Royal Oak, Michigan, January 31, 2017: Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC is pleased to announce that fifteen of our attorneys have been named to Illinois Super Lawyers® and Illinois Rising Stars 2017. Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The annual selections are made using a patented multiphase process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates and peer reviews by practice area. The result is a credible, comprehensive and diverse listing of exceptional attorneys. Only five percent of the attorneys in Illinois were named to the Super Lawyers list and two and one half percent to Rising Stars.
Monthly Archives: January 2017
Fifteen Howard & Howard attorneys named to Illinois Super Lawyers and Illinois Rising Stars 2017
Texas Court Dismisses Section 1557 Transgender Discrimination Claim
In a notable recent court decision highlighting transgender issues and employer sponsored benefit plans, on January 13, 2017, in Baker v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5665, 2017 WL 131658 (N.D. Tex.), Aetna Life Insurance Co. (“Aetna”) defeated a claim by a transgender employee of L-3 Communications Integrated Systems LP (“L-3”) who alleged that Aetna’s denial of her disability benefits constituted discrimination based on her gender identity. The plaintiff, Charlize Marie Baker (“Baker”), is a participant in L-3’s Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) covered group health plan and short term disability benefits plan (“STD Plan”). Aetna is the third party administrator (“TPA”) of the group health plan and the claim fiduciary and administrator of the STD Plan.
Another year of achievements!
By Herbert Z. Pinchuk, head of the Business Law Group at RSS.
January 31, 2017 — 2016 has come to an end. Once again, it was an eventful year at RSS. The deals and cases that have kept us busy reflect the breadth of our professional activity and the various facets of Quebec’s economy.
We are pleased to provide this sampling of the matters that we worked on throughout the year.
Long-Awaited Accessibility Standards for Medical Diagnostic Equipment Are Released
Our colleagues Joshua A. Stein and Frank C. Morris, Jr., at Epstein Becker Green have a post on the Health Employment And Labor blog that will be of interest to many of our readers in the technology industry: “The U.S. Access-Board Releases Long-Awaited Final Accessible Medical Diagnostic Equipment Standards.”
The U.S. Access-Board Releases Long-Awaited Final Accessible Medical Diagnostic Equipment Standards
As part of a flurry of activity in the final days of the Obama Administration, the U.S. the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (the “Access Board”) has finally announced the release of its Accessibility Standards for Medical Diagnostic Equipment (the “MDE Standards”). Published in the Federal Register on Monday, January 9, 2017, the MDE Standards are a set of design criteria intended to provide individuals with disabilities access to medical diagnostic equipment such as examination tables and chairs (including those used for dental or optical exams), weight scales, radiological equipment, mammography equipment and other equipment used by health professionals for diagnostic purposes. (The Access Board was established in 1973 to develop and maintain standards for accessible design in the built environment, transit vehicles and systems, telecommunications equipment and electronic and information technology. It also functions as a coordinator among federal agencies.). It is important to note that at this time the MDE Standards are not technically binding on health care providers or medical equipment manufacturers and do not have the force of law until they are formally adopted by government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Džeina Gaile on new Public Procurement Law
In the annex of the 23 January 2017 issue of the newspaper “Diena” – “Uzņēmēja diena” Džeina Gaile, Associate of Tark Grunte Sutkiene, gives brief insight into the changes in public procurement field after 1 March 2017 when the new Public Procurement Law will enter info force.
As one of the changes Džeina highlights the electronical submission of tenders and requests to participate. This possibility will be introduced gradually, but already in the spring of this year some of the contracting authorities will start to use it. Therefore it is suggested for economic operators to keep track of when any additional information will be available in the sources related to public procurement.
Overvågning af medarbejdere – hvad kan arbejdsgiveren tillade sig?
Selvom arbejdsgiveren har ledelsesretten, er der både i kollektive overenskomster og i lovgivning fastsat begrænsninger i, hvilke kontrolforanstaltninger arbejdsgiveren kan iværksætte uden at orientere repræsentanter for lønmodtagerne herom. Artiklen beskriver disse rammer i forhold til videoovervågning af arbejdspladser.
Skattekontoen – en forenkling, men også en tikkende bombe
Hensigten med etablering af skattekontoen i 2013 var at skabe overblik over virksomheders samlede mellemværende med SKAT og digitalisere og ændre skatteopkrævningen. I artiklen beskrives nogle ikke-tilsigtede konsekvenser af skattekontoen, særligt på baggrund af SKATs it-problemer på opkrævningsfronten og den generelle økonomiske krise.
U.S. Access Board Releases Information and Communication Technology Standards and Guidelines
Earlier this month, in the waning moments of the Obama Administration, the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (the “Access Board”) took the long-anticipated step of requiring websites of federal government agencies to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (“WCAG”) 2.0 Levels A and AA. (The Access Board was established in 1973 to develop and maintain standards for accessible design in the built environment, transit vehicles and systems, telecommunications equipment and electronic and information technology.)
Voluntary disclosure
Il D. Legge 22 ottobre 2016 n. 193/2016 collegato alla Legge di Bilancio 2017 (rubricato “Disposizioni urgenti in materia fiscale e per il finanziamento di esigenze indifferibili” ed in vigore dal 24 ottobre u.s.) ha riaperto i termini – eccezion fatta per coloro che hanno aderito alla prima voluntary – per l’emersione delle attività detenute illecitamente all’estero compiute fino al 30 settembre 2016 aderendo alla nuova versione della voluntary disclosure.
L’istituto prevede il versamento integrale delle imposte dovute e l’applicazione delle sanzioni in misura ridotta sanando l’omessa dichiarazione dei redditi ed il mancato rispetto della normativa in materia di monitoraggio fiscale ed evitando i rischi (più che probabili) di accertamento che deriveranno dall’attivazione dello scambio di informazioni che potranno essere richieste con riferimento ad atti o fatti occorsi alla data della sottoscrizione degli accordi.
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Welcome to ILN-terviews, a series of profiles of ILN member firm attorneys, designed to give a unique insight into the lawyers who make up our Network. For our latest interview, we chose ILN member, Arthur Li of our member firm Lee and Li in Taiwan, China. In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?...… 
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