Pursuant to the newly-enacted Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (the “Act”), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) is expected to publish regulations later this month detailing new procedures for CBP investigations into allegations of antidumping and countervailing duty evasion. The anticipated regulations have the potential to significantly alter the CBP enforcement landscape.  The regulations will not only be enforced by a newly-created Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Division but also will allow for private entities to force CBP’s hand in...

Read more

Brexit is now bringing into sharper focus the way in which nations and economic blocs seek to negotiate international trade agreements. Ireland's role in those negotiations is defined by reference to and subject to its obligations of membership of the EU. The future of the UK's post-Brexit trading relationship in particular with the EU (but also with many other countries) remains uncertain. Depending on what that future arrangement finally looks like, the UK's post-Brexit trading relationship with the EU might...

Read more

The issue of diversity has expanded from the workplace to the corporate boardroom, with initiatives spearheaded by investors and other stakeholders to address the lack of diversity on corporate boards. These initiatives are likely to lead to pressure on companies to enhance their disclosures about their board members and take steps to diversify their boards. This article describes some of these board diversity initiatives and the steps employers can take now to address possible concerns. Investors In March 2015, a group...

Read more

London is a hub for many pan-European funds, but Brexit could disperse that power. "Brexit means Brexit" said Theresa May, now U.K. prime minister, in the early days after the U.K.'s vote to leave the European Union. There would, she said, be no attempt to remain inside the Union. Unfortunately, for anyone trying to plan ahead for a post-Brexit world, any attempt to interpret the phrase more deeply is doomed to fail. Nobody knows what Brexit will really mean. Britain has...

Read more

It takes money to make money, as any business owner knows. But many businesses also know what it’s like to be turned down by a bank for a loan or line of credit, not get as much as they need, or simply not get the cash quickly enough. It’s not just start-ups that run into financing difficulties. Even an established company that is growing rapidly will frequently have financial challenges. To make matters worse, owners of small or early...

Read more

Recently, Congress enacted, and President Obama signed, the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (“DTSA”), the first comprehensive federal trade secrets legislation.  This landmark legislation provides a federal civil remedy for the misappropriation of trade secrets, thereby allowing trade secret owners to protect their innovations and seek redress in federal court—as owners of copyrights, patents and trademarks have already been able to—when violations of their rights occur. Unlike other types of intellectual property, trade secrets have primarily been defined and...

Read more

NEW YORK (August 9, 2016) – Reed Smith LLP today announced the addition of Jess Drabkin as a partner in the firm’s global Entertainment & Media Industry Group in New York. Drabkin was most recently a partner at Grubman Shire & Meiselas. The addition of Drabkin follows on that of Leif Reinstein who joined the firm’s Entertainment & Media Industry Group in Los Angeles in April. “Jess is a world-class entertainment and corporate lawyer and we are incredibly fortunate to...

Read more

On 10 August 2016, the Luxembourg court of appeal overturned the decision of the Luxembourg lower administrative tribunal regarding the VAT treatment of fund investment management services supplied by a Luxembourg based asset manager to an Irish SICAV and entirely delegated to a US service provider. Arendt & Medernach's intervention for the asset manager concerned (i) the right of VAT deduction of the Luxembourg asset manager and by extension, (ii) the VAT exemption applicable on the delegated services. Regarding the...

Read more

The Treasury Department issued proposed regulations to Section 2704 of the Internal Revenue Code on August 4, 2016 that will likely increase the value of intra-family transfers of equity interests in a family controlled business entity for gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax purposes, and also increase the number of valuation disputes between taxpayers and the government. The proposed regulations are controversial and, if adopted, could have a significant impact on the business succession plans of many family...

Read more

The Pirelli Scorpion K gravel tyres stood up to the fastest stages on the World Rally Championship on Rally Finland. Although the stages around host city Jyväskylä are not as rough as those on many other WRC events, they are extremely fast; this year’s event was the quickest in WRC history, beating the previous record set in Finland in 2015. Good grip and stability from the tyres are crucial, and at these speeds and on the many big jumps that make...

Read more