Learn about the emerging issues with eminent domain and understand how it affects your clients and your practice. This topic will provide updates and analysis on eminent domain topics relevant to business owners, property owners, public agencies and their attorneys. We will discuss legislation at the Federal and state levels -- such as the use of alternative project delivery methods -- that has impacted the acquisition of private property for...

Make sure you are up-to-date on recent law updates in Hawaii. Many employers are unaware of the legal responsibilities they have to their employees in regards to harassment and discrimination. They also often do not understand how to react to a situation where an employee is being harassed. This topic helps employers and their agents who are responsible for employee civil rights and protection to understand how to protect against, prevent and...

Changing employment laws, recent court decisions, and shifting agency priorities are directly impacting Washington's workforce. Local laws often vary, creating challenges for employers who do business in multiple locations. Human Resource professionals need to be aware of the latest updates in order to make the best decisions for their companies and employees. This topic will discuss current developments on cutting-edge topics affecting Washin...

Understand the application and design components of Horizontal Directional Drilling as it applies to your project. Horizontal Directional Drilling has been associated with numerous utility strikes, cross bores, damage to adjacent infrastructure, overlying settlements, and loss of drill fluid to the surrounding environment. These issues have led to costly catastrophic failures and regulatory noncompliance project shutdowns. However, pipeline, t...

Understand government contractors' OFCCP requirements and the impact of new administration. Predicting what policy changes an administration will make is difficult after a typical election year . . . and Donald Trump's successful campaign was anything but typical. President Trump has already followed through on a number of his campaign promises. One of the promises made was to relieve businesses of burdensome regulations proposed, enacted and...

Gain an understanding of the legal basis for administrative orders and how the orders are used. EPA used to hold all of the cards when it issued an administrative order. A recipient could not challenge the factual or legal basis: it could either perform the remedy or wait for EPA to file an enforcement action and bring these challenges in the context of that action. Such a course had significant risks, because the penalties could be doubled fo...

Subsurface construction is often fraught with danger and uncertainty, minimize the impact on your construction project. As consultants and engineers, we work to minimize that uncertainty and engineer solutions to make construction safer. However, in many cases, it is the unknown presence of abandoned utilities that can pose both a danger to workers and adversely affect the project schedule and costs. This topic helps the persons responsible fo...

Understand the Tennessee open meetings and public records laws and how they apply to you. The Tennessee public records law grants citizens access to governmental documents and helps ensure transparency in governmental affairs. Many practitioners, however, find the actual mechanics of the records requests to be a maze of complicated, confusing, and seemingly contradictory statutes and terminology. You will get an inside track on the current sta...

Learn about what the future may hold for the 'Waters of the United States'. The land use development process requires the identification of Federal jurisdictional waters and wetlands on a project site or along a project corridor. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) published revised definition of ‘Waters of the United States' found at 40 CFR Part 230, on June 29, 2015, effective A...

Understand how to manage conflicts of interest in the public sector. All board members, business leaders, public officials, and professionals have some type of conflict issue in their employment, even if it appears as a mere remote issue. This topic is intended to provide you with a better understanding and awareness of what is or may constitute a conflict of interest and how to avoid them. Topics will include: What constitutes a conflict of i...