You have an unproductive employee. You suspect she isn’t getting her work done because she’s spending far too much time surfing the web and sending personal emails from her work computer during office hours. This will not do. So, you log on to her computer after hours to check her inbox and browser history. Sure enough, your suspicions are correct: she’s spending more time on Facebook than doing her job. Armed with this evidence, you call her into your office and dismiss her ...
On October 28, 2011, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld a judgment of the Superior Court (1) allowing for clauses of a loan agreement to be modified by The Court so as to reflect the common intention of the parties after it was proved that there was a discrepancy between the real intention of the parties, as stated in a letter of intent, and the wording of the document drawn up to implement the letter of intent, namely a loan agreement ...
On Friday, December 2, 2011, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association ("ISDA") and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association ("SIFMA") jointly filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") and a petition for review in the U.S ...
The use of social media, discussion forums and other websites for business purposes, as a means of communicating with the public, raises increasingly significant compliance issues for regulated entities of the financial sector. Such use may expose registered or certified representatives and, consequently, their firms, to previously unheard of but nonetheless real non compliance and reputational risks ...
At its open meeting on October 18, 2011, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) adopted final rules (the “Position Limit Rules”) to establish speculative position limits for 28 physical commodity futures and options contracts (“Core Referenced Futures Contracts”) and futures, options, swap, or swaption contracts that are economically equivalent to such Core Referenced Futures Contracts (together with the Core Referenced Futures Contracts, collectively, “Referen
On November 7, 2011, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced that it will provide financial companies and individuals who are the subject of potential enforcement actions with an “Early Warning Notice Letter.” The CFPB’s letter and process is similar to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s “Wells Notice” where companies and individuals typically receive written notice that the staff intends to recommend enforcement action against them ...
The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) recently adopted new rules (the “Rules”) under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”), and the Commodity Exchange Act (the “CEA”) that will require registered investment advisers with at least $150 million in private fund assets under management to file Form PF with the SEC ...
The French Supreme Court rendered a very important decision for the international practice of syndicated financings by recognizing in the context of French insolvency proceedings certain effects of the trust and the mechanism of parallel debt, both governed by the laws of the State of New York ...
We all know that the employment relationship can involve some give and take. Employees today are better educated and more aware of their rights, and accordingly more willing to voice concerns about management ...
A bill to amend the Workers Compensation Act was given 1st reading on November 3, 2011. One of the proposed amendments could significantly expand the circumstances where a worker may be entitled to compensation for work-related mental stress. Where the present section 5 ...
In a Bulletin released in March of 2011, we outlined important amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (“IRPR”) concerning temporary foreign workers ...
Haynes and Boone, LLP’s Immigration Practice Group reminds employers with a need for H-1B petitions that are subject to the annual numerical limit (“Cap-Subject”) that the annual cap for Financial Year 2012 is almost exhausted. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has announced that 49,200 H-1B petitions have been received as of October 28, 2011, fast approaching the 65,000 cap. Further, the separate U.S ...
Chilean law allows the creation of security interests over almost all kinds of assets and rights held by project companies, except for certain assets listed in the Civil Procedure Code that may not be attached under Chilean law (eg, working tools and assets employed in services that may not be stopped with serious harm to public transportation or health, household assets, salaries and child support up to a certain amount) ...
Back in 1999, a law was adopted renovating an autonomous regulator and putting in place a modern regime to govern securities and capital markets in Panama, placing the local regulatory environment very much in line with legislation in force in more developed markets such as the United States (including, for example, the creation of the indirect holding system) ...
On September 14, 2011, the Court of Appeal of Quebec rendered a significant decision in the context of the labour dispute which occurred at the Journal de Québec (the “Journal”) in 2007-2008. This decision sheds some light on the scope of the “anti strikebreaker” provisions of the Labour Code (Quebec)1 ...
Last quarter we focused on claims that can be asserted under the debt collection provisions of the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act, W. Va. Code §§ 46A-1-101 et seq. (the “WVCCPA”). This article will focus on the basic defenses available to creditors under the WVCCPA ...
The Federal Circuit recently resolved two issues of first impression as to how patent reexamination proceedings affect related patent infringement litigation. These two cases, Marine Polymer1 and Bettcher Industries,2 are likely to have a significant impact on both litigation and reexamination-proceeding practices, as well as the strategic interplay between them ...
While employers oftentimes wish to monitor the behavior of their employees, which generally is a rightful intention, it is also the employees' rightful expectation for the employer to respect their privacy and personal data. In this article, we provide a brief overview of the most important rules employers must observe when monitoring their employees.Under the Hungarian Labour Code, an employer may inspect the work of its employees ...
At its open meeting on September 8, 2011, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”): announced that it would not complete its rulemaking process for rules necessary to implement the Title VII swaps-related provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) until 2012; and outlined a proposed sequence of rules to be considered during the remainder o
Since our last summary, the Obama Board has taken significant steps to further outgoing Chairman Liebman’s stated goal of bringing the Board “back to life after a long period of dormancy ...
When a bankruptcy occurs, the creditors play a central role in the administrative control of the bankrupt's estate. In this regard, the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act 1 (The "BIA") provides that, at the first meeting of creditors, the creditors must, among other things, affirm the appointment of the trustee and give such directions to the trustee as they see fit with reference to the administration of the estate ...
Six months on from the Davies report, Women on Board’, how much progress has been made towards the diversity at the top of UK plcs? Women are under-represented on the boards of UK companies. In 2010, only 12.5% of members of FTSE 100 companies' corporate boards were female ...
As a result of OSHA’s recently issued directive on workplace violence, the cops may not be alone in investigating incidents of workplace violence. OSHA is now in the business of policing workplace violence. In the directive, entitled Enforcement Procedures for Investigating or Inspecting Workplace Violence Incidents, OSHA provides its inspectors guidance on their new role – conducting inspections and investigations involving on-the-job violence ...
As an international commercial and financial capital, New York law has traditionally been selected to govern commercial contracts and has served as a venue of choice for the resolution of cross-border disputes. The historic prominence of the state’s judiciary and bar, along with its well-developed, fair and predictable body of law have drawn parties from around the world to select New York law to govern their agreements and to choose New York as the venue for resolving their disputes ...
You are the general counsel of a public company and your CEO calls to tell you that the board is thinking about putting the company up for sale. He wants to talk. There are many important considerations for the board and management team when selling a company, and one of those is whether to sell to a financial buyer or a strategic buyer ...
