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Over the past week, federal and New York State laws have been enacted to require certain employers to provide paid benefits to employees who cannot work as a result of COVID-19. New York State Law Obligations As of March 18, 2020, New York State’s COVID-19 Quarantine Leave Law (Quarantine Leave Law) requires employers, with limited exceptions, to provide job protection and up to 14 days of paid quarantine benefits to employees who are unable to work because they are subject to a [...]

With the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) expanding literally by the hour, Whiteman Osterman & Hanna is doing everything possible to support the safety, health and well-being of our attorneys, paralegals and staff.  At the same time, the Firm has business continuity plans in place to ensure our ability to continue to serve our clients’ needs in the event of a disruption of our office operations or quarantine due to COVID-19.Business ContinuityIn order to ensure our ability to [...]

STATE ISSUESThe Governor of the State of NY has addressed State regulated wetlands in his budget bill proposing to do away with the regulatory freshwater wetlands maps and merely have them in place for educational purposes. This means that like the Army Corps, the State DEC staff will be able to go out in the field and identify areas as wetlands even if they do not show up on a map. Moreover, although to a degree the DEC staff have already begun doing this when reviewing how State mapped [...]

Today - Monday, December 16, 2019, New York State Department of Motor Vehicles offices will open their doors to qualified persons seeking a driver license – including undocumented immigrants - who can provide satisfactory proof of identity and state residence. This follows legislation signed into law by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo on June 17, 2019. The statute, titled the Driver’s License Access and Privacy Act, is commonly referred to as the Green Light Law. It allows all New Yorkers [...]

Just after 5:00 PM (EST) on December 6, 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that it will implement an H-1B registration process for fiscal year 2021 cap-subject petitions. The initial registration period will run from March 1 – March 20, 2020 and upends longstanding government practice for what many have referred to as “H-1B season” from January through early April each year. There are more questions than answers at this writing, but [...]