Washington, D.C. partner Michael Murphy and associate David Fotouhi are the authors of "More CERCLA Recovery Hurdles For ‘Compelled’ Costs" [PDF] published by Law360 at www.Law360.com on April 12, 2012.
April 12, 2012
On March 5, 2012, the United States Department of the Treasury ("Treasury"), Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN"), published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("ANPR") seeking comments on the concept of prescriptive rules for customer due diligence ("CDD") for certain financial institutions (and potentially all financial institutions) under the Bank Secrecy Act ("BSA").
April 11, 2012
This is our first of what we anticipate will be quarterly updates of significant developments relating to the array of qui tam, securities, fraud, and other lawsuits and investigations involving schools, especially private sector schools.
April 10, 2012
New York partner Joel Cohen and associate May Kay Dunning are the authors of "Does That Settle It? Well, Maybe Not" [PDF] published in the National Law Journal on April 9, 2012.
April 9, 2012
To update our alert of March 28, President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act ("JOBS Act") into law today. We believe the JOBS Act is the most significant modernization of the federal securities laws since the Securities and Exchange Commission's 2005 Securities Offering Reform.
April 5, 2012
Washington, D.C. partner Michael Diamant and associate Brendon Fleming are the authors of "FCPA + Travel Act: Double trouble?" [PDF] published by CNBC Moneycontrol on April 3, 2012. It was written for CNBC TV18's show The Firm.
April 3, 2012
New York partner Barry Goldsmith is the author of "Regulatory Rules: FINRA and SEC Compliance in the Use of Social Media" [PDF] published in the March/April 2012 issue of Insurance & Financial Meetings Management.This article is available courtesy of Coastal Communications Corporation.
April 1, 2012
On March 21, 2012, the UK Government expressed its intention to ensure that individuals and companies pay a "fair share" of tax on residential property transactions and to tackle avoidance by (a) increasing Stamp Duty Land Tax, (b) proposing an annual fee for the right to own residential property through certain entities, and (c) extending capital gains taxes to the sale of residential property owned by certain entities. Once the shape of proposed legislation becomes more clear, affected clients will be strongly recommended to consider restructuring the ownership of their UK residential property.The following package of measures was announced by the Government in their 2012 Budget: 1. Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) -- new 7% rate on homes over £2 million
March 30, 2012
Recent developments serve as a reminder that private litigation challenging proposed and consummated M&A transactions, though infrequent and often unsuccessful, do continue to arise and in fact appear to be on the incline. Whether they are filed before or after the transaction is consummated, such suits can create additional uncertainty and additional burdens on the merging parties. It therefore pays to be alert for situations posing a somewhat higher risk of private merger suits and to stay abreast of relevant trends. Sean Royall and Adam Di Vincenzo of Gibson Dunn are co-authors of the attached article, "When Mergers Become A Private Matter: An Updated Antitrust Primer," which examines a range of recent private merger challenges brought by competitor
March 29, 2012
New York partner Mark Schonfeld and associate Kenneth Burke are the authors of "Is This an Inspection or an Investigation? The Blurring Line Between Examinations of and Enforcement Actions Against Private Fund Managers" [PDF] published in the Hedge Fund Law Report on March 29, 2012.
March 29, 2012
On March 27, 2012, the House passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act ("JOBS Act"), as amended and passed by the Senate on March 22. It is widely anticipated that President Obama will quickly sign the JOBS Act into law.
March 28, 2012
On March 15, 2012, new regulations implementing Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") took effect, imposing significant new obligations on public accommodations, including inns, motels, hotels, and other "places of lodging" such as rental units in vacation communities and timeshares. See 28 C.F.R.
March 28, 2012
Brussels partner Peter Alexiadis is the author of "Balancing the Application of Ex Post and Ex Ante Disciplines under Community Law in Electronic Communications Markets: Square Pegs in Round Holes?" [PDF] appearing in the publication Rights and Remedies in a Liberalised and Competitive Internal Market available from the Law Faculty Office, University of Malta. It was published in March 2012.
March 28, 2012
Brussels partner Peter Alexiadis is the author of "Cartels in the Utilities Sector: An Overview of EU and National Case Law" [PDF] published in the March 27, 2012 issue of e-Competitions.
March 27, 2012
On March 22, 2012, the General Court ("Court") in Luxembourg delivered its Judgment in Slovak Telekom v Commission, holding that the European Commission ("Commission") is entitled, for the purposes of advancing its investigation into alleged breaches of European competition laws, to request that a defendant provide it with information regarding its activities conducted prior to the accession of that defendant's Member State (in this case, Slovakia) to the European Union with a view to assessing its compliance with European competition rules post accession. This Judgment follows only a month after the Court of Justice of the European Union (the "CJEU"), had ruled in the Toshiba Case that European competition rules cannot be applied retroactively to
March 26, 2012
Implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the "Dodd Frank Act") requires agencies to promulgate hundreds of new rules. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") is at the forefront of implementing the derivatives title of Dodd-Frank, and is approximately halfway through issuing roughly 50 new rules. When Congress was considering the Dodd-Frank Act, a principal hallmark of the legislation was increased transparency. The real-time public reporting rule, recently issued by the CFTC, will dramatically change the content and amount of derivatives transactional information that is shared with the public. It also imposes new and potentially daunting burdens on companies that use derivatives products.T
March 23, 2012
On March 21, 2012, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Sackett v. EPA, 556 U.S. ___ (2012), that an administrative compliance order issued by the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") under the Clean Water Act was a final agency action properly subject to pre-enforcement review under the Administrative Procedure Act ("APA").
March 23, 2012
On March 20, 2012, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, 566 U.S. __ (2012), addressing the scope of the "laws of nature" exception to the definition of patentable subject matter set out in 35 U.S.C.
March 21, 2012
On March 19, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") announced that it had credited the substantial cooperation of a former senior executive of an investment adviser in an investigation by declining to take enforcement action against him. The SEC's announcement can be found here. This is the first time the SEC has publicly recognized the cooperation of an individual since the announcement two years ago of its policy statement intended to incentivize individuals to cooperate in investigations, found here. This announcement provides some much needed insight into the potential benefits of cooperating in an SEC investigation. However, the unique facts of the case mean that it will have limited application to other cases.I. SEC's
March 20, 2012
In an unprecedented move, the Controller of Patents in India ("Controller") issued the first compulsory license under the Indian patent regime, since the Patent Act, 1970 ("Act") was amended in 2005 to permit product patents in India.
March 20, 2012