On January 1, 2021, Congress overrode President Trump’s veto and enacted the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, an omnibus bill that includes the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (the “Act”). The Act represents a considerable development in the United States anti-money laundering laws (“AML”) and the most sweeping AML legislation since the…
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Will the statutory zoning changes recently enacted by the Massachusetts Legislature result in a rush of new development and start to address the goal of increasing housing in the Commonwealth? Prospects for growth in housing and residential real estate development in Massachusetts have the potential to expand significantly following the passage of a new Massachusetts…
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On January 19, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS” or the “Service) issued Notice 2021-10 (the “2021 Notice”) extending relief measures first provided in Notice 2020-39 (the “2020 Notice”) related to investments by qualified opportunity funds (“QOFs”) in qualified opportunity zones (“QOZs”). This Client Alert summarizes the relevant provisions of the QOZ legislation in the Internal…
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Lenders have long relied on the London Interbank Offered Rate, or, “LIBOR”, as a benchmark interest rate for variable rate financial products. In late July of 2017, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority announced that LIBOR would be phased out by the year 2021. With an estimated US$350 trillion in outstanding financial products, including loans,…
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Employers across the country are looking towards a time when business operations can return to pre COVID-19 operations. While there is no clear guidance as to when this will occur, many states are beginning to formulate plans to relax workplace restrictions. The following is an update as to the status of economy reopening in Massachusetts, Connecticut,…
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While the Coronavirus has struck all aspects of the economy, hotels and motels are in a unique situation; they are considered an essential service and can stay open but more and more, the economics of staying open are simply not viable. Before widespread implementation of ‘Stay at Home’ orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, average…
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As various states (and local governments) begin (and continue) lifting or loosing up the stay-at-home restrictions, restaurants and other food and beverage retailers throughout the United States are now dealing with new legal challenges, regulatory compliance and operational impediments. Nearly all restaurants and other food and beverage retailers have taken a substantial hit as a result…
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With the rapid pace within which the COVID-19 situation unfolded during the prior 6 weeks, employers were caught off guard and not afforded the luxury of careful planning typically associated with layoffs. Now that things have begun to normalize, employers should take care to evaluate which actions may have triggered obligations under the Federal Worker Adjustment…
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The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, enacted in December 2017, created a national Opportunity Zone program to provide significant Federal tax incentives, including foregoing capital gains taxes, for investors who invest long term in 8,700 historically distressed neighborhoods throughout the United States that have been designated as Opportunity Zones by the Governor of each State…
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Many industries have been upended by the Coronavirus epidemic and the local, state and national government response. Because of the fundamental role real estate plays in our economy and the broad umbrella of activity that falls under the category of “real estate development”, developers, property owners and tenants have been particularly impacted. Landlords, tenants, contractors,…
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