In effect since July 1, 2020, the United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (“USMCA”) replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”).  Although the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic largely overshadowed the effective date of this new international agreement, its new labor provisions should not go overlooked.  While the USMCA retains most of the NAFTA commitments, it revamped the old agreement in key areas — including labor.  Unlike NAFTA that included some labor commitments in a side agreement, the USMCA provides…

On January 2, 2021 the National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) became law.  Importantly, the NDAA included sweeping legislative reforms to anti-money laundering (“AML”) laws, which are now codified in the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (“AMLA”) (NDAA §§ 6001-6511). Designed to enhance national security concerns, these AML amendments will significantly impact financial institutions, certain types of businesses—both domestic and foreign, and High Net Worth Individuals (“HNWIs”).  While HNWIs legitimately seek to maintain confidentiality in their…

The Biden Administration took office on January 20, 2021. Many executive orders have been executed since that date, some of which directly change the manner of handling immigration matters.  However, the U.S. and the world are still dealing with the global pandemic and this directly affects submissions, filings, and consular appointments.  This update provides a list of the latest updates to U.S. visas and immigration matters, as well as what we forecast for the months to…

Over the past few weeks, we have been speculating on the international trends and tides we expect to see in the next four years under a new U.S. presidential administration. So that you can enjoy our prognostications (before our program gets greenlighted as a Netflix special) we provide here: A recording of our webinar, entitled “The Four Years in International Business Webinar” (for those playing along at home, see if you can spot…

Since 2005, California employers with 50 or more employees were required to provide at least 2 hours of sexual harassment training every 2 years to each supervisory employee, and to new supervisory employees within 6 months of their assumption of a supervisory position.  However, all employers may not yet know that the California anti-harassment training requirements were significantly expanded by the California legislature (SB 1343 and SB 788 – to read the prior article, click here…

Following lots of legislative uncertainty, Brazil has now formally enacted the country’s first general data protection law, Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados, or “LGPD.” While administrative sanctions do not go into effect until August 1, 2021, individuals and public prosecutors can now bring claims for losses and damages. Indeed, at least one public civil action has already been filed. LGPD is the first comprehensive general data protection law in Latin America. It was modeled…

Hiring employees does not usually call to mind international trade compliance obligations. However, together U.S. export controls and anti-discrimination laws create a web that is overlooked or misunderstood by many types of employers of all sizes across many industries. Anti-discrimination laws prohibit unlawful citizenship status restrictions when hiring, and U.S. export controls prohibit disclosing controlled information to foreign nationals without authorization. Together, these laws limit acceptable job descriptions and hiring practices.…