"We are delighted with this new and inclusive definition, as it will go a long way toward ensuring that every person who seeks to build a family will have equal access to fertility treatment and related care," FLG Co-founders, Alexis L. Cirel and Eric I. Wrubel, said.

Welcome to the fall edition of the Title IX Insider. With the anticipated release of the Title IX Final Rule, the industry is bracing for drastic changes to how Title IX investigations and hearings will be conducted across the nation.

In "Is This the End of Naked Short Selling?" an article originally published in OilPrice.com and picked up by Yahoo Finance and on various social media, Warshaw Burstein is lauded for the recent court decision in favor of their client, Harrington Global Opportunity Fund.

In "Recovering Legal Fees: Who Pays When a Lawsuit Arises?", a Q & A published in Habitat Magazine, Slava Hazin, partner in the Real Estate Litigation Group, discusses who pays what when a co-op or condo board initiates a lawsuit, or is sued.

In a recent Risk Alert, the Division of Examinations of the SEC provided guidelines explaining how it utilizes a risk-based approach for selecting SEC-registered investment advisers to examine and for determining the risk areas to examine. If you have any questions concerning how to prepare or organize for an SEC examination, please contact Meryl Wiener or your regular Warshaw Burstein attorney.

Kimberly C. Lau, partner and chair of the Title IX and College Discipline Practice, suggested the following tips when considering ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools to assist with college work.

Alexis L. Cirel, founder of the firm’s Fertility Law Group and a partner in the firm’s Matrimonial Group, was quoted extensively in the "New York Metro Super Lawyers 2023 Magazine" supplement published in Sunday’s New York Times, on the issue of surrogacy.

Eric Wrubel, Partner and Chair of the Matrimonial Group and Co-Chair of the Fertility Law Group, authored an article for the New York Law Journal exploring whether a child’s views and voice play any role in a parentage proceeding.

by Rose Holden Vacanti Gilroy

Assisted reproduction has become increasingly widespread in the United States, with 73,602 children born using assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in 2020 alone. Yet, as of late, ART has not fostered much mainstream feminist action or extensive contemporary discourse within feminist legal theory.

Alexis Cirel, the Founding Partner and Chair of the Fertility Law Group, has been published in the Spring 2023 issue of Seedling Quarterly, the official newsletter of the Society for Ethics in Egg Donation and Surrogacy (SEEDS).

On February 7, 2023, the SEC’s Division of Examinations announced its examination priorities for 2023. Examination priorities are released annually and provide investors and registrants with transparency into those areas that DOE believes bring heightened risks to investors, registrants and to the integrity of the U.S. capital markets.

Bill Samuels, Partner and Chair of the Intellectual Property Group, was interviewed for Bloomberg about what might happen in a trademark case involving the Princeton Club in New York. 

William Samuels, Partner and Chair of the Intellectual Property Group, was recently interviewed for a series of articles for Super Lawyers discussing several issues related to protecting intellectual property.

Family and Fertility Law Group Partner Alexis Cirel has been published in the American Bar Association Family Advocate Magazine Fall 2022 issue. Her article, "ART Parentage, Divorce and the Marital Presumption," discusses the legal presumption of parentage based on the marital relationship and its application in the context of assisted reproduction.

Partner Kimberly C. Lau was featured in an article on Law.com as part of its "How I Made It" series.

Partners Eric Wrubel and Alexis L. Cirel have published an article on GoStork.com discussing the recent Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Sometimes, we have to wait. Many involved in New York multifamily real estate have been doing exactly that since this past February, when the Second Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals heard combined argument on appeals from dismissals of two challenges to New York’s rent stabilization laws in Community Housing Improvement Program v. City of N.Y., and 74 Pinehurst LLC v. State of N.Y.

by Meryl E. Wiener

On March 30, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Examinations (“DOE”) announced its examination priorities for 2022 (2022 Examination Priorities). Examination priorities, which are released annually, provide investors and registrants with transparency into those areas that DOE believes bring heightened risks to investors, registrants, and the markets.

by Meryl E. Wiener

A discussion of the Private Fund Adviser Risk Alert, published on Jan. 27, 2022 by the Division of Examinations of the SEC, which supplemented the compliance deficiencies observed in its earlier (2020) examination of registered investment advisers that manage private funds.

Eric Wrubel, a partner in and Chairman of the firm’s Matrimonial Group and Co-Chair of its Fertility Law Group, and Alan Pollack, a partner in the firm’s Litigation Group, have filed a complaint on behalf of their clients in Albany State Supreme Court against the CNY Fertility Center (CNY) and several of its physicians.

by Eric Wrubel

To fix the child custody system requires an acknowledgment that “the system” is broken. The legal system is ill-equipped to handle the dissolution of the family and its re-ordering post-divorce.

by Murray Schwartz

Nothing can stop the clock and keep us from getting older. But nothing so stated should force us into retirement. We older folks can rebuild, we can grow, we can flourish and most important, we can continue to make contributions to an improving world.

Partner Alexis Cirel has published an article in the latest issue of Trust & Estates magazine discussing novel legal issues prompted by scientific advances in the world of assisted reproduction.

Real Estate Partner Maxwell Breed was quoted in the Sunday New York Times "Ask Real Estate" column on the wisdom of suing your landlord. In the context of a tenant asking about recourse when a dog day care center moved into the building and the noise of dogs barking was affecting his work and personal life, the reporter writes that you could potentially sue the landlord and dog-school owner for creating a nuisance. But lawsuits are not without headaches, expenses, and there is no guarantee that you will ultimately come away a winner. Mr. Breed said: “I’ve heard it said before that litigation is the sport of kings. Are you going to hire an attorney and pay hourly rates to chase after the owner?”

The Achieving Better Life Experience Act (ABLE Act) (26 U.S.C. § 529A) allows qualified individuals with disabilities to keep Medicaid, SSI and other government benefits while saving for disability related expenses on a tax-free basis.

The White House has announced that it will remove the travel restrictions on eight southern African countries, originally imposed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 omicron variant.

Warshaw Burstein summer 2021 interns Laura Cohen, Christopher Haughey, and Matthew Zapata were recently published in the 2021 Winter edition of the New York State Bar Association's "Perspective" newsletter. "Lessons on Students’ First Amendment Rights From the Supreme Court’s Mahanoy Area School District Decision" discusses the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2021 decision Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. by and through Levy and provides guidance on American public schools’ ability to regulate students’ off-campus speech moving forward.

Fertility Law Group practice leader Alexis Cirel featured within Law.com Q&A “How I Made Partner” spotlight.

New York State has lifted most capacity restrictions on business establishments including retail, food services, gyms, fitness centers, amusement parks, entertainment, hair salons, barbershops, and offices. With some exceptions, New York State’s Reopening Guidance essentially leaves it up to each individual business to determine whether to continue to adhere to mask-wearing and social distancing requirements or to follow the CDC’s “Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People.”  

Title IX and College Discipline practice leader Kimberly Lau spoke with Chronicle of Higher Education about the complicated nature of the question: Is a fair Title IX system possible?

Fertility Law Group leader, Alexis Cirel, sat down with GoStork to discuss her journey to help develop and pass the Child-Parent Security Act.

Examination priorities are released annually. The 2021 priorities highlight nine non-exhaustive areas on which DOE intends to focus during the year.

In a new piece from Authority Magazine, matrimonial practice leader Eric Wrubel shares his top five things to keep in mind to survive and thrive during and after a divorce.

If you plan to pass your business to your offspring, there is more to keep in mind when creating your succession plan than your descendants—there is also their spouses—especially if they become ex-spouses. In a piece for Bloomberg Tax, matrimonial practice group leader Eric Wrubel lists some considerations to keep in mind.

On February 15, 2021, the Child-Parent Security Act (CPSA) became law in New York. Codified as Family Court Act Article 5-C, the CPSA is a revolutionary and sweeping new law that applies to children conceived using assisted reproductive means including gestational surrogacy. Gestational surrogacy is, an arrangement in which a woman (the “surrogate”) enters into a “surrogacy agreement” to become pregnant with and give birth to a child to whom she has no genetic connection, with the intent that someone else (the “intended parent(s)”) be the child’s legal parent.

One of former President Donald Trump's signature issues involved his strong desire to remake the U.S. immigration system in all facets. The drastic changes and controversial policies implemented, such as the border wall, child separation "no tolerance" removal policy and political asylum restrictions, were accordingly wide in scope and gained significant notoriety for their big impact.

Managing Partner Fred Cummings spoke with American Lawyer about how law firms are preparing for the anticipated process and procedure changes to immigration law under the Biden administration.

Partner Pankaj Malik and associate Melissa J. Montenes dive into a case raising novel issues that will impact New York foreclosure law. While the case is currently pending before Appellate Division, 2nd Department, once closed, it is expected to provide useful guidance in foreclosure cases and other matters where CPLR §205(a) is at issue.

Sophie Jacobi-Parisi, partner in the Matrimonial Group, joined podcast host Marcy Hahn and California-based family law attorney Jude Egan, to discuss how the pandemic has impacted child custody cases, especially relating to relocation and making decisions on educating the children.

Just when you thought you had seen every challenge 2020 could offer, we are reminded that patent fees charged by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will go up about 5% on October 2 of this year.  

This adjustment has been in development since 2018, with the USPTO noting, “The overall strategy of the Final Rule is to establish a fee schedule that generates sufficient multi-year revenue to recover the aggregate costs of maintaining USPTO patent-related operations and accomplishing the USPTO’s patent-related strategic goals.” 
 

On August 26, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted amendments to the “accredited investor” definition in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, that update and improve the accredited investor definition. The purpose of the amendments is to better identify investors that have sufficient knowledge and expertise to participate in investment opportunities that do not have the rigorous disclosure and procedural requirements and related investor protections, provided by registration under the Securities Act. The amendments are substantially as proposed by the SEC on December 18, 2019.

DivorcedMoms.com recently featured Matrimonial and Family Law partner Sophie Jacobi-Parisi’s article, “Five Reasons Why Living Through a Divorce is a Bit Like Living Through Our Current Climate.”

Eric Wrubel, partner and chair of the Matrimonial Law Department, wrote an article for the New York Law Journal, “Blurred Lines: Balancing Parenting Roles Post Divorce Amid COVID.”

In this New York Law Journal article, Ally Hack and Elizabeth Erickson review how New York Courts have handled the "head-scratching" decision in 'Fields v. Fields' in the subsequent 10 years after the case.

Read the full article.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 effected a number of tax changes that benefited high-net-worth in­dividuals and businesses. With the upcoming Presidential and other elections this November, which could deliver control of the White House and the Senate to the Democrats, a number of observers have expressed concern that many of the foregoing benefits, as well as benefits that were in effect prior to enactment of the 2017 Tax Act, may be repealed.

For this reason, and because asset values are expected to increase as the recession winds down, there are a number of steps high net worth taxpayers might consider in order to take advantage of these endangered benefits. These steps include triggering income and gain this year, accelerating asset acquisitions and like-kind exchanges, restructuring foreign and domestic business operations, and gift giving. Learn more in this alert.

Matrimonial Group Partner Sophie Jacobi-Parisi recently wrote the article, “Five Reasons Why Living Through a Divorce is a Bit Like Living Through Our Current Climate” for Thrive Global. Click here to read the article.