Category: COVID-19

COVID-19, Cybersecurity, Regulatory

Tracing Concerns

Privacy Protection Acts Introduced in Connection with Contact Tracing

Written by Susan Kohn Ross and Timothy Carter

Across the globe, governments are harnessing surveillance-camera footage, mobile location data, and consumer purchase records to help track the recent movements of coronavirus patients, monitor those potentially exposed, and establish virus transmission chains. In China, for example, the government has installed surveillance cameras outside and inside quarantined individuals’ homes. A few thousand miles away, Israel’s internal security agency is primed to mine a cache of mobile phone location data, initially collected for counterterrorism operations, in order to pinpoint possible COVID-19 exposure among its citizens. Continue reading “Tracing Concerns”

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COVID-19

COVID-19 Client Communication, Vol. 16

Below please find our latest alerts regarding COVID-19’s effect on various policies and laws. Feel free to read and share, and contact us if there is anything we can do to help you or your business maintain compliance in this ever-evolving situation. How Can Grocery Stores Protect Themselves? As citizens lose patience with the stay-at-home orders, we can expect a surge in protests. Grocery stores … Continue reading COVID-19 Client Communication, Vol. 16

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COVID-19

How Can Grocery Stores Protect Themselves?

Preparing for Grocery Store Protests

Written by Emily F. Evitt

As Californians lose patience with the stay-at-home orders, we can expect more protests across the state.  And as customers face shortages and stores enforce limits on their purchases, protests at grocery stores may be particularly likely.  How can grocery stores protect themselves?

California’s Constitution grants broader free speech rights than the First Amendment.  Indeed, under certain circumstances – namely cases involving shopping malls – courts have held that California’s free speech right extends to private property where that property is the functional equivalent of a traditional public forum.  See Robbins v. Pruneyard Shopping Center, 23 Cal. 3d 899 (1979). Continue reading “How Can Grocery Stores Protect Themselves?”

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COVID-19, Labor & Employment

Protecting At-Risk Employees

Employers Cannot Exclude At-Risk Employees, Says EEOC in New Return-to-Work Guidance 

Written by Jeremy Mittman and Carly Epstein

The EEOC recently answered the question whether employers can bar from the workplace employees who, according to the CDC, are at a “higher risk for severe illness” if they get COVID-19.

In the words of the EEOC in its press release: “It is important that employers understand that the ADA does not allow them to act against employees solely because the employee has a CDC-listed underlying medical condition.”

An employer cannot exclude — or take any other adverse action against — an employee solely because he/she falls within the CDC identified high risk category.  Instead, the employer must determine whether the “employee’s disability poses a ‘direct threat’ to his health that cannot be eliminated or reduced by reasonable accommodation.” Continue reading “Protecting At-Risk Employees”

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COVID-19, Labor & Employment

Workers Comp For COVID-19

Contracting COVID-19 Through Work Is Now Presumed Under California Workers Compensation

Written by Jeremy Mittman and Louise Truong 

On May 6, 2020, Governor Newsom issued Executive Order N-62-20, which provides that any COVID-19 related illness that an employee contracts between March 19, 2020 and July 5, 2020 shall be presumed to arise out of and in the course of employment for workers’ compensation purposes.  This presumption will only apply if all of the following conditions are met: Continue reading “Workers Comp For COVID-19”

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COVID-19

COVID-19 Client Communication, Vol. 15

Below please find our latest alerts regarding COVID-19’s effect on various policies and laws. Feel free to read and share, and contact us if there is anything we can do to help you or your business maintain compliance in this ever-evolving situation. Securities Litigation Ahead? You didn’t cause COVID-19, you didn’t shut down the economy, but could you be held liable? This alert provides some … Continue reading COVID-19 Client Communication, Vol. 15

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Corporate, COVID-19

Will COVID-19 Cause Securities Litigation?

Written by John Durrant

As of May 5, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has accompanied a precipitous descent in the domestic securities markets, followed by a surprisingly sharp rebound. Such volatility may well give rise to several different types of potential liability against companies and their officers and directors, including:

  • Securities fraud claims under the Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”).
  • Claims related to offerings of securities under the Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”).
  • Claims under the various state securities claims, i.e., the “Blue Sky” laws.
  • Derivative suits arising under state law.

Business leaders may well say, “Wait, we didn’t cause COVID-19; we didn’t shut down the economy; how can we be held liable?” Continue reading “Will COVID-19 Cause Securities Litigation?”

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