This time of the year county board of education personnel offices are busy filling both professional and service positions for the fast approaching 2014-15 school year (yeah, it’s hard to believe the school year will be here soon). At the same time, the personnel offices are becoming more familiar with West Virginia Department of Education Policy 5000 as it relates to professional positions for the upcoming 2014-15 school year, many of which will be filled by the transferring of regular employee applicants. The purpose of this month’s education alert is to remind county boards of education of the “stay put” provisions for professional personnel found in W. Va. Code § 18A-4-7a. Recall that beginning in the 2012-13 school year the “stay put” provisions changed from five days to 20 days.

On September 18, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) voted to adopt its final rule establishing registration requirements for municipal advisors in accordance with the Dodd-Frank Act. This final rule went into effect on July 1, 2014. The new rule will greatly impact the ability of certain service providers, particularly broker-dealers and investment bankers, to interact with their issuer and conduit borrower clients.

Federal, state, and local governments frequently allow standby letters of credit to be used to support a variety of obligations. Typically, those agencies become beneficiaries of the letters of credit and require that the letters of credit be issued in a mandated form that the agency drafts and includes in applicable statutes, regulations or ordinances.

The Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) has issued another Special Fraud Alert, this time specifically targeting a recent trend in arrangements between laboratories and physicians. The alert describes two types of arrangements that may violate the Anti-Kickback Statute.

The United States Supreme Court has invalidated the “recess” appointments of three members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) who were appointed in January 2012 while the U.S. Senate was not in recess (Noel Canning v. NLRB, June 26, 2014). In a 9-0 decision, the Court’s order will necessarily void the decisions rendered by the NLRB from Jan. 31, 2012 through July 16, 2013 when the NLRB issued decisions without a constitutional quorum of members.

The International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) has updated its International Dispute Resolution Procedures, including its Arbitration and Mediation Rules, effective June 1, 2014. The updates—the first undertaken by the ICDR since 1996—are intended to improve efficiency in arbitration and mediation, codify long-standing ICDR practices, and introduce new provisions.

Most American companies who do business internationally know that U.S. law prohibits them from agreeing to participate in foreign boycotts that the U.S. does not sanction. Most also know that the law prohibits an American company from agreeing to language in a contract by which the company explicitly agrees not to do business with blacklisted companies. Most might even know that the law prohibits the American company from agreeing to discriminate based on race, religion, sex, national origin, or nationality.

After years of enduring a reputation as a haven for spammers, Canada has enacted one of the toughest anti-spam laws in the world. Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (“CASL”), which goes into effect on July 1, 2014, strictly regulates commercial electronic messages sent to Canadian recipients, even if those messages are sent from the United States.

In 2013, total settlement dollars from securities class actions totaled $4.8 billion. Due in part to the large sums of money involved, securities class action litigation has become an expensive proposition for plaintiff and defense counsel alike. Against that backdrop, interest in the outcome of Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund was high as the Supreme Court was going to hear a case that goes to the heart of the legal underpinnings of securities class action litigation.

On June 10, the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections heard testimony regarding the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) controversial background check guidance. Comments focused on the difficulties faced by employers in seeking to comply with the guidance, the potential risks to consumers and other employees when excluding applicants from certain positions, and the EEOC’s overly aggressive stance toward employers in devising and enforcing its policies.

On June 23, 2014, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) entered into an $800,000 settlement with Parkview Health System, Inc. (“Parkview”), a nonprofit community health system servicing northeastern Indiana and northwest Ohio for a potential Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) Privacy Rule violation arising from its handling of patient records on behalf of a retiring physician.

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) most likely knew it was going to generate headlines Wednesday when it issued a monumental decision to cancel six registrations of the Washington Redskins. The main lesson to be learned from this ruling is not necessarily from the decision itself, but from the public perception of the decision, and the impact it will have on the Washington Redskins and its trademark rights going forward. The TTAB canceled the trademark because it found that the Redskins mark is a scandalous or immoral mark, which, under the Lanham Act (the federal trademark statute) is grounds upon which registration can be refused or canceled.

Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson with the Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) recently issued a startling report explaining that Medicare inappropriately paid $6.7 billion for claims for E/M Services in 2010. These astronomical overpayments were the result of E/M services that were incorrectly coded or lacked documentation — and they represent 21% of Medicare payments for E/M services in 2010.

Beginning on July 1, 2014, several West Virginia boards of education will welcome new board members. In fact, as required by state law, the organizational meeting for county boards throughout the state will take place on July 7th. Among other things, the opportunity to service on a county board of education will be a first for many of these board members in working with the West Virginia Open Governmental Proceedings Act (“Act”). The Act defines the term “meeting” and covers, agenda and notice requirements, as well as executive session exceptions.

Four things you need to know to protect your lien rights in Ohio: know your deadline for filing the lien, know if you have to provide a “Notice of Furnishing,” know what you are signing & know what information your counsel will need to prepare a mechanic’s lien.

The Supreme Court issued an 8-0 decision yesterday unanimously holding that compliance with federal labeling statutes cannot be used as a defense to lawsuits by competitors for false advertising under the Lanham Act.

The West Virginia Supreme Court has affirmed a decision by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) regarding interpretation of narrative water quality standards. The Supreme Court affirmed a lower court order that invalidated a decision by the West Virginia Environmental Quality Board (“EQB”) that imposed effluent limits in surface coal mine water discharge permits for parameters that do not have numeric water quality standards.

A significant change is pending regarding the Internal Revenue Service’s Application for Recognition of Exempt Status (IRS Form 1023). If approved by the Treasury’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the change will enable prospective charities to apply for exemption in an expedited manner that will take less time, require less information and have a lesser user fee. The anticipated process has been compared to a highway express lane.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s appeal of a Cuyahoga County judge’s decision awarding $860 Million in damages to a class of employers has been rejected by the Court of Appeals.

The summer internship season is starting up, so it is a perfect time to evaluate your organization’s unpaid internship program. Unpaid interns can gain valuable, real world experience (tremendously helpful in this sluggish and increasingly competitive job market), and employers are often perceived to receive something valuable in return: free labor.