Alert
Published 08/26/2020
By Pamela J. Scott
Industries Real Estate
Governor John Carney and New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer have announced the launch of the DE Relief Grants Program, a joint initiative of the State and County to assist Delaware’s small businesses and nonprofit organizations which have been impacted by COVID-19. The funds being made available, in the amount of $100 Million, come from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act as part of more than $300 Million received by New Castle County through the CARES Act. The DE Relief Grants Program will be administered by the Delaware Division of Small Business. To qualify,...
Alert
Published 08/26/2020
By William W. Warren, Jr., Esq.
Industries Construction
Public construction in Pennsylvania and elsewhere continues to present substantial challenges to local governmental entities. While some projects have been deferred in the current health and economic climate, at some point, and we hope sooner rather than later, the normal course of public construction programs will resume. Local governments, and their architects, engineers and other design professionals can take advantage of what observations and experience have taught us about better ways to undertake and complete public construction projects. From these observations, we have developed what...
Alert
Published 08/21/2020
By Marshall B. Paul, Jacqueline A. Brooks, Eric G. Orlinsky
Services Corporate
Ending almost 23 years of confusion, the Maryland Court of Appeals, in an opinion issued on July 14, 2020, unequivocally ruled that Maryland recognizes an independent cause of action for breach of fiduciary duty, erasing any doubt as to whether a fiduciary duty claim must be coupled with another cause of action dealing with the same conduct in order to be maintained. In Plank v. Cherneski , WL3967980 (2020), the Court, in a necessarily lengthy but clear Opinion that explained the last twenty-three years’ history and the basis for its conclusion, stated that: “If a plaintiff describes a...
Blog Post
Published 08/21/2020
By Lauren A. Farruggia, Jonathan A. Havens
Alert
Published 08/20/2020
By David Waxman, Joseph Sweeney
Services Product Liability
Employers, landlords and any party potentially subject to a premises liability action would be well advised to consider the consequences when COVID-19 is contracted on their property and then spread from the infected party to a family member. A new lawsuit highlights the unresolved intersection between traditional tort law duty analysis and the expansive view of foreseeability in so-called secondary exposure torts to address the scenario where COVID-19 was allegedly brought home from work, with tragic consequences. In the action recently filed in Kane County, Illinois (a Chicago “Collar...
Alert
Published 08/20/2020
By Cathleen M. Devlin, Melissa A. Clarke
Services Environmental
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s embattled temporary Policy issued on March 26, 2020, which modified the agency’s enforcement discretion in light of the COVID-19 crisis, continues to spawn litigation despite EPA’s announced intention to terminate the Policy on August 31, 2020. Most recently, on August 18, 2020, the Center for Biological Diversity, Waterkeeper Alliance, Inc. and Riverkeeper, Inc. filed suit against EPA, arguing that EPA violated the Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq. (ESA) by issuing its Policy without first engaging in a formal consulting process...
Alert
Published 08/18/2020
By William W. Warren
Industries Health Care
Services Environmental
Agencies of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania regularly publish regulations and policy statements in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. The Departments of Human Services, Health and Environmental Protection are among the agencies that are the most prolific document publishers. Administrative law practitioners have long been aware that some agencies choose to issue policy statements, the process for promulgation of which has little oversight, and thereby avoid the more rigorous process of promulgating regulations. The problem arises when the policy statements as drafted or as applied go beyond...
Alert
Published 08/17/2020
By Erik F. Williams, Jeffrey S. Lin and Kevin M. Levy
Industries Real Estate
Institutions of higher education have undergone vast changes over the last several months from closing down campuses with a few days’ notice to shifting coursework online and transitioning to function as a “Zoom University.” Over the summer months, colleges and universities have had to prepare to implement the new Title IX regulations as well as review and implement federal and state COVID-19 guidance, sometimes mandatory and sometimes advisory, to plan their return to campuses. As colleges and universities ready to resume operations for the fall semester, they will receive repeated questions...
Blog Post
Published 08/17/2020
By Ruth A. Rauls, Gillian A. Cooper
Services : Labor and Employment
Alert
Published 08/10/2020
By Andrew Bollinger
Industries Higher Education
Participating or Attempting to Participate In order to file a formal complaint, the complainant must be “participating in or attempting to participate in” the recipient’s education program or activity at the time the formal complaint is filed. A complainant may be ‘‘attempting to participate’’ in a program or activity in a broad variety of circumstances that do not necessarily depend on being enrolled as a student or employed as an employee. For example, a complainant may be “attempting to participate” when (a) the complainant has withdrawn from the school due to alleged sexual harassment and...
Alert
Published 08/10/2020
By Zachary Kizitaff
Industries Higher Education
Each recipient must designate at least one employee as Title IX Coordinator who coordinates the recipient’s compliance with Title IX obligations. § 106.8(a). The Title IX Coordinator is not prohibited from delegating his or her responsibilities under Title IX to deputy or assistant Title IX Coordinators or to administrative personnel. 85 FR 30118. Similarly, a recipient may designate and authorize multiple Title IX Coordinators. Id. The Department’s goal is to allow each institution the flexibility to maintain Title IX compliance within the institution’s resources, size of student population...
Alert
Published 08/10/2020
By Marisa DeFeo
Industries Higher Education
The Department of Education (“Department”) redefined “sexual harassment” for Title IX purposes insomuch as the Final Rule narrowed the scope by requiring that unwelcome conduct be severe and pervasive and objectively offensive (one alone no longer suffices) in a manner that effectively denies an individual access to a school’s education program or activity. However, the Final Rule simultaneously broadened the scope of covered actions to now include dating violence, domestic violence and stalking. Definition of “Sexual Harassment” Most notably, the final regulations redefine sexual harassment...
Alert
Published 08/10/2020
By Lelia Parker
Industries Higher Education
Because Title IX addresses an educational institution’s own misconduct – and not the misconduct of the alleged harasser – the institution must first be aware that there is misconduct that needs to be addressed. In short, the institution must have “actual knowledge” that the harassment was alleged (previously, institutions generally were held to a standard that they knew, or should have known about the harassment). This is a higher bar. An institution has actual knowledge when notice of sexual harassment is received by the Title IX Coordinator or another official with authority to institute...
Article
Published 08/10/2020
Alert
Published 08/10/2020
By Alexander Bilus, Sunu Pillai, John Marty
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy
The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) recently declared that the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, used by thousands of businesses to transfer personal data between the EU and U.S., was invalid. [Case C-311/18, Data Protection Commissioner v. Facebook Ireland and Maximillian Schrems , (“Schrems II”)]. This decision will have a wide-ranging impact on businesses that handle data protected by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). At the same time, the ECJ held that businesses can still transfer personal data to countries outside the EU if they execute the EU’s approved standard...
Article
Published 08/07/2020
