On Wednesday, March 15, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking implementation of key portions of the second version of the executive order (EO) issued by President Donald Trump banning entry into the United States by nationals of six designated countries: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. President Trump issued the revised EO on March 6, 2017 in an effort to avoid the issues that had led a...

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2016 Highlights We are pleased to present WSGR’s 2016 Highlights, a compilation of select accomplishments achieved on behalf of the firm’s clients and representative examples of our commitment to our communities, philanthropy, diversity, and pro bono work. As in previous editions of our annual highlights, we have tried to share as broad a range of practices and successful matters as possible, knowing we simply cannot include all the remarkable happenings that have transpired in the past year. While we reflect on...

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Accelerate" is the theme of the 2016 Integrated Annual Report of ING Groep N.V. (IAR) that is published today, together with the Annual Report of ING Bank N.V.. The theme reflects the accelerating pace of change in technology and other areas that is impacting our customers' lives and their expectations from financial service providers. It also expresses how we, as digital leaders in banking, are accelerating the Think Forward strategy to ensure we continue to provide customers with a...

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ING will propose to the 2017 Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 8 May 2017 to appoint Koos Timmermans and Steven van Rijswijk as members of the Executive Board. Upon appointment they will also become members of the Management Board Banking of ING. Koos Timmermans will become chief financial officer as of the date of the AGM, succeeding Patrick Flynn who has decided to pursue his career outside of ING. Steven van Rijswijk will become chief risk officer as of...

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DS-Concept USA provides $3,500,000 non-recourse factoring facility to a niche manufacturer of officially licensed consumer products in the gaming industry. Rather than injecting more equity to support their portfolio company’s growth, the PE group is using DS-Concept to free up an additional $3,500,000 in working capital by financing the company’s domestic and foreign AR. In addition to increasing  the company’s working capital, DS-Concept’s global footprint strengthens the company’s credit and collections capabilities overseas, ultimately allowing them to be more aggressive in foreign...

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Auto manufacturers are increasingly equipping vehicles with rapidly advancing technologies, raising concerns regarding how the public will be affected by these changes. Manufacturers are beginning to implement automated driving and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication capabilities into their cars, extending potential cybersecurity threats and associated safety issues to road users. As consumers, we already see cybersecurity threats and breaches in many areas of our day-to-day lives. With the spike of auto-driven and connected cars across the auto industry, these same threats and...

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On Friday, March 3, 2017, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that effective April 3, 2017, it will temporarily suspend premium processing for H-1B petitions.  This suspension may last for up to six months. The temporary suspension will apply to all H-1B applications filed on or after April 3, 2017. Therefore, because the current cap-subject H-1B petitions will not be filed before April 3, 2017, the suspension applies to all regular-cap and master's-advanced-degree-cap petitions.  The cap filings...

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The month of February has brought the following interesting data protection developments: Dutch developments Dutch Data Protection Authority’s focus areas for 2017 Traditionally, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (the Dutch DPA) starts each new year by publishing an agenda setting out its focus areas for the respective year. The Dutch DPA Annual Agenda 2017 was published on 27 January 2017. Readers of our monthly data protection and privacy update will be aware that as per 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (EU/2016/679,...

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In its judgement of 9 March 2017 in case C-398/15 the Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) handed down an important judgement on the scope of the so-called "right to be forgotten" on the basis of Personal Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. The ECJ considered that this directive does not preclude any person from accessing, without any time limit, personal data set out in the companies registers. Nevertheless, on a case by case basis, where exceptionally justified and upon...

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Over the last couple of weeks, a series of Federal Reserve speakers have talked up the likelihood of a Fed rate hike here in March. Heading into Friday’s USA employment report, the Fed Funds implied probability indicated a 100% chance – yes one hundred percent! – of a Fed rate hike at next week’s FOMC meeting. The report itself (nonfarm payrolls +235k vs. +200k expected, 4.7% unemployment in line with expectations, and a slightly higher labor participation rate) did...

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