Expert Analysis

With marijuana deemed essential in many states during the COVID-19 crisis, regulators are relaxing prohibitions on cannabis home delivery and curbside pickup services. These short-term fixes could become lasting mainstays, say attorneys at Goodwin.

Though the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States continues to function despite worldwide disruptions due to the coronavirus, dealmakers should stay mindful of several considerations in this rapidly changing investment environment, say Michael Leiter and Daniel Gerkin at Skadden.

In this brief video, Jamie Cain and Ben Marzouk at Eversheds Sutherland discuss the essential fintech issues affecting asset managers' business models, including developments related to digital asset securities, cryptocurrency-based exchange-traded funds and blockchain.

State and federal courts are canceling proceedings and pushing out deadlines in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, but the relief is complex and necessarily incomplete in its power to relieve parties from jurisdictional deadlines, says Neil Lloyd at Schiff Hardin.

In this month's bid protest roundup, James Tucker and Markus Speidel at MoFo look at three March decisions: The Government Accountability Office considered alleged unavailability of key personnel, the Federal Circuit set precedent for establishing disparate treatment, and the Court of Federal Claims adopted a test to review North American Industry Classification System code designations.

Companies in the travel, entertainment and hospitality sectors, among others, can and should address coronavirus concerns in their marketing, but they need to ensure they are not making representations they cannot support, say Mike Rounds and Alissa Gardenswartz at Brownstein Hyatt.

A proposed New Jersey bill requiring some commercial property insurance policies to construe the coronavirus pandemic as a covered cause of loss would likely survive a contract clause challenge, but this type of law could set a dangerous precedent, say Linda Hsu and Savannah Montanez at Selman Breitman.

Organizations can take certain steps now to ensure they are able to meet environmental compliance obligations during the COVID-19 pandemic — or to obtain relief based on force majeure, impossibility or impracticability of performance, compliance-with-all-laws clauses, enforcement discretion, or emergency relief provisions, say Bernadette Rappold and Christopher Bell at Greenberg Traurig.

The Second Circuit's recent decision in Halvorssen v. Simpson makes clear that, while courts have permitted the use of civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act suits in disputes involving legitimate businesses rather than crime syndicates, there are real limits to these claims, say attorneys at Dechert.

The retailization of health care, born out of convenience, may not be sustainable in the long run, so health care providers should consider operating clinics in mixed-use developments instead, says Andy Dow at Winstead.

Despite the significant disruption that COVID-19 is causing in the U.K., the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority still expect that financial services firms appropriately protect their increasingly vulnerable consumers, say Tracey Dovaston and Matt Getz at Boies Schiller.

Employers managing unionized workforces during the COVID-19 pandemic must balance their responsibilities under the National Labor Relations Act, new federal paid sick leave requirements, health and safety regulations, and certain contract provisions, say Douglas Darch and Christina Taylor at Baker McKenzie.

The California Court of Appeal’s recent decision that a company owed former employees unpaid vacation benefits in McPherson v. EF Intercultural Foundation reminds employers to ensure that unlimited time off policies cannot be characterized as a ploy to deny employee benefits, say Anthony Oncidi and Cole Lewis at Proskauer.

While we need to be physically apart at this time, lawyers and firms should be leaning into social media to reinforce and build relationships, and help guide clients through the coronavirus crisis, says marketing consultant Stefanie Marrone.

With prompt pay laws requiring strict adherence to contractual or statutory deadlines in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, property owners and contractors should exercise caution in withholding payments for construction projects that may be due during the COVID-19 pandemic, say Teri Sherman and Gaetano Piccirilli at Klehr Harrison.

As COVID-19's effects reverberate throughout the corporate sector, in-house legal departments and their outside counsel will need to develop creative techniques to conduct internal investigations remotely, while ensuring that unanticipated risks do not compromise integrity, say attorneys at Steptoe & Johnson.

As some state and local jurisdictions have begun to direct that construction projects shut down due to COVID-19 concerns, questions have arisen about contractors’ ongoing obligations under their projects’ National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System construction stormwater discharge permits, says Nick Hoogstraten at Peckar & Abramson.

Starting Monday, non-U.K. resident landlords are subject to broadly the same U.K. tax treatment as residents with respect to income derived from U.K. property, and landlords and lenders should be considering the impact on transaction cashflows and covenant compliance, say James Spencer and Sherry Scrivens at Alston & Bird.

The first two decisions applying the Ninth Circuit’s Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin decision indicate that the recent trajectory of music copyright infringement law appears to be changing in favor of defendants, limiting what courts find protectable and what they permit a jury to consider, say attorneys at Proskauer.