Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC

Executive Summary: Congress has temporarily reinstated certain income tax advantages for donations of conservation easements. These advantageous provisions are scheduled to expire at the end of 2013…more

In a newly released Order, the FCC upheld a Universal Service Administrative Company finding that a school district had violated the Commission’s competitive bidding rules by failing to weigh price as the primary factor in its…more

The Wireline Competition Bureau is seeking comment on a petition filed by the United States Telecom Association (USTelecom) for reconsideration and clarification of the FCC’s recent Rural Health Care Support Mechanism Order…more

The Wireline Competition Bureau has set the comment and reply comment deadlines for the Bundled Components Public Notice discussed below…more

The United States Court of Federal Claims recently issued an opinion confirming that § 409A of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 applies in the context of discount stock options. The case, Sutardja v. United States, is one of…more

Executive Summary: Reimbursement claim brought under ERISA sec. 502(a)(3) was akin to “equitable lien by agreement,” and therefore could not be defeated by equitable defenses that contradicted plan terms…more

Executive Summary: The Wireline Competition Bureau (“Bureau”) is seeking comment on proposed clarifications to the treatment of ineligible devices when bundled with E-rate eligible components…more

Executive Summary: ERISA “top hat” plan’s anti-alienation provision does not trump state garnishment laws. A familiar feature of ERISA is its protection of a participant’s retirement savings from creditors; ERISA requires…more

Recovery Audit Contractors (“RACs”) and other Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) contractors are charged with identifying overpayments made by Medicare to healthcare providers. However, with the increase in RAC and…more

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a report clarifying that companies can use social media channels, such as Facebook and Twitter, to disseminate material nonpublic company information under Regulation Fair…more

Do you manufacture copyright-protected goods in the U.S. for distribution in the American market and abroad for distribution at lower cost elsewhere? The Supreme Court handed down a decision March 19 with the potential to make…more

Executive Summary: Employers are required to start using the revised Form I-9 by May 7th, and staff members responsible for employee eligibility verification should be trained in changes to the form…more

ICANN, the international agency responsible for oversight of the domain name system, is scheduled to make an unknown number of new generic Top-Level Domain Names (“New gTLDs”) available in mid-2013. The process to roll out the…more

The scenario is not difficult to imagine: An employee designates her spouse as the primary beneficiary under her employer’s life insurance and retirement benefit plans. Years later, the couple divorces, and in the marital…more

Executive Summary: The Fourth Circuit expands the scope of admissible evidence in an ERISA employee benefits case. The very first principle applied in a lawsuit for benefits from an ERISA-governed employee benefit plan is…more