On February 21, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) ruled that an employer violated its employees’ rights under federal law by offering severance agreements that included standard confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions. By way of background, Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) protects the rights of non-management employees to engage in “concerted...

Legislation has been introduced in the United States House and Senate entitled the “No Tax Subsidies for Stadiums Act of 2023,” which would eliminate the tax exemption for bonds used to finance professional sports stadiums. The companion bills were introduced by Senators Lankford (R-OK) and Booker (D-NJ) and Representative Blumenauer (D-OR) and are nearly identical...

The duty to preserve potentially relevant documents and electronically stored information is an important obligation that arises in litigation, and one that litigants and their attorneys must not take lightly. But at what point does this duty arise? In a recent decision, Judge Salinger of the Superior Court Business Litigation Session had occasion to revisit...

President Biden recently signed into law the Secure 2.0 Act of 2022. The Act contains, in part, an expansion of the rules for qualified charitable distributions. A qualified charitable distribution (“QCD”) is a direct transfer of funds from an individual retirement account to a qualified charity. Two of the highlights, which are effective for the...

In the December 5, 2022 opinion (Cummings Properties, LLC v. Darryl C. Hines, No. 21-P-1153), the Massachusetts Appeals Court considered whether a commercial landlord can collect accelerated rent upon a tenant default, specifically when the landlord is also collecting rent from a new tenant for the same premises. Surprising many commercial real estate professionals, the...

The Financial Data Transparency Act of 2022 (the “Act”), which was included as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, was signed into law on December 23, 2022. The Act requires that various federal regulatory agencies jointly issue proposed rules within eighteen (18) months, which establish data standards for financial disclosure. Final rules must then...

We have previously provided information on the new Rhode Island Pay Equity law, which goes into effect on January 1, 2023, available here:  RIDLT Proposes Regulations and Issues Compliance Guidance for the New Pay Equity Law and here: Rhode Island’s New Pay Equity Law Changes How Employers Must Compensate Their Workforce.  Since our last alert, the Department of...