Recent actions by both the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) continue to expand the scope of products and services covered by U.S. sanctions and export restrictions against Russia. The result is a widening net of risk for U.S. businesses that will require increased vigilance and compliance efforts.

The Russian government – in an act that appears to be one of the first of its kind – passed a decree on March 7, 2022 allowing businesses in Russia to use the intellectual property (IP) rights of IP owners from “unfriendly countries” without paying compensation.

On April 18, 2022, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed HB 4002, which will begin, in 2023, a five-year phase-in process for Oregon employers to pay agricultural workers overtime requirements. In enacting this law, Oregon joins a handful of states – including California, Washington, and New York – that have removed exemptions to exclude agricultural workers from overtime laws.

In an effort to promote regulatory clarity and establish a “comprehensive, thoughtful, and harmonized regulatory and business environment for crypto assets,” California Governor Gavin Newsom issued California Executive Order N-9-22 on May 4, 2022 (the Order). California is currently the largest hub in the United States for crypto and digital asset related companies and home to two of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the worl

In Executive Order 14204 of April 15, 2021 (E.O. 14024) (Order), the President found that specified harmful foreign activities of the Government of the Russian Federation, among other things, constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.

From the earliest days of the Biden Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) signaled its intention to use all the tools at its disposal to address investor disclosures of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) information. In March 2021, the SEC established a high-profile enforcement-focused Climate and ESG Task Force. Then, on April 11, 2022, the SEC published a proposed rule (with comments due by May 20, 2022) that will require detailed disclosures about greenhouse gas emissions, climate-related risks and targets, and corporate oversight and governance matters.

On Tuesday April 26, the New York State Senate approved the Adult Survivors Act (ASA). The bill, known as S66A, follows on the heels of New York’s Child Victims Act (CVA), enacted in 2019.

On Friday, April 22, 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 7 – known as the “Stop WOKE Act” – into law. “Stop WOKE” stands for “Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees.” The law prohibits classroom or workplace training and instruction that causes students or employees discomfort over their race, color, sex, or national origin.