Insights

August

• 8/18/2015
  Oil and Gas Alert: Ohio Secretary of State Refuses to Place Proposed County Charter Petitions Banning Oil and Gas Activities on the November Ballot
  On Thursday, August 13, Secretary of State John Husted issued a decision finding that the proposed charter petitions for Athens, Fulton and Medina counties are invalid. The secretary’s decision tracked analysis provided by Vorys’ attorneys Jonathan Airey, Gregory Russell, Lisa Babish Forbes and Aaron Williams in an amicus brief submitted on behalf of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association and the Ohio Gas Association.
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• 8/12/2015
  Whistleblower Defense Alert: D.C. Circuit Upholds Assertion of Privilege as to Internal Investigation Documents in FCA Suit
  On Tuesday, August 11, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit released a decision upholding an assertion of privilege by Kellogg Brown and Root, Inc. (KBR) over internal investigation documents in a FCA suit alleging kickbacks and overbilling on Iraq war subcontracts.
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• 8/11/2015
  Labor and Employment Alert: Two More Locales Enact Paid Sick Leave Laws
  Following Oregon’s recently enacted state-wide paid sick leave law, Montgomery County, Maryland, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are the latest locales to require that employers provide paid sick leave to their employees. This further complicates the growing patchwork quilt of federal, state and local leave laws that employers have to contend with.
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• 8/10/2015
  Securities Alert: SEC Adopts Final Pay Ratio Disclosure Requirements
  On August 5, 2015, the SEC voted 3-2 to adopt the final pay ratio disclosure rules imple¬menting Section 953(b) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act).
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• 8/7/2015
  Labor and Employment: Proposed Rule Would Make Websites 'Public Accommodations' under the ADA
  Since 1990, Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has required places of public accommodation to meet certain standards for accessibility by persons with disabilities. The traditional definition of “places of public accommodation” – stores, schools, offices, etc. – has largely remained unchanged since the ADA’s enactment. In April 2016, however, a long-awaited change could see an entirely new frontier fall under the scope of the ADA: websites.
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• 8/6/2015
  Client Alert: Changes to Federal Tax Return Filing Deadlines
  Pursuant to recently enacted legislation, filing deadlines for federal partnership information returns (Form 1065), S corporation information returns (Form 1120S) and C corporation income tax returns (Form 1120) have been changed.
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• 8/6/2015
  Client Alert: Extending Consumer Credit to Active-Duty Military Service Members: Department of Defense Issues Final Rule Implementing the Military Lending Act
  On July 22, 2015, the United States Department of Defense issued a final rule implementing the Military Lending Act (the MLA), a federal law that provides various protections to active-duty service members in consumer credit transactions. The MLA imposes various restrictions and disclosure requirements on a creditor who extends consumer credit to active-duty service members, their spouses and their dependents.
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• May/June 2015
  • Elizabeth E.W. Weinewuth
  Newcomer V. National City Bank Appeal Concludes, Affirms Important Guidance for Ohio Trustees
  Vorys attorneys Daniel Buckley, Lisa Babish Forbes and Elizabeth Weinewuth authored an article for the Probate Law Journal of Ohio titled “Newcomer V. National City Bank Appeal Concludes, Affirms Important Guidance for Ohio Trustees.”
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• 8/3/2015
  Whistleblower Defense Alert: Three Questions Every FCA Defendant Should Ask To Evaluate Whether Claim Preclusion Can Fill The Gap Created By The Supreme Court’s Interpretation Of The First-To-File Rule
  A decision last week in an FCA case in Pennsylvania confirms that the FCA’s first-to-file bar has been weakened. See U.S. ex rel. Boise v. Cephalon, Inc., No. 08-CV-287 (E.D. Pa.). The court in the Cephalon case confirmed that the Supreme Court’s decision in Kellogg Brown & Root Servs., Inc. v. United States ex rel. Carter means that the first-to-file bar does not apply when a previously filed case is no longer pending.
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July

• 7/30/2015
  • Elizabeth Turrell Farrar
  Regulation FD: A Refresher on the SEC Rules Governing Selective Disclosure
  In mid-2000, the SEC adopted Regulation FD to protect investors by creating a level playing field for all investors for access to material, nonpublic information. The SEC’s primary concern was that selective disclosure, and the perception of selective disclosure to analysts and institutional investors, of material, nonpublic information, leads to a loss of investor confidence in the integrity and fairness of the securities markets.
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• 7/30/2015
  • Nelson D. Cary
  • Jeffery E. Smith
  In Depth: Financial Regulators Issue Policies and Practices for Diversity
  On June 9, 2015, the Federal Reserve, OCC and FDIC (as well as the SEC, CFPB and NCUA) issued a final interagency joint policy statement (JPS) establishing standards for assessing the diversity policies and practices of the entities they regulate.
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• 7/30/2015
  • Jennifer Bibart Dunsizer
  • Jeffery E. Smith
  Change-in-Control Compensation Agreements
  Imagine the following scenario: your bank has just announced an agreement to be acquired by a larger institution that is entering your market for the first time. Two months into the process your CEO, CFO and chief lender tell the board that they have decided to accept offers from local competitors because (a) they will make more money, (b) they have a built-in customer following and (c) despite good relations with the buyer they are uncertain as to their future and have families to consider.
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• 7/30/2015
  • Jeffery E. Smith
  Be Prepared: Strategic Planning for M&A Activities
  As the M&A environment heats up and industry chatter increases, banks and their boards need to be prepared to take advantage of strategic opportunities. Boards should have an M&A strategy in place and this preparation needs to take place before the situation arises.
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• 7/30/2015
  • Natalia Steele
  Technological Advancements Have Led to More Traces of Infectious Disease—Now How to Assign Blame When They Cause Harm?
  Natalia Steele co-authored a column titled “Technological Advancements Have Led to More Traces of Infectious Disease—Now How to Assign Blame When They Cause Harm?” for Texas Lawyer.
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• 7/30/2015
  Labor and Employment Alert: Congress Proposes Regulating Employee Schedules
  Democrats in Congress recently introduced the Schedules that Work Act to control how employers schedule their employees’ to work. The bill would apply to employers of 15 or more employees.
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• 7/29/2015
  Labor and Employment Alert: Oregon Requires All Employers to Provide Sick Leave to Their Employees
  Oregon is now the fourth state, after Connecticut, California, and Massachusetts, to mandate that employers provide their employees with sick leave benefits. Oregon’s new sick leave law goes into effect on January 1, 2016, applies to all private- and public-sector employees, and in most cases, requires that the sick leave be paid.
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• 7/23/2015
  Google, the United States and the EU ‘Right to Be Forgotten’: Strategies for Removing Harmful Google Search Results
  In May 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that individuals have the right to ask Google to remove certain search results about them. This “Right to Be Forgotten,” as it is popularly known, has led to nearly 290,000 removal requests and counting, with Google having evaluated well over a million URLs to date.
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• 7/20/2015
  Whistleblower Defense Alert: Ninth Circuit Paves Way for More Qui Tam Lawsuits
  The Ninth Circuit’s recent decision in U.S. ex rel. Hartpence v. Kinetic Concepts, Inc., 2015 U.S. App. Lexis 11643 (9th. Cir. July 7, 2015), overruled existing Ninth Circuit precedent regarding the requirements for meeting the public disclosure rule’s original source exception, weakening the public disclosure bar in the Ninth Circuit and opening the door for increased qui tam activity within that jurisdiction.
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• 7/20/2015
  Oil and Gas Alert: Water Haulers of Hydraulic Fracturing Company are Entitled to Overtime
  A recent opinion from the federal district court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania determined that drivers who transported water to drilling rigs were not exempt from the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) or Pennsylvania law.
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• 7/17/2015
  State and Local Tax Alert: Vendors Need to Prepare for Ohio’s Upcoming Ohio Sales Tax Holiday
  Ohio’s one-time sales tax holiday starts on Friday, August 7, 2015 at 12:01 a.m. and ends on Sunday, August 9, 2015 at 11:59 p.m. Vendor compliance with this holiday is mandatory.
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