As we welcome 2019, the following is a recap of new laws affecting Illinois employers. Illinois Human Rights Act The Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) nowrequires all Illinois employers to advise employees of their right to be free from harassment, discrimination, and retaliation in the workplace.

As 2018 begins to wind down, it is the traditional time for industry experts to prognosticate on risks facing the construction industry. We have reviewedseveral such prognostications from the insurance and construction industries and combined it with our personal and anecdotal experience and offer the followingbrief list of issues which the Gould & Ratner Construction Practice believe could impact the industry in the coming year.

The Opportunity Zone program was created as a provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of December 2017. The program was developed with the intent to helpencourage investment in economically distressed communities – called qualified opportunity zones (QOZs) – by allowing taxpayers to invest realizedcapital gains in qualified opportunity funds (QOFs).

On August 21, 2018 the State of Illinois amended the Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act to prohibit an employer from reducing an employee’s compensationfor breaks for nursing mothers.

The U.S. Supreme Court has delivered a major victory for employers across America – ruling that mandatory arbitration agreements that contain a provision prohibiting any form of class or collective litigation are lawful.

When negotiating a construction contract, the pricing model selected to determine the cost of the project is arguably the most important decision the partieswill make.

Along with the new year came sweeping changes to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code), in the form of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (theAct). Among other things, the Act purports to lower taxes and simplify the Code.  (As appeared on Law360.com.)

The Senate and the House have each passed their own version of Tax Reform. In comparing the two bills there are many similarities, however, there are also many differences that will have to be reconciled as the two bills are merged into a single piece of legislation. It is unclear at this point how these differences will be resolved. However, the House did vote to go to conference with the Senate to reconcile the two bills.

An insidious and underreported aspect of the tax legislation winding its way through Congress this week is a provision that likely will meaningfully and negatively impact private equity transactions, the after-tax results of entrepreneurial activities, and other public and private business transactions.