CHEAT SHEET Investment. Implementing a mentorship program between a corporation and a law firm does not require significant monetary investment, rather a considerable time investment. Diversify activities. After identifying and understanding the needs and profiles of participants, create activities that include trainings, CLEs, social events, and facility and firm visits. Benefits ...
Last month, the IRS issued new guidance on the tax treatment of uncashed distribution checks from qualified retirement plans. In Revenue Ruling 2019-19, the IRS ruled that a participant's failure to cash the required distribution check she received from a qualified plan did not permit her to exclude the distribution from her taxable income or alter her employer's obligation to withhold taxes from the distribution and report it as taxable income ...
Yesterday, in a closely-followed case, the Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal brought by the Domino’s pizza chain, which sought to overturn the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision that entities selling online must make their websites and apps accessible to people with disabilities ...
Activists and government leaders are sounding the death knell for our planet unless something is done about climate change. But while sustainability is important, sustainability reporting may not be the answer. In a headline-hogging speech at the UN last month, 16-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg berated politicians and business people for doing too little to arrest climate change, ruining the globe for future generations. High-profile scandals back up her claim ...
The Public Prosecutors’ Department in Dubai has the power to impose fines with respect to certain criminal misdemeanors and offences[i] without being required to refer the matter to a Court of Law. Such fines are issued under a Penal Order. This power stems from Dubai Law No. 1 of 2017, which authorises the Attorney General of Dubai to prescribe the offences and the corresponding fines which may be the subject of a Penal Order ...
There is an ongoing controversy relating to search engine advertising. In particular regarding the legality of purchasing search terms incorporating third-party trademarks. In seeking a reasonable legal standard, this article discusses the latest legal development in trademark, unfair trading practices, marketing, and competition Law ...
On September 18, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom approved Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) to limit the classification of workers as independent contractors in the state. The new law, effective January 1, 2020, will increase payroll tax responsibilities for California companies that must reclassify workers as employees ...
As investor interest in qualified opportunity zones (“QOZ”) grows, both qualified opportunity funds (“QOFs”) and investors should be aware of the benefits of organizing QOFs as C-Corporations. C-Corporation QOFs may take advantage of the reduced corporate income tax rate of 21 percent and the benefits under Section 1202 of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) ...
Having a strategy when negotiating or participating in mediation is essential to a successful outcome that results in an agreement between the parties. Mediators see various levels of preparation and strategy by the parties participating in the process, and the party who approaches the mediation with a plan often achieves a more successful outcome. One effective strategy is anchoring: an effort to establish a reference point from which a party will make adjustments in negotiating ...
In a split decision on September 20 in Singletary v. Howard University, the D.C. Circuit reversed the dismissal of an FCA retaliation suit brought by a former Howard University veterinarian whose contract was cut short after she warned of unsafe conditions for animals in the medical school’s federally funded laboratories. No. 18-7158, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 28468 (Sept. 20, 2019) ...
The Norwegian Supreme Court delivered its judgement in the so-called Fosen-Linjen case 27 September 2019 (HR-2019-1801-A). The Fosen-Linjen case has been much debated the latter years, inter alia because it has been the only Norwegian case to have been subject to two EFTA Court referrals, cf. the decisions of the EFTA Court in cases E-16/16 (Fosen-Linjen I) and E-7/18 (Fosen-Linjen II) ...
Two recent opinions of the California Court of Appeal address the enforcement of arbitration agreements in the senior care setting when executed by someone other than the resident. The Court of Appeal's decisions in Valentine v. Plum Healthcare Group, LLC (2019) 37 Cal.App.5th 1076 (Valentine) and Lopez v. Bartlett Care Center LLC (2019) ____ Cal.App ...
In the lead up to the Expo 2020, the UAE government has taken a number of measures to promote economic diversification, foster growth, and stimulate the region’s innovation environment. The government’s push to develop the private equity, venture capital, and start-up eco-system is a central component of this agenda ...
On Thursday, September 12, the Third Circuit decided United States ex rel. Chang v. Children’s Advocacy Center of Delaware, No. 18-2311. In a precedential decision, the panel held that when a relator has not requested a hearing on a government motion to dismiss a federal False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam action, the court is not required to hold an in-person hearing before dismissing the action ...
For the past few decades, Panama has established public-private partnerships (“PPPs”) in projects as diverse as toll roads, water treatment plants, ports, telecommunications networks and the generation and distribution of electricity ...
On the 21st of August 2019 Notification dated 21 August 2019 the General Department of Taxation (“GDT“) issued Notification 17517 GDT on the Second Reminder of the Payment of the Property Tax reminding owners of immovable property to file their annual Property Tax declaration before the deadline of 30 September 2019 ...
The new Law on Tax Administration No. 38/2019/QH14 (“LTA” or “new Law”) was passed by the National Assembly in June 2019 will become effective from 1 July 2020. New provisions relating to electronic invoices and electronic documents take effect from 1 July 2022. We summarize below some of the salient features of the new Law ...
On August 16, 2019, the Ninth Circuit ruled in O'Rourke v. Northern California Electrical Workers Pension Plan, et al. that the board of trustees for an ERISA-covered multiemployer pension plan did not abuse its discretion by broadly interpreting the plan's ambiguous trade-based suspension of benefits provision to preclude a participant’s claim for early retirement benefits ...
Recently, the IRS has intensified enforcement of information reporting compliance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Information reporting penalties apply in addition to any penalties assessed for failures to meet the employer shared responsibility provisions, known as the employer mandate ...
For those insurers that seek to circumvent California’s notice-prejudice rule, the California Supreme Court has just made that more difficult. In Pitzer College v. Indian Harbor Insurance Company, 845 F.3d 993 (9th Cir. 2017), the Ninth Circuit certified questions to the California Supreme Court, including: “Is California's common law notice-prejudice rule a fundamental public policy for the purpose of choice-of-law analysis?” (Pitzer College, 845 F.3d at 994 ...
For those insurers that seek to circumvent California’s notice-prejudice rule, the California Supreme Court has just made that more difficult. In Pitzer College v. Indian Harbor Insurance Company, 845 F.3d 993 (9th Cir. 2017), the Ninth Circuit certified questions to the California Supreme Court, including: “Is California's common law notice-prejudice rule a fundamental public policy for the purpose of choice-of-law analysis?” (Pitzer College, 845 F.3d at 994 ...
For those insurers that seek to circumvent California’s notice-prejudice rule, the California Supreme Court has just made that more difficult. In Pitzer College v. Indian Harbor Insurance Company, 845 F.3d 993 (9th Cir. 2017), the Ninth Circuit certified questions to the California Supreme Court, including: “Is California's common law notice-prejudice rule a fundamental public policy for the purpose of choice-of-law analysis?” (Pitzer College, 845 F.3d at 994 ...
