A webinar from DNV GL revealed findings from the firm’s global industry-wide survey “Beyond Integration” and shed light on three dynamics reshaping renewables and the grid for the energy transition.

DNV GL gathered views from more than 1,600 energy sector participants across 71 countries on a scenario in which renewables account for 70% of power sector generation. The results shed light on three dynamics reshaping renewables and the grid for the energy transition.

DNV GL’s Fliss Jones, principal author of our new Beyond Integration report, hosted the webinar to explore the findings of the research and the startling implications for electricity market participants across the world.

Fliss was joined by leading Energy Storage expert Dr. Ali Nourai and Future Grid visionary Peter Vaessen, who will explore what our findings mean for the future of electricity.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Not only does government contracting seem difficult with its myriad of rules and regulations, some people even hold the erroneous notion that the government gleefully pounces upon the innocent potential contractor in the event the tiniest regulation misstep is made, reports Federal Vesting Government Consultants in a white paper.

“This simply isn’t true,” the paper says. “The government not only actively seeks out small business participation when it buys products and services, but it also goes to great lengths and spends lots of money in outreach programs to find good, qualified small businesses to be its suppliers. For example, it will provide information that will help you bid with minimal risk. Just by asking, you can find out how much the government bought the last five to 10 times, who they bought from, and how much they paid. That information certainly wouldn’t be available from your commercial customers.”

The paper examines these procedures and rules:

• Government procedures
• Government laws and regulations
• How FASA effects you
• Chart of laws affecting government contracting
• FAR: Federal Acquisition Regulation

Read the white paper.

A free on-demand webinar from Thompson Coburn explains the background, the issues, and the rules that apply to licensing in the government arena.

Protecting one’s valuable intellectual property is critical to a contractor’s survival in the federal marketplace, and understanding the basics of licensing, as applied to both prime contractors and subcontractors, should play a major role in a contractor’s approach, the firm says on its website.

Presenters are Jeff Newman and Kevin Kercher.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Foley & Lardner partners Chanley T. Howell, Michael R. Overly, and James R. Kalyvas have published a comprehensive white paper titled: Taking Control of Cybersecurity — A Practical Guide for Officers and Directors.

The white paper describes practical steps that officers and directors should ensure are in place or will be in place in their organizations to prevent or respond to data security attacks, and to mitigate the resulting legal and reputational risks from a cyber-attack, the firm says on its website. The authors provide a blueprint for managing information security and complying with the evolving standard of care. Checklists for each key element of cybersecurity compliance and a successful risk management program are included.

Download the white paper.

Two Cozen O’Connor lawyers discuss in a white paper the waiver policies of U.S. federal enforcement agencies overseeing the financial services industry, including the U.S .Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, as well as certain others.

Linda Riefberg, a member of Cozen O’Connor’s Commercial Litigation Department, and Christopher Passavia, an associate in the Commercial Litigation Department, are the authors of the paper, which was published in Journal of Securities Operations & Custody.

The article provides some guidance to parties and counsel regarding when waiver may be necessary or advisable and concludes with support for a uniform standard that is protective of the attorney-client and work product privileges, permitting the privilege holder to make a true choice as to whether to waive, free from any obligation or pressure to waive from U.S. agencies, the firm says on its website.

Read the white paper.

In an online interview, Latham & Watkins partner Mitchell Seider outlines some of the many significant legal issues associated with restructuring of distressed exploration and production (E&P) companies and their lenders.

Seider is a partner in Latham’s New York office and global Co-chair of the Restructuring, Insolvency & Workouts Practice. He focuses his practice on business reorganizations and financial restructurings and regularly represents secured lenders, bond holders, creditors’ committees and debtors in chapter 11 cases and workouts, according to the firm’s website.

He discusses such topics as termination of oil and gas leases for non-production, liability for the costs of well plugging and abandonment, oil and gas contractor liens, and treatment of interests in oil and gas production.

Read the interview.

In light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 575 U.S. — (Mar. 25, 2015), employers have a little more clarity on whether they must make accommodations for a pregnant worker.

Burr & Forman lawyers Kathryn Willis and Matthew Scully, writing in a paper published on the firm’s website, said the plaintiff alleged that if UPS made accommodations for other workers it should have made accommodations for her.

“Both the district court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found in favor of UPS, concluding that UPS’s policy was “pregnancy-blind” and that Young was different from the employees UPS was accommodating (those injured on-the-job, lacking certifications, or “disabled” under the ADA), but the Supreme Court disagreed, vacating the Fourth Circuit’s decision and remanding for further consideration,” they wrote.

Read the white paper.

In a landmark decision delivered last month in Nabor Well Services, Ltd v. Romero, the Texas Supreme Court overturned more than 40 years of precedent and unanimously reversed the Court’s long-standing prohibition on evidence concerning a claimant’s failure to use a seatbelt, says Matt Perkins of Perkins & Associates of Shreveport, La.

The court had previously held that such evidence was inadmissible to reduce a claimant’s recovery for injuries sustained in an automobile accident, thus rendering such evidence easily susceptible to an objection on relevance grounds. (Kerby v. Abilene Christian College, 503 S.W.2d 526 (Tex. 1973); Carnation v. Wong, 516 S.W.2d 116 (Tex. 1974)) However, in Romero, the Court ultimately held that relevant evidence of use or nonuse of seatbelts is now admissible for the purpose of apportioning responsibility in civil lawsuits. (2015 WL 648858 at *17)

Recently reported in DRI:

“While the practical impact of the Court’s holding is yet to be seen, the Court’s abrupt about-face is significant and signals the Court’s willingness to revisit a rule that has outlived both its usefulness and its purpose.

“To summarize, the Texas Supreme Court held that relevant evidence of use or nonuse of seatbelts, and relevant evidence of a plaintiff’s pre-occurrence, injury-causing conduct generally, is admissible for the purpose of apportioning responsibility under the Texas proportionate-responsibility statute, provided that the plaintiff’s conduct caused or was a cause of his damages. While it can certainly be argued that the Court is over a decade late to the party, it has, nevertheless, decisively eliminated a rule many believed anachronistic, and in doing so, has added another useful tool to the arsenal of the savvy defense attorney.”

In this case, biomechanical evidence was attempted to explain why the injuries occurred, Perkins said. The district and appellate courts prohibited it, but the Texas Supreme Court said that such evidence is relevant.

Strategy& experts examine in a white paper the impact $50 oil is currently having on spending within the oil and gas products and services space.

The rapid deflation in the price of crude oil from the 2014 highs of US$100+ to current levels near $50 represents a +50% drop in less than a year, the company says on its website.” This has had a dramatic impact on the industry’s confidence and its 2015 spend programs. Reductions of 20% to 30% in capital spend are expected across the industry value chain. Though many companies and fields remain profitable at $50 prices, the free cash flow and access to capital the industry enjoyed just eight months ago have dried up.”

Strategy& is a part of the PwC network.

A free on-demand webinar offered by P2Energy Solutions shows how you can uncover hidden opportunities through reserves visualizations and get the most out of the current market.

Low oil prices have upstream oil and gas companies scrambling to remain profitable in the face of shutdowns and restructurings, the company says on its website. Deciding what to develop, acquire, or divest in volatile market conditions is a challenge. Shrewd companies, however, are identifying opportunities through sound insight enabled by modern business intelligence tools.

The 25-minute webinar covers:

• Gaining a deeper understanding of analysis techniques
• Maximizing value while minimizing costs
• Identifying the best drilling opportunities

Watch the on-demand webinar.

An all-day webinar presented by Paycor — and now offered on-demand — features a series of one-hour sessions focused on the topics that are most relevant to today’s business leaders, from the Affordable Care Act to employee engagement and retention. The series consists of six separate webcasts that can be viewed individually.

On its website, Paycor says HR industry experts and thought leaders shared their guidance and recommendations with more than 4,000 attendees.

Jennifer Bellin, vice president of marketing for Paycor, said, “We were thrilled that so many people were able to attend our HR & Compliance Web Summit this year. But, we knew that even more companies could benefit from the insights and practical advice delivered by our panel of experts. We are pleased to offer all of the sessions on our website so that others can gain a deeper understanding of the complicated HR and compliance issues affecting their organizations today.”

Watch the webcasts.

A free white paper from Silanis Inc. discusses how a well-designed process, supported by new-generation electronic signature technology, can actually reduce the legal risks and increase the enforceability of e-transactions compared to paper processes.

The ESIGN law has been in effect for over 10 years now, and it governs the minimum requirements for electronic and digital signatures. However, adopting legal electronic signatures to move business processes online without introducing new risks is not a simple task.

The fraud, repudiation, admissibility and compliance risks are challenging enough to address when executing transactions on paper. If not done properly in the electronic world, these risks can be far greater, even if e-signatures are legal.

It goes in-depth and touches on all six legal risks tied to electronic signatures and digital transactions online and what you need to do to mitigate them.

Download the white paper.

The University of California at Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment, and the Economy has posted a complimentary webinar on role of natural gas on trucking in the United States, presenting new research by the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies.

Presenters are Amy Myers Jaffe and Rosa Dominguez-Faus.

Discussion focuses on the feasibility that natural gas could be utilized to provide fuel cost savings, geographic supply diversity and environmental benefits for the U.S. heavy-duty trucking sector and explore whether natural gas can enable a transition to lower carbon transport fuels. The webinar includes a presentation and opportunity to ask questions.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Crude oil prices have fallen to four-year lows, potentially impacting the North American energy renaissance. But how did this low-price environment impact merger and acquisition (M&A) activity for oil and gas companies in 2014, and what will low oil and gas prices in 2015 mean for the future?

Deloitte presents a free on-demand webinar discussing:

• M&A deals by subsector, including upstream, midstream, downstream, and oilfield services, domestically and globally.
• Key issues and risks that buyers focus on when considering transactions.
• Insights into what recent deals reveal about future M&A activity in the oil and gas sector.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

A free on-demand webinar posted by Steptoe & Johnson provides an overview of Division Order Title Opinions (DOTOs) and how they can be utilized, with a focus on the differences from basin to basin and customization to individual producer needs.

Presenters are Kevin W. DeHart and Kacie M. Bevers.

This webcast also covers:

• An overview of the mechanics of a DOTO
• Differences in DOTOs among different basins and producers
• Benefits of DOTOs among different basins and producers
• The role of DOTOs in reducing the risk of a given producer

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Warm Thoughts Communications presents a free on-demand webinar designed to help marketers make ends meet amid falling oil prices.

The presenter is senior consultant Ed Cardell.

The webinar addresses customer questions about how fast prices fall, higher fixed prices, and developing plans to adjust budgets, as well as helping customer service reps deal with unhappy customers asking questions about their prices.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Oil & Gas Journal presents a free on-demand webcast looking at how global LNG trade will be affected over the next 12-24 months by falling crude oil prices and changing patterns and pressures of demand.

The Journal says the webinar discusses: Will US LNG production play a role in balancing markets? Or will it add to a growing global oversupply of LNG for markets remote from easier natural gas supply? Will new buyers with marginal credit, smaller requirements, or great need for flexibility begin to look attractive to suppliers? How will high-cost, mega-projects in Australia respond to new construction cost trends?

Presenters are James T. Jensen President of Jensen Associates, and James F. Bowe, Jr., Partner in King & Spalding’s Global Energy Practice.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Solar Power World offers a free one-hour on-demand webinar on financing small commercial and residential projects through smaller, less institutional funding organizations.

Panelists for the event were drawn from some of the most innovative funding organizations in the country, the provider says.

The include:

-Scott Pellegrini, AVP of  Consumer Lending, Provident Credit Union
-Scott Wiater, President, Standard Solar
-Jeff Cowherd, Senior Vice President, First Green Bank
-Scott Hawkins, Chief Financial Officer, Technology Credit Corporation
-Mike McGuire, Co-Founder, Wiser Capital

Watch the on-demand webinar.

A small business owner hiring an employee — maybe the first employee — might be confused about what should be included in an employment contract, writes Alex Lipton, a legal researcher at law technology platform provider Shake.

“Being on the hiring end of an employment relationship means it’s your responsibility to make sure that the company has a clear employment contract,” he writes. “As always, it’s a good idea to talk with an attorney, but being familiar with the basics will help you focus that conversation.”

He offers a discussion of nine of the basic components of the process.

Read the article.

Harris & Moure’s China Law Blog has a new article on what it takes to have a China contract that works — extolling the virtues of foreign companies having appropriate contracts with their Chinese manufacturers.

The article explains that “protection from China product problems rests on three legs: One, choosing the right partner. Two, having a China-specific contract. And, three, quality control monitoring. All three are important. Once you have a problem, the contract is the only thing that can save you, but to prevent the problem, all three are crucial.”

Some real-world examples illustrate the proper way to deal with Chinese manufacturing deals.

Read the article.