The decision highlights the US government's focus on effective compliance programs.

Due to the varying methods of state conformity to the Internal Revenue Code, both the prior and current versions of Section 162(m) continue to be a consideration for state taxes.

Over the past several months, salmonella has been front-page news. According to published reports, as a result of the latest outbreak, more than 1,300 Americans have been infected with the bacteria after consuming contaminated eggs.

As we reported in our December 15, 2010 LawFlash,1 the New York Wage Theft Prevention Act (the Act), which becomes effective on April 9, 2011, dramatically increases an employer’s notice and recordkeeping requirements and imposes significantly increased penalties for violations of the Act’s requirements.

On February 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit) upheld FERC’s determination that the "Mobile-Sierra" doctrine applies when deciding whether a Forward Capacity Auction (FCA) rate is just and reasonable.

A capacity resource may not take economic outages, but a resource may be considered physically unavailable if it cannot obtain natural gas or transportation.

At the NERC Board of Trustees meeting this week in Vancouver, Canada, NERC outlined a new initiative intended to reduce the administrative burden on Registered Entities associated with the processing of Reliability Standard violations.

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released its August 2010 Visa Bulletin. The Visa Bulletin sets out per country priority date cutoffs that regulate the flow of adjustment of status (AOS) and consular immigrant visa applications.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the allotment of 20,000 H-1B petition approvals available to foreign nationals holding a U.S. master’s or higher degree has been exhausted for fiscal year 2011.

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has announced that the annual limit for immigrant visa numbers was exhausted on September 16, 2010 for all family-based preference categories and for the second, third, and fourth employment-based categories.

The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices recently issued a technical assistance letter stating that employers that share Form I-9 or E-Verify data with third parties, may be in violation of both the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The U.S. Department of State, Office of Private Sector Exchange, will begin conducting random J-1 host site visits during the coming weeks.

For cases filed before enactment of the America Invents Act, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has clarified that unrelated defendants may be joined together in a single patent case only if claims are based on the same product or process.

Retailers that allow website users to generate and post content on their websites are required to reregister their Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) agents with the US Copyright Office...

On October 20, the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued Advisory Opinion 2011-09A (AO 2011-09A), in which it concludes that relief under Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption 80-26 (PTE 80-26) is not available for an indemnification arrangement involving a futures trading agreement for an individual retirement account (an IRA), raising the question as to whether such indemnification arrangements would be non-exempt prohibited transactions.

On July 29, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) extended its timeline for issuing rules with respect to various Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) provisions applicable to executive compensation.

On December 30, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) that identified three industry sectors for which the agency will develop new financial assurance requirements under Section 108(b) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

Recent patent case orders from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts address critical issues including prosecution laches defenses, doctrine of equivalents theories, attorney disqualification motions...

In an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) published in the Federal Register on August 10, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) solicits public comments on a proposed requirement that contractors submit extensive compensation data to the agency through a webbased collection tool.

The application process for the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP), part of the Affordable Care Act, is starting to unfold.