This fall, Americans have more than falling leaves and candy corn on their minds. While Election Day is November 8, 2016, many states have already begun the absentee and early voting process. And with the current contentious election cycle, voter turnout is likely to be high once again. As November 8 approaches, employees may request that their normal work hours be altered or reduced so that they can more easily get to the polls during the regular workday.1 To help prepare...

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Ellen Israel is among New York’s most accomplished commercial real estate professionals, having executed transactions totaling more than 25 million square feet of salesand leasing on behalf of owners, investors, andtenants. Throughout a distinguished career, spanning more than three decades, Ellen has worked for some of the largest institutional and entrepreneurial real estate organizations, and brings a unique perspective from each side of a negotiating table. Currently, she is the managing director for JRT Realty Group—the nation’s largest certified woman-owned...

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Parties Abandon Transaction After Third Circuit Rules That Hospital Merger Should Be Preliminarily Enjoined The decision serves as a reminder of the uphill battle that merging health care providers have faced since the FTC’s adoption of its current rigid market definition standard in 2007. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently reversed a district court decision that had denied the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) motion to preliminarily enjoin the merger of two Central Pennsylvania hospital systems.1 In light...

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This industrial services transaction represents Lincoln's 159th private equity transaction since 2015, as Lincoln International is one of the most active advisors to private equity globally LONDON – Lincoln International (“Lincoln”), a leading global mid-market investment bank, is delighted to have represented the shareholders of Beck & Pollitzer Limited ("Beck & Pollitzer" or the "Company") in its transaction with Graphite Capital Partners ("Graphite"). Beck & Pollitzer is a leading provider of highly technical, specialist machine installation, relocation and maintenance services. It...

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Ocean freight rates on major trade lanes have declined to historical lows and are struggling to rebound from persistent overcapacity. After years of low revenue, carriers are now struggling, causing cost-cutting measures that have reduced their reliability. In that environment, savvy shippers (manufacturers and retailers) may not be able to operate as they have in the past, with long lead times and annual request-for-proposal (RFP) processes. Instead, they will have to become far more flexible in procuring freight volume, relying...

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Summary On Tuesday, October 11, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding the extent to which a design patent holder may recover infringement damages under 35 U.S.C. § 289 when multi-component products are at issue.  Section 289 states that an infringer of a design patent “shall be liable to the owner of the extent of total profit.”  The statute, however, refers only to the “article of manufacture” to which the design is applied.  It does not address...

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Key Notes: The Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Final Rule requires disclosure of labor law violations by government contractors. The rule’s provisions have been controversial since the related Executive Order was issued in 2014. The Final Rule takes effect October 25, 2016, with a phased implementation schedule for contractors and subcontractors during the next year. The much-anticipated Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Final Rule is set to take effect October 25, 2016, amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to require the disclosure...

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Thanks to the Act of 10 August 2016 modernizing Luxembourg company law, which entered into force on 23 August 2016 (the “New Act”), the Grand Duchy now officially recognizes the possibility for companies to be wound up by means of a simplified procedure. This is unquestionably a useful tool which will further enhance Luxembourg's business-friendly reputation. Pursuant to Article 141 of the Act of 10 August 1915 on commercial companies, as amended by the New Act and Article 1865bis...

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Some of you have requested that we compile a list of properties located in areas that may have been impacted by Hurricane Matthew. We took the counties that were listed as Federal Disaster Areas and mapped all properties in those areas to our database. (For properties in our database, we removed any behind defeased loans or Agency notes.) We believe that the list of loans probably overestimates the number of assets potentially impacted by the storm. Because some of the counties are large...

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On 12 October 2016, the Luxembourg Finance Minister presented the budget law for 2017 to the Parliament (Chambre des Députés). The main tax-related provisions of the Bill of Law N° 7050 (the “Bill”) may be summarised as follows: Luxembourg’s transfer pricing legislation has to date been limited to a general provision enacted under article 56 of the Luxembourg Income Tax Law (“ITL”) which (following article 9.1. of the OECD Model Tax Convention) basically states that if associated enterprises deal with...

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