Legal Updates

Later this summer, audit reports for large accelerated filers will include a new section addressing “critical audit matters,” which “will be a dramatic change in auditor reporting and is expected to generate significant media attention, particularly in the first year of adoption.”

On May 9, the SEC proposed amendments to Exchange Act Rule 12b-2 that would revise the “accelerated filer” and “large accelerated filer” definitions in order to reduce costs for certain lower-revenue companies.

The SEC recently announced a streamlined procedure for registrants to apply for an extension of confidential treatment for previously granted requests under the traditional CTR regime.

On May 10, the SEC approved the Long-Term Stock Exchange’s application to become a national securities exchange, clearing the way for the San Francisco-based company to launch the nation’s 14^th stock exchange.

A new study by Corporate Board Member and Compensation Advisory Partners surveyed 258 public company board members to “determine how board members measure performance and incorporate it in their company’s incentive compensation plans.”

There has been a bloom of data analytics tools for patent practice, and some new features of these tools have profoundly enhanced patent practice. Here are five examples of how applicants and their attorneys can improve day-to-day patent strategy using the latest data analytics tools.

New dollar amounts for exemptions under the Bankruptcy Code took effect on April 1, 2019, and apply to all cases filed on or after that date. Ryan Murphy prepared a table that summarizes these updated Bankruptcy Code amounts and also compares the Bankruptcy Code exemptions with the Minnesota state-law exemptions.

The U.S. Government increased tariffs last Friday on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, hiking the tariff rate from 10 percent up to 25 percent.

After the Ninth Circuit in In re Taggart set a new and narrow precedent regarding exactly what a creditor must do in order to be subject to civil contempt sanctions for a violation of the discharge injunction, the ball is now with the U.S. Supreme Court to determine what influence that extraordinary opinion will have on other courts.

In a case that may end up before the Supreme Court, the Second Circuit recently analyzed the extraterritorial application of the fraudulent transfer laws found in the Bankruptcy Code on transfers made outside the U.S. between transferors and transferees both located outside of the U.S.