Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, New York State’s legislative bodies have crafted new laws to help prevent tenants’ evictions. The state passed the COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020 (“CEEFPA”),[1] allowing tenants to self-certify that they suffered from hardship because of the pandemic.[2] As a result, pending evictions proceedings against the tenant could be stayed, and the landlords were not permitted to evict the tenants based on the accrued rent because of the COVID hardship.[3] Originally, landlords did not have a legal mechanism within the law to challenge the COVID hardship declarations filed by tenants.[4]…
Author: Thomas Rukaj
I. LIBOR Manipulation and SOFR as Its Replacement On December 31, 2021, the New York Federal Reserve and U.K. Regulators began the process of phasing out the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) and replacing it with the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”).[1] The end of LIBOR and its replacement with SOFR has had, and will continue to have, a considerable impact on both existing and future contract negotiations. According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Market Risk Advisory Committee, as of July 2018, $200 trillion worth of financial contracts referenced USD LIBOR, 95% of which were made up of derivative…
Introduction to the Law After a fast-paced legislative sprint, the European Union Parliament, Council, and Commission have provisionally agreed to the terms of the Digital Markets Act (“DMA”). [1] Once finalized, DMA will seek to regulate “gatekeepers” that provide “core platform functions” such as web browsers, messengers, and social media.[2] DMA will only apply to some of the largest global companies – such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft – that have market capitalization of 75 billion euro or annual revenue of 7.5 billion euro, and 45 million annual end users in the European Union.[3] The regulation intends to…
Whether or not one believes we are entering a real age of stakeholder primacy,[1] it is hard to ignore the fact that consumers are getting savvier[2]—at least in some ways.[3] At the same time, corporate practice has increasingly relied on restrictive binding arbitration agreements to minimize legal liability and financial exposure.[4] There is no question that pre-dispute arbitration clauses save companies money. And indeed, arbitration—and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) generally—can save time and money for plaintiffs. But the favored status of ADR in the legal system has been gradually put into jeopardy by restrictive agreements that clearly and overwhelmingly favor…
Background Russia’s war on Ukraine has shaken the world and upended decades of peace on the European continent.[1] As part of a multilayered response to this attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty, the United States, European Union, and several other governments worldwide have applied severe sanctions targeting Russia’s economy.[2] These wide-ranging sanctions are intended to effectively cut Russia off from the U.S.-led global banking system and economy.[3] Specifically, these sanctions block Russian financial institutions such as Sberbank and VTB Bank from processing payments through the United States, constrain Russia’s access to foreign technology and commodities, and prohibit Americans from conducting business with…
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria have taken the investing world by storm in recent years, pervading every aspect of business as corporations have become increasingly beholden to a growing population of socially conscious investors.[1] ESG criteria are as complex as their acronym is simple. With no universally agreed-upon definition, ESG are generally understood to be standards for a company’s operations that measure its environmental impact and sustainability efforts (environmental), labor practices and supply chain ethics (social), and internal integrity regarding leadership, executive pay, audits, and shareholder rights (governance) among a seemingly endless list of other criteria.[2] As these aspects…
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