On January 19, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published its proposed rule barring most non-compete agreements that would apply to employees. We previously summarized the proposed rule here and here. The original deadline for comments on the proposed rule was March 20. On March 6, the FTC announced it is extending the deadline to submit comments to April 19. As of March 9, a total of 16,965 comments (8,848 electronically) have been received on the proposed rule ...
On January 19, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published its proposed rule barring most non-compete agreements that would apply to employees. We previously summarized the proposed rule here and here. The original deadline for comments on the proposed rule was March 20. On March 6, the FTC announced it is extending the deadline to submit comments to April 19. As of March 9, a total of 16,965 comments (8,848 electronically) have been received on the proposed rule ...
The Federal Housing Administration recently issued Mortgagee Letter 2022-23, establishing a new COVID-19 Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Property Charge Repayment Plan.[1] The COVID-19 HECM Property Charge Repayment Plan would aid HECM borrowers in covering costs associated with standard property charges. As a condition of their loan, HECM borrowers are required to pay property charges such as property taxes, insurance and homeowner association fees related to their mortgaged property ...
China Business Law Journal Published March 9, 2023 With the growing importance of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) and the high level of globalisation in capital and supply chains, the scope of ESG regulation is no longer confined to listed companies, the traditional targets ...
In this new podcast series "The Brexit Bonfire", colleagues discuss key elements of the legislation ranging from what it is, how it could impact businesses and key things that businesses should be aware of. In our second episode of this series of podcasts, Michelle Craven-Faulkner and Lucie Green continue their discussion concerning the Brexit Freedoms Bill but this time they consider how the current proposals could impact on commercial contracts across the board ...
18.71 Duty to establish procedures for the enforcement of IP rights The treaty establishes a duty to improve, streamline and simplify procedures aimed at preventing and prosecuting intellectual property infringements. 18.72 Presumptions regarding IP rights A duty is incorporated in order to extend to related rights the presumption of ownership already contemplated in our legislation for intellectual works ...
Chapter 8: Technical Barriers to Trade This chapter provides rules to facilitate trade by eliminating unnecessary technical barriers, improving transparency, and promoting greater regulatory cooperation. It applies to the elaboration, approval and application of technical regulations, standards, conformity assessment procedures and trade authorization for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and medical devices ...
International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8 March each year. The aim is to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and strive for the acceleration of gender parity. The theme this year is #EmbraceEquity. In light of the celebration of IWD, this article considers potential barriers to women securing leadership roles, in particular how timing can be a crucial factor in securing leadership roles, and what can be done to alleviate some of those barriers ...
Introduction The UN Convention on International Bills of Exchange and International Promissory Notes (1988) and the Convention Providing a Uniform Law for Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes (1930), on which legislation throughout the world is modelled, assert the same principle. The assignment of funds is thus rejected as the legal principle underlying the transfer of funds ...
After a long pause, we are pleased to release a new version of our regulatory Guides. To cover the gap since the last publication, we would like to devote this Guide to an overview of key changes and trends that took place in 2022. 2022 was a challenging year for many companies working on the Russian market as well as for the Russian market and economy as a whole ...
Lavery celebrates International Women?s Day today Today, Wednesday, March 8, we celebrate International Women?s Day. IWD is an opportunity to honour those who inspire us every day and who continue to demonstrate the progress we?ve made towards gender equality in the workplace, setting an example for future generations. This year, several of the firm?s women professionals shared why they decided to become lawyers ...
Continuing on from our first advisory on the P2SK Law, we delve deeper into its provisions with a specific focus on Chapter X, which covers finance services businesses. This chapter applies to a variety of entities involved in finance services, including those providing peer-to-peer lending services, and aligns with the P2SK Law's aim of promoting technological innovation in finance services while protecting consumers ...
Recent months have seen sustained industrial action in the rail sector. On 20 February 2023, the government launched a 12-week consultation on setting minimum service levels for passenger rail. Unlike in many European countries, there are currently no limits in the UK on the number of employees who are able to take part in strike action together ...
On the 1st March, the FCA issued the remaining portfolio letters in respect of the implementation of consumer duty. For this summary, I have focussed on the motor finance portfolio letter. I had a look at what words were being used in the letter and their frequency (see the word cloud graphic). Whilst this is not a detailed analysis, it’s interesting to note the prominence of “products”, and “information” in the context of the motor finance letter ...
Litigating in Florida state court can be a slog. Cases move slowly, discovery can be a hassle, and scheduling is sometimes a headache. Yet judges aren’t to blame—Florida trial courts are overloaded and under-resourced. The Florida Supreme Court wants to change that. Just weeks ago, the court signaled that big changes—and perhaps even a resource infusion—are on the horizon. This article unpacks those changes and what they mean for litigants and their lawyers ...
Financial services companies, such as banks, credit unions, lenders, finance companies, loan servicers, broker-dealers, and securities firms, often receive subpoenas from parties in litigation involving their customers, employees, and business partners. They may also receive subpoenas from regulatory organizations, government agencies, and grand juries ...
This is the third alert in a series designed to inform physicians and other health care providers of what to do in the event of a State Medical Board of Ohio (“Board”) investigation, how to potentially avoid an investigation and what to expect during a license disciplinary case ...
This year will mark four years since the UK Jurisdictional Taskforce (UKJT) published its legal statement on crypto assets and smart contracts. This statement was subsequently cited with approval by the English courts holding that cryptoassets can constitute property and can therefore be the subject of proprietary legal remedies and was referred to in the seminal case of AA v Persons Unknown & Ors, Re Bitcoin [2019] EWHC 3556 (Comm) (13 December 2019) ...
Revisions to Regulation D (“Reg. D”), the major exemptive provision from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”), has been on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulatory Flexibility Agenda for some time. In a January 2023 address, SEC Commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw floated some of the reforms the current Commission is considering. Background Reg ...
In the ‘Proposal for a Regulation laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence’ (the “draft EU AI Act”), transparency is regulated by Article 13 and Article 52 thereof. The former applies to systems of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) which are classified as high-risk and the latter applies to limited-risk AI systems ...
Although admittedly still in its early phase, the metaverse, a virtual world where users can interact with each other and digital objects in a 3D environment, provides exciting new opportunities with a multitude of implications for rights management and the Fintech sector. Facebook’s head-first charge into this new landscape attests to the importance of the metaverse. Last year, the tech giant rebranded its corporate identity to Meta to signal its commitment to the metaverse ...
There has been a recent decision on an interesting case involving a challenge to the ability of the federal government to provide benefits or rights to Tribes and other Native organizations. Maverick Gaming LLC v. United States, Case No. 3:2022cv05325, which is currently before the U.S ...
As consumer data collection continues to rise in the United States and around the world, aggregated health data is becoming a more common product bought and sold by data brokers. While worrying on its own, even more concerning is the growth in individually identifiable data being sold by private companies, which could range from the number of occurrences of a certain condition in a given zip code to the names, addresses, and incomes of individuals with the same condition ...
Blockchain litigation lead, Matt Green will be hosting our latest podcast series, 'In Early - The Crypto Podcast' - Listen to episode 8. This week is about Bitcoin and the Tulip Trading case (recently in the Court of Appeal), in which a claimant seeks to transfer his Bitcoin without a private key, looking for the blockchain’s software developers to transfer them for him ...
