Member Publications

The Employee Retention Credit (“ERC”) was enacted by Congress to provide relief for businesses negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and provides significant financial benefits to those businesses (up to $26,000 for each qualifying employee). However, in its haste to get the funds out to businesses that needed help, Congress did not provide detailed eligibility rules nor a robust process to…

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known by the acronym PFAS and better known by the moniker “forever chemicals,” are the focus of rapidly evolving regulatory regimes at the U.S. federal and state levels, which in turn is driving class-action litigation asserting novel theories of liability against manufacturers whose products contain PFAS. Given the ubiquity of the PFAS chemical group and its u…

Introduction Corporate fraud, among both employees and company directors, continues to be an expensive issue in Australia. Regarding occupational fraud – fraud committed by individuals against the company which employs them or of which they are director – the majority of the fraud is committed at the employee or managerial level. Fraud at the executive and director levels constitutes a smaller …

Previously, we had reported that the FMCSA had undertaken rule making with respect to certain financial obligations of brokers and freight forwarders. Link to previous article. In November, 2023, the FMCSA issued its final rules which are available here. THE FINAL RULES MAY BE SUMMARIZED AS FOLLOWS. Assets Readily Available – Final rule sets out a list of the acceptable asset types a MBC-85 tr…

H-1B Cap Season is quickly approaching.  Registration for this year’s lottery will open in March 2024.  If you are interested in sponsoring your employee(s) in this year’s lottery, please contact SKO to have their case reviewed for eligibility. What is THE H-1B STATUS? H-1B is a widely used professional work visa available to noncitizens for employment in the U.S.  H-1B requires employer sponsor…

The document review process in litigation is ripe for automation through use of AI. Courts have considered and approved predictive coding approaches proposed by litigants in place of traditional manual document review. The OECD defines an Artificial Intelligence system as a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions …

This is part of a series of articles by Wright Lindsey Jennings’ labor and employment team examining key trends for employers and the workplace in 2024, authored by attorney Troy Price. The series was featured in Arkansas Business.  Most employers know well that it can be a violation of state and federal law to discriminate against a current or potential employee based on race or national origin.…

The Act on the Modernization of Partnership Law (MoPeG) came into force on 1 January 2024. It brings with it numerous innovations and changes for partnerships (GbR, OHG, KG, GmbH & Co. KG, PartG). We are pleased to present the most important changes resulting from the MoPeG in our newsletter below: I. Reform of the GbR After the provisions of the German Civil Code (BGB) relating to the GbR h…

As 2023 comes to an end, we reflect on how active the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rulemaking agenda was throughout the year. As companies prepare for their annual reports and proxy statements, we summarize new disclosure requirements that now apply. In this Snapshot, we review the new disclosure requirements effective this quarter and share the SEC’s proposed gift-giving agenda for 2024. …

Recently, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“US EPA”) announced that it would extend the comment period for a proposed rule would make revisions to the Air Emissions Reporting Requirements. The announcement Warehouse Indirect Source Rule – Warehouse Actions and Investments to Reduce Emissions (WAIRE) Program, 88 Fed. Reg. 70616-02 (proposed Aug. 13, 2023) (to be codified at 40 C.F…