Russia-Ukraine conflict raises cyber risks for U.S. enterprises
3/1/22
Cybersecurity—which is under constant attack from an unsavory mix of international state actors, paramilitaries, and organized crime—is never that far removed from geopolitics. So when a nation-state like Russia—hardly an unknown in the annals of cybercrime—physically invades another country, there …
California’s view of arbitration agreements just got more complicated for employers
2/23/22
By: Matthew Jones
The California Court of Appeal in De Leon v. Pinnacle Property Management Services, LLC reviewed the issue of whether an employer’s arbitration agreement was unconscionable. The employee initially filed a lawsuit against the employer under certain wage …
Supreme Court of Georgia considers standard for obtaining a protective order to prevent the deposition of high ranking executives
2/23/22
By: Michael Freed
The Supreme Court of Georgia heard oral argument last week in General Motors LLC v. Buchanan. This highly watched appeal arose from a trial court’s denial of General Motors’s motion for protective order seeking to prevent …
Chief Justice of Georgia Supreme Court announces surprise resignation; Governor Kemp quickly appoints replacement
2/23/22
By: William H. Buechner, Jr.
The Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, David E. Nahmias, submitted a letter to Governor Kemp on February 11 announcing that he would be resigning from his position at the conclusion of the Court’s …
$3.6 billion in cryptocurrency has been recovered… so what now?
2/22/22
By: Julia Bover
On February 8, 2022, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) successfully seized over $3.6B in stolen cryptocurrency linked to a 2016 hack of Bitfinex, a virtual currency exchange platform. The Bitfinex hack was one of the biggest digital …
Accounting for the COVID-19 employee retention credit limitation in your federal tax return
2/22/22
By: Ryan Giggi
As we embark on another tax season, Americans from coast to coast will once again need to navigate a complex and ever-changing web of COVID-19 related law on their federal tax returns. One important change particularly impacting …
Know when to fold ’em: spotting the first sign of troubled credit
2/16/22
By: Travis Knobbe
All too often, we get recovery files months, sometimes years, after the tipping point when assets begin depleting faster than they can be preserved to maximize lender recovery. To be fair, there are times when credit monitoring …
The preservation of appellate rights is critical to any trial
2/15/22
By: Patrick Cosgrove, Esq.
In a rare trade secret appeal involving two competitors in the alcohol sale software business, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit provided a not-so-subtle reminder to all attorneys that correctly preserving appellate …
Congress passes bill barring arbitration agreements for sexual harassment claims
2/11/22
By: Courtney Mazzio
Yesterday, a bill passed with overwhelming support in Congress that will significantly impact the ability of employers to enforce mandatory arbitration contracts when faced with sexual harassment claims. Specifically, the proposed Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault …
COVID afflicted cases have incubated long enough
2/10/22
By: Wayne S. Melnick and Carlos Fernández
Recently, we examined one of the first rulings about the Georgia Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders and their effect on a case’s statute of limitations. In Owens, the Middle District of Georgia …
When Fido becomes family: insurance industry is impacted by new trends in American pet ownership
2/9/22
By: Marissa Dunn
The verdict is in: Americans view pets as family. 70% of American households (90.5 million families) own a pet,1 and 57% of millennials own a dog, some even choosing to have a fur family over a …
Employers must engage in good faith interactive process with employees seeking accommodation or risk running afoul of the ADA
2/8/22
By: Janet Barringer & Ryan Giggi
Practical tip for employers: understand the root of an employee’s request for accommodation in order to effectively engage in the requisite interactive process. Otherwise, the response by the employer to an employee’s request for …