The Duane Morris Immigration Team is dedicated to providing the most up to date information and zealous advocacy on behalf of our clients during the COVID-19 emergency. We have compiled information from various U.S. agencies on all aspects of travel, USCIS appointments, ICE activities and Removal Proceedings. This post will be updated as changes develop.
To read the full text of this post by Valentine A. Brown, please visit the Duane Morris Immigration Blog.
This podcast is the first in a series that will focus on legal issues critical to responding to and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic for healthcare facilities. In the podcast, Delphine O’Rourke, Partner at Duane Morris LLP, and Michelle Johnson Tidjani, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Henry Ford Health System, talk about how hospitals can secure their supply chains in these uncertain times. In addition, O’Rourke and Tidjani discuss contract management issues and give practical pointers on establishing an incident command center to ensure clinical and business issues are addressed.
To listen to the podcast, please visit the AHLA Podcasts website.
The coronavirus, or COVID-19, presents a potentially serious risk to the safety and welfare of employees and the financial health of companies. With employers facing the prospect of government-mandated business closures and employees who need time off to care for children unexpectedly home for multiple weeks due to school closures, COVID-19 presents numerous employee benefit-related questions and challenges. This Alert will provide employers with a roadmap for addressing COVID-19 concerns that affect health insurance plans (including potential HIPAA privacy obligations thereunder), welfare benefit plans and retirement plans.
To read the full text of this Duane Morris Alert, please visit the firm website.
Federal and state prison officials have started releasing their action plans in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The BOP and some states have suspended legal and/or social visits and inter-facility transfers for 30 days or more, among other changes in policy.
To read the full text of this post by Duane Morris attorney Jovalin Dedaj, please visit the Duane Morris White-Collar Criminal Law Blog.
(This is the second in a series on the impacts of the coronavirus on employment and the workplace. Read the first part.)
In the old economy (three weeks ago), remote work was a growing but still limited part of the workforce. Only around 5.3% of American employees worked primarily from home in 2018.
Within the past three weeks companies have moved at Mach-2 speed to restructure workplaces, with the emphasis on remote work. The major tech employers (Facebook, Google, Twitter) were the high-profile early adapters in the first days of March, and other employers, in a range of sectors outside of tech, have followed.
It’s too early to say whether the current spike will lead to greater remote work following COVID-19. Many of the new remote workers say they miss the creativity, ideas and collaboration of the congregate workplace, as well as the social connections. At the same time, they may celebrate the absence of a time-consuming and draining commute, or travel-required meetings outside the office. We’ll see over the next few years. Continue reading “Remote Work and Best Practices: The Coronavirus Workplace Series”
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, casinos and racetracks have become the next domino to fall. Ohio, Indiana, Massachusetts, Illinois, Rhode Island, and parts of Pennsylvania have been required to shut down their facilities or keep the total number of individuals present under a designated limit. These announcements came late Friday afternoon after many of the states enforced limiting the number of public gatherings.
To read the full text of this article by Duane Morris attorney Joseph Caputi, please visit the Duane Morris Gaming Law Blog.
Contractors should take steps that are suitably appropriate to manage the spread of Covid-19 first and foremost.
They are being urged to achieve between themselves and their employers an approach to coronavirus-related issues that is fair to both parties and avoids disputes down the line.
Guidance on NEC contractual matters came from UK-based lawyers working for the American legal firm Duane Morris. Continue reading “COVID-19 Based Contractual Rows Not Inevitable, Claim Lawyers”
As concerns surrounding coronavirus (COVID-19) escalate, U.S. trade policy is aligning with the country’s medical needs. On March 10, 2020, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced new Section 301 exclusions for certain kinds of Chinese-origin medical products. Although the USTR previously levied Section 301 duties as high as 15 percent against these products, the announced exclusions exempt them from Section 301 duties until September 1, 2020. Significantly, the new exclusions are retroactive in nature so that entities can seek refunds of the Section 301 duties that they have paid on the excluded products dating back to September 1, 2019. Assuming the USTR continues prior procedures, it is expected that the importing community will be allowed to submit written comments to support extensions of the exclusions.
To read the full text of this Duane Morris Alert, please visit the firm website.
Following the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration that classified the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak as a pandemic on March 11, a number of governments have instituted or announced measures limiting international travel. In the most notable of the new restrictions, the United States has announced that it is suspending all travel from Europe’s Schengen Area for 30 days beginning at midnight on Friday, March 13. This measure would expand existing travel restrictions in place for arrivals from mainland China and Iran.
The restrictions do not apply to U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents or their immediate families as well as holders of some categories of U.S. visas (such as A-1, A-2, C-1, D or C-1/D, C-2, C-3, G-1, G-2, G-3, G-4 and NATO visas). The Schengen Area is a 26-country group that has officially abolished border control among themselves.
Globally, it is unknown if other governments will follow suit after the announcement from the White House.
To read the full text of this Duane Morris Alert, please visit the firm website.
Many employers wrestled this week with the pressing question about whether people should work with home. Boston Fed chief Eric Rosengren and Dr. Paul Biddinger, head of disaster medicine at Mass. General Hospital, have an answer: If they can, they should do so.
After huddling on Monday, Rosengren and Biddinger took the unprecedented step of circulating a column on Wednesday night directed at New England’s employers, about the responsibility they should take as COVID-19 spreads. The goal: to mitigate the virus and its economic impacts. Sacrifice normalcy now, they said, to avoid a much worse outcome down the line.
They encouraged companies to take tangible steps: work-from-home, business travel restrictions, no large meetings. […]
Gregory Bombard, a lawyer at Duane Morris, said employers need to be mindful of data security, as well as nondisclosure agreements to protect sensitive information. The parameters of what people are asked to do at home should be made clear. Perhaps most important, he said, decisions should be communicated in as open a manner as possible. […]
To read the full article, visit The Boston Globe website.
