Regulation

The government appears to be fulfilling its commitment to rooting out PPP fraud, even when the amount at issue falls below the $2 million threshold. No matter the size of the loan, a company that obtained PPP funds is not immune from a possible government investigation or audit. Borrowers have already started to submit loan forgiveness applications, and many more will be submitted in the weeks ahead, and both lenders and the government will be scouring these submissions for red flags.

COVID-19 Contact Tracing v. Protecting Personal Privacy As states roll back stay-at-home orders, contact tracing has quickly emerged as an essential tool to manage the spread of the coronavirus and allow the country to return to work safely. But innovative contact tracing methods raise a host of privacy concerns, forcing a reckoning with how we balance privacy and public health.

The pandemic has spurred analysis of legal issues as businesses grapple with their respective relationships with both private and public entities. In this article, the authors examine Section 525 of the Bankruptcy Code — the anti-discrimination section, and its implications during COVID-19.

Proposed class actions against Zoom are illustrative of a challenge many businesses face: what is "reasonable" data security? The FTC's key data-security-related enforcement can help guide businesses in developing their data security programs.

Given the current turmoil in the markets, an increasing number of plaintiffs are bringing shareholder class action suits, citing corporate statements about COVID-19. As first-quarter earnings season draws to a close, now is a good time to reflect on the shareholder class actions that have been brought to date related to COVID-19, and others potentially yet to come.

For more than 10 years, federal investigators have investigated criminal conduct in connection with the 2008 recession-era TARP program. From those investigations, U.S. Attorneys across the country brought cases and earned convictions for offenses spanning the federal criminal code. We can expect that these same agencies will use the same techniques and strategies to investigate crimes and bring cases involving fraud related to the COVID-19 stimulus packages.

In the midst the current COVID-19 pandemic, the SEC is paying attention. The Division of Enforcement has made clear that it will act, and act quickly, to stop fraudulent conduct that falls under its jurisdiction related to the pandemic.

After over a year-and-a-half of lobbying efforts by the music industry and negotiations with lawmakers, it was recently announced that AB5 would be amended to accommodate musicians' unique niche in the California economy.