The Eleventh Circuit’s recent decision in United States ex rel. Hunt v. Cochise Consultancy, Inc., has further complicated the answer to what should be a simple question: What is the statute of limitations in qui tam action when the government declines to intervene? There are currently three different answers to that seemingly simple question depending on the forum in which a case is filed ...
On April 24, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or the “Commission”) announced its first enforcement action against a public company for failing to disclose a data breach. In a settled cease-and-desist order, the SEC imposed a $35 million civil penalty against Altaba Inc., formerly known as Yahoo! Inc ...
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Theresa May said the government wanted to, “secure broad energy cooperation with the EU”, including by, “exploring options for the UK’s continued participation in the EU’s internal energy market” ...
A common question we receive from school systems relates to whether certain employees (both service personnel and professional personnel) recapture their seniority if there has been a break in their employment with the school system but they later return to employment. Often a break in employment is the result of a voluntary break or unfortunately a reduction in force ...
With Administrator Scott Pruitt at its helm, cooperative federalism is the frequently recited principle underlying recent EPA enforcement efforts. As the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory oversight in areas like the Clean Water Act is delegated to the states, the agency is relying more upon state and local authorities to enforce the laws. There are shortcomings associated with this approach, which were raised in the recent U.S ...
The political dispute between Qatar and its neighbors escalated with the announcement by Qatar that it would impose a ban on goods from the four boycotting countries, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt. As we reported earlier, these four countries imposed a trade embargo on Qatar. The measures that were introduced prohibited the direct shipment of goods and the direct transport of passengers to or from Qatar and closed the land border between Qatar and Saudi Arabia ...
The California Legislature is considering legislation that would, if enacted, prohibit public agencies that form a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) from contracting out of liability for the JPA's pension obligations. Backed by CalPERS, AB 1912 was introduced early this year partly in response to drastic CalPERS pension cuts for former employees of LA Works, a dissolved job-training JPA ...
Last week I attended a student expulsion hearing and it reminded me that now might be a good time to provide some tips to county boards of education on these hearings. As we all know,W. Va. Code 18A-5-1a andState Policy 4373 require that a student be afforded a hearing before the county board of education prior to being expelled. Specifically,W. Va ...
In the Loop: With the Hanson Bridgett Government Group Many of us have had to request reimbursement from our company for an expense, which can be a pretty complicated process. For members of a legislative body, these rules can be even more specific. We'll think about Buddy, who sits on city council. Not long ago, the City gave Buddy a city-owned tablet to allow him to do his job remotely ...
On June 21, in its much-anticipated decision inLucia v. Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the SEC’s Administrative Law Judges (“ALJs”) are officers under the Constitution’s Appointments Clause. The decision requires that, moving forward, SEC ALJs be constitutionally appointed rather than hired like other employees ...
InLagos v. United States, 584 U.S. ___ (2018), the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling that limits the ability of corporate victims of fraud to seek reimbursement of legal fees for internal investigations. The case began when GE Capital discovered that Sergio Lagos falsified numerous invoices for his company, which he used as collateral to obtain tens of millions of dollars in loans from GE Capital ...
Ferdose al-Taie, Dallas-based senior counsel in Dykema’s Commercial Litigation group, authored the article “Anonymous Whistleblowers Make Millions for Reporting Their Own Companies to Federal Regulators,” forFOCUS, the quarterly newsletter of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) South Central Texas Chapter. In the article, al-Taie shines a light on the ins and outs of Dodd-Frank Whistleblower awards and who is eligible for consideration ...
In a significant decision for all public agencies, yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the First Amendment prohibits public employees from being compelled to pay what are known as “agency fees” when they choose not to join their union. Janus v. AFSCME, No. 16-1466 (June 27, 2018). In so holding, the Court overruled its 1977 decision in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, 431 U.S. 209 (1977) ...
The Israeli Parliament (the Knesset) recently approved (on July 18, 2018), an amendment to the Israeli Restrictive Trade Practices Law, 5748-1988 (the “Law“) regarding parallel importing (the Restrictive Trade Practices Law (Amendment 20 – Temporary Order), 5778-2018) (the “Amendment“) ...
It has been announced that a new flagship court designed to tackle the legal issues of the future will open on Fleet Street, a short walk to our London offices. The new 18 court room legal centre providing world-class legal services focussing on cybercrime, fraud, economic crime, business and property crime and civil cases is expected to be completed in 2025 ...
After 16 public hearings over a five year period lasting through the tenure of three mayors, the largest San Francisco rezoning plan in ten years received a unanimous Planning Commission approval on May 10, 2018. On Monday of this week, the Land Use Committee of the Board of Supervisors had a first hearing to listen to testimony about plan ...
California has enacted a sweeping tough new privacy law ...
In past years, we have advised clients that as long as no unit in a multi-unit new condominium project is rented before its condominium map is recorded, later sales of units do not fall under the city's condominium conversion ordinance, which does not at this time allow conversion of buildings of more than two units ...
This past year the North Carolina Legislature has been incredibly active. Among the legislation proposed and adopted, a few bills will create changes in how contractors interact with various public entities. Most notably, big changes are on the horizon for contractors that work with the NCDOT and with school systems. Sitting with the Committee on Transportation, H.B ...
Legislation to update US controls on foreign investment has been signed by the President and enacted into law. The Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (“FIRRMA”) expands the scope of review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) of foreign investment in critical and foundational technologies that impact US national security, broadly defined ...
The Autonomous Bus and Minibus Pilot Project 1 (the “Pilot Project”) came into effect in Quebec recently. The project provides guidelines for the regulated driving of the first autonomous vehicles on Quebec’s roads ...
Earlier this year, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (the “MEMR”) issued Regulation Number 10 of 2018 on The Second Amendment to Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Regulation Number 10 of 2017 on the Principles of Power Purchase Agreements (“MEMR Reg 10/2018”) which came into effect on 13 February 2018 ...
Last year Panama joined the list of countries that have established quotas as a mean for reducing the gender gap. Law 56 of 2017 creates a women quota of 30% on corporate boards of public entities and certain private entities. The Law was recently regulated through Executive Decree 241-A of 2018 ...
