Blogs

Business and Financial Services

Timing IS Everything When Investing in Qualified Opportunity Funds

We have now received our second round of regulations interpreting Section 1400z-2, also known as the investment in Opportunity Zones section of the Internal Revenue Code. In our previous posts, we have provided background and tracked important developments with the program. Now and in future posts, we will highlight finer points that stakeholders should be…

June 10, 2019

Construction

Guaranty of Leases: Landlords and Tenants – Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, the definition of guaranty, the relationship between the landlord and guarantor, and the means for landlords to enforce provisions of a guaranty were discussed. Recognizing that the guaranty is a condition to entering into a lease, and its leverage is limited, the guarantor would still like to limit its…

May 22, 2019

Construction

Guaranty of Leases: Landlords and Tenants – Part 1

As a condition to entering into a new lease, landlords often require a guaranty of lease from a personal or corporate guarantor in connection with those tenant entities that do not have either a high enough net worth or annual revenue, or for whatever other reasons do not meet the landlord’s financial criteria. A guaranty…

May 16, 2019

Employment Law

EEOC Report: Workplace Sexual Harassment Complaints are Up

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released its discrimination enforcement and litigation statistics for its fiscal year ending September 20, 2018. The report provides employers with a detailed breakdown of the 76,418 charges of workplace discrimination the EEOC received in FY 2018. The numbers are consistent with anecdotal reports in the mainstream media of a sharp increase in sexual harassment activity since the New York Times and The New Yorker first published…

May 10, 2019

Employment Law

When Can I Deduct from the Pay of an Exempt Employee?

To be exempt from the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), an employee must perform certain job duties and be paid on a “salary basis,” meaning that the employee receives a set salary each week, regardless of the number of days or hours worked, with limited exceptions. Under the…

April 23, 2019

Employment Law

FMLA Delay? No Way.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued an opinion letter on March 15, 2019 that answered the question of “whether an employer may delay designating paid leave as Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave or expand their FMLA leave beyond the statutory 12-week entitlement.” The DOL’s answer in short: No way. Guidance from the…

March 22, 2019

Employment Law

5 Takeaways from DOL’s Proposal to Change FLSA Overtime Rules

On March 7, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued proposed rules that would update the salary threshold for the Fair Labor Standard Act’s (FLSA) so-called “white collar” or “EAP” exemptions from overtime. The importance of this issue for employers is tied to the fact that an employee must be paid on a salary…

March 11, 2019

Employment Law

Fourth Circuit Concludes: False Rumor that Female Employee Slept with Her Male Boss to Obtain a Promotion Can Support a Claim of Sexual Harassment

In a decision that pushes the boundaries of past decisions defining hostile work environment sexual harassment, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Parker v. Reema Consulting Services, Inc. , concluded that “a false rumor that a female employee slept with her male boss to obtain a promotion . . .” can give rise to employer liability under Title VII for discrimination ‘because of sex.’ When a supervisory employee perpetrates workplace innuendo of this kind, the court wrote, the employer…

February 25, 2019

Business and Financial Services

Should I Franchise My Business?

Franchises have become part of our everyday experience. We eat at franchise restaurants, shop at franchise clothing and home goods stores and sleep at franchise hotels. Franchising as a business concept developed and became popular in fast food and retail sales businesses. But over the last 20 years franchising has expanded to businesses offering all types of goods and services, such as senior care, sports, fitness and education, to name just a few. Professional services businesses, such as…

January 28, 2019

Business and Financial Services

Win for Online Speech Sustained: U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear Hassell v. Yelp

Back in July, we provided our five takeaways from the California Supreme Court’s decision in Hassell v. Bird that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (“Section 230”), which confers defamation immunity upon internet sites that “publish” content of another, protected Yelp from a take-down order directing it to remove defamatory content. After…

January 23, 2019