On October 4th, the FDA and CDC announced that the agencies have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding, renewing their collaboration to reduce the occurrence of foodborne illness in retail and foodservice establishments.  The stated purpose of the partnership is to “help increase the consistency and capacity of retail food protection programs across the country,... Continue Reading…

Amidst all of the recent news and developments about the privacy of kids and teens (including multiple Congressional hearings; Frances Haugen’s testimony; enactment of the UK’s and California’s Age Appropriate Design Codes; the Irish DPC’s GDPR decision against Instagram; numerous bills in Congress; and the FTC’s ongoing focus on kids’ privacy in policy statements, workshops,... Continue Reading…

Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code allows debtors to “assume” unexpired leases, recommitting themselves and their counterparties to the existing lease terms, subject to approval by the Bankruptcy Court.  If there are existing defaults under the lease, section 365(b) appears to require that the debtor provide the counterparty with adequate assurance of prompt cure of... Continue Reading

Intercreditor disputes in bankruptcy are common.  Typically, however, they center around predictable disagreements between senior or junior classes of creditors such as valuation battles or lien perfection challenges.  A recent decision in the Delaware chapter 11 case of TPC Group has highlighted a new trend of “intra-creditor class warfare,” involving, in the understated words of... Continue Reading

Welcome to our weekly roundup of CBD and hemp-related legal and regulatory news: CBD FDA’s latest senior public health advisor appointment could lead to CBD regulation The FDA named Norman Birenbaum as senior public health advisor at the agency’s Center for Regulatory Programs. From 2016 to 2019, Birenbaum oversaw R.I.’s medical cannabis and hemp programs, as... Continue Reading

Welcome to our weekly roundup of CBD and hemp-related legal and regulatory news: Hemp N.J. federal judge dismisses proposed class for false hemp packaging information U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton dismissed plaintiffs Ricardo Santiago and Vaughn Frederick’s third amended complaint against Total Life Changes. The proposed class suit alleged they failed a drug test after... Continue Reading

Welcome to our weekly roundup of CBD and hemp-related legal and regulatory news: CBD FDA’s latest senior public health advisor appointment could lead to CBD regulation The FDA named Norman Birenbaum as senior public health advisor at the agency’s Center for Regulatory Programs. From 2016 to 2019, Birenbaum oversaw R.I.’s medical cannabis and hemp programs, as... Continue Reading

Welcome to our weekly roundup of CBD and hemp-related legal and regulatory news: Hemp N.J. federal judge dismisses proposed class for false hemp packaging information U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton dismissed plaintiffs Ricardo Santiago and Vaughn Frederick’s third amended complaint against Total Life Changes. The proposed class suit alleged they failed a drug test after... Continue Reading

Last month, the Maine legislature introduced broad and sweeping restrictions on a range of products containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”).  These restrictions are some of the most comprehensive in the country, and, in effect, would ban PFAS in almost all products in the state by 2030. Specifically, the law mandates that on January 1,... Continue Reading

Readers of this blog may be interested in a new article from Water Finance & Management, A Legal History of PFAS. The article highlights the early discovery of certain PFAS, their toxicity and persistence, how the dangers of PFAS were exposed, and chronicles the early litigation and regulation, and the current state of PFAS litigation.... Continue Reading

Employers can be forgiven for diverting their attention during the past three years to pressing pandemic-related employment issues—vaccine mandates, return-to-work challenges, managing hybrid workforces, with all the novel and thorny legal issues that emerged from a transformed workplace. But in an ever-changing employment law landscape, a new compliance challenge has emerged: federal, state, and local... Continue Reading…

On September 7, 2022, the NLRB issued a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking to replace the Trump-era final joint employer rule, which provided that an employer would be considered a joint employer under the NLRA only where it exercised “substantial direct and immediate control” over the essential terms and conditions of another company’s employee. The... Continue Reading…

Today, the U.S. Treasury Department and Commerce Department imposed new sanctions on Russia and Belarus as part of the G-7’s collective response to Russia’s claimed annexation of additional Ukraine territory.  The new sanctions target supporters of Russia’s military and defense sectors in Russia, Belarus, and third countries. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control... Continue Reading

On September 15, President Biden signed an Executive Order (EO) with the first ever formal Presidential direction to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS or the Committee). The EO emphasizes the risks that the Committee should consider when reviewing covered foreign company purchases of U.S. businesses. The EO is intended reemphasize existing CFIUS... Continue Reading