Rather than immediately downsizing, employers are considering revamping their workplaces in response to the work from home experiment. According to Erin Fitzgerlad and Gordon Wright, panelists on Bisnow’s webinar Twin Cities Deep Dive: Future of Office, clients are rethinking how they use their space and how to make employees feel comfortable returning to work in
Today, most public hearings are conducted online or by conference call, whether before the Planning Commission, City Council, Board of Adjustments or County Board. Every unit of government has switched to some form of telephonic or video hearing format in response to the global pandemic. The good news is projects are still being approved by
Welcome to Larkin Hoffman’s new series of podcasts discussing issues affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Our senior attorneys will address corporate, employment, real estate, construction, franchise, bankruptcy, insurance, litigation, and other matters in this series. The podcasts are 15 minutes long and can be heard at your convenience. Over the next few weeks, there will
Like many states, Minnesota has an automatic approval statute, or “shot clock,” to protect applicants for zoning and land use applications. Minnesota Statutes section 15.99 requires that local land use authorities must act within 60 days of receiving a completed zoning application. If the government fails to act within that time frame, the application is
Bill Gates sounds like a prophetic voice today when talking about the day to day impact of a global pandemic and the need for diagnostic preparedness and self-quarantine. Still, his depth of understanding of the current crisis comes as no surprise to those who have watched where the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has
The Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”) provides important public funding to small businesses. The following are some of the highlights of the Paycheck Protection Program (the “Program”) which is part of the CARES Act. This Program is an expansion of the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) 7(a) loan program. The available
Construction is an essential business under Minnesota’s Stay at Home order. The order itself, has not shuttered construction projects—yet–but there are many other potential impacts of the current COVID-19 crisis on those projects including disruption of supply chains.
Most prime contracts and many subcontracts include force majeure clauses to address the impacts of unforeseen events.
In light of the coronavirus, the majority of employers are allowing, if not mandating, that employees work from home (WFH). What should employers be thinking about when arranging for employees to telecommute?
I recently wrote about the merits of using mediation as a tool to resolve business disputes relating to land and business acquisition, land development, public permitting and related conflicts. Mediation is especially helpful, in my opinion, when money is less the object in dispute and it is more so about a difference of opinion. Of
Why would any mayor want to describe his community as a “slow city”? Stefano Cimicchi is the former Mayor of Orvieto, a medieval hill town with a population of 20,000 located in central Italy. Cimicchi was one of the first city leaders to sign on to the “slow city movement” when it began in