Miscellaneous

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By Dawn Lurie

With comprehensive immigration reform on the horizon and the economy rebounding, the number of H-1B visa filings for foreign temporary professional workers is likely to significantly increase this year. American businesses recognize that to compete in the global economy, smart, competitively trained, and diverse talent is critical. In many industries, foreign workers, including H-1B degreed professionals, are an integral part of such a workforce. There are only a limited number of new H-1B visas issued each fiscal year, and how quickly they are utilized is tied to the economy and market demand. For the 2013 fiscal year, the H-1B cap was reached on June 11th 2012, five months earlier than in FY 2012 when it was not reached until November 23, 2011.Continue Reading Spring Cleaning and the H-1B Visa Cap

As companies are presented with the ever-challenging goal of achieving and maintaining brand recognition, many fashion companies are now attempting to engage consumers in both the real and virtual worlds. Gaming represents one non-traditional avenue that has undergone recent growth, as brands find value in connecting with existing and potential consumers through interactive online means.Continue Reading Game On!

Congress recently introduced the whimsically titled bill, the “Team U.S.A. Made in America Act,” which would require the United States Olympic Committee to ensure that ceremonial uniforms for the Olympic team are assembled in the United States with fabrics manufactured in the United States. Regardless of whether clothing is made in or imported to the United States, current U.S. Federal regulation requires that clothing bear its country of origin designation. Currently, around 98% of all clothing for sale in the U.S. is imported.Continue Reading Original Sin: Complying with Country of Origin Laws

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the current hyper-digital age is the ever-shrinking gap between the celebrity and everyman. Nowhere is this phenomenon more apparent than in the realm of the celebrity tweet. Twitter, the pervasive microblogging website, promises thrilling accessibility to prominent public figures, particularly in the entertainment realm. By providing seemingly unrestricted access in 140 characters or less, Twitter affords a “candid” glimpse into the day-to-day life of a celebrity that previously had been reserved for publicist-controlled edited interviews. Twitter purports to permit celebrity access that is both instant and raw, in form and in content.Continue Reading @theForefront: The Celebrity Fashion Tweet

First Orion developed PrivacyStar™, a relatively new and increasingly popular smartphone app for the Android and Blackberry. The app’s main purpose is to block unwanted calls and text messages, and to provide Caller ID for unknown callers so subscribers may take appropriate action by adding the numbers to their Privacy List. The app also provides a SmartBlock capability, which employs the data gathered from PrivacyStar™ usage to automatically block most blocked numbers; Do Not Disturb, which forwards all non-blocked incoming calls to voicemail; and more recently, SMS ID and Voice-Activated Directory Assistance functionality (in the Android smartphone).
 Continue Reading KISS MY APP: PrivacyStar™ App Helps Consumers File FTC Complaints

International arbitration is becoming the preferred method of resolving disputes in the fashion industry because international arbitration typically provides: (1) a private resolution so that the parties can still continue their business relationship in the future; (2) a neutral forum; (3) easy enforcement of the judgment throughout the world; and (4) a faster and cheaper dispute resolution than traditional litigation. Yet, not all international arbitrations are created equal.
 Continue Reading Comprenez-vous International Arbitration?

Shareholder lawsuits are practically inevitable in any going private transaction in today’s economic climate and under the current securities regulatory regime. Two major apparel companies, Gymboree and J. Crew, have recently gone private in very high profile transactions that have not unexpectedly spawned multiple shareholder lawsuits.  In connection with the proposed sale of J. Crew to Texas Pacific Group and Leonard Green & Partners, J. Crew shareholders have filed suits against the company’s management and directors alleging breaches of fiduciary duties. Shareholders similarly sued Gymboree after its sale to Bain Capital Partners, alleging breach of fiduciary duties. All companies attempting to go private can expect to be served with complaints challenging the process of negotiating an offer and the price of the offer itself within days of announcing a transaction.  However, there are several actions that companies can take when contemplating these types of transactions in order to limit exposure to this sort of costly litigation.
 Continue Reading Companies can Limit Exposure to Shareholder Litigation in Going Private Transactions

On October 28, 2010, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress promulgated the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Application of Law for Foreign-related Civil Relationships” (the “Law”). It will become effective on April 1, 2011. Until now, China’s civil code had buried its choice-of-law provisions within the substantive laws, causing uncertainty and confusion. The Law established a clearer standard of what the applicable law is in foreign-related civil relationships. The most significant provisions of the Law are summarized below.Continue Reading New Law Integrates China’s Scattered Private International Law Rules For Foreign-Related Civil Relationships

Fordham Law School has founded the world’s first Fashion Law Institute, marking a critical effort to advance the study and application of fashion law. The Institute, which officially launched September 8, 2010 during New York City’s renowned Fashion Week, will be the "primary nerve center" for all things fashion, ranging from the academic study of fashion-related legal issues to offering pro-bono legal counseling for designers in need.
 Continue Reading Fashion in the Classroom: The World’s First Fashion Law Institute Opens Its Doors

Now more than ever workers are leading double lives, only not in the way that you might expect. The old distinctions of day job and night job, or office life and home life are fading to the background as we rapidly embrace a new double life: one actual and one virtual. It is almost cliché to cite statistics detailing the staggering growth of social media, but it is nevertheless instructive. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn boast a combined 885 million worldwide users, with Facebook accounting for 56 percent of that figure despite first reaching 250 million users just last year.[1] Facebook is currently the second most visited Internet site in the United States behind Google, while MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn each place in the top 20.[2] Combine all social media and blog sites, and suddenly 22 percent of all time spent on the Internet is accounted for.[3] If use of social media has not already permeated your workplace, perhaps the next IT roll out should focus on ditching the dial-up modems.Continue Reading The Social Media Revolution: Recent Developments and Guidelines For Employers To Consider