MPL General Counsel Corner – Time to shift a bit – Focus more on Reopening & Recovering

Businesses around the country are starting to reopen and some are doing it in defiance of Governor’s mandates.  A salon owner in TX was jailed (and ultimately released) for violating a lock down order, while two PA based businesses (another salon and a gym) are back to serving customers in open defiance of the Governor’s shutdown.  The US Supreme Court also denied an emergency petition to reopen businesses in PA on Wednesday.

The momentum to open versus lock down is certainly accelerating.  As a result, I want to shift a bit to share more updates on topics around reopening and recovering.  Hopefully, these additions to our updates will spur some additional thought for you.

Here are some other things that may be important or relevant for you:

• Perhaps Business Owners Should Think About Some Estate Planning – Brian Luster from Collective Family Office provides a great overview of some Estate Planning topics to think about in the current low interest rate environment.
• New Guidance on Worksharing from the Department of Labor – Tedd Kochman from Littler provides a good recap and updated DOL guidance around the Short Time Compensation (i.e., worksharing) provisions of the CARES Act.  It may be a good way to bridge the gap from lay off to full time employment.
• Updated PPP FAQ (Questions 45):  Essentially, this clarification says that if a business returns the PPP loan in full by 5/14/2020, then they are eligible for the Employer Retention Tax Credit.
• Economic Indicators and Market Stats:  Larry Moskowitz, Certified Financial Services, shared the weekly economic indicator update from JP Morgan Asset Management.  FYI, the NASDAQ is close to being positive for the year.
• Upcoming Webinars and Helpful Resources
  • Reopening PA – I sent out a link yesterday which did not work.  It is the PA Chamber’s bringingpaback.com website to help PA business reopen.   It lists all the reopening initiatives by county as well as policy support statements and resources. 

Please see all of our prior updates at the this link or if you would like to be added to our email list, please click here. 

As always, please don’t hesitate to email myself (jsanders@mpl-law.com), Andy Miller (amiller@mpl-law.com), Christian Miller (cmiller@mpl-law.com) or anyone in our office with questions or comments.