L.A. law firm to merge with DLA Piper

DLA Piper announced that Liner LLP, a leading Los Angeles-based boutique law firm, has agreed to merge with DLA Piper. Founded in 1996, Liner focuses on litigation, real estate, business transactions, and restructuring.

DLA Piper has an office in Wilmington.

Liner LLP will bring approximately 60lawyers to DLA Piper’s Century City and downtown Los Angeles offices with extensive experience in a range of areas, including real estate, entertainment, new media and private equity. On a consolidated basis, the combination will make DLA Piper one of the 15 largest firms in the Los Angeles market.

“We are excited about the opportunity to help build, under the DLA Piper umbrella, an even stronger presence in Southern California, Silicon Beach and beyond. This merger will give us the ability to provide our clients with the services offered by DLA Piper in New York and other important national markets, and to capitalize on their strengths and depth of practice in areas like M&A, private equity, finance, infrastructure, and sports,” said Stuart Liner, managing partner of Liner LLP. “From the very beginning of our discussions, there has been an obvious cultural fit between our firms’ respective approaches to the business of law and we have been incredibly impressed with DLA Piper’s visionary leadership.”

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German minister eyes quotas for female executives unless firms step up

BERLIN (Reuters) – A government minister on Tuesday blasted German companies for failing to add more women to their management boards, suggesting the government could impose quotas unless firms acted to boost the current rate of 6 percent.
Family Minister Katarina Barley, a Social Democrat (SPD), told the RND newspaper chain it was unacceptable that companies had failed to increase the percentage of women in leadership roles after years of promises.
“I give industry one more year to take care of the issue itself. If nothing has happened by then, we’ll have to take legislative action,” Barley told the newspapers in an interview to be published Wednesday.
“In many management boards, nothing has happened. Only 6 percent of directors are women. That can’t continue,” she said.
Barley is due to present a report to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet about representation of women in leadership positions on Wednesday.
She said she had “no problem with an obligatory quota for women on management boards”, noting that years of pledges had not changed the situation and many companies had a target of zero.
Under German law, women must comprise 30 percent of the supervisory boards of large companies. But there is no law governing the make-up of management boards.
Barley’s Social Democrats are now the junior partner to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives in a “grand coalition,” but both parties hope to forge alliances with other small parties and lead the country after a parliamentary election on September 24.
The latest Insa poll showed Merkel’s conservatives with 37 percent support, the SPD with 25 percent, and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party with 10 percent. Both the pro-business Free Democrats and the far-left Left party had 9 percent support, while the pro-environment Greens were at 3 percent.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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German minister eyes quotas for female execs unless firms step up

BERLIN, Aug 15 (Reuters) – A government minister on Tuesday blasted German companies for failing to add more women to their management boards, suggesting the government could impose quotas unless firms acted to boost the current rate of 6 percent.

Family Minister Katarina Barley, a Social Democrat (SPD), told the RND newspaper chain it was unacceptable that companies had failed to increase the percentage of women in leadership roles after years of promises.

“I give industry one more year to take care of the issue itself. If nothing has happened by then, we’ll have to take legislative action,” Barley told the newspapers in an interview to be published Wednesday.

“In many management boards, nothing has happened. Only 6 percent of directors are women. That can’t continue,” she said.

Barley is due to present a report to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet about representation of women in leadership positions on Wednesday.

She said she had “no problem with an obligatory quota for women on management boards”, noting that years of pledges had not changed the situation and many companies had a target of zero.

Under German law, women must comprise 30 percent of the supervisory boards of large companies. But there is no law governing the make-up of management boards.

Barley’s Social Democrats are now the junior partner to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives in a “grand coalition,” but both parties hope to forge alliances with other small parties and lead the country after a parliamentary election on Sept. 24.

The latest Insa poll showed Merkel’s conservatives with 37 percent support, the SPD with 25 percent, and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party with 10 percent. Both the pro-business Free Democrats and the far-left Left party had 9 percent support, while the pro-environment Greens were at 3 percent. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)


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SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Pomerantz Law Firm Investigates Claims on Behalf of Investors of GlobalSCAPE, Inc. – GSB

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 15, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of GlobalSCAPE, Inc. (“GlobalSCAPE” or the “Company”) (NYSE American: GSB). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, Ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether GlobalSCAPE and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On August 7, 2017, post-market, GlobalSCAPE announced that its Audit Committee “has been conducting an investigation into certain transactions in the fourth quarter of 2016 involving improper arrangements with customers that circumvented the Company’s internal controls.” The Company says the investigation to date has found that these “improper arrangements” resulted in the Company overstating reported amounts of accounts receivable as of December 31, 2016, and license revenue for the three months and year ended December 31, 2016, by approximately $403,000 and $396,000, respectively. The Company also announced that it “intends to effect a restatement of its previously issued financial statements through filing an amended Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and an amended Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2017.”

On this news, GlobalSCAPE’s share price fell $0.83, or 17.66%, to close at $3.87 on August 8, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP

ReleaseID: 472718

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 15, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of GlobalSCAPE, Inc. (“GlobalSCAPE” or the “Company”) (NYSE American: GSB). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, Ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether GlobalSCAPE and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On August 7, 2017, post-market, GlobalSCAPE announced that its Audit Committee “has been conducting an investigation into certain transactions in the fourth quarter of 2016 involving improper arrangements with customers that circumvented the Company’s internal controls.” The Company says the investigation to date has found that these “improper arrangements” resulted in the Company overstating reported amounts of accounts receivable as of December 31, 2016, and license revenue for the three months and year ended December 31, 2016, by approximately $403,000 and $396,000, respectively. The Company also announced that it “intends to effect a restatement of its previously issued financial statements through filing an amended Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and an amended Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2017.”

On this news, GlobalSCAPE’s share price fell $0.83, or 17.66%, to close at $3.87 on August 8, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP

ReleaseID: 472718

Source URL: http://marketersmedia.com/shareholder-alert-pomerantz-law-firm-investigates-claims-on-behalf-of-investors-of-globalscape-inc-gsb/229454

Source: AccessWire

Release ID: 229454

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SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Pomerantz Law Firm Investigates Claims On Behalf of Investors of Depomed, Inc. – DEPO

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 15, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Depomed, Inc. (”Depomed” or the ”Company”) (NASDAQ: DEPO). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, Ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether Depomed and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join
a class action]

On August 7, 2017, post-market, Depomed disclosed that the Company ”recently received a request for information from the ranking minority member of the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs related to the promotion of opioids” and that Depomed had also received ”subpoenas related to opioid sales and marketing from the Office of the Attorney General of Maryland and the United States Department of Justice.”

On this news, Depomed’s share price has fallen as much as $2.68, or 29.04%, during intraday trading on August 8, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP

ReleaseID: 472722

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 15, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Depomed, Inc. (”Depomed” or the ”Company”) (NASDAQ: DEPO). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, Ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether Depomed and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join
a class action]

On August 7, 2017, post-market, Depomed disclosed that the Company ”recently received a request for information from the ranking minority member of the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs related to the promotion of opioids” and that Depomed had also received ”subpoenas related to opioid sales and marketing from the Office of the Attorney General of Maryland and the United States Department of Justice.”

On this news, Depomed’s share price has fallen as much as $2.68, or 29.04%, during intraday trading on August 8, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP

ReleaseID: 472722

Source URL: http://marketersmedia.com/shareholder-alert-pomerantz-law-firm-investigates-claims-on-behalf-of-investors-of-depomed-inc-depo/229452

Source: AccessWire

Release ID: 229452

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SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Pomerantz Law Firm Investigates Claims on Behalf of Investors of National General Holdings Corporation – NGHC

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 15, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of National General Holdings Corporation (“National General” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: NGHC). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, Ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether National General and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On August 8, 2017, Commissioner Dave Jones ordered the California Department of Insurance “to open an investigation into recent allegations that Wells Fargo and National General Insurance improperly charged consumers for ‘force-placed’ or ‘lender-placed’ auto insurance for consumers who had auto loans with Wells Fargo.” National General was an underwriter of the insurance at issue.

On this news, National General’s share price fell $1.47, or 7.13%, to close at $19.08 on August 8, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP

ReleaseID: 472721

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 15, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of National General Holdings Corporation (“National General” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: NGHC). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, Ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether National General and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On August 8, 2017, Commissioner Dave Jones ordered the California Department of Insurance “to open an investigation into recent allegations that Wells Fargo and National General Insurance improperly charged consumers for ‘force-placed’ or ‘lender-placed’ auto insurance for consumers who had auto loans with Wells Fargo.” National General was an underwriter of the insurance at issue.

On this news, National General’s share price fell $1.47, or 7.13%, to close at $19.08 on August 8, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP

ReleaseID: 472721

Source URL: http://marketersmedia.com/shareholder-alert-pomerantz-law-firm-investigates-claims-on-behalf-of-investors-of-national-general-holdings-corporation-nghc/229451

Source: AccessWire

Release ID: 229451

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Brit firms warned over hidden costs of wiping data squeaky clean before privacy rules hit

Not enough companies understand how to properly delete the data they hold – and need to address this if they are to comply with new data protection rules, privacy and security experts have said.

Under incoming UK and European regulations, firms will be required to completely remove all the data they hold on an individual if that person requests it. They’ll also be asked to prove they’ve properly wiped their records.

This goes further than existing “right to be forgotten” rules, and there are concerns that organisations are unaware of – and unprepared for – the complexities of the new laws.

“I’m astounded by how little is known and understood about data sanitisation,” said Richard Stiennon, chief strategy officer of the Blancco Technology Group.

Stiennon is acting director of the International Data Sanitization Consortium (IDSC), which was launched this week in a bid to raise awareness.

Data sanitisation is defined as the deliberate, permanent and irreversible destruction or removal of data. The concern is that many companies might think simply restoring factory settings or wiping a chunk of data would do the trick.

That, said Stiennon, would leave companies vulnerable to hackers and data breaches – as well as compliance issues – which is “both disappointing and alarming”.

One way to achieve total data erasure would be to smash up your hard drive, but this isn’t the most practical or environmentally friendly option.

The other two best practices, according to the IDSC, are cryptographic erasure, using encryption software with an algorithm of a minimum 128 bits on the entire data storage device and then erasing the key used to decrypt the data, or data erasure, where data is securely overwritten across all sectors of the device.

Part of the problem, Stiennon said, is the confusing array of terminology, and the consortium plans to establish a common set of definitions to help tackle this. It also plans to set best practice guidance and ensure policymakers, as well as companies, use this.

Stiennon also emphasised the need for regulators to better understand the technical aspects of what is being asked of companies.

Deleting the data is hard – finding it might be harder

There is a related, and more fundamental, problem facing companies – the need to know where the data is in the first place, which is also required by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.

As Trevor Hughes, director of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, points out, most companies’ databases have not been built in a way that offers them a comprehensive, clear view of the data they hold.

“They are likely to have hundreds, if not thousands, of datasets collated from various services, countries, branches or regions, and no single view of an individual,” Hughes told The Reg. “Erasing that data is the big challenge, because you can’t just hit delete.”

One option, he said, would be for organisations to create a new database infrastructure that would allow them to do this – not to mention prove it to the regulators – but that comes with huge costs.

“The spend associated with that has been estimated at between 10x and 100x the costs spent on compliance functions,” Hughes said. Firms spending $1m on compliance could be facing bills of $10m or more for IT infrastructure changes.

But making such changes still isn’t enough when it comes to the law.

Sebastian Vollmer, director of data study groups at The Alan Turing Institute in London, said that improving the way data is collected and stored will benefit companies, too, as “clean, accurate data is much more informative and can have a much bigger impact than a dirty, huge dataset”.

However, there is still a lot of work to be done to increase awareness about data cleaning, and Vollmer said that well-documented case studies – rather than simply abstract guidelines – would be a good way to do this.

He added that he hoped the consortium would push for an open-source solution that people could use to ensure they were compliant, while avoiding “compliance-as-a-service”.

Meanwhile, Stiennon has a long list of ideas he’d like the IDSC to tackle in the longer term, including addressing the increasing amount of data collected by the automotive industry, especially how rental services should delete that information.

He’d also like to see the consortium pushing for an official standard for data sanitisation.

“The first step is to create a third-party orchestrated standard, overseen by independent committees, and make it available for people to use,” he said. Then the aim would be for this to be adopted by an official body, something he imagines would take a minimum of three years. ®

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We’ll protect local firms against unfair competition – Alan

Business News of Monday, 14 August 2017

Source: classfmonline.com

2017-08-14

Minister of Trade, Alan Kyerematen

Minister of Trade, Alan Kyerematen, has revealed that government will shield local companies from foreign competition.

“What we will do is to make sure that local industries are protected against unfair competition,” Mr. Kyerematen said at the Second National Policy Summit in Accra on Monday, August 14.

He said there are technical guidelines to define unfair competition and all efforts will be made to ensure that local firms are not at a disadvantage. He expressed worry that, “Many goods are coming into this market that does not conform to our standards which form part of the unfair competition.”

He added that imported goods that are sold below the cost of production in Ghana also constitute unfair competition and government will address all those concerns.

For him, the country will encourage free trade but, “We will make sure that we protect our local companies against unfair trade practices.”

On his part, President Nana Akufo-Addo observed that government is instituting measures to have more exports to the United States (US) under the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) to achieve a target of $500million in 2020.

He said, “Ghana’s total non-exports under AGOA for 2016 was $12 million and we aim to increase our export volumes under AGOA to $500million in 2020.”

According to Mr. Akufo-Addo, the AGOA Act was signed into law some 17 years ago and two years after the extension, to another decade. “Ghana has not extensively exploited this opportunity and accordingly not realized any significant gain,” he said.

In view of this, he indicated government is working to ensure measures are implemented for Ghanaians to take full advantage of the US market through the AGOA initiative.

He said government is in the process of finalizing a new AGOA Export Strategy and Export Plan to that effect, to boost the non-traditional exports.

This, he believes, falls in line with government’s initiative to boost the economy and create numerous jobs for Ghanaians.

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Firms propose premium hikes in health insurance marketplace


Updated 1:48 pm, Monday, August 14, 2017

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Two insurers are proposing higher premiums for New Jerseyans who buy coverage in the federal health insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey has proposed raising premiums next year by 22 percent on average, while AmeriHealth of New Jersey wants increases ranging from 6 to 59 percent. They are the only insurers offering such coverage, though another firm plans to return to the market.

Horizon cited the uncertainty about ongoing efforts to repeal or replace the health care law as a main reason for the proposed increase, which would be its largest price hike since the law went into effect.

AmeriHealth says nearly half of its proposed increase is driven by changes to health-care provider fees.

The proposed increases must be approved by the state Department of Banking and Insurance.

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