Electronic Signatures in Government Contracting This webinar will include a brief overview of the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce (ESIGN) Act, and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA). Discussion will then focus on the experiences of Montgomery County, Maryland, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in adopting electronic signatures for use with commercial contracts, including integration with existing contracting procedures, record retention policies, lessons learned and recommended practices. Speaker: Phillip Bullard & Trevor Ashbarry

Dealing with COVID-19 Related Leave Requests and the New 100% COBRA Entitlement With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, municipalities continue to deal with leave requests from employees for various COVID related reasons.  Addressing such requests can be challenging because they may implicate various overlapping laws.  On June 24, IMLA will be presenting a webinar outlining how municipalities should handle these challenges, especially the intersection of the requirements of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Americans with Disabilities Act...

Government Disaster Declarations: 2020 Lessons Learned Karen Kennard, Shareholder of Global Law Firm Greenberg Traurig and former Austin City Attorney and Texas Municipal League General Counsel, will give a year-in-review presentation focused on lessons learned from 2020—the year of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic—and things municipal attorneys need to know regarding government emergencies and disaster declarations. Speaker: Karen Kennard

COVID-19 Litigation: Public Health Orders, Enforcement Challenges and Related First Amendment Challenges Cities, counties, and health officials across the country are facing a rapidly escalating number of lawsuits that challenge public health orders, enforcement issues and First Amendment challenges related to COVID-19. In this webinar, Deborah Fox, Chair of Meyers Nave’s Trial and Litigation Practice and First Amendment Practice, will explain the legal issues that are involved in these litigations, including complex constitutional questions regarding local and state governmental powers...

The Municipality as Shareholder: Securities Litigation in the Age of Fiscal and Social Responsibility Securities litigation is often viewed as benefiting individual shareholders who have been harmed due to misstatements, omissions, negligence, or intentional acts of public companies. But the reality is that millions of others participate in the capital markets as employees of  municipalities and local government subdivisions—counties, cities, townships, school districts, fire and police departments and more—who act on behalf of these workers as shareholders in publicly traded...

Dos and Don’ts For Advertising On Buses And Other Municipal Owned Property This webinar will examine First Amendment jurisprudence as it applies to advertising on buses and other municipally owned property including bus stops, street furniture, subways, and airports.  The webinar will provide practical pointers for drafting constitutionally sound regulations for advertising on such municipally owned property.  While the First Amendment usually requires that non-commercial speech be treated more favorably than commercial speech, the reverse is often true when looking...

What Labor & Employment Attorneys Should Understand About Human Resources! Depending on the local government, the Human Resources Department may entail a variety of areas that need sound and practical advice from a Labor & Employment Attorney and knowing how to handle when the advice is not followed.  In local government, Human Resources has to perform a balancing act – balancing what the City Manager/Mayor wants for the organization and being fair to the employees.  There are other parties such...

Bankruptcy: Help Us Put the Pieces Together Bankruptcy cases can have implications for a City beyond the collection of revenue. When that happens, the attorneys in the City of Philadelphia Law Department’s Bankruptcy Unit rely heavily on the expertise of other members of the Law Department to issue spot, educate, marshal documents and more. Achieving this type of symbiosis at the very outset of a bankruptcy proceeding is critical. The presentation will provide a brief overview of bankruptcy basics, review...

Public Records Responses: Then and Now Hilary Ruley has worked in Baltimore’s Public Records Response process for over 15 years.  In this presentation, Hilary will discuss key and current legal cases on body cameras.  This presentation will also discuss video redaction and some of the practical challenges of being an attorney involved in the public records process. Speaker: Hilary Ruley & Jen Snyder

Back to Basics: Guide to Resolving Construction Claims The construction industry has faced many unique challenges since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. As the industry adjusts to the new “normal” way of working, it is important for construction project participants to maintain their focus on the basic techniques that are effective in managing construction risks inherent to every construction project. This session will bring participants “back to basics” and provide guidelines to apply for the mitigation and...