RopesTalk

In this episode of Ropes & Gray’s podcast series, Disputing Tax, Pascal Mayer, a senior attorney in the employment, executive compensation & employee benefits group, is joined by Kat Gregor and Loretta Richard, partners in the tax, employment & benefits practice and co-founders of the tax controversy group, to discuss the payroll tax provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Act (also known as the CARES Act) and factors that employers should consider in their coronavirus response. Enacted on March 27, and commonly referred to as “Phase 3” of the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, the CARES Act provides immediate financial relief to eligible employers by allowing them to retain some payments that would otherwise be owed to the federal government, through employee retention credits and deferral of the employer portion of social security tax payments. This assistance may be critically important to employers who are struggling to meet costs when faced with diminishing revenues or who had their operations fully or partially suspended due to governmental orders.

The Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released the Second Edition of A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) on July 3, 2020 (the “2020 Resource Guide”), updating the first edition released in November 2012 (the “2012 Resource Guide”). The 2020 Resource Guide does not make fundamental changes to its predecessor, but serves as a repository of various legal and regulatory developments since 2012. This includes highlighting developments in case law such as United States v. Hoskins, as well as new sections dedicated to discussing guidance such as the DOJ FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy, Selection of Monitors in Criminal Division Matters, Coordination of Corporate Resolution Penalties (or Anti-Piling On Policy), and the Criminal Division’s Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs. In this Ropes & Gray podcast, Alex Rene, co-chair of the firm’s litigation & enforcement practice, moderates a conversation with the co-leaders of the firm’s anti-corruption and international risk practice—María González Calvet, Amanda Raad and Ryan Rohlfsen—on the updates in the 2020 Resource Guide, as well as their implications on liabilities and responsibilities under the FCPA, including regulator views on compliance programs and culture.

The latest installment of Ropes & Gray’s podcast series, Culture & Compliance Chronicles, explores company culture in times of crisis. In the final part of a three-part discussion, litigation & enforcement attorney Amanda Raad talks with three partners at EY—Maryam Hussain, Melissa Myatt and Katharina Weghmann—all of whom study decision-making in the corporate context. In this episode, the group explores what effective remediation looks like and how it all ties back to the root cause of the issue. They also circle back to how companies can create a culture of compliance and the role ethics plays in this, especially for companies that use data analytics to measure culture.

The latest installment of Ropes & Gray’s podcast series, Culture & Compliance Chronicles, explores company culture in times of crisis. In part two of a three-part discussion, litigation & enforcement attorney Amanda Raad talks with three partners at EY—Maryam Hussain, Melissa Myatt and Katharina Weghmann—all of whom study decision-making in the corporate context. In the last episode, the group considered what the research says about the drivers of firm culture. In this episode, they shift to how companies can actually define and measure culture. They explore innovative approaches that go beyond the usual employee surveys. They also discuss why now is a particularly unique moment for companies to study their cultures, and how focusing on particular aspects of culture can make the inquiry less overwhelming and more fruitful.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, moderated by health care associate Michael DiMaio, the co-leaders of the firm’s Global Health Care Compliance Initiative, Amanda Raad, Andy Dale and Alison Fethke, discuss compliance concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. They address issues that are top-of-mind for health care and life sciences clients, including shifts in business practices and enforcement risks, and operational challenges such as drug supply limitations.

In the latest installment of Ropes & Gray’s alumni podcast series, Alumni @ RopesTalk, IP litigation partner Matt Rizzolo interviews Jason Idilbi, general counsel at Passport Labs, a mobility software platform that facilitates mobile parking and transit ticketing applications. Jason reflects on his “non-linear” legal career path, which began at Ropes & Gray in 2008 and led to roles as a judicial clerk, litigator and in-house counsel. Now at Passport, Jason talks about the most difficult project he’s had to tackle in the last three years, and also what he looks for when engaging outside counsel.

The latest installment of Ropes & Gray’s podcast series, Culture & Compliance Chronicles, explores company culture in times of crisis. In part one of a three-part discussion, litigation & enforcement attorney Amanda Raad talks with three partners at EY—Katharina Weghmann, Maryam Hussain and Melissa Myatt—who focus on behavioral science and decision-making in the corporate context. The group considers what the research says about the drivers of firm culture, how companies and individuals make decisions, and how they’re seeing this play out as companies grapple with the global pandemic. Throughout, they also touch on how regulators are responding to the current environment.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, asset management partners Isabel Dische and Melissa Bender discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity for asset managers to evaluate how their portfolio companies are managing the pandemic (and likewise for institutional investors to evaluate their asset managers). They’ll also discuss how investors may want to apply lessons learned from recent market events to their ESG programs going forward.

Under normal circumstances, credit fund managers that invest retirement plan money face multiple fiduciary and conflict of interest issues under ERISA that require special attention. These issues have been amplified by the current global health emergency and related economic crisis. In this Ropes & Gray podcast, asset management partner Jessica O’ Mary and ERISA & benefits partner Josh Lichtenstein address how credit fund managers that invest on behalf of ERISA accounts can navigate some of these legal challenges as they arise in the current climate.

In this Ropes & Gray podcast, asset management partner George Raine is joined by tax partner Pamela Glazier to discuss the legal, tax and operational issues involved when 1940 Act registered interval funds invest in unregistered open-end real estate funds, as private fund managers look for new sources of capital, and registered fund managers look for alternative investments for their retail investor base.