Article
Published 12/14/2020
Industries Higher Education
Services Labor and Employment
Alert
Published 12/11/2020
By Andy J. Daly, Dasha G. Brockmeyer
Services Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation | Tax
Federal agencies recently announced cost-of-living adjustments on Social Security taxable earnings and maximum benefits, limits on compensation and deferrals for retirement plans, and limits on health and welfare plans. Additionally, excise tax penalties for failure to offer minimum essential health care coverage and failure to offer coverage that provides minimum value or is affordable, and penalties for failure to file correct information returns have also been announced. Below is a chart comparing the dollar limits and penalties for 2020 and 2021. Additionally, 1983 amendments to the...
Article
Published 12/11/2020
Services Litigation
Alert
Published 12/10/2020
By Brandon Brauer
Industries Construction
On December 1, 2020, the Court of Appeals of Texas (1st District) reversed a lower court decision and held that where a party fails to show that a public university defendant has expressly breached a contractual provision, Texas sovereign immunity law shields the public university from a lawsuit See Texas Southern University v. Pepper Lawson Horizon International Group, LLC, No. 01-19-00395, 2020 WL 703584 (Court of Appeals (Tx. 1st District) December 1, 2020). General contractor, Pepper Lawson Horizon International Group, LLC (“Pepper Lawson”) entered into a construction contract (the “...
Alert
Published 12/07/2020
By Michael Gold, Justin B. Ettelson, Christian Kaiser, Guzel Sadykova
Services Securities Transactions and Regulations
On November 2, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “ Commission ”) adopted amendments to its rules under the Securities Act (the “ Securities Act ”) in an effort to harmonize, simplify and modernize the exempt offering framework (the “ Amendments ”). The Commission noted that the goal of the Amendments is to promote capital formation and expand investment opportunities in offerings exempt from the registration requirements under the Securities Act while continuing to protect investors. The Amendments revise several of the exemptions that are frequently relied upon by small and...
Alert
Published 12/07/2020
By Bruce D. Armon, Justin C. Danilewitz, Samantha R. Gross, Lauren A. Farruggia
Industries Health Care
Services White Collar and Government Enforcement
On November 16, 2020, the Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), issued a Special Fraud Alert highlighting the Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) risks for pharmaceutical and medical device companies providing remuneration for speaker programs they sponsor. In addition to being important to industry, this Special Fraud Alert should be of interest to physicians, community hospitals and academic medical centers who engage with pharmaceutical and medical device companies. The AKS imposes criminal penalties for those who knowingly and...
Alert
Published 12/04/2020
By Anthony P. Forte, Kevin M. Levy
Industries Real Estate
Responding to calls from Philadelphia’s housing advocates to generate tax revenue for affordable housing, Philadelphia City Council adopted a trio of ordinances on December 2, affecting most new construction projects throughout the City. Mayor Jim Kenney is expected to sign the legislative package before the end of the year. New “Development Impact Tax” on Residential Developers Most impactful among the new Philadelphia tax legislation is a new “Development Impact Tax,” which will be imposed on the construction of “any structure for human occupancy for residential purposes, or making any...
Blog Post
Published 12/04/2020
By Kyle E. Gray
Blog Post
Published 12/03/2020
Alert
Published 11/30/2020
By Cory S. Winter
Industries Higher Education
Using terms like “holistic” and “individualized” to describe Harvard College’s race-conscious admissions process, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently upheld Harvard’s race-conscious admissions process. [1] Finding that Harvard’s process permissibly considered an applicant’s race as only one part of his/her application without giving race determinative effect, the court rejected a challenge from Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. (“SFFA”), which claimed that Harvard’s admissions process violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating against Asian...
Article
Published 11/30/2020
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy
Article
Published 11/24/2020
Industries Cannabis Law
Alert
Published 11/23/2020
By Bruce Armon, Samantha R. Gross
Industries Health Care | HIPAA / Health Information Privacy and Security
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy
On November 19, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced it had settled its 12th enforcement action in its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative (the “Initiative”). The Initiative is an OCR enforcement priority to ensure individuals can easily and timely access their health information at a reasonable cost under the Health Insurance Portability and accountability Act (“HIPAA”) Privacy Rule. There are have been several other Initiative settlements this fall including with Riverside Psychiatric Medical Group settling for $25,000...
Podcast episode
Published 11/18/2020
In this episode, host Jonathan Havens speaks with Kermit Nash, both of whom are co-chairs of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr’s Food, Beverage and Agribusiness (FBA) Practice, about how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the production and distribution of food and beverage products—from dairy farms having to dump milk that would spoil before it reached its destination to disruptions with food supply going to schools, conventions and restaurants. Kermit addresses some positive impacts on the industry, such as how sourcing local food and organic/better-for-you food products have really flourished during the pandemic and how we saw direct interaction among those on the regulatory, production and consumption sides in pivoting from large bulk packaging to smaller packaging.
Podcast episode
Published 11/18/2020
In this episode, host Kermit Nash, co-chair of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr’s Food, Beverage and Agribusiness (FBA) Practice, speaks with fellow FBA Practice co-chair, Jonathan Havens, on the portfolios of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Jonathan also explains how both federal agencies have relaxed some rules for FBA companies during the pandemic and implemented some business-minded solutions. For example, the USDA has helped the agribusiness sector via the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, has worked to get financial relief directly to farmers, and has helped food banks and distribution networks cut through red tape to get food to the last mile. Also in this episode, Jonathan addresses some of the latest cannabidiol (CBD) and hemp regulatory developments.