April 15, 2020 | These days, most companies are focused on the myriad of legal, health and safety, and financial issues caused by COVID-19. While the firm is actively monitoring these issues,1 we also want to keep you abreast of other developments that may be relevant to your business. Here, we provide an overview of guidance recently offered by Andrew Smith, the director of the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection, on how to manage consumer protection risks associated...

April 15, 2020 | As reported in March, the COVID-19 pandemic is being leveraged by malicious cyber actors to make various cybersecurity attacks. In a joint alert issued on April 8 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the agencies provided information on exploitation of the pandemic by cybercriminals and advanced persistent threat groups and provided guidance to help mitigate these threats. The alert identified several observed threats: •...

April 14, 2020 | On April 9, 2020, the Federal Reserve released term sheets for a Main Street Lending Program, a new program intended to provide liquidity to small and medium-sized businesses to help withstand the coronavirus crisis. The Main Street Lending Program enables up to $600 billion in new financing of eligible term loans from eligible lenders to eligible businesses and consists of the Main Street New Loan Facility (the MSNLF) and the Main Street Expanded Loan Facility (MSELF)....

April 14, 2020 • $600 billion Main Street Lending Program established under the CARES Act to help small and medium-sized businesses. • Businesses with up to 10,000 employees may be eligible. • Loan amounts range from $1 million to $150 million, based on eligibility. On April 9, the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve released details about the new $600 billion Main Street Lending Program, which is designed to help shore up the economy. The program will be implemented using funds appropriated under the...

April 13, 2020 • The COVID-19 crisis has revealed the extent to which the United States and other countries are dependent upon a well-functioning global supply chain of critical medical supplies, including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) essential to protecting doctors, nurses, EMTs and others on the front lines of the pandemic. • As with many goods, the supply chain, from raw material to manufacturing to delivery, is global and depends on "just-in-time" supply chains. In normal times, this degree of global...

April 10, 2020 | On April 8, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted amended securities offering rules for business development companies1 (BDCs) and registered closed-end funds as mandated by Congress.2 The amendments largely extend the 2005 securities offering reform for operating companies to BDCs and closed-end funds. The amended rules are intended to streamline the registration, offering and investor communications processes for BDCs and closed-end funds. According to the SEC, these changes should enable BDCs and closed-end funds to respond more...

April 10, 2020 | On April 9, 2020, in further response to the economic effects of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System took actions to pump an additional $2.3 trillion in liquidity into the U.S. credit and capital markets. According to the Federal Reserve, this new $2.3 trillion – which complements the $849 billion in funding authorized by the U.S. Congress under Titles I and IV of the CARES Act —...