Current developments and recent trends in all areas of Construction Law
Below is an excerpt of an article co-authored with Robinson+Cole Health Law Group lawyer Conor O. Duffy and published in Healthcare Facilities Today on March 31, 2021.
The need to update and implement new processes for delivering healthcare in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the adoption of more automation, remote access and…
Below in an excerpt from a legal update authored by Robinson+Cole Labor and Employment Group lawyers Natale V. DiNatale and Kayla N. West that was issued on March 10, 2021.
On March 9, 2021, the United States House of Representatives passed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. The PRO Act (the Act), if…
This post was authored by Jonathan Schaefer, who is a member of Robinson+Cole’s Environmental, Energy + Telecommunications Group. Jon focuses his practice on environmental compliance counseling, occupational health and safety, permitting, site remediation, and litigation related to federal and state regulatory programs.
The results of a recently published study show that construction workers in Texas were more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to the general population. An equally problematic finding is that the increased hospitalization of construction workers resulted in greater community spread of COVID-19. This study and its findings are a much-needed reminder to stay vigilant and continue to monitor and enforce COVID-19 safety precautions and guidelines.
Continue Reading Study Findings Reinforce Need for Construction Industry to Stay Vigilant and Committed to COVID-19 Restrictions and Protecting Workers
As our previous post stated, the commercial use of drones, or small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), for urban real estate and construction has gained some traction with the passage of the New York City Council’s bill requiring the Department of Buildings (DOB) to study the feasibility of using sUAS to inspect building facades. With this new bill, as well as other metropolitan cities surely following suit, one of the biggest issues on the forefront for the public at large is privacy.
Continue Reading Guidance on Using Drones for Real Estate and Construction in Dense Cities: How Much Does the Public Value Privacy? (Part II)
Singapore analytics and acoustic solutions company H3 Zoom.AI’s founder, Shaun Koo, began using drones for building inspection and facilities management after realizing that the city’s highly urban landscape was “overdue for digital technology disruption.” For example, traditional building facade inspection involves workers tethered to ropes or on gondola lifts, scaling high and/or remote areas to inspect or take photographs. This manual process is risky and allows room for human error.
Continue Reading Singapore Company Introduces Drones to Urban Building Inspection
This post was authored by Jonathan Schaefer, who is a member of Robinson+Cole’s Environmental, Energy + Telecommunications Group. Jon focuses his practice on environmental compliance counseling, occupational health and safety, permitting, site remediation, and litigation related to federal and state regulatory programs.
Continue Reading AIHA Releases COVID-19 Guidelines for Construction Industry
This post was co-authored with Jonathan Schaefer, who is a member of Robinson+Cole’s Environmental, Energy + Telecommunications Group. Jon focuses his practice on environmental compliance counseling, occupational health and safety, permitting, site remediation, and litigation related to federal and state regulatory programs.
Continue Reading OSHA’s COVID-19 Guidelines for the Construction Industry are Generally Consistent with New York State’s and New York City’s Existing Guidelines
As the Coronavirus has encapsulated the world, government go-aheads to construction firms are welcome relief to the industry. Lenders’ collective reaction to the current economic concerns is another matter. Future financing is always imperative to ensure ongoing construction as well as new projects.
Government responses are changing by the day, but the Federal Reserve (the Fed) has acted decisively and thoroughly in response to the economic threats following the Coronavirus outbreak. Staying true to its Congressional mandate to “promote maximum employment and stable prices, along with its responsibilities to promote the stability of the financial system,” the Fed has devised numerous strategies to meet the persistent demand for redemptions and infuse money into the market. It has cut interest rates to zero, coordinated with other central banks to encourage purchases of the U.S. dollar, committed to purchasing an unlimited amount of U.S. Treasury’s and mortgage-backed securities, and explicitly encouraged banks to reduce their reserves held against demand deposits (by eliminating entirely reserve requirements).
Continue Reading The Federal Reserve’s Powers to Pave the Way for Continued Development and Construction Through COVID-19
On September 25, 2019, OSHA issued a final rule approving two additional quantitative fit testing protocols for inclusion in appendix A of the Respiratory Protection Standard. These protocols are:
Both protocols are variations of the original OSHA-approved ambient aerosol CNC protocol, but have fewer test exercises, shorter exercise duration, and a more streamlined sampling sequence. The new rule became effective September 26, 2019.
Continue Reading OSHA Approves New Respiratory Fit Testing Protocols
The United States Treasury Department came out with a report last week that concludes that business email compromises (BEC) are costing U.S. companies more than $301 million per month. The report confirms that the two industries hit the hardest by these scams are manufacturing and construction.
The report, issued by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, reports that 1,100 BEC scams occurred each month against U.S. companies in 2018, which is an increase from 500 per month in 2016. The BECs cost U.S. companies $301 million per month, which is an increase from $110 million per month in 2016.
The scams outlined in the report are the same ones that we see every day. They start with phishing schemes to an executive in the company, then the intruder either impersonates the executive to request other members of the company to send information or money, or they follow the executive’s email, forward it to a Gmail account without the knowledge of the executive, and start to follow the email trails to determine who the executive and business are doing business with, who the vendors and third parties are, and to whom the company owes money. They are patient, and at just the right time, the intruder copies the signature line of the executive, and requests that Accounts Payable wire a known vendor tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to a bank account that the fraudster drains after the money is wired.
Continue Reading Business Email Compromises Bilking U.S. Companies Out of $301M Per Month
