Nowadays, blended families and common-law unions are no longer exceptional. Estate planning strategies that were designed for traditional families are no longer adapted.
On May 12, during the forum on estate planning and settlement held by the Association de planification fiscale et financière, William Dion-Bernard will make a presentation on “Rédaction de testaments sur mesure” (Drafting tailored wills), offering solutions suited to contemporary realities.
“Space Exploration” – expression that still projects our mind to fiction films or pioneer agencies questing the cosmos.
This scenario has however been changing in the last years, fueled by massive dependency on information circulation and the huge investments in faster, more powerful, and universally accessible communication.
On May 8, 2022, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued a determination pursuant to Executive Order (“EO”) 14071. The determination specifies that the provision of the following activities to any person in Russia are prohibited: accounting services, trust and corporate formation services, and management consulting services. The prohibition takes effect on June 7, 2022 and does not apply to services provided to entities located in Russia owned or controlled by U.S. persons, or any services in connection with the wind down or divestiture of any entity in Russia not owned or controlled by a Russian person. The determination expands EO 14024 to prohibit such services. Read more…
On March 2, 2022, the Hon. Lukasz Granosik of the Superior Court dismissed a subrogation claim by Sécurité Nationale compagnie d’assurance based on the absence of legal and conventional subrogation: Sécurité Nationale compagnie d’assurance c. Bel Bro inc., 2022 QCCS 723.
The plaintiff, Sécurité Nationale, an insurer, was suing a general contractor for $140,000 following the rupture of a plumbing fitting that resulted in water damage to the insureds’ building and property.
In a pending trial in federal court in Boston in the case U.S. v. Haoyang Yu, et al., prosecutors accuse a design engineer and naturalized citizen from China of stealing microchips (monolithic microwave integrated circuits or “MMICs” used in radio, cellular and satellite communications) from his former employer Analog Devices, Inc. As reported in Law360, during opening statements last week, a federal prosecutor told the jury, “It’s a story of fraud. It’s a story of possession of stolen trade secrets. It’s a story of illegal exports and immigration fraud.” In support of its case, the government explained that Yu tried to cover his tracks by changing the file extensions of the stolen files to “.jpg,” making them appear as if they were standard photo files, and then renaming the files after Pokémon characters, including Pikachu. Yu’s attorney vehemently denied the charges on behalf of his client, arguing, among other things, that “It’s perfectly legal to copy MMICs,” and that Yu has been unfairly targeted as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s now-defunct “China Initiative.” We are continuing to follow this case and will report further on any interesting developments.
Connecticut becomes the fifth state to pass a comprehensive privacy law. Are you prepared for state privacy law compliance required in 2023?
Despite a shifting privacy landscape and passage of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2016, the United States has lagged in adopting a comprehensive Federal privacy law. Nevertheless, over the past few years, particular states have prioritized consumer privacy to address growing concern regarding the unfettered and largely unregulated collection, use and disclosure of consumer personal information.[1] Following the watershed moment created through passage of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) of 2018, an increasing number of states have followed suit to pass comprehensive privacy laws. Yet, the question remains regarding how many states must pass similar laws before the Federal government takes on the charge of passing a comprehensive privacy law.
If your company has been negatively impacted by the Section 232 and Section 301 duties, you may now have another opportunity to voice your concerns in Washington. On May 5, 2022, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) published information regarding a fact-finding investigation into the economic impact of the Section 232 and 301 duties on U.S. industries.
As the third-largest national economy in the Eurozone, Italy has had a long history of public control of industries strategic for its economy. In its time, the public sector has been one of the most influential shareholders of companies of national interest. Read more…
The Biden Administration continues to increase administrative agency enforcement initiatives.
In a recent press release, the United States Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (“WHD”) announced that it now offers new resources “to help combat employer retaliation against workers who exercise their legal rights.” One of those resources is a Field Assistance Bulletin on “Protecting Workers from Retaliation” (“Bulletin”).
On May 2, 2022, a bill “limiting certain provisions in restrictive covenants” was introduced in the New Jersey State Assembly. In recent years, similar bills have been proposed in various state legislatures. Some such bills, after much lobbying, haggling and revisions, have even been enacted into law, including, for example, in Massachusetts, Illinois and Washington.
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