Articles

07.05.12

Regulatory: What Clients Still Need to Know About the Affordable Care Act

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Act) resolves the uncertainty about the constitutionality of the Act. With the exception that states have the option to forgo participation in an expansion of Medicaid without losing existing federal funding, the ...


06.28.12

Using Fairness Hearings in Mergers to Avoid SEC Registration

Following President Obama's signing of the "Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act" (the "JOBS Act"), private bank holding companies ("BHCs") can now avoid registration under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), so long as ...


06.20.12

Regulatory: The Cost/Benefit Analysis of California's Climate Change Policy

In December 2008, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved the AB 32 Scoping Plan, establishing the state’s comprehensive climate change policy including the Cap and Trade Program. The 152-page policy document sets forth the framework for an envisioned monumental shift in business ...


06.06.12

Regulatory: Why California's Cap and Trade Program Impacts Every Business

The January 2013 start of California’s first-in-the-nation program to cap greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and create a market to buy and sell carbon emissions is receiving daily attention from regulators, environmentalists and California’s industrial sector. Stakeholders and industry ...


06.05.12

FTC Considers Applying Online Disclosure Guidelines to Emerging Digital, Mobile Platforms

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hosted a full-day public workshop on May 30 to consider whether its current guidelines for disclosures in online advertising, known as the Dot-Com Disclosures, need to be modified or revised in light of the technological advances in digital, social and mobile ...


06.01.12

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Claims

The federal government has ramped up enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in recent years. Generally speaking, the FCPA prohibits U.S. companies (and foreign companies with certain U.S. ties) from bribing foreign government officials to further their business interests. This ...


05.21.12

The Many Moving Pieces of California's Cap and Trade Program

The calendar says May 2012, so what does that mean for California’s attempts to implement a first-in-the-nation, economy-wide Cap and Trade Program? Actually quite a bit. There are many moving parts in this complex regulatory puzzle being assembled by the California Air Resources Board (Board ...


05.10.12

Time to Put Your 10-K on a Diet

Another Form 10-K Annual Report filing season has ended for most U.S. banking organizations.This means that publicly traded banks and bank holding companies have filed 10-Ks with Supervision and Regulation ("Sup & Reg") sections, along with a corresponding set of regulatory risk factors, which ...


05.08.12

FDA Regulation of 'Cosmeceuticals:' More Wrinkles Coming?

Compared to other popular direct response product categories, such as dietary supplements, over-the-counter drugs (e.g., anti-acne creams) and medical devices (e.g., wrinkle and acne reducing lights), cosmetics are subject to far less Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation. Unlike those ...


05.03.12

Eliminate All Incentive Compensation

Arnold Schwarzenegger said, when he was first elected as governor of California, that he wanted to "blow up the boxes" of the state bureaucracy.The ongoing challenges presented by executive compensation, methods of paying executive compensation and inherent risks associated with certain ...