The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (covering Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Maryland) held that gender dysphoria, a condition experienced by some transgender individuals, is a protected disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. See Williams v. Kincaid, No. 21-2030 (4th Cir. Aug. 16, 2022) ...
Next week, the full Fourth Circuit will hear oral argument in US ex rel. Sheldon v. Allergan Sales, LLC to determine whether a defendant’s “objectively reasonable interpretation” of an ambiguous statute or regulation is sufficient to preclude a finding of intent under the FCA. Defendants and the entire FCA bar will be watching the case closely ...
The strategy for the application of Portugal 2030 was designed around five main objectives of the European Union1: a smarter, greener, more connected, more social Europe that is closer to its citizens. At the national level, these strategic objectives of the European Union are embodied in four thematic agendas of the Portugal 2030 strategy2 ...
Quebec recently enacted Bill 96, entitled An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec, which aims to overhaul the Charter of the French language. Here are 10 key changes in this law that will impose significant obligations on businesses: As of June 1, 2025, businesses employing more than 25 people (currently the threshold is 50 people) for at least six months will be required to comply with various ?francization?1 obligations ...
Kudun and Partners is thrilled to work on another significant pro bono project with TrustLaw, Thomson Reuters Foundation’s global pro bono legal program ...
INVT SPE LLC v. Int’l Trade Comm’n, Appeal No. 2020-1903 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 31, 2022) In its only precedential patent case last week, the Federal Circuit issued a lengthy opinion that revolved around claims that are drawn to “capability,” particularly for computer-implemented claims ...
The material issue of the case, in which the procedural question arose, was whether two decisions by the Alver Municipality regarding property tax for «Mongstad kraftvarmeverk» and «Mongstad raffineri» owned by Equinor were lawful. In order to value the properties, the municipality had engaged an appraiser. Now, before the case is to be decided by the High Court, the parties disagreed about whether the appraiser should be considered an expert witness or not ...
The California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, issued a decision on June 29, 2022, holding that internal investigation records of an elected peace officer do not constitute "personnel records" exempt from California Public Records Act (CPRA) requests. Background The CPRA provides a mechanism through which members of the public can access records in the possession of state and local agencies. It does not, however, provide an absolute right of access to all public records ...
Dear valued clients, colleagues and friends, On 23 August 2022, the Malaysia Competition Commission (“MyCC”) launched a public consultation on the proposed renewal of a Block Exemption Order (“BEO”) in respect of liner shipping services covered under a VSA. The renewal application was made pursuant to Section 8 of the Competition Act as the earlier BEO granted expired on 6 July 2022. The press release by MyCC (“Press Release”) is accessible here ...
September 1, 2022 By: Nora Sheriff, Gwenneth O’Hara, and Lillian Rafii On August 19, 2022, the California investor-owned utilities filed a joint motion for official notice at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), saying that the recently adopted Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (HR 5376) is “directly relevant” to the CPUC’s open net energy metering (NEM) proceeding. The CPUC is currently contemplating a revision to its NEM tariff (referred to as NEM 2 ...
On 21 July 2022, the Chair of the COVID-19 Inquiry ('the Inquiry'), Baroness Heather Hallett, issued an opening statement. As part of her commitment to streamlining the process, the Chair has invited applicants to group themselves together with others with a similar interest, wherever possible, to help manage the potentially large number of people and organisations seeking Core Participant status ...
The Government of Vietnam issued Decree 53/2022/ND-CP dated 15 August 2022 (“Decree 53”) detailing a number of articles in Vietnam’s Law on Cybersecurity (2018) which took effect as from 1 January 2019 (“Law on Cybersecurity”). As with most laws in Vietnam, decrees and circulars and other subordinate legislation, provide more detailed information, forms, and other guidelines to help implement the law in an efficient manner ...
The Supreme Court recently considered, in the Law Society of Saskatchewan v. Abrametz1 decision, the applicable test to determine whether a delay is inordinate and constitutes an abuse of process that could lead to a stay of administrative proceedings. In this case, a Saskatchewan lawyer requested that the disciplinary proceedings against him be terminated due to a delay that he claimed was inordinate and constituted an abuse of process ...
Following the enactment of the Law on Social Security on 2 November 2019 and issuance of Sub-Decree 32 on the Social Security Scheme for Pension Fund for Persons under the Scope of the Labour Law dated 4 March 2021 (“Sub-Decree 32”) (further detail can be found in this link), the Royal Government of Cambodia and the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training promulgated and issued of the following regulations to further detail the formalities and procedures for the pension scheme:
On August 11, 2022, the California Supreme Court issued its opinion in Zolly v. City of Oakland, holding that a group of property owners had pleaded sufficient facts to maintain a challenge to the City’s solid-waste franchise fee, under Article XIII C of the California Constitution, commonly called “Proposition 26 ...
If you’re an underwriter, originator, closer, attorney or other professional who specializes in HUD-insured loans, fair housing principles probably aren’t top of mind as you navigate your workday. Still, it pays to have a working knowledge of HUD’s protected classes. Dinsmore was recently involved in a 223(f) closing that provides an instructive case in point ...
Goods and Services Tax AlertSummons not to be issued to Managing Director, CEO, CFOs of companies routinely By the recent Guidelines for issuance of summons under Section 70 of the CGST Act – Instruction 03/2022- 23 [GST-Investigation], indiscriminate issuance of summons has been discouraged, and officers have been advised to issue summons judiciously ...
On 23 February 2022, the EU Commission proposed measures regulating the use and access of data, not being ‘personal data’ as understood by the GDPR, within the European Union across all economic sectors. The regulation of the use of data is essential given that data continues to be generated yet underutilised. The draft Regulation is to be read in conjunction with the EU’s Data Governance Act ...
