CHICAGO – Stout Risius Ross, Inc. (Stout), a global advisory firm, is pleased to announce a new Legal Management Consulting service to assist corporate legal departments in optimizing their practices. Stout welcomes to the firm Jim Mitchell and Stacie Neeter, who will lead the new line of business as Managing Directors. Mr. Mitchell and Ms. Neeter bring to Stout more than 25 and 15 years’ experience, respectively, including long tenures at Arthur Andersen and Huron Consulting Group. The vast majority...

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The Trepp CMBS Delinquency Rate continued its climb in October. The rate began to rise in March as loans from the 2006 and 2007 vintages started to reach their maturity dates, which has caused the reading to move higher in seven of the last eight months. The delinquency rate for US commercial real estate loans in CMBS is now 4.98%, an increase of 20 basis points from September. Over $1.9 billion in CMBS loans became newly delinquent last month, one...

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Wage and hour laws have traditionally drawn, or at least attempted to draw, a bright line between employees, who are entitled to the protections of wage and hour and other employment laws and independent contractors, who are not covered by most employment-related statutes.  In the growing gig economy, however, some have suggested that there should be a third category of worker – one that has some, but not all, legal protections of an employee but whose relationship is freelance,...

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Privacy advocacy group Digital Rights Ireland is challenging the EU-US “Privacy Shield” (allowing for EU-US data transfers based on self-certification by US companies) before the EU’s General Court, accusing it of failing to provide sufficient guarantees to ensure adequate data protection. 1                 Background – invalidation of the EU-US “Safe Harbour” On 6 October 2015, in the “Schrems” case (C-362/14), the EU Court of Justice (the “CJEU”) ruled that the EU Commission’s “Safe Harbour” decision was no longer valid. This regime...

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The world economy now faces severe risks posed in part by slow economic growth, exceptionally slow world trade growth, and rising nationalism, populism and protectionism in many countries, states William R. Rhodes in a presentation to the Hudson Institute. Mr. Rhodes stresses that political leadership now is essential to place the world economy on a faster economic growth track and to educate citizens about the profound advantages of free and open fair international trade, which has been responsible in...

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Perhaps it was fitting that in a year where the UK voted to withdraw from the EU and the US has witnessed the most inexplicable presidential campaign in memory that the Chicago Cubs would finally win the World Series. (As Bill Murray says in Ghostbusters: "what comes next? Dogs and cats living together?") The Cubs overcame the Maddon-ness of King Joe (some questionable decisions by skipper Joe Maddon) to finally end the 108-year drought. So after all that, what could be...

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The third quarter of 2016 featured the reversal of several trends seen earlier in the year, most notably in pre-money valuations, which increased substantially for all rounds. The gain in pre-money valuations also drove a decline in the percentage of down rounds for the quarter, which fell to 9%, the lowest share in more than a year and far below the five-year median (from Q4 2011 through Q3 2016) of 16%. If these strong valuations continue through the fourth...

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The USD showed a firm tone through October as the market steadily priced in a higher probability of a Fed rate hike by the end of the year and the market assessment of the chances of a Trump presidential victory also gradually declined (though this was seen as positive for the MXN). GBP remained weak through the month, suffering a massive “flash crash” in early Asian trading on October 7 in just a few minutes. The US election will...

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At Prestige Capital, we've applied our simple, straightforward financing philosophy to online video learning. We just launched our “How Factoring Works” video on our website. It explains how factoring works to smooth out your cash flow, and how Prestige in particular can benefit your client’s business. The keys you need to know are all in this fast minute and a half, easy-to-follow video. Check it out, we think you’ll find it helpful. Then bookmark the video library page and visit often –...

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Importers of leather handbags may have the opportunity to reduce their duty rate on some styles by more than half by reclassifying their products. The Harmonized Tariff Schedule distinguishes between leather handbags (dutiable at a rate of 9% ad valorem) and tote bags (4.5% ad valorem).  U.S. Customs has outlined certain distinguishing criteria between the two types of bags, such as carrying capacity and size.  A bag may meet the tote bag criteria even if it still enjoys other traditional...

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