Global Compact Network (UNGC) UK’s series of webinars on ‘Reducing Scope 3 Emissions’. On 29 March 2022, our Chairperson, Peter Duff, joined a panel to discuss the challenges associated with, and steps that can be taken to assist, a reduction in business travel emissions ...
The Thai cabinet has recently approved the draft Royal Decree issued under the Revenue Code regarding income tax exemption on investment in Thai startups (the “Draft Royal Decree”), in cases where the funding for the startups is provided directly or indirectly through Venture Capital (VC), Corporate Venture Capital (CVC), or private equity trust (PE Trust). This Draft Royal Decree aims to unlock capital gains tax on investment in startups under the Royal Decree No ...
As much of Oregon faces another year of drought, water experts say farmers and ranchers should be aware of all the tools available to them under the state's water rights laws. At a seminar Tuesday, Elizabeth Howard, Oregon water law attorney, and Lindsay Thane, natural resources attorney, both of Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, spoke about nine tools for farmers through the state Water Resources Department, or OWRD ...
Agricultural and rural settings present significant health and safety risks, which must be carefully managed and mitigated by employers and landowners operating in the sector. This was brought into sharp focus after two fatalities led to prosecutions following investigations by The Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Prosecution one In February, a farmer was prosecuted after a tragic fatal incident on farmland in Leeds ...
The establishment by the Scottish Government of a food security task force is a necessary and timely response to the war in Ukraine. In addition to the harrowing humanitarian crisis, the conflict has prompted significant concern among food producers. The UK food sector and consumers are currently facing a perfect storm just as we begin to emerge from the pandemic ...
Hunting Titan, Inc. v. DynaEnergetics Europe GMBH, Appeal Nos. 2020-2163, -2191 (Fed. Cir. March 24, 2022) In a notable review of the USPTO’s new Precedential Opinions Panel, the Federal Circuit discussed the circumstances under which the Patent Trial and Appeal Board should raise a ground of unpatentability against substitute proposed claims in a motion to amend that a petitioner has not advanced or insufficiently developed ...
Intending to provide clear reporting obligations for issuers, and to provide consistent, comparable, and decision-useful information for investors, on March 21, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a landmark climate disclosure rule that would mandate SEC registrants to disclose greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and certain materials risks relating to climate change ...
China began legislating the protection of human genetic resources in 1998, at which time the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the Ministry of Health jointly formulated the Interim Measures for Administration of Human Genetic Resources; however, there had been no corresponding implementing rules to implement it in practice ...
March 24, 2022 By: John Epperson and Peter McGaw UPDATE: At the time Buchalter published its client alert regarding the new ASTM Standard for Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (Phase I ESAs), we noted that the new ASTM Standard would not be considered “All Appropriate Inquires” for purposes of establishing defenses under CERCLA until the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) amended its regulations to incorporate the new Standard ...
As the world becomes ever more focussed on environmental and climate change issues, so businesses are increasingly concentrating on whether their people are working in ways that best achieve the green credentials many organisations now aspire to. Employment practices and policies can be adjusted or altered in ways that will help organisations positively contribute towards lessening their environmental impact ...
