News & Legal Updates Archive

There has been a lot of commentary on an IRS report that the average tax refund for 2018 was lower by $170 compared to 2017 - and some immediately concluded this was evidence that the 2017 Tax Act was not really a tax reduction. Here is a quick way to determine if your tax was reduced under the new law.

A cryptocurrency exchange is an ideal target for cyberattack. Should an attacker gain access to an exchange’s reserves, the thief would gain control over a large sum of diversified cryptocurrencies, perfect for conducting anonymized transactions across the internet. As a result, the operators of these exchanges have faced increasingly complex cybersecurity attacks from bad actors against these reserves. Seeking the perceived safety of cold storage has its own dangers.

Alec Davidson has joined McDonald Hopkins LLC in the Cleveland office as an associate in the firm’s Business Department, where his practice will enhance the Commercial Finance, Real Estate and Public Finance Practice Groups.

Walmart was recently ordered to pay a total of $95.5 million in damages to Variety Stores for infringing on the small retailer’s “Backyard” trademark. The decision marks the end of a five year legal battle and highlights the importance of monitoring your trademarks and knowing how and when to address trademark infringement.

Google is on the receiving end of the first major enforcement action of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), to the tune of €50 million for lack of transparency and information and a failure to obtain valid consent for targeted advertising.

On Episode 26 of MH Business Exchange, McDonald Hopkins corporate and transactional attorney Jeff Van Winkle joins host Mike Witzke to to discuss CFIUS and how the new FIRRMA pilot program is impacting foreign investment into U.S.

Teresa Metcalf Beasley has joined the Cleveland office of McDonald Hopkins LLC as a member and will serve as chair of the firm’s Public Law Practice Group. She brings more than 25 years of experience and an established reputation as a real estate development and public finance attorney in the city’s public and private sector.

In a recent article for Crain's Cleveland Business, McDonald Hopkins' Carl Grassi explains that because it's tax time for most business owners, it's time to crunch the numbers on the new tax benefits and limitations introduced in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

We have been following a legal challenge to the new process in Ohio for businesses to file their municipal net profits tax returns centrally with the Ohio Department of Taxation rather than with several separate municipalities.

In Part 1 of a two-part series for the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, McDonald Hopkins' Marc Carmel addresses D&O insurance issues related to maximizing recoveries from post-confirmation litigation.

McDonald Hopkins survey sees steep drop in business sector confidence for 2019 - Crain's Cleveland February 1, 2019, article

Updates on OSHA's requirements for posting OSHA’s Form 300A (which summarizes job-related injuries and illnesses logged during 2018) and on record keeping requirements.

The business community’s exuberance about the U.S. business climate has diminished considerably since last year, according to the ninth annual McDonald Hopkins Business Outlook Survey. Only 34 percent of executives who responded to the survey expect business conditions in the U.S. to improve in the next year. Last year, nearly 80 percent predicted improvement.

On episode 25 of MH Business Exchange, McDonald Hopkins healthcare attorney Rick Hindmand joins host Mike Witzke for a deeper dive into best practices for cybersecurity in the healthcare industry. The episode builds on the Jan. 9, 2019 blog Hindmand authored with fellow MH attorney Emily Johnson, "Guidance Recommends Healthcare Cybersecurity Best Practices"

According to the results of McDonald Hopkins' ninth annual Business Outlook Survey, the business community’s exuberance about the U.S. business climate has diminished considerably since last year.

On Jan. 25, 2019, the Supreme Court of Illinois held that no allegation of actual harm is required for an individual to bring an action for a violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). McDonald Hopkins has recommendations for precautions that any private entity doing business in Illinois which collects, purchases, or possesses biometric data should take.

McDonald Hopkins' Christine Czyuprynski answers the question "As an automotive manufacturer or supplier, what is a significant cybersecurity threat I can expect to face?" for DBusiness magazine.

McDonald Hopkins, along with Proforma, Althans Insurance Agency and the International Franchise Association, is proud to announce the formation of the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Franchise Business Network.

On Jan. 15, 2019, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Domino’s Pizza’s website and mobile application were in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act because they may not be fully accessible to a blind or visually impaired person.

5 tips for employers to consider when faced with an impending layoff or reduction in force. With the ups and downs of today’s economy, a company must be prepared to take action, if necessary, to downsize or eliminate sectors of their workforce. During what is an already difficult process, it is important that employers take certain steps to mitigate and minimize any additional risk.

McDonald Hopkins LLC today announced Amanda Rose Martin has joined its Cleveland office as an associate in the Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice Group of the firm’s Litigation Department.

South Dakota v. Wayfair fundamentally altered sales and use tax obligations for many online and remote merchants. States are now free to require online and remote sellers to collect sales tax from their customers based solely upon in-state economic activity, even if they do not have a physical presence in the taxing state. Below is an updated state-by-state list showing the number of in-state sales and/or in-state sales transactions required to trigger nexus and the effective date of each state’s law

On Jan. 7, 2019, McDonald Hopkins attorneys Jennifer D. Armstrong and Peter D. Welin, representing the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District, successfully defeated a relator’s petition for certiorari in a False Claims Act case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The joint-employer standard will continue to take center stage for those in the franchise industry in 2019. The joint employer standard is the concept that two business entities share sufficient control and supervision of an employee such that they may both be considered an employer and are therefore subject to mutual labor law violations. For almost the last four years, Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc. (BFI) has been the primary player in an on-going legal drama, which continues to cause a stir within the business, labor and political worlds.

As 2018 was winding down, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 28 released Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices: Managing Threats and Protecting Patients, a four volume publication identifying the top five health care cybersecurity threats and setting forth voluntary cybersecurity best practices for a wide variety of health care organizations.