Category Archives: PLI

Treatise Update: International Corporate Practice

International Corporate Practice: A Practitioner’s Guide to Global Success provides guidance on building a comprehensive global legal department, including advice on structuring, staffing, and budgeting, as well as the use of foreign legal consultants and outsourcing. This update includes new material designed to enable lawyers, whether in-house or outside counsel, to operate efficiently on the global stage.

Updates from the Release #15:

  • Chapter 1 contains a new section highlighting twenty trends that will likely have an impact on in-house counsel—from automation to diversity, from skills training to management structure, from partnering with outside counsel to corporate social responsibility, and much more.
  • Chapter 2 updates the discussion of the privilege in Colombia, emphasizing the penalties that may be imposed for a breach and the factors that are weighed in assessing the seriousness of the breach.
  • Chapter 3 is updated with current information about major international law firms and new discussion of lawyer referral services.
  • Chapter 4 includes new coverage of the New York Court of Appeals’ amended Rules for the Licensing of Legal Consultants.
  • Chapter 6 explores the treatment of U.S. government guidance, published in 2019, as a useful framework for corporate compliance programs. To help prosecutors evaluate the adequacy and effectiveness of compliance programs, the Department of Justice, Criminal Division, released “The Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs.”
  • Chapter 9 provides updated coverage of the legal professional privilege in the United Kingdom.
  • Chapter 19 discusses money laundering and terrorism financing, including a discussion of the Indian Cosmos Bank cyberheist; the regulation of cryptocurrencies; and the trend for law enforcement to prosecute individuals responsible for the money-laundering violations of their employers, not just the employer corporations.
  •  Chapter 22 is revised throughout, with new discussions of proposed U.S. regulations that would broaden government authority, when adjudicating the admissibility of certain foreign nationals, to determine whether those individuals might become a public charge; the European Union’s creation of a European Labour Authority (ELA); and whether same-sex spouses can qualify as dependents for work authorization purposes.
  •  Chapter 27 provides expanded coverage of international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships, as well as to require use of approved ballast water management systems; the cleanup of contaminated sites in the United Kingdom; and environmental regulation in China, including the 2019 Law on Soil Contamination Prevention and Control.
  • Chapter 29 adds new material on the cross-border insolvency system created by the Recast EU Regulation, including treatment of an interrelated “group of companies” and the key principles of the 2019 Directive.

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PLI Current: COVID-19 Special Issue

PLI Press published a special issue of PLI Current to address the developing effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on the legal community. Covering a variety of legal issues related to COVID-19, this special issue contains a mix of original reportage, program materials and transcripts from recent PLI One Hour Briefings. Below is a list of contents along with links to individual articles.

*All articles and online programs related to the global coronavirus crisis are free to access with your PLI login. For upcoming programs, visit pli.edu/coronavirus.

  1. COVID-19: Reducing the Spread of Both Illness and Social Panic 
  2. Coronavirus: What Lawyers Need to Know: Transcript of the PLI One Hour Briefing, conducted March 10, 2020 
  3. Coronavirus: What Lawyers Need to Know (program materials)
  4. Coronavirus: Insurance Coverage for Event Cancellation, Travel and Supply Chain Losses: Transcript of the PLI One Hour Briefing, conducted March 17, 2020 
  5. Coronavirus: Insurance Coverage for Event Cancellation, Travel and Supply Chain Losses (program materials) 
  6. Investment Adviser Regulatory Update: Considerations Regarding the Coronavirus and Getting Ready for the 2020 ADV Update Season: Transcript of the PLI One Hour Briefing, conducted March 18, 2020 
  7. Investment Adviser Regulatory Update: Considerations Regarding the Coronavirus and Getting Ready for the 2020 ADV Update Season (program materials) 
  8. COVID-19 and the Cyber-Risks of Working from Home: Meeting the Challenges: Transcript of the PLI One Hour Briefing, conducted March 25, 2020 
  9. COVID-19 and the Cyber-Risks of Working from Home: Meeting the Challenges (program materials) 
  10. COVID-19 Challenges for First Quarter 2020 Form 10-Q and Annual Meetings: Transcript of the PLI One Hour Briefing, conducted March 26, 2020 
  11. COVID-19 Challenges for First Quarter 2020 Form 10-Q and Annual Meetings (program materials) 
  12. How Employers Can Manage the Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic: Your Workplace Questions Asked—and Answered!: Transcript of the PLI One Hour Briefing, conducted March 26, 2020 
  13. How Employers Can Manage the Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic: Your Workplace Questions Asked—and Answered! (program materials)
  14. Coronavirus Considerations: SEC Disclosure, Labor & Employment, Insurance, Litigation, Breach of Contract and Force Majeure Issues: Transcript of the PLI One Hour Briefing, conducted March 27, 2020 
  15. Coronavirus Considerations: SEC Disclosure, Labor & Employment, Insurance, Litigation, Breach of Contract and Force Majeure Issues (program materials)

New Edition! Equipment Leasing—Leveraged Leasing

Equipment Leasing—Leveraged Leasing (Sixth Edition) provides readers with the comprehensive legal, tax, economic, accounting, and documentation information and advice needed to develop and implement leasing deals that maximize rewards and minimize risks. Written by more than thirty leading leasing authorities, and featuring hundreds of pages of sample forms, checklists, and documents that expedite successful transactions, this treatise is an essential resource on leasing transactions of all kinds.

The recently published Sixth Edition contains several new chapters including:

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Treatise Update: Employment Law Yearbook 2020

Employment Law Yearbook 2020 provides a comprehensive overview of the most important developments in employment law over the past year, including critical case decisions, legislative changes, government agency actions, and other events of interest to employers, employment and HR professionals, corporate attorneys, and employee advocates.

Major topics in the 2020 edition include:

  • Wage-and-hour laws and litigation
  • The Office of Federal Con­tract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and related recent developments, compliance initiatives, case law, and settlements
  • Discrimination based on gender and related characteristics, the Equal Pay Act, and sexual harassment
  • Discrimination based on race, religion, and national origin
  • Age discrimination, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA), and related litigation
  • Equal employment opportunity (EEO) class actions
  • The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
  • Employee privacy law and privacy rights litigation
  • Protection of trade secrets
  • Whistleblowing and other retaliation claims
  • Employee blogging, social media use by employees and by employers, related laws and regulations, social media in investigations and litigation
  • Family, medical, and military leave, recent developments under the FMLA and USERRA
  • Arbitration, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), employer-employee arbitration agreements, and disputes

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Treatise Update: Social Media and the Law

Social Media and the Law (2020 Edition) examines the use of social media in a variety of legal contexts, including privacy, civil litigation, employment, criminal activity and prosecution, intellectual property, defamation, advertising, and regulated industries. Relevant legislation, cases, usage trends, and industry responses are discussed.

Among the new developments covered in the 2020 Edition are:

  • Deepfakes — videos made using a new technology that falsely shows people saying or doing something that they did not say or do. See section 5:4.5.
  • Boeing standard under the NRLA: In one of the first decisions applying the Boeing standard, the NLRB found an employer’s confidentiality rule presumptively lawful under the first step in Boeing and found unlawful an employee handbook policy that workers should not post “derogatory information about the company” on social media sites and instead should use the normal channels for raising grievances and complaints. See sections 6:4.2[B][2][a] and 6:4.2[B][2][b][ii].
  • Guidance for financial services industry: In 2019 FINA released new guidance on disclosure innovations in advertising and other communications with the public.  See section 7:3.2[A].
  • Medical Device Vulnerabilities: A draft guidance issued by the FDA in October 2018 recommends medical device manufacturers and healthcare delivery organizations take steps to ensure appropriate security safeguards are in place. See section 7:3.3[D].
  • Platform Criminality, whereby criminal activities are enabled and funded through data-rich platforms such as Facebook, Amazon and Uber. See section 9:2.11.

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Treatise Update: Post-Grant Proceedings Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Post-Grant Proceedings Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board guides readers through the process of initiating a post-grant proceeding, taking discovery, seeking sanctions, proposing and opposing claim amendments, effectively advocating at the oral hearing, appealing to the Federal Circuit, and handling a wide array of issues involving co-pending district court litigation.

Updates from Release #10 include:

  • In Chapter 2, the section on Claim construction discusses changes to the PTAB standard for petitions filed after November 13, 2018, from the broadest reasonable interpretation standard to the Phillips v. AWH Corp. standard used in civil actions and at the International Trade Commission. See § 2:5, at note 57.
  • In Chapter 3, a section on Standing—real party in interest discusses Applications in Internet Time, LLC v. RPX Corp., in which the Federal Circuit held that “the focus of the real-party-in-interest inquiry is on the patentability of the claims challenged in the IPR petition, bearing in mind who will benefit from having those claims canceled or invalidated.” See § 3:2.3[A], at note 46.
  • In Chapter 3, the section called Joinder discusses the first case to be taken up by the PTAB’s Precedential Opinion Panel, which determined that, under appropriate and limited circumstances, a petitioner may join its own previously instituted IPR to request joinder and institution of new issues (Proppant Express Investments, LLC v. Oren Technology, LLC). See § 3:6, at note 193.
  • In Chapter 8, Amendments to claims discusses the notice of proposed rulemaking put forth by the USPTO on October 21, 2019. See § 8:3.1, at note 99.
  • In Chapter 8, under the section Inter partes review—timelines, a new figure 8-1 depicts the anticipated trial flow of an inter partes review proceeding, depending on whether or not a second, revised motion to amend is filed by the patent owner. See § 8:3.1.
  • Chapter 14, Appeals to the Federal Circuit includes updated information on the number of PTO appeals filed in the CAFC. See § 14:1, at note 2.

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Treatise Update: Reinsurance Law

Reinsurance Law examines the intricacies of U.S. reinsurance law in the 21st century, giving readers a practical grasp of the purpose, benefits, markets, and costs of reinsurance; the features, operation, and risk-and-return characteristics of the full range of reinsurance products; state, federal, and international regulation of reinsurance; and a full understanding of resolving disputes in the industry. Enhanced with time-saving checklists and numerous sample clauses and sample agreements, this practical treatise covers federal and state law, industry standards, customs, practice—including the Utmost Good Faith and Follow-the-Fortunes doctrines—and relevant case law in clear, straightforward terms.

Highlights from Release #14 of Reinsurance Law include:

  • Chapter 3: A section on Implied Follow-the-Fortunes Provision addresses whether the follow-the-fortunes doctrine is implied in facultative reinsurance certificates when there is no express working to that effect (see section 3:3).
  • Chapter 3: A section on Reinsurer’s Obligation Regarding Supplemental Benefits Outside of the Applicable Limits of Liability discusses the Second Circuit decision in Utica Mutual Insurance Co. v. Clearwater Insurance Co., holding that the contracts required payment of expenses in addition to the stated liability limits in the facultative contracts. The ruling was based on form language in the contracts and the absence of language stating that the reinsurer’s liability would be “subject to” the stated limits of liability (see section 3:4).
  • Chapter 6: A section on Vacating or Modifying the Award explains how before an arbitrator is officially engaged to perform an arbitration, to ensure the parties’ acceptance of the arbitrator is informed, potential arbitrators must disclose their ownership interests, if any, and the arbitration organizations with whom they are affiliated in connection with the arbitration and those organizations’ nontrivial business dealings with the parties to the arbitration (see section 6:9.2).

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Tune into the inSecurities Podcast!

PLI is proud to announce the launch of inSecurities, a new podcast examining changes to securities rules, regulations, and cases from a practitioner’s perspective in both law and accounting.

Hosted by Chris Ekimoff, a forensic accountant, and Kurt Wolfe, a securities regulatory attorney, inSecurities is a biweekly podcast showcasing practitioner perspectives on changes within the securities field. Recent episodes include a deep dive into insider trading and a lively discussion on equity market structure reform with special guests former SEC Commissioner Robert Jackson and George Mason Law Professor J.W. Verret.

In an increasingly complex business environment where intricate corporate structures reign, inSecurities helps make sense of it all. Available now on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. Learn more at https://www.pli.edu/insecurities/podcast.

Treatise Update: Stocker on Drawing Wills and Trusts

Stocker on Drawing Wills and Trusts (Fourteenth Edition) is a vital planning tool for estates, trusts, and tax planning specialists and any general practitioner involved in crafting wills, trusts or other estate planning documents.

For more than 50 years, attorneys and estate planners have relied on this essential treatise to provide high-quality, comprehensive, field-tested drafting guidance that ensures wills, trusts and other estate planning documents fully express clients’ wishes without provoking costly legal challenges.

Enhanced by hundreds of labor-saving sample forms and clauses, this title provides guidance on how to help clients capitalize on the full range of tax-saving and non-tax opportunities.

Highlights of Release #4 include:

  • Chapter 5: Estate Tax and Planning for the Applicable Credit Amount is updated to discuss the inflation adjusted numbers issued by the Service for 2020, and provides updated figures for transfer tax rates, exemption amounts, and the total (federal and state) estate tax top rate.
  • Chapter 6, Section 4.3[F]: Gift Tax on QTIP Property is updated to explain that a major pitfall for QTIP planning is the surviving spouse’s gifting of a QTIP income interest.
  • Chapter 10, Section 10: Income Tax Planning for Other Considerations is expanded to examine changes to the Kiddie Tax for taxable years 2018–2025, during which the child’s unearned income will be taxed at the ordinary and capital gains rates applicable to trusts and estates.

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