The food and agriculture industry includes farms, restaurants and food manufacturing, processing and storage facilities. Companies within the food and ag industry seek to employ talented professionals, such as scientists, veterinarians and engineers, to bring food to the table in a changing world. With a focus on talent, food and ag companies must understand the employment-based immigration factors that affect their U.S. workforces, as talented job candidates come from all over the world. Especially in periods of low unemployment,...

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Holland & Knight is pleased to announce that Phillip Durham has been named practice group leader of the firm's Asset Finance Group. "Phil is a natural fit as leader of our Asset Finance Group," said James McDermott, leader of Holland & Knight's Business Section. "His reputation in the industry is unsurpassed, and he brings a wealth of experience and demonstrated leadership to guide our team in the ever-changing global financial market." Mr. Durham focuses his practice on domestic and cross-border asset...

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The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States ("CFIUS") issued final regulations on January 13, 2020 to comprehensively implement the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 ("FIRRMA") (the "Regulations"). The Regulations will become effective on February 13, 2020. CFIUS's existing regulations will continue to apply to transactions that close, or for which a definitive written agreement is signed, before February 13. CFIUS issued proposed rules to implement FIRRMA (the "Proposed Rules") in September 2019 (see our September 2019 alert),...

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General Election in Ireland kicks off Taoiseach Leo Varadkar ended weeks of speculation on Tuesday as went to the President to ask him to dissolve parliament, paving the way for a general election on Saturday, February 8. His Fine Gael-led minority government served in power for four years, with support from the main opposition party Fianna Fáil, through a ‘Confidence and Supply’ agreement. With the immediate risk of a ‘no deal Brexit’ averted through the passing of the Withdrawal Agreement,...

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On January 13, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued final rules fully implementing the new powers granted to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS or the Committee). Congress provided these new powers via the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA), which significantly enhances the Committee's ability to conduct national security reviews of inbound investments. For the last 15 months, CFIUS has operated a temporary "pilot program," which implemented only a few...

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