Dow Jones and Ethisphere Institute are teaming up to present the 2010 Global Ethics Summit on February 23-24, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt New York City. I just confirmed that I will be attending, thanks to an offer from the event’s organizers. “In an effort to help companies deal with anti-corruption compliance and other significant … Read more »
An Effective Workplace Investigation
The California Supreme Court in Cotran v. Rollins Hudig Hall International, Inc. found that for an employer to have “good cause” to terminate an employee, the employer does not have to prove that allegations of misconduct are true, just that the employer fairly formed a reasonable belief that they were true. So an employer must … Read more »
Voting is Open for the ABA’s Blawg 100
The American Bar Association is running its third annual Blawg 100 contest. They winnowed a list of nominees down to 100 and divided them into 10 categories: News, Legal Theory, IMHO, Geo, Practice Specific, Business, Careers, Tech, Justice, and Lighter Fare. I decided to throw my support behind those blogs that I read and enjoy … Read more »
CLawBie Nominations
The Canadian Law Blog Awards, a.k.a. the Clawbies, are a project started back in 2006 with the goal of highlighting great blogs published by the Canadian legal industry. Steve Matthews and his team at Stem Legal have been working to advance Canadian legal blogging. They just opened up the nominations for your favourite Canadian law blogs … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for December 4
Here are some compliance related news stories from the past week that caught my eye. SEC Steps up Insider-Trading Probes by Kara Scannell and Jenny Strasburg for the Wall Street Journal The Securities and Exchange Commission has sent at least three dozen subpoenas to hedge funds and brokerages within the past month in an expanding … Read more »
You Are Here: From the FTC for Your Kids
We’re from the government. We’re here to help. The Federal Trade Commission has launched a new site designed to help kids learn to protect their privacy, spot frauds and scams, and avoid identity theft. You Are Here is set up as a virtual mall. Visit the West Terrace to learn about advertising techniques, target marketing, … Read more »
Classification of Private Funds as Publicly Traded Partnerships
Due to the increasing incidence of fund investors who want to transfer their investment fund interests, private investment funds face a risk of being classified as publicly traded partnerships. That would mean the fund would become taxable as a corporation. A bad result. Under Internal Revenue Code § 7704, a partnership will be classified as a … Read more »
Amendment to the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) amended the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 594 to define the term “financial, material, or technological support,” as used in sanction regulations. Section 594.201(a)(4)(i) of the regulations implements section 1(d)(i) of Executive Order 13224, as amended, by blocking the U.S. property of persons who assist in, … Read more »
Hulk Smash Compliance Program!!
Hollywood has done it. Now it’s your turn. Reboot your compliance program. There is the “reboot” you hear from IT support when your computer is malfunctioning. It seems to always be the first response from the help desk. But once you start back up, its exactly the same computer with exactly the same programs. Hollywood … Read more »
FTC Guidelines Are In Effect
Today is a the day. The FTC’s recent updates to its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising are now in affect. To comply with the Guides, individuals (bloggers, users of social media) must disclose every “material connection” or relationship they have with an advertiser. How to comply with the changes? Disclose … Read more »