Seyfarth Synopsis: Out with the old and in with the new. Governor Newsom recently signed new laws which extend and clarify employees’ available reasons for use of California paid sick leave. There are expanded unpaid leave protections for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, or qualifying acts of violence, as well as for employees summoned to jury duty or responding to a subpoena or court order to testify under…
Purchasing an annuity could provide you with a regular income throughout retirement. And rising annuity rates could help your pension savings go further. An annuity is something you buy, often with the money saved in your pension, which then provides a guaranteed income. The annuity rate offered affects the income you’d receive and it can vary between providers. If you’re nearing retirement, the good news is that annuity rates have…
Classic board game Monopoly hit shelves in 1935 and has been causing family arguments ever since. As the real estate game was loosely based on property values at the time it was launched it provides some interesting insights into how the market has changed over the last nine decades. The original Monopoly game was based on Atlantic City, US, but it didn’t take long for the game to be adapted…
On October 18, on the eve of the BRICS summit in Kazan, the Valdai Club hosted a presentation of a report titled “BRICS+ Energy: A Mover for the New World Order.” Ivan Timofeev, the moderator of the discussion, noted that although the BRICS agenda is quite broad, energy occupies a special place in the group’s agenda, since Russia is the largest supplier of energy resources, and India, China, and Brazil…
Did you know that top athletes are coached on their “sixth sense” as part of their training? Proprioception is your body’s sense of where it is in space. It’s what allows footballers to score a goal without looking down at the ball or gymnasts to orient themselves in the air while somersaulting, but it’s also what allows us to open a door without using too much force and walk on…
The tantalizing vision for global payments has long been that they’d be safe, simple, quick, inexpensive, and ubiquitous. This promise has come closer with each new technological advance. However, instant payments have ushered in the Decoupled Era, a term coined in last year’s Global Payments Report. In this environment, payments are becoming disconnected from accounts, and the number of players is proliferating, fragmenting the value chain, increasing complexity, and endangering…
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has officially announced that the After Final Consideration Pilot Program 2.0 (AFCP 2.0) will soon be laid to rest. In a notice dated October 1, 2024, the USPTO confirmed that the program will end on December 14, 2024. Despite being extended numerous times since its launch in 2013, AFCP 2.0 has now run into fiscal hurdles. Earlier this year, the USPTO proposed a…
Quick Hits Certain requirements of the amended NYDFS cybersecurity regulations will take effect on November 1, 2024. Covered entities may need to update their policies and procedures, including with respect to corporate governance, encryption, incident response and business continuity plans, system testing, and employee training. On March 1, 2017, the NYDFS enacted comprehensive cybersecurity regulations for financial services companies and other covered entities. The cybersecurity regulations were most recently amended…
New research and real-life case studies have recently revealed that it’s possible to slow – and even reverse – your biological age. Read on to discover more about how your biological age is measured, and six simple steps you could incorporate into your routine to enhance your life. What is your “biological age”? We’re used to measuring our lives in chronological age, or the number of years we’ve been alive.…
This commentary originally appeared in Time. Just as the elimination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah a month ago catalyzed new opportunities for Mideast peace, the death of long-elusive Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar Thursday turbocharges the transformation of the Middle East towards a more secure and prosperous future. To appreciate the possibilities, it is vital to understand the significance of the Sinwar as a leader. There should be no doubt that…
Over the past decade, the telecom industry has faced one daunting challenge after another. Telcos have endured relentless competitive pressure from fast-moving technology companies that entered their core sectors of communications, connectivity, and data transport. In the hopes of igniting revenue growth, telcos have sought to reinvent themselves. They have created new tech-driven product offerings—from the Internet of Things (IoT) and software as a service (SaaS) to over-the-top (OTT) video…
Learning through experience requires us to shift from the purely intellectual to a more holistic engagement. I try to create that shift by opening each of my leadership classes with some form of art—a poem, a piece of music or a visual work. It’s a way of helping my students, many of whom are management or law students, executives, or leaders in their fields, step out of their typical "brain-bound"…
On October 20, the newly elected President of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto, who had previously served as the country's Minister of Defence, will officially take office. Already in the period between the elections and the inauguration, Prabowo has demonstrated a great deal of diplomatic activity. He conducted a series of international visits and meetings, including a visit to Russia this summer, where he had a conversation with Vladimir Putin and a…
Let’s say that two entrepreneurs, a man and a woman, co-found a startup and raise venture capital. But the business struggles, and they shut it down and go their separate ways. Eventually, each of them independently forms a new business. Do these entrepreneurs have the same chance of getting venture capital funding for a second time? The answer is no, according to Yale SOM’s Heather Tookes, whose new research uses…
We are pleased to invite you to our upcoming webinar series, "Winning Combinations: Exploring Synergies with Government Contracts Law." This series of 30-minute webinars will explore the intersections between government contracts law and related Seyfarth practice areas, focusing on key topics such as cybersecurity, False Claims Act, white collar & investigations, FAR sustainability, mergers and acquisitions, software licensing, real estate, and more. Our team of experienced attorneys will share their insights…
Economic data suggesting some developed countries, including the US, could fall into a recession continued to affect investment markets in September 2024. Read on to discover other factors that may have affected the performance of your investments. UK Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows inflation remained stable at 2.2% in the 12 months to August. The figure is slightly above the Bank of England’s (BoE) 2% target.…
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.What is shifting in tech-enabling operational transformations? This is clearly the age of AI. With the rapid advances in generative AI, it has become very easy to consume AI, and therefore companies are making significant investments over the last few years in the cloud infrastructure across various gen AI technologies, as well as machine learning investments. And there’s an increasing difference between leaders,…
The retailer is using immersive commerce — a form of online shopping that combines VR with 3D visualizations and gamification — to connect with the next generation of shoppers. Mary Lacity and Remko Van Hoek October 17, 2024 Reading Time: 9 min Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Retailers must constantly adapt to shifting consumer trends, demographics, and technological advancements. Walmart, like many other retailers, needs to connect with younger…
The creation of Sign Language View in Teams One shortfall of this new way of working, however, was the existing captioning solutions. It was painful for my Deaf peers and I to have to turn on captions with each call. Every time, you had to look for and prioritize the interpreters, open the chat window, and then finally be ready to participate in meetings. This design mismatch led to two…
As partisan vitriol flies in the final month before the US presidential election, a new study offers insight into the question of why people share political misinformation.Even when a news article would flatter their political party, people tend to expect that sharing true information on social media would benefit their personal reputations more than spreading misleading articles, the research shows. Furthermore, when political articles are shared on Twitter (now X),…
More than 70% of Brits think Inheritance Tax (IHT) is unfair, according to a poll carried out by Tax Policy Associates in 2023. You might consider how other countries handle taxing assets when you pass away to be “fairer”, read on to find out more. Over the last few months, you’ve read about how IHT works in the UK and some of the steps you may take to reduce a…
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.What is causing so many consumer product leaders to rethink their products and portfolios? Jan Henrich: Renovating and innovating the existing portfolio has never been more important than it is these days. First, consumer discretionary spending is tightening. Second, passing on inflation costs to the consumer is getting more difficult. And last, it is very hard to get a portfolio right the first…
You already know that a strong culture leads to engaged employees, lower turnover, and a healthier bottom line, but convincing leadership? That’s a different story. It’s exhausting pushing for changes that are dismissed as “soft skills” or shot down because they don’t offer an immediate ROI. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. In fact, most attendees at our recent webinar, Getting Leadership to Listen to HR, showed up for one reason:…
Eurasia, a region of immense geopolitical significance due to its strategic location and abundant natural resources, has always been a focus of global interest. The Russia-Ukraine conflict that erupted in February 2022 has further underscored the evolving dynamics of Eurasian geopolitics. A key driver of these changes is the growing influence of China. As Beijing expands its economic and political reach, it is increasingly shaping the geopolitics of Eurasia. However,…
Farmers worldwide are navigating challenges such as increased input prices, extreme weather events, and commodity price volatility. Given the current macroeconomic environment, the priority for farmers today is improving productivity, whether through agriculture technologies (agtech) for improving operations, biological products, or sustainable practices. This report offers insights for organizations collaborating with growers, outlining strategies that could deliver more-personalized products and services to boost productivity and seize emerging opportunities. Since 2018,…
Sam Falconer/theispot.com Nowadays, deploying artificial intelligence no longer guarantees a competitive edge. What truly sets companies apart is access to diverse, extensive, high-quality data that enhances their AI system’s performance compared with that of their competitors. But concerns over data privacy can limit the use of unique, relevant data for analysis. This problem can be alleviated by means of privacy-preserving federated learning. This technique, in combination with a special type…
Thursday, November 7, 20242:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EDT1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. CDT12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. MDT11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. PDT About the Program Seyfarth’s Pioneers and Pathfinders virtual roundtable series has tackled critical topics intended to help our clients navigate the implications of generative AI and natural language processing models in the legal industry. Next up in our series—Seyfarth is pleased to bring together an expert…
We are excited to announce the general availability of the new Azure Cobalt 100 Virtual Machines (VMs). These VMs run on Microsoft’s first fully custom Arm-based Cobalt 100 CPU and represent a significant milestone in our end-to-end approach to building cloud infrastructure. Today we are announcing the general availability of the new Azure Cobalt 100-based Virtual Machines (VMs). These VMs run on Microsoft’s first 64-bit Arm-based Azure Cobalt 100 CPU,…
By Shadrack Kwasa | 15 Oct, 2024 For profesionnal investors INTRODUCTION Inflation has weighed heavily on investment markets for a prolonged period. Central Banks have waged a war against inflation and victory appears imminent as we have seen the most recent inflation readings signalling inflation is coming under control. This is an inflexion point for investment markets as we are now moving from a period where high interest rates have…
Medtech value creation has been a story of haves and have-nots in recent years. Since 2019, the top value creators have outpaced the S&P 500, while the rest of the industry has struggled (Exhibit 1). Industry and capital market volatility during the COVID-19 pandemic masked the differences in performance between the top medtech companies and their peers. In the years since, investor behavior has revealed just how wide of a…
The UK’s new Labour government published its highly anticipated Employment Rights Bill last week. In total, the draft Bill contains 28 stand-alone employment law reforms (including many of the changes that we outlined in our blog post earlier this year - see Significant UK Labor Law Reforms on the Horizon). The key measures in the Employment Rights Bill are: Removing the two-year qualifying period for unfair dismissal protection (meaning…
Construction contractors undergoing compliance reviews after October 1, 2024, will be required to comply with expanded initial data and document requests contained in the revised letter. Contractors on a recent Corporate Scheduling Announcement List (CSAL)—a courtesy notification from OFCCP listing contractors selected for compliance evaluation—that have not yet been scheduled for compliance reviews may want to ensure they can produce the information requested. Quick Hits The letter imposes additional data…
Brian Kenny: In her 2013 blog post titled, “Welcome to the Unicorn Club,” venture capitalist, Aileen Lee, coined a term that has come to define the benchmark for investors the world over. Unicorns, that is privately held startups that are valued at $1 billion or more, are more common today than they were in 2013 when there were just 39 firms that met that definition. Today, the number is closer…
By Ed Johnson | 16 Oct, 2024 INTRODUCTION Labour has proposed that changes to the taxation of non-UK domiciled individuals will likely take effect from 6 April 2025. While we await further details on the Budget to be delivered on 30 October 2024, affected clients are understandably anxious. Abolishing non-dom status represents a significant change for international families in the UK and their financial affairs. Each client will be impacted…
When we think about data protection and GDPR compliance, it’s easy to focus on Big Tech giants like Google and Meta. However, the GDPR applies to all organisations, regardless of size or industry. Businesses across sectors – from healthcare providers to energy firms – are increasingly subject to investigations and penalties. Here, we explore five recent cases where companies outside of Big Tech were fined for breaches of GDPR, showing…
The deadline on an important work project is looming, but you keep getting distracted by news stories and silly cat videos online. Even though installing an Internet-blocking app might help you stay focused, you resist the idea, telling yourself you should have the willpower to white-knuckle your way through that critical project.But first, just one more cat video … Research has shown that people are more likely to follow through…
Conservatives often say that social media platforms are biased against their point of view. What did your research into the 2020 election find about whether that was true? Our research found that accounts sharing pro-Trump or conservative hashtags were suspended at a significantly higher rate than those sharing pro-Biden or liberal hashtags—they were about 4.4 times more likely to be suspended. At face value, this pattern could be interpreted as…
Despite all the hype around generative AI—including some giant, headline-grabbing funding rounds announced recently—there’s still an ongoing debate in the market about whether smaller startups trying to build real businesses around AI are actually finding product-market fit. How many are actually finding paying, business customers for new tools and products solving real enterprise problems? As investors with a long-term, bullish outlook on generative AI, we’re excited to back early-stage companies…
Data center real estate is such a hot topic that some have wondered whether it’s overhyped. But the digital and cloud revolutions—and the scale-up of AI—are fueling truly enormous demand for data centers. In turn, there are a variety of ways that real estate companies can participate in the growth of the industry. McKinsey senior partner Pankaj Sachdeva talks with McKinsey Global Publishing’s Katy McLaughlin about what these companies should…
Current Topics menu All Topics menu Departments menu Collection No. 9 Two decades into the era of private space flight, companies are establishing ventures in low-earth orbit, sending private citizens into space, and pursuing exploration and development on the moon and beyond. We talked to Yale alumni and other leaders about how finance, law, and other day-to-day details of business get translated into space. Published October 15, 2024 Assembling an…