According to Theresa May, the UK’s recently installed prime minister, Brexit means Brexit. But what this actually means in practice is still unknown. There is still a huge amount of debate over what Brexit will look like, what process should be followed and how long it will take. Some commentators,…
Sourcing Speak
Yikes, here comes Brexit! What next for the UK’s sourcing industry?
In case you missed it, the Great British public caught the world off guard when, on 23 June 2016, a small but significant majority voted in favour of the UK withdrawing from the European Union. Much like the termination of an outsourcing agreement without detailed exit provisions and a well…
Negotiating Cybersecurity Contractual Protections for Retirement Plans
The ERISA Advisory Council1 recently announced that, as part of its goals for 2016, it will be focusing on cybersecurity issues affecting retirement plans and, in particular, the extent to which such issues relate to third-party administrators and vendors (TPAs) of retirement plans. To read what our attorneys have to…
President’s Cybersecurity National Action Plan Seeks to Leverage Private Sector Expertise for Federal Advancement
As stated by Wired, “It’s all the standard advice you’d give a tech novice,” aptly sums up the White House’s Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP) that President Obama unveiled on February 9, 2016. Announced as part of the President’s overall budget proposal, CNAP is a plea within the federal government…
An Overview of Cybersecurity Issues Affecting Retirement Plans
Retirement plan sponsors face ever-evolving cyber-related threats to plan assets and participant personal information. To combat such threats, plan sponsors should proactively assess the third-party service providers’ ability to detect, prevent and respond to cyberattacks against the retirement plan. In order to minimize a retirement plan’s overall cyber risk profile,…
PATH Act Changes to FIRPTA
Brian Wainwright • Robert S. Logan The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (the “PATH Act,” Division Q of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, P.L. 114-113, enacted December 18, 2015) made some important changes to the U.S. federal income tax treatment of U.S. real estate investments by non-U.S.…
Out with the Old, In with the New: Commercial Flexibility & Revenue Expectation in IT Outsourcing Agreements (Part 2 of 2)
Happy new year, outsourcing industry! In our last post, we posited that the new year brings an opportunity for a fresh start in structuring fundamental aspects of an outsourcing transaction. We pointed to the following mechanisms used to restrict a customer from an early exit from an IT outsourcing deal…
Out with the Old, In with the New: Commercial Flexibility & Revenue Expectation in IT Outsourcing Agreements (Part 1 of 2)
The advent of the new year provides an opportunity to contemplate a fresh start — and that’s just what is needed when it comes to structuring the fundamentals of an IT outsourcing transaction. Early IT outsourcing transactions typically involved significant capital investments by suppliers, who would often purchase the customer’s…
Say “Yes” to the Service Desk: 4 Keys to Documenting Services like a Champ
Of Silk and Services As I listened to my wife, a custom wedding dress designer, talk a hysterical bride off the cliff this past weekend, I realized the conversation sounded eerily familiar. My wife was certain that the completed dress in front of them was exactly what had been ordered…
Don’t Get Caught with your Transition Services Down (part 2 of 2)
In the first installment of this post, I posited that one factor contributing to disappointing results following a merger or acquisition is the flawed perception that transition services are not that important. I noted that this mindset may dilute the effectiveness of the post-deal enterprise(s) and result in unanticipated and…