By William H. Walsh |  Co-Chair| Cozen O'Connor The FAA recently announced that it had successfully completed the testing of a Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) system at certain air traffic locations and that the system will now undergo testing on a national scale. The LAANC will enable drone operators to receive real time (or near real-time) authorization to fly drones in areas that might otherwise be restricted. The system will allow for far greater planning capability of drone...

By Sven Stumbauer |Managing Director, New York | AlixPartners The financial-services industry has been roiled by a perfect storm of disruptive forces. Complex regulatory-compliance requirements, aging legacy assets and operating models, digital innovation, and fintech have rapidly changed the operating environment. The evolving regulatory landscape that accompanies those changes, worldwide political changes, and record monetary fines have made anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions compliance a major challenge for financial institutions globally. Read the Full Article HERE  This article was published by International...

By Thompson Hine The Department of Commerce has released information setting forth the process for how parties in the United States may submit requests for product-based exclusions from tariffs implemented by President Trump under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to protect national security from threats resulting from imports of aluminum and steel, as previously detailed in two presidential proclamations. See Trump and Trade Update dated March 13, 2018. The March 8, 2018 proclamations authorize the secretary of Commerce...

By Steve Pasierb | President| The Toy Association On Wednesday, March 14, news surfaced that President Trump had requested an additional $30 billion in new tariffs which may include toys. The Toy Association, our Federal Government Affairs Committee and the Board Executive Committee were all immediately engaged. This serious new threat to the business of toys came as our staff and legal counsel were deep into helping members navigate the Toys”R”Us (TRU) bankruptcy that has now turned to liquidation. These...

By AlixPartners Our latest Private Equity/CEO study performed jointly with Vardis shows misalignment between the two groups on a surprisingly wide range of critical matters. At a glance CEO turnover is unplanned for 34% of investments, leading to significantly worse returns and longer hold times for private equity firms. The first 100 days are ripe for misalignment, with varying expectations of support, assessments of the management team, performance metrics, and frequency of contact. Private equity investors tend to replace CEOs at...

By Greenberg Traurig On March 14, USCIS released an Inspector General’s report on Green Card Processing Times.  The report found that green card processing times exceeded the existing 120-day goal by taking an average of 282 days to complete. The report identified processing times are greatly affected by interviews and vetting occurring at USCIS. The report made two specific recommendations which USCIS concurred: Recommendation 1: Implement plans to present information on the USCIS website that more accurately reflects the length of the...

By Philips Lighting Philips Lighting (Euronext: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting, today announced a new Internet of Things (IoT) platform, called Interact, that will enable its professional customers to unlock the full potential of connected lighting for the IoT. The platform supports the company's strategy to deliver new data-enabled services as value expands from lighting products and systems to services. Today, the company also announced connected lighting systems that can generate and upload data to its Interact IoT platform...