In a rare bipartisan and bicameral compromise, Congress has passed the “Substance Use–Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act,” shortened to the “SUPPORT Act.” The bill was signed by President Trump on October 24, 2018 ...
Information is critical to the conduct of health and medical research. Much of the time the information relates to individuals. Higher education institutions regularly collect, use, disclose and hold information, including health information, for research purposes ...
To coincide with its 250th anniversary, Shepherd and Wedderburn commissioned the University of Strathclyde’s Fraser of Allander Institute to consider the future challenges and, more importantly, opportunities for Scotland’s economy ...
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 ...
On October 3, 2018, the IRS issued guidance for employers on how to claim tax deductions for business meals this year. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, ("TCJA") business expenses for "entertainment" are no longer deductible, effective for 2018. However, the TCJA did not modify the separate 50% deduction for expenses for business meals, which left employers wondering how to distinguish a business meal from entertainment ...
Many companies are currently facing challenges in relation to the GDPR compliance of their video surveillance. Main issues in this respect are questions related to transparency requirements and information notices, the need for a data protection impact assessment as well as questions concerning retention requirements and retention periods. The German Federal Labor Court (BAG) has recently commented on the admissible storage duration of lawful video recordings ...
In response to questions regarding the legality of Cannabidiol (CBD) oil products, the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy (Board) announced that only licensed and operating Medical Marijuana Control Program dispensaries may sell CBD oil products. In June, the Board announced the award of 56 provisional medical marijuana dispensary licenses. All of those provisional licensees will have six months to comply with operational requirements in order to obtain a certification of operation (COO) ...
On September 20, 2018, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced settlements with three Boston hospitals for disclosing Protected Health Information (PHI) to ABC News documentary filmcrews.[i] In total, the hospitals paid OCR $999,000 to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule ...
In its green paper on corporate governance reform, the Government sought views on measures designed to address "a widespread perception that executive pay has become increasingly disconnected from both the pay of ordinary working people and the underlying long-term performance of companies" ...
On September 11, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced its first enforcement actions alleging that entities offering certain investments in cryptocurrencies should be registered as an investment adviser or broker-dealer ...
As we reported in our May 31, 2018 Alert, the California Legislature has been considering legislation to prevent joint powers authority (JPA) member agencies from contracting out of liability for the JPA's pension obligations ...
On August 31, 2018 California’s legislature passed Senate Bill 1402. Unless vetoed by Governor Brown on or before September 30, SB 1402 will allow shippers to be held jointly liable for state labor and employment law violations by port trucking companies. The bill, which was authored by Senator Lara (D-Bell Gardens), is aimed at ending the purported “exploitation of truck drivers who haul cargo from California’s ports ...
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 ...
Following the enactment of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted an amendment to Rule 701(e) increasing the threshold amount of securities that can be sold during a 12-month period from $5 million to $10 million. Securities sold in excess of the threshold trigger enhanced disclosure obligations for the issuer ...
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issued a final rule to “Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, “ which requires employers to electronically submit their injury and illness records to OSHA. Specifically, establishments with 250 or more employees must annually submit their Forms 300, 300A, and 301. And, establishments with 20 to 249 employees must annually submit their Form 300A ...
All employers who were required to publish a Gender Pay Gap Report1 for the financial year 2017-2018 have now done so. A report published by the UK Parliament’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee2 has confirmed that 78% of organisations have gender pay gaps that favour men, and that the national gender pay gap median is around 18%. The picture is worse in certain sectors, where it was found that gender pay gaps of over 40% were “not uncommon” ...
Last year Panama joined the list of countries that have established quotas as a mean for reducing the gender gap. Law 56 of 2017 creates a women quota of 30% on corporate boards of public entities and certain private entities. The Law was recently regulated through Executive Decree 241-A of 2018 ...
Earlier this year, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (the “MEMR”) issued Regulation Number 10 of 2018 on The Second Amendment to Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation Number 10 of 2017 on the Principles of Power Purchase Agreements (“MEMR Reg 10/2018”) which came into effect on 13 February 2018 ...
The Autonomous Bus and Minibus Pilot Project 1 (the “Pilot Project”) came into effect in Quebec recently. The project provides guidelines for the regulated driving of the first autonomous vehicles on Quebec’s roads ...
"The global healthcare deal frenzy is set to continue for at least another 18 months as technology giants including Amazon, strategic players and private equity firms step up their fight for limited assets ...
Legislation to update US controls on foreign investment has been signed by the President and enacted into law. The Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (“FIRRMA”) expands the scope of review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) of foreign investment in critical and foundational technologies that impact US national security, broadly defined ...
This past year the North Carolina Legislature has been incredibly active. Among the legislation proposed and adopted, a few bills will create changes in how contractors interact with various public entities. Most notably, big changes are on the horizon for contractors that work with the NCDOT and with school systems. Sitting with the Committee on Transportation, H.B ...
In past years, we have advised clients that as long as no unit in a multi-unit new condominium project is rented before its condominium map is recorded, later sales of units do not fall under the city's condominium conversion ordinance, which does not at this time allow conversion of buildings of more than two units ...
