COVID-19
COVID-19: Crisis & Recovery
Developments related to the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19, are evolving rapidly. We know that clients are facing issues with respect to the health and well-being of their employees in addition to operating their business. Bracewell has assembled a dedicated, multidisciplinary task force that draws on the firm's deep experience across all practice areas and industries to provide practical, strategic advice to clients facing difficult decisions as this global crisis unfolds.
Our cross-disciplinary team is actively helping numerous clients navigate the many and evolving issues they are facing. Below please find several pertinent resources that you may find useful.
Access Policy Resolution Group COVID-19 Updates
IRS Eases Restrictions on Cafeteria Plans and FSAs in Response to COVID-19
On May 12, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service issued Notice 2020-29, which allows employers to make temporary changes to section 125 cafeteria plans. The permitted changes include giving employees more flexibility to make mid-year election changes, and extending the claims...
SBA Revises Certification Rules: Safe Harbor for Loans Under $2 Million, Larger Loans Still Subject to Audit
The Small Business Administration has issued new guidance regarding the certification of necessity under the Paycheck Protection Program. Now, borrowers who received loans for less than $2 million -- roughly 98% of PPP loans to date -- will automatically “be...
SEC Leaders Ask Municipal Issuers for Voluntary COVID-19 Disclosure
On May 4, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton and Rebecca Olsen, Director of the SEC’s Office of Municipal Securities, issued a statement entitled “The Importance of Disclosure for our Municipal Markets” 1 stating that “in light of the...
New Guidance: SBA Clarifies That Foreign Employees Must Be Counted for PPP
The Small Business Administration has clarified through newly-issued guidance that employees of foreign affiliates must be counted when determining the size of a business for eligibility under the Paycheck Protection Program. This new guidance, which is part of a steady...
IRS Relief for Governmental Issuers Seeking to Temporarily Buy Back VRDOs and Commercial Paper
Responding to volatility in the market and liquidity constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, in Notice 2020-25 (the “Notice”), the IRS provides temporary relief for governmental issuers seeking to purchase their own tax-exempt variable rate demand obligations that are “qualified...
IRS Allows Telephonic TEFRA Hearings in Light of COVID-19
As a result of the prohibitions on public gatherings resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, issuers of tax-exempt private activity bonds have been facing difficulty complying with the federal tax laws requiring that a public hearing be held to allow interested...
CARES Act Update: IRS and Treasury Department Release Net Operating Loss Guidance
On April 9, 2020, the IRS and Treasury Department released Revenue Procedure 2020-24 (the Revenue Procedure) and Notice 2020-26 (the Notice). The Revenue Procedure provides technical guidance for corporations with respect to the net operating loss (NOL) provisions of the...
Labor & Employment Webinar: Have Questions? Get Answers
The volume of evolving information arising out of the coronavirus pandemic is astounding. How do employers sort through it all to know what is important for your company and role within the organization? Bracewell’s webinar aims to help. Our Labor...
Mnuchin Warns of Criminal Liability for PPP; Promises to Audit Large Loans
On April 28, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the SBA would be conducting audits of all businesses that received greater than $2 million in PPP loans, reiterating his warning from last week that businesses borrowing under the Paycheck Protection Program...
CARES Act Update: IRS and Treasury Department Issue Guidance Under Code Section 163(j)
On April 10, 2020, the IRS and Treasury Department released Revenue Procedure 2020-22 (the Revenue Procedure), providing guidance with respect to the application of the provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act relating to the limitation...
New SBA Guidance: Private Equity Eligibility, Debtors in Bankruptcy, and a Safe Harbor
Shortly after the passage of a bill injecting an additional $310 billion into the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, the SBA has issued another supplemental Interim Final Rule (IFR) providing new guidance on several issues, including eligibility for hedge...
Environmental Audit Opportunities to Consider for Return-to-Work in the Wake of COVID-19
As regulated companies and facilities around the country consider their approaches to partially or even fully returning to the workplace – even essential facilities that have remained open but with limited staffing – it seems inevitable that they will discover...
Class Actions Begin: Plaintiffs Target Banks for PPP Loan Processing
A number of class-action lawsuits have been filed targeting national and community banks for their processing of loans under the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). It is not surprising that disputes have already arisen, given the swift creation...
Despite COVID-19, SEC and FINRA Maintain Regulation BI Compliance Date
Although the SEC has been granting regulatory relief in a number of areas as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, its Office of Compliance, Inspections and Exams (OCIE) confirmed in a recent Risk Alert that Regulation Best Interest (“Regulation BI”)...
IRS Extends Due Date for First Quarter Form 8038 Filings
Summary As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, in Notice 2020-23 the IRS extended the due date for issuers of tax-exempt obligations to file Forms 8038 or 8038-G for transactions that closed during the first quarter of 2020. Specifically, the...
COVID-19 Industry Developments
Consumer companies are offering incentives to thousands of their U.S. employees to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and helping out with government distribution efforts. But so far they have shied away from handing down vaccine mandates. Dollar General Corp. and Aldi Inc. are offering some workers who get vaccinated up to four hours in extra pay.
As we recently learned, some employers have chosen to wield the carrot rather than the stick when it comes to motivating their employees to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus by offering them financial incentives instead of threatening them with loss of employment.
Featured Product A weekly, curated selection of our international content from around the globe, across the business of law, in-house, regulatory, technology and more, with expert insights from our senior editors. Learn More Recommended Stories Ben Seal | The pandemic has separated clients and lawyers. Client relations professionals are bringing them back together.
Pandemic-driven lockdowns have taken their toll on small companies in every sector, while larger companies can take a longer view on matters, including in the LNG sector. Broadly, there has been a shift away from liquefaction and a new emphasis on downstream plans.
NABL members received the last edition of The Bond Lawyer by email on March 10, 2020. Just one month earlier,
on February 12, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (the “Dow”) closed at 29,551.42, its all-time high. Yet on March
6, 2020, we were notified that this year’s Institute had been cancelled. While much of the country had yet to
grasp it, at that moment we were accelerating on the descent of a global roller-coaster ride brought on
Nigeria has officially launched a marginal field bid round, with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) saying 57 fields are available. The round is open to indigenous companies and investors, the DPR said. The fields on offer are on land, swamp and the shallow offshore.
At a point when the world's economic system is creaking and the oil market is suffering from its own supplementary crisis, it can be hard to imagine what may come next. As talk in Europe and North America shifts to dialling down lockdown provisions, there is a sense the darkest days of oil demand the world has ever seen are coming to an end.
Recommended Stories Jennigay Coetzer | Dudu Myeni had been criticised for her role in pulling the airline out of a proposed deal with Emirates airways. Dan Packel | The labor and employment specialists have been in Germany since 2015 and moved into Austria in February. Anna Zhang | Derek Poon advises on private equity transactions.
As the world unexpectedly embraced work from home models this spring, home offices and video call backgrounds have become a hot topic. Social media, business articles, and even reputable brands are all buzzing about what our new residential workspaces look like; but no one is talking about how they should perform, and the omission of that single topic could be putting our national workforce at risk.
At the height of the healthcare industry's response to COVID-19, some hospital employees gained national attention for their criticism of the lack of personal protective equipment and supposed failings by their employers. Some employers appeared to retaliate against those whistleblowers, raising questions about how such complaints should be handled.
Riyadh announced on 11 May that VAT in the kingdom would be increased to 15 per cent from the current 5 per cent from 1 July 2020. Andrej Kormuth, Partner, Bracewell, Dubai writes about the possible implications of the VAT increase on public-private partnerships in the region's largest energy ...
As warehouse and factory owners ponder how to reopen their facilities while keeping workers safe, wearables have emerged as potential solution. Could RFID-enabled goggles buzz workers if they get too close to one another other? Could a wristband provide biometric feedback to let a worker know if he or she might be sick?
Casting one’s mind back to the days before COVID-19 and the recent collapse of the oil price (at the time of writing the price of Brent crude is 60% of its price at the start of the year), the most pressing challenge facing upstream oil and gas companies
was the growing emphasis by investors on ESG (environmental,
social and governance) and, associated with that, the ‘energy transition’ (a term with no precise definition but which broadly is taken to mean the shift in the energy industry away from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy, to respond to the challenge of climate change).
In today’s markets, Islamic finance and conventional products represent well-established financial instruments for both the project finance and bank finance sectors. Although Islamic jurisprudence requires that Islamic finance transactions conform to the established principles of the prohibition of Riba (interest), Gharar (speculation) and Maysir
(uncertainty), Islamic scholars have succeeded in developing products that resemble conventional finance products and can be utilized seamlessly. However, unlike its conventional financing counterpart, Islamic fi nance usually retains strong elements of equity participation and risk-sharing.
As the oil market reels from shocks on both the demand and supply side, exploration and production (E&P) companies are reviewing and restructuring loan agreements in a bid to free up capital and ensure long-term security.
The worldwide outbreak of Covid-19 has caused global uncertainty for organisations, governments and individuals, and the legal fraternity has been busy producing client posts, dressing and redressing Covid-19 in the illusive cloak of force majeure.
Companies are suspending or terminating business agreements by relying on a common but rarely invoked escape hatch in the fine print of many commercial contracts, as the new coronavirus and government measures to slow its spread upend the economy. Known as "act of God" clauses-or "force majeure," French for "superior force"-the provision has been cited in court cases across the U.S.
The $2 trillion federal stimulus under the CARES Act will invariably attract many first-time participants to the federal marketplace. Bracewell attorneys say newcomers and smalll businesses should proceed with caution and give tips on how to prepare for compliance now.
Changing jobs is an intense process under the best of circumstances. But for lawyers making a move during the coronavirus pandemic, unexpected challenges have made for a harder landing. Here, attorneys who recently changed firms or even started new ones tell Law360 of their experience amid the outbreak.
Mike Muller, Director of Oil Business Development & Head of Trading, Vitol Asia, Dr. Leila R. Benali, Chief Economist, APICORP and Andrej Kormuth, Partner, Bracewell LLP, joined us on today's Live Daily Oil Commentary to share their insights on current market dynamics.
Federal agencies in charge of regulating the safety of oil and gas operations in the US Gulf of Mexico have stopped offering public updates on the spread of Covid-19 on offshore facilities as the number of cases continues to rise.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters building in Washington, D.C. Source: AP Images The Trump administration in recent days has signaled it could give vast swaths of the U.S. economy, including the energy sector, waivers from certain federal environmental regulations in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's chairman on Monday said that even though the commission has loosened some reporting requirements and will exercise enforcement discretion as it faces the threat of the novel coronavirus, it will continue to enforce key public health rules.
APPROPRIATIONS New spending for energy and environmental agencies not tied to the novel coronavirus could be delayed until next year - yet another way the pandemic is upending how Capitol Hill and agencies operate.
At Dr. Praeger's Purely Sensible Foods in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, as many as 125 workers dutifully come into work each day to produce its popular frozen veggie burgers, chicken tenders and other items made from plants.
The struggling U.S. oil industry got no special bailout in the huge coronavirus stimulus package signed by President Trump on Friday . But the political fight over money to help the oil sector is far from over.
With new rules expanding paid sick and family leave going into effect April 1, small businesses are scrambling to figure out which parts of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act apply to them and how to comply. Here are answers to many of the questions people are asking.
The recently enacted Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) creates new obligations for employers in an attempt to relieve economic pain felt by their employees arising from the ongoing epidemic—but it also offers tax credits to defray the cost.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) sought an ethics review Friday of his recent sale of more than $1.7 million in stocks as he and other lawmakers faced a bipartisan uproar over whether they had used information gleaned from private congressional briefings to guide transactions before the market plummeted because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic could cause widespread disruptions in the energy sector, tightening demand, jeopardizing supply chains, diverting regulatory attention and negating previous growth forecasts for solar and storage deployment, according to financial analysts and industry experts.