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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By Joanna Dodd Massey, CEO, JDMA Inc I had a conversation at dinner with a colleague about the different ways younger and older generations communicate. Broadly speaking, Millennials prefer email, text, Instagram DM and Slack (or other instant-messaging business apps). Gen Z favors text, Slack and Snapchat. Gen X and Baby Boomers are still into email with Gen X gravitating to Slack and text. The Silent Generation, also known as the Traditionalists, like a good old-fashioned phone call or face-to-face...

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The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing the state-owned housing company Gewobag with a 240-million-euro loan, which is earmarked for the construction of 2,000 new residential units by 2023. The new buildings will predominantly meet “energy-efficient house” standards and therefore surpass the requirements of the applicable energy saving regulation (EnEV). The contract for financing the project between the European Investment Bank and Gewobag was already signed. This cooperation will secure further affordable housing for Berlin. “The low-interest loan from the EIB...

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Ogletree Deakins, one of the largest labor and employment law firms representing management, is pleased to announce that the firm has named Lisa Ellis-James as its Chief Operating Officer. Ellis-James, who will be based in Ogletree Deakins’ Greenville administrative office, joins the firm from The Boston Consulting Group, where she served as Senior Director, Global Operational Innovations, and was the Chief of Staff for the Global Operations Leadership Team. As Ogletree Deakins’ Chief Operating Officer, Ellis-James will lead the firm’s...

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