Insights

The past month has seen interesting developments in the antitrust M&A arena, including the first ever successful private antitrust merger challenge resulting in a divestiture order, and the announcement by the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division of several reforms aimed...

Economic sanctions, in one form or another, have been applied for centuries to effect change in the activities or policies of states, groups or individuals. Sometimes they are perceived as geopolitical economic weaponry, leveraging the intertwined nature of the world’s...

In May 2018, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion upholding the validity of class-action waivers in employee arbitration agreements. Significant media coverage of that opinion has led many employers to evaluate whether to require employees to arbitrate employment-related...

On October 11, 2018, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published notice of a final rule change adopting the claim construction standard applied by federal courts for use by the Patent Trial and Board (PTAB) in AIA proceedings...

On August 28, 2018, the IRS released Notice 2018-67 (the Notice), which provides interim guidance concerning the aggregation of trade or business activities for purposes of calculating the unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) of a tax-exempt organization. The Notice was...

In their last legislative action before the midterm elections, House Republicans earlier this month passed a three-bill package dubbed “Tax Reform 2.0” in a bid to cement their signature legislative accomplishment in voters’ minds. The bills passed largely along partisan...

Although largely untouched by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) (click here for more), renewable energy tax credits experienced some important developments in 2018, including the release of IRS Notice 2018-59 (the Notice) in June. The Notice clarified certain...

Bob Nichols and Kevin Collins discuss preparations for an OSHA process-safety-management-standard (PSM) inspection. OSHA issued the PSM standard to help ensure the safe management of highly hazardous chemicals. The standard integrates hazard assessment, technology, procedures, and management practices, and PSM...

Legal professional privilege (“LPP”) has been a feature of the common law for centuries, developed through the public interest in protecting confidentiality of communications between a lawyer and its client. As a concept understood, in one form or another, in...

The Music Modernization Act (MMA) is headed to the President's desk for signature following unanimous approval from the House of Representatives and the Senate. The bill, now called the "Orrin G. Hatch Music Modernization Act" (H.R. 1551), provides a significant...

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) last week released and ultimately approved a long-awaited package of legislation dubbed “Tax Reform 2.0.” The legislative text fleshes out the “listening session framework” put out by the Chairman shortly before...

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act introduced new Section 199A of the Internal Revenue Code (the Code), which provides individual taxpayers as well as certain other non-corporate taxpayers with a significant, though complex, deduction for qualified business income (QBI) from...

On August 8, 2018, the IRS and Treasury Department released proposed regulations (the Proposed Regulations) providing guidance on the deduction equal to 20% of an individual’s qualified business income (QBI). As discussed here in greater detail, pursuant to Section 199A...

In terms of environmental liabilities in mergers and acquisitions, the deal doesn’t end at closing. In fact, one of the most crucial time periods for acquirers is the nine-month window after closing during which they can invoke EPA’s New Owner...