With businesses reeling from the pandemic, an alternative legal model might get a boost
Tuesday, July 7, 2020 Even before the COVID pandemic struck, Global Workplace Analytics, a research-based consulting organization, predicted that 25 to 30 percent of the U.S. workforce would be working from home multiple days a week by the end of 2021. That trend could be—and already has been—especially disruptive to the legal industry, where in-person meetings have long been considered vital to the attorney-client relationship. But while many firms and […]
Will a slowdown be mitigated by pent up demand?
Thursday, June 11, 2020 Movie sets are empty, and theaters are closed. Blockbuster releases from every major studio have been pushed back, some by more than a year. Broadway’s curtains won’t rise all summer. And television production has ground to a halt. Without a doubt, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the entertainment industry for the short term. But what about the long term? Several prominent attorneys—representing clients ranging from […]
Lawsuits are threatened but courts aren't hearing them
Monday, June 1, 2020 A New York City wedding for 350 guests was set for May, but the biggest inadvertent party-pooper—not on the guest list—was Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Enforcing a government shutdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, festivities ground to a halt before things even started. Was anyone surprised? The happily-ever-after event was on a collision course with government restrictions. With 33,000 people dead and dying in the tri-state area due to […]
Risks are growing for migrants and growers alike
Friday, May 29, 2020 With an estimated 85 percent of the U.S. salad crop sprouting from California’s Salinas Valley, it’s small wonder why the people who harvest it are deemed essential workers by the federal government. With those workers often subject to thankless, back-breaking and low-wage labor under a blazing sun, growers have long looked south of the border or even across the Pacific to […]
Investors are waiting out the crisis, while distressed companies can be had cheap
Friday, May 22, 2020 After a record-setting decade, the number of private equity firms buying companies has slowed. According to data from Dealogic, M&A volume in the U.S. plummeted a jaw-dropping 50.2 percent compared to the same period last year. Worldwide, there was a 35.5 percent decrease in M&A volume and 16.3 percent drop in revenue. The reason isn’t a mystery. With the COVID-19 pandemic […]
She asks, what will the new workplace look like?
There’s been no protocol for how states should reopen for business during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the same holds true for cities and counties within those states. For people who’ve been confined for more than six weeks, there’s been both eagerness and reticence. Beaches fill in Florida and bars fill in Wisconsin while restaurant owners report tepid responses in Nashville, Tennessee, after the removal of a shelter-in-place order. Meanwhile, in New York City, police have […]
‘America’s farmers are in a crisis’
Friday, May 15, 2020 As COVID-19 forces some of the country’s largest pork producers to curtail operations, pig farmers throughout the U.S. are facing a chilling choice: reconfigure their entire operation to keep stocks intact; or euthanize thousands of animals and dispose of them on their own property. According to a recent report from the Time magazine, as many as […]
Paycheck Protection funds are tricky for banks and businesses
Monday, May 11, 2020 Rushed into law to prop up a national economy staggered by COVID-19, the Paycheck Protection Program hasn’t gone as smoothly as hoped. Last month, the U.S. Justice Department launched a probe into the recently expanded $670 billion initiative in which banks process and provide low-interest, conditional and sometimes forgivable Small Business Administration […]
A little bit of the Wild West has returned
Tuesday, May 5, 2020 It was in late March that workers for Lone Star Paving needed to bring an attorney’s letter to the job site to avoid a citation and potential arrest. As Lone Star’s General Counsel Josh Condon tells it, there was a bit of the old Wild West in Texas in the wake […]
Staying at home has not kept people from staying in touch
Thursday, April 30, 2020 Whether for emergencies, business or out of boredom, people are spending a lot more time on the phone these days. In fact, Verizon CEO Hans Vestburg told CNBC in late March call volumes are eclipsing New Year’s Eve and Mother’s Day combined—every day. Not only was the company handling 800 million […]
