Incorporating climate reporting into new, post-COVID-19, strategies will not only help achieve net zero targets but early adopters will be at the forefront of gaining valuable expertise, market resilience and better returns. There has been much discussion about the economic model for the global effects of COVID-19 and for our transition out the other side ...
Section 3(e)(i) of the Subdivision of Agricultural Land Act (the Act) provides that agricultural land shall not be sold or advertised unless the Minister has consented to it in writing. There are currently conflicting judgements as to whether this provision applies to an option to purchase agricultural land ...
The overturning of Roe v. Wade, combined with a largely unknown workers' compensation case presented to the U.S. Supreme Court — for which certiorari was recently denied — reveal the Biden administration's position on cannabis: The Biden administration doesn't care about cannabis issues ...
There have been significant delays in registering entities at SAM.gov, and that has been adversely impacting the ability of some federal contractors to respond to certain procurements/solicitations because FAR 4.1102(a) requires offerors to be registered in SAM.gov at the time of an offer or a proposal submission. On September 8, 2022, the Department of Defense (DOD) acknowledged the issue with SAM.gov and issued a class deviation permitting contracting officers to include FAR 52 ...
Summary: On October 28, 2022, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a final rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement by prohibiting the award of any DoD contract to entities that require their employees to sign internal confidentiality agreements or statements that would restrict their employees from lawfully reporting waste, fraud, or abuse related to the performance of a DoD contract to a designated investigative or law enforcement representative who is authorized
A common question our Education Law Group receives is, “Can an employee rescind his or her written resignation that has been submitted to the superintendent and is waiting on approval from the board of education?” Unfortunately the question often arises frequently in situations where the employee is not the “best employee” and administration feels thankful upon receipt of the resignation ...
The courts have always dealt with big issues and complex questions. But are the courts the right place to tackle perhaps the biggest issue of all? In recent times there have been a number of high profile court actions relating to climate change, leaving courts in various parts of the world grappling with this complex and difficult issue ...
In a January 17, 2023, speech at Georgetown University Law Center, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite, Jr., for the DOJ’s Criminal Division, announced revisions of DOJ’s Corporate Enforcement Policy (“Policy”) to offer greater leniency to companies willing to (1) report their own misconduct to the government and (2) offer “extraordinary cooperation” once an investigation begins. Old Policy ...
The Department of Justice is stepping up its scrutiny of health-care fraud, especially in testing laboratories, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Former federal prosecutor Jason Mehta, a partner with Bradley, says now is not the time to tout profits over patient care and offers insights on compliance. In the midst of a global pandemic, much attention and praise is rightfully being showered on health-care providers ...
On November 27, 2017, at the 34th International Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced a revised FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy, which purports to lend certainty for companies grappling with the question of whether to voluntarily disclose violations. This new policy comes on the heels of the year and-a-half long FCPA Pilot Program ...
In a major speech delivered on September 15, 2022, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco added important substance and details to Department of Justice policies aimed at aggressively combatting corporate crime and encouraging companies to self-report misconduct. These new policies result from months of DOJ meetings with a Corporate Crime Advisory Group comprised of stakeholders from the business community, the defense bar, public interest groups, academics, and others ...
On March 1, 2018, at the American Bar Association’s National Institute on White Collar Crime, top Department of Justice (DOJ) officials signaled expansion of DOJ’s self-disclosure policy to non-Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) cases ...
In a long-awaited policy announced in an October 28, 2021, speech at the ABA Institute on White Collar Crime, the Department of Justice has embarked on more aggressive enforcement of white collar and corporate prosecution. During the Trump Administration, such prosecutions reached historic lows, but that is about to change. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced significant changes to DOJ policies on corporate enforcement ...
Speaking at the keynote address at the annual ABA White Collar event in Miami this week, Lisa Monaco, the Deputy Attorney General announced major changes to how the Biden Justice Department will approach corporate crime. These announcements will undoubtedly change the way the Department of Justice investigates and prosecutes those cases, and the way in which corporations and individuals who are the subject of those investigations respond ...
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel recently released an advisory opinion[i] regarding Section 1461 of title 18 of the U.S. Code. In it, they write the “Comstock Act”[ii] does not prohibit the mailing of certain medications used to perform abortions where the sender does not believe the medications will be used unlawfully. This opinion comes in the wake of the U.S ...
On July 10, 2020, in United States v. Ruan, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the convictions of two Alabama doctors for running an opiate “pill mill.” Among many other things, the government charged that the doctors used “incident to” billing to charge Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama under the doctor’s identification for visits conducted entirely by nurse practitioners, which that insurer (unlike some others) prohibited under its policy ...
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that in Fiscal Year 2019 (FY2019),1 total settlements and judgments in False Claims Act (FCA) cases rebounded back over the $3 billion mark after dipping to $2.9 billion in FY2018. The Department’s annual statistical overview of FCA-related fraud actions2 showed nearly three-quarters of recovered funds, or $2 ...
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Fraud Section released its 2021 annual report earlier this month, and the numbers show that the DOJ continues to ramp up enforcement despite ongoing logistical challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The annual report reflects only prosecutions handled by the DOJ’s Fraud Section itself (not all federal prosecutions handled by individual U.S ...
Representatives from the Department of Justice, including the Attorney General himself, hit a consistent theme throughout with their remarks at the ABA’s National Institute on White Collar Crime, held March 2-4 in San Francisco, California—the Department will be ramping up enforcement in virtually all areas of white collar crime. Dykema attorneys Becky James, Jason Ross, and Mark Chutkow attended the conference and provide their key takeaways. U.S ...
It is imperative that companies with government contracts, or those receiving federal grant funding, ensure that they have adequate cybersecurity protocols in place. The announcement by the Department of Justice (DOJ) of the Cyber Fraud Initiative strongly signals its intent to be aggressive in holding government contractors with lax cybersecurity standards and controls accountable ...
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has just released its annual statistical overview[1] of False Claims Act (FCA) and other fraud actions for Fiscal Year 2020 (FY2020)[2], and the numbers tell a mixed story. The total of just over $2.2 billion in settlements and judgments represents a decline of more than one-quarter in recoveries from FY2019,[3] likely reflecting workforce, logistical, and judicial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic ...
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 Philippine Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has issued an opinion to the effect that the exploration, development and utilization (“EDU”) of solar, wind, hydro and ocean or tidal energy sources is not subject to the forty percent (40%) foreign equity limitation under Article XII, Section 2 of the Philippine Constitution ...
