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In February 2024, The Gorman Group, LLC (“Gorman”) agreed to sell certain of its asphalt-related business assets to each of All States Construction, Inc and All States Emulsions LLC (collectively, “All States”) pursuant to an asset purchase agreement (the “APA”).  The parties valued the deal at $81 million.   All States claimed that, under the APA,…

To comply with applicable accessibility laws, small businesses in Manhattan face a morass of daunting obstacles.   That was the recent testimony of Jessica Walker, the President and CEO of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, before the New York City Council.   Her remarks also illuminate the stark choices faced by small businesses in the borough when…

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and Colardo’s Attorney General (“CAG”) brought a lawsuit today against Greystar Real Estate Partners, LLC and five affiliated entities (collectively, “Greystar”), which manage more than 800,000 rental units across the United States on behalf of various landlords.   According to the FTC and CAG (collectively, the “Plaintiffs”), Greystar “used deceptive advertising…

Employers and employees enter into confidentiality agreements to achieve a number of valid ends in the workplace, including safeguarding proprietary information from disclosure to third party competitors.   Today, two federal regulators, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division (the “Antitrust Division”) and the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (collectively, the “Issuing Agencies”) provided guidance…

In Tite Water Energy, LLC  v. Wild Willy’s Welding LLC (“Tite v. WWW”), the Texas Court of Appeals (the “TCA”) considered the scope of an indemnity provision included as part of a Master Service and Supply Agreement (the “MSSA”) between Tite Water Energy, LLC (“Tite”) and Devon Energy Corporation (“Devon”).  Such clauses are set forth…

Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”), an iconic name within the tech start up and venture capital worlds, abruptly closed its doors today. A SVB regulator, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”) as the receiver of the bank, the US’s eighteenth largest by crucial financial metrics The…

According to reporting by the New York Times, Halkbank (“Halkbank”), a bank owned by the Turkish state, faces federal charges for evading Iran-related sanction imposed by the United States. The bank appears to deny such allegations. The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (the “FSIA”) regulates the extent to which entities associated with a foreign…

A Canadian employer, Reach CPA (“Reach”), prevailed in a dispute against a dismissed employee, Karlee Besse, relating to her misrepresentation of hours worked.  The civil tribunal, a Canadian judicial body, found that Besse logged 50 hours of workplace time when she in fact had not worked them. Based on online reporting from NPR’s Juliana Kiim,…

In “Monetary independence is overrated and the euro is riding high”, Martin Sandbu explains why European monetary unity has proven to be more enduring than expected. As Greece teetered on the edge of a debt default during the 2010s and other Southern European nations threatened to follow, few expected that the Euro area would expand…

In a New York Times opinion piece by Lina Khan, “Noncompetes Depress Wages and Kill Innovation”, Ms. Kahn, a high-ranking federal official, mounts a broad-based assault against non-compete provisions, sending shockwaves across the employee-employer legal landscape. Ms. Khan argues that non-competes promote economic liberty, stating that “[y]ou’re not really free if you don’t have the…