Client Alerts

On December 22, 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sent shockwaves through the digital asset industry with a Southern District of New York action alleging that Ripple Labs, Inc. improperly raised over $1.3 billion through a years’ long unregistered securities offering.

Michigan property owners will be receiving their real property tax Notice of Assessment within the next few weeks.  Property owners may find that they are being assessed using inflated taxable values, especially in light of the pandemic and if they have not recently appealed their property tax assessments.

2020 saw an increase in enforcement action by the Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) regarding noncompliance with the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules, with penalties ranging from $3,500 to $6.85 million.

A recent decision by the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit conclusively answered that question with a clear “no.” 

Many businesses seeking ways to manage the risk of litigation, especially class action litigation, have turned to contractual clauses requiring mandatory individual arbitration, meaning that any claim must be arbitrated, not litigated, and must be arbitrated only on an individual basis, not on a class basis. 

Businesses financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic may be eligible for the Employee Retention Credit (the “Credit” or “ERC”).  This Credit, a refundable tax credit intended to provide economic relief, was originally enacted as part of the CARES Act and recently modified by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (“2021 Appropriations Act”) (H.R. 133) signed into law on December 27, 2020.

Last week, we provided a forecast of topics that are on the horizon for 2021. As predicted, the landscape is changing to allow for fewer restrictions on the development of electrification and automated driving systems.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - - Happy New Year!! When the clock struck midnight on December 31st, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), including the benefits provided under the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (“EPSLA”) and the Emergency FMLA Expansion Act (“EFMLEA”) automatically expired.

By now, President-Elect Biden’s aversion to employee non-compete agreements is well-known.  So too is the notable bipartisan interest within Congress to scale back the enforceability of such agreements nationwide. 

The first bit of news in 2021 is about what didn’t happen at the end of 2020…the automotive manufacturing plants did not shut down for their normal two-week holiday pause and production continued at near full capacity.

As 2020 draws to a close, multiple industries face instability in their supply chains.  The causes vary, ranging from COVID-induced labor shortages, to surging demands for steel and other raw materials, with shortages of supply, to logistical and capacity constraints in the transportation sectors, to widespread financial distress.

On Sunday, December 27, 2020, President Trump signed the COVID-19 Economic Relief Bill into law.

When one agrees to a contractual agreement, he or she should focus on the clause selecting the forum for potential future disputes. There are two types of forum-selection clauses: permissive clauses and mandatory clauses. While permissive forum-selection clauses authorize jurisdiction and venue in a designated forum without excluding litigation elsewhere, mandatory forum-selection clauses exclusively designate a specific jurisdiction and venue for future disputes.

A USMCA Technical Amendment to the FY21 Omnibus Appropriation/Covid Relief Act allows post importation refunds of the Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) for the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) participants.

On December 10, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issued proposed changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rule in furtherance of HHS’s Regulatory Sprint to Coordinated Care.

On December 9, 2020, Mexican President, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, executed a symbolic agreement with labor unions and business leaders to negotiate a controversial amendment to Mexico’s Federal Labor law that would virtually prohibit all outsourcing practices (except for specialized work) in Mexico (the “Bill”).  

Last week, a bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would create new requirements regarding the issuance, management, and supervision of the digital asset class known as “stablecoins.”   

The London Interbank Offer Rate (LIBOR) will no longer be published by end of 2021 or possibly even sooner.

Last week, the CDC added two self-quarantine options for individuals who have been in “close contact” with someone with COVID-19. In so doing, however, the CDC did not change its standard recommendation that self-quarantine should last for 14 days from the last close contact with the infected person. Nonetheless, the CDC cited several studies suggesting that there is minimal risk associated with reducing the self-quarantine period, as described below.  

President-elect Joe Biden was quoted as recently as December 2019 saying that "[i]t's simple: companies should have to compete for workers just like they compete for customers . . . . We should get rid of noncompete clauses and no-poaching agreements that do nothing but suppress wages."