The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently adopted a final rule to implement Section 953(b) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act with respect to chief executive officer pay-ratio disclosures. Under the Final Rule, a public company must disclose the ratio of the annual total compensation of its chief executive officer to the median of the annual total compensation for all of that company’s other employees ...
On June 22, 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) adopted final rules implementing new exemptions from registration as an investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended (the “Advisers Act”) ...
On June 22, 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted a final rule defining “family offices” that will be excluded from the definition of “investment adviser” under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended (the “Advisers Act”), and thus exempt from registration. Background Family offices are entities established by wealthy families to manage the wealth of, direct the investments of and provide various other services to family members ...
On Wednesday, January 15, 2003, the SEC adopted rules implementing Section 406 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Act”). The SEC’s new rules under the Act require public companies to disclose in each annual report on Form 10-K (U.S. companies), Form 40-F (Canadian companies) or Form 20-F (non-U.S ...
On December 30, 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) formally published amendments to Rule 206(4)-2 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended (the “Custody Rule”). The Custody Rule is designed to increase protections for clients and investors who turn their assets over to an investment adviser registered with the SEC, and it imposes significant new regulatory requirements on advisers with custody of client assets. Surprise Examination Requirement ...
On September 7, 2011, the Securities and Exchange (SEC) announced that it will not appeal the D.C. Circuit’s July ruling in Business Roundtable and Chamber of Commerce of the United States v. SEC, No. 10-1305, (D.C. Cir. July 22, 2011), where a unanimous panel of the D.C. Circuit vacated Exchange Act Rule 14a-11 requiring companies to give shareholders access to company proxy materials for the nomination of candidates to serve on the company’s board of directors ...
Part 1 of this insight focused some of the current immigration routes for consideration by Scottish employers to mitigate the Scottish labour shortage. Part 2 of this insight explores some of the new routes expected to be opened up by Spring 2022. Innovation visas Global Business Mobility Route In spring 2022, the Home office is due to launch the new Global Business Mobility route ...
With Scotland’s population growth stalling and with labour shortages in the UK at a record high, the demand for migrant workers at all skill levels is ever-increasing. Part 1 of this insight focuses on some of the current immigration routes for consideration by Scottish employers. Scotland is more reliant on migration than the rest of the UK to maintain population and help alleviate skills shortages ...
Political uncertainty dominates the headlines, with the fallout from Brexit continuing, leadership changes in the USA and further elections soon to take place across Europe. The legal landscape in Scotland also continues to change ...
The oil and gas sector has seen significant changes over the past few years, led by a significant reduction in global oil prices. This has increased the focus on operational efficiency and more flexible ways of working collaboratively to alleviate the effects of protracted price deflation ...
The Scottish financial sector has always punched above its weight due, in large part, to its appetite for innovation and sharp business acumen, which it has successfully exported around the globe. The successful early establishment in Scotland of current account banking and the investment trust speak to this, along with the undisputed influence of the Scottish diaspora, which established many of the great financial institutions from Paris to Hong Kong ...
Every minute of every day, 100 bottles of Scotch whisky make their way to South Africa. The lengths we have to go to get your attention! But this is a fact, and it can be found on the website of the Scotch Whisky Association (“SWA”). If you’re a Scotch drinker, this news will make you very happy, as will the news that the SWA has managed to get the term Scotch Whisky registered as a certification mark in South Africa ...
The Portland Business Journal has now ranked the region's law firms by the diversity on their professionals for six years based on our annual survey for The List of law firms. We've refined the methodology again this year to improve the ranking. Beyond just ranking firms by percentages of women, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous & People of Color) and LGBTQIA+ lawyers and partners, we indexed them against the percentage of female (50 ...
When does the directors' duty arise to consider creditors' interests in the face of insolvency if a liability is disputed? Hayley Capani and Kate Garcia consider the case of Hunt v Singh and conclude we still don't have all the answers. When the decision in Sequana was handed down, commentators expressed both disappointment and (dare we say it) joy that a clear test had not been laid down as to when the creditor duty arose ...
On July 11, 2007 the European Court of First Instance (“CFI”) ruled that Schneider Electric SA should be compensated for some of the losses suffered following the European Commission’s unlawful prohibition of its merger with Legrand SA in 2001.[2] The CFI’s decision is undoubtedly historic. It is the first case in which damages have been awarded against the Commission for getting a merger wrong ...
Those who have filed a trademark application before are likely already familiar with the high number of scams related to trademark registrations. These scams have been growing in sophistication and arise at every phase of the trademark registration process ...
On January 30, 2023, the Commission for the Financial Market ("CMF") approved an amendment to the Stock Market Regulation applicable to Issuers Exempt from Registration with the CMF, corresponding to the “ScaleX Santiago Venture Exchange” section of the Santiago Stock Exchange ("ScaleX") ...
The past year has been a busy one for AML compliance in the UAE. In October 2018, Federal Decree-Law 20 of 2018 on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Illegal Organizations (AML Law) came into force. It contained features recommended by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and brought UAE laws in line with international AML standards ...
On April 29 and April 30, 2020, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) provided additional guidance on the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) through the issuance of a new PPP Interim Final Rule (the “Corporate Group Rule”), which supplements the first PPP Interim Final Rule, published on April 2, 2020, and the subsequent interim final rules issued since that date, as well as issuing updates to the Frequently Asked Questions&nbs
On May 13, 2020, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) issued an update to the Frequently Asked Questions document (“FAQs”) relating to its Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”), originally published on April 2, 2020 and updated regularly thereafter, providing additional guidance on the PPP Certification of Necessity Safe Harbor ...
On April 2, 2020, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued an interim final rule, providing additional guidance on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Click here to read the full text of the Interim Final Rule. Here are some of the highlights of new and/or clarified information from the previous guidance issued by Treasury and SBA and the text of the CARES Act: Eligibility Only U.S ...
While most of the PPP under the CARES Act remains substantially unchanged by the SBA’s guidance issued late on April 2, there is one material alteration that will affect all borrowers under the program. Under the CARES Act, loan proceeds under the PPP could be used for payroll costs, mortgage interest, rent, utilities and interest payments on other debt obligations. While those use of proceeds have not changed, the guidance placed a limitation on them ...
In revised Frequently Asked Questions (as of April 6, 2020) (the “FAQ”), linked here, the Small Business Administration in consultation with the Department of the Treasury addressed the questions of whether a small business borrower participating in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) could count the employee withholdings and the employee share of Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) tax in determining the maximum amount of borrowings and whether such a
