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The Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) space has seen several significant developments over the past year. NSW has seen guidance on modern slavery reporting further refined, signalling the importance of [...]

2023 was an active year in Canadian trademark law. Canadian Courts addressed a wide range of issues, from licensing to comparative advertising to co-branding. Notable changes also emerged from the [...]

Byline: William Kwan | The Miami Student As a new school year begins at Miami University, it can be difficult to know exactly what is going on around campus. The [...]

Restraint of trade clauses can play a vital role in protecting your business. This is especially important in an industry like the hire and rental industry where employees come and [...]

Introduction Businesses are increasingly spreading their footprint across jurisdictions, be it through the diversified locations of their assets or operations. What this means is that, if and when the need [...]

On September 26, 2022, new legislation will come into force to enhance protections for foreign workers. These regulatory amendments will impact both the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and the [...]

Contributing partner: Greg Blewitt There are several changes in the wind for Australian ESS regulation which have come into effect or will do so in the coming months. These include: [...]

People are still debating the relative merits of the “zero Covid” and “living with Covid” approaches. Hong Kong has pursued the “zero Covid” path in alignment with the mainland but [...]

For more insight on this topic, sign up for Smart & Biggar's trademark webinar 'Distinctly Canadian: Unique aspects of Trademark prosecution in Canada' this Thursday (July 14, 2022), featuring Kwan [...]

The Allianz Risk Barometer 2022 reported that natural catastrophes are now the third-highest global business risk, while climate change has moved into the sixth position. These rankings represent 25% and [...]

Temporary measures were introduced in response to COVID to allow companies to sign documents electronically and enable them to operate as close to business as usual as possible. The Corporations [...]

Byline: Jasmine Kwan When mathematics lecturer Gene Kim turned a $15 daily fantasy sports lineup into a $50,000 win in April, it would not be his last victory of the [...]

Byline: JUSTIN BONG-KWAN Lead Writer and practising barrister based in Hong Kong On the eve of the 23rd anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from Britain to China, the National People's [...]

Real estate has hit record high prices and elevated valuations in some markets. Do bank lenders have sufficient capital to withstand a large price drop? While their portfolios have a [...]

Business Interruption risk was the top ranked risk for the sixth year in a row according to The Allianz Risk Barometer 2019. As business structures become more complex, companies often [...]

Byline: Craig McTurkCheong Poh Kwan It was difficult for Ryan to have a good appetite while recovering from Covid-19 in the treatment facility. Everything he ate tasted like soap or [...]

Byline: Craig McTurkCheong Poh Kwan When Damien Tee set foot in London for his long-anticipated graduation trip in early March, he took all the necessary precautions: wearing a mask, washing [...]

As the world welcomes in the Year of the Rat, we take a look back at five recent decisions that made big waves in the Year of the Pig in [...]

So you've been asked to take a fact witness deposition in a mass tort case. Where do you start? How is this deposition different from fact-witness depositions in single-plaintiff cases? [...]

Byline: Jason Kwan There are constant reminders of an upcoming election: passing conversations, news headlines and social media posts. Voters discuss a blond, conservative incumbent, an elderly democratic socialist and [...]

The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that Americans consume more fruits and vegetables as part of an overall dietary pattern to reduce the risk for diet-related chronic diseases such [...]

Brian Castro's novel, Chinese Postman, follows the story of Abraham Quin, a 74-year-old literary professor living in the Adelaide Hills. Quin's solitude is interrupted when he receives an email from Ukraine, sparking an "epistolary adventure" with a mysterious woman named Iryna as Russia invades Ukraine. The novel explores Quin's internal musings and memories, delving into themes of aging, mortality, and cultural displacement. Castro's prose is filled with aphorisms and wordplay, creating a unique and subversive exploration of language and literature. [Extracted from the article]

"Brothers and Ghosts" is a debut novel by Vietnamese-German journalist Khuê Phạm that explores the question of identity and the struggle to understand one's roots. The story follows the narrator, Kiều, a 30-year-old Berliner who feels like an outsider in both her German home and her Vietnamese heritage. Kiều embarks on a journey to meet her estranged family in California, while the narrative also delves into the stories of her father and uncle during the 1960s and '70s. Through these intergenerational tales, the novel examines the impact of history and war on individuals and their descendants, and ultimately suggests that one can break free from the haunting of the past and start anew. [Extracted from the article]

Byline: Jason Kwan Millions of tourists flock annually to London's Trafalgar Square for its impressive statues and fountains, but on Oct. 14, there was a new center of attention: a [...]

Following the fallout from the Banking Royal Commission, we saw the inextricable link between short term performance pay and toxic corporate culture. In an effort to correct these corporate governance [...]

The history of Hong Kong under British rule is presented in a series of texts compiled from a range of contemporary sources. Hong Kong was ceded to Britain by the Treaty of Nanking signed on Aug. 29, 1842, and will be handed back to China at midnight on Jun. 30, 1997. Britain ruled Hong Kong as though it were sovereign Crown territory for more than a century yet the Hong Kong Chinese considered themselves part of China until the communist revolution in 1949. Post-1949 Chinese migrants were responsible for transforming Hong Kong into Asia's first industrial tiger.

After a false start in January, the Government of Alberta has now unveiled its revised Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP). The Province's hope is that this new program will be [...]

It has been at least four years since the idea of introducing corporate liability in Malaysia for bribery and corruption was mooted. This may soon be a reality with the [...]

Byline: Jessica Kwan UCLA's Career Center is moving to a new online career-management platform this month. Handshake, a student-created platform that launched in 2014, will replace UCLA's BruinView services for [...]

Byline: Jessica Kwan Keanu Balani wasn't sure what university to attend until they met Raja Bhattar on a tour of the LGBT Campus Resource Center. Bhattar gave them a warm [...]

2017 was a year of significant developments to Canadian IP law and practice, with important court decisions and numerous legislative amendments. We have taken the opportunity to review our top [...]

On January 23, 2015, this report was posted as an MMWR Early Release on the MMWR website (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr). Ebola virus disease (Ebola) was first detected in Sierra Leone in May [...]

An ongoing concern has been that the public might misconstrue the Fed's forward guidance about future monetary policy and underappreciate the extent to which short-term interest rates may vary with future news about the economy. Evidence based on surveys, market expectations, and model estimates show that the public seems to expect a more accommodative policy than Federal Open Market Committee participants. The public also may be less uncertain about these forecasts than policymakers., Recently, subdued levels of volatility in financial markets have received some attention. For example, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen (2014) noted that 'indicators of expected volatility in some asset markets [...]

Reducing consumption of calories from added sugars is a recommendation of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans * and an objective of Healthy People 2020. ([dagger]) Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) are [...]

Following the 2007-09 financial crisis, bank lending to businesses plummeted. Five years later, the dollar amount of bank commercial and industrial lending has finally surpassed the previous peak. However, despite [...]

Many persons underestimate the calories in restaurant foods (1). Increased attention has been given to menu labeling (ML) as a way to provide consumers with point-of-purchase information that can help [...]

Byline: Alaina Kwan Uber has been a staple for college students in Lexington since it began services here in 2014. Although Uber is still used in many Lexington lives on [...]

Authored by: Judy Kwan, Danielle Van Wert and Paul Rugani. 2016 was a high-water mark for SEC enforcement activity; however, with the uncertainties associated with the new administration's enforcement regime, [...]

Authored by Jim Kramer, Judy Kwan and Alex Talarides On February 9, 2017, the Supreme Court of Delaware summarily affirmed the Court of Chancery's decision in In re Volcano Corp. [...]

If your school jurisdiction is planning any field trips, or attending any sporting events or conferences in the United States, you are most likely considering the potential effects of Executive [...]

Delays processing immigration applications are becoming increasingly frustrating for Canadian employers. In the 2016 Parliamentary Committee Report, the Federal Government once again acknowledged that delays in processing time have a [...]

Investor aversion to risk varies over the course of the economic cycle. In the current recovery, the rebound in risk-taking is near the top of the historical range. The pace of economic growth does not appear to explain the increase in risk appetite. However, statistical research suggests that the severity of the preceding recession explains about 20% of the change in a measure of the long-term stock price-earnings ratio. And corporate profit growth appears to explain about 40% of the decline in the spread between risky and risk-free bonds., The current economic recovery has been sluggish compared with past upturns, but the stock market has posted sizable gains. Do higher stock prices mean that investors now have greater appetite [...]

On August 31, 2016, the SEC caught a break when a Ninth Circuit panel reversed Judge Manuel L. Real's bench trial verdict for defendants, former corporate officers of the now-defunct [...]

In the ongoing dispute between Michael Hallatt, a Vancouver businessman, and U.S. based retailer Trader Joe's, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (the 'Ninth Circuit') has [...]

The Federal Court of Canada recently confirmed in Starbucks (HK) Limited v. Trinity Television Inc., 2016 FC 790 (the 'Decision') that status as a charity is, in and of itself, [...]

Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Partnership ('MLSE'), the parent company of the National Hockey League's Toronto Maple Leafs, has requested an extension of time to oppose a U.S. trade-mark application [...]

In a move evidencing the SEC's continued commitment to its whistleblower program, the Commission announced on Friday that it has awarded a whistleblower over $3.5 million for providing information that [...]

A recent decision of the Canadian Trade-marks Opposition Board, Constellation Brands Québec Inc. c Sociedad Vinícola Miguel Torres, S.A., 2016 TMOB 4 ('Miguel Torres'), serves as a reminder of the [...]

In a recent address, SEC Chair Mary Jo White stated that the SEC had focused its reinvigorated investigation and enforcement efforts on holding preparers and auditors accountable for their work [...]

Routine screening of organ donors for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has made transmission of HIV through organ transplantation rare in the United States. However, despite routine screening, transmission of [...]