The Consumer Price Index (or CPI) is a set of indexes generated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that measures “the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative basket of goods and services.” Historically, CPI has been used in commercial real estate leases and ground leases “escalation clauses” or “index clauses” in an attempt to...
By: Michael J. Bendel Social media is in the middle of many things we do these days. Thus, intellectual property law gets pulled right in and failure to take basic steps to protect your assets can be detrimental to your intellectual property rights(1). This article focuses on three well known intellectual property types, their interaction with...
On September 9, 2021, President Biden directed the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop a rule that will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any unvaccinated workers to produce a negative test on a minimally weekly basis prior to...
By: Kathryn M. Blom The M&A market has been booming, with the last five years moving at a head-spinning pace. COVID-19 may have momentarily dampened the market, but the fourth quarter of 2020 rebounded to be the strongest quarter in recent memory. 2021 is setting up to look even stronger, but all good things come to an end. Eventually. Given...
By: Laurie E. Meyer Many employers utilize “restrictive covenant” agreements (such as non-compete agreements, non-solicitation agreements, and non-disclosure agreements) to protect their confidential information, customer relationships, trade secrets or other intellectual property, and to otherwise prevent unfair competition. This article will...
By: Anne V. O'Meara and Laurie E. Meyer On August 18th, President Biden announced that his Administration will require nursing homes to mandate staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition for facilities to receive funding from Medicare and Medicaid. This new requirement would apply to nearly 15,000 nursing home facilities, which employ...
On July 26, 2021, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) issued guidance defining “long COVID” and listing the condition as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504) and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (Section 1557). The...
On January 1, 2021, Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”), which requires all entities formed in or registered to do business in the United States to report beneficial ownership information to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), subject to some exceptions, by no later than January 1, 2022. Although the CTA...
Nursing homes would face minimum staffing requirements and a prohibition on pre-dispute arbitration agreements, among other significant potential changes included in legislation introduced last week by a group of Democratic senators. The bill would also explore future possibilities for smaller, more private nursing homes. The Department of Health...
An essential tool in the rebuilding of our American economy is at serious risk as part of the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan being considered in Washington – and the damage will be felt in every state, city and town still reeling from the ravages of COVID-19. For the last 100 years, like-kind exchanges, which allow investors to defer taxes...
