On October 7, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills — the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (SB 253) and the Climate-Related Financial Risk Act (SB 261) — that will require public and private companies “doing business” in California to make climate-related disclosures and to comply with certain financial reporting obligations. As defined, “doing […]

The Department of State (“DOS”) has announced the launching of a Stateside Renewal Visa Pilot Program, which will initially be limited to approximately 20,000 H-1B participants. The DOS officially published the rule December 21, 2023, in the Federal Register.[1] The stateside visa renewal pilot program is scheduled to begin on January 29, 2024, and will […]

It seems like it was just the other day that we reported on the ongoing saga of the SEC’s share repurchase rules – possibly because it WAS just the other day.  Given the posture of the litigation seeking to invalidate the rules, we regretfully ended with some cliffhangers.  Would the rules be vacated?  Would the […]

In May 2023, the SEC adopted new rules to “modernize” the rules regarding issuer share repurchases.  As we wrote at the time, “[i]t is debatable whether these rules modernize disclosure, but they certainly do increase it, and they also demonstrate skepticism on the part of some investors and the SEC itself as to the merit […]

Proposed Changes by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for H-1B Cap Lottery Process On October 23, 2023, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”), through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”), published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the U.S. Federal Registrar titled, “Modernizing H-1B Requirements, Providing Flexibility in the F-1 Program, and Program […]

Comment period ends January 2, 2024 Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) published its final rule implementing the provisions of Title IV of the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act) which authorize OIG to investigate claims of health information blocking and impose civil […]

REMINDERS:  THREE IMPORTANT JANUARY 1STS Although we have mentioned them before, this 2023 Year End Alert starts out with reminders of the three upcoming important January 1sts (followed by an important March 1st reminder). January 1, 2024:  CTA reporting begins for new business entities.  The federal Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”) reporting obligation begins for owners […]

This week the House and Senate met in Tallahassee for a weeklong Special Session. During the Special Session, the Legislature passed several bills related to hurricane relief, insurance, student funding, support for Israel, sanctions against terrorist regimes, and security infrastructure to guard against antisemitic violence. HB 1C – Disaster Relief  The state legislature has given […]

It has been 55 years (!) since the enactment of the Williams Act, which required the filing of beneficial ownership reports on Schedule 13D within 10 days after the acquisition of more than 5% of a class of equity securities registered under the Exchange Act. For much of that 55-year period, issuers, commentators, and others […]