Corporate Counsel Agenda Ohio: 2014 Survey of Ohio General Counsel

The White House initiated its third step in replacing IEEPA tariffs on Friday, July 24. Specifically, the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) published final Section 301 findings and duty rates for imports from 30 countries following its investigation of harms on the domestic industry due to forced labor in those countries’ supply chains.

The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) has adopted final rules implementing the City’s significantly expanded Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA), now referred to as the Protected Time Off Law (PTOL).

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a new inter-agency Trade Fraud Task Force (“Task Force”), designed to “aggressively pursue enforcement actions against any parties who seek to evade tariffs and other duties” and those who attempt to import prohibited goods following the DOJ’s identification of trade and customs fraud as a priority for prosecution.

Non-compete agreements are no longer considered presumptively illegal under federal labor law. On June 26, 2026, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) released advice memoranda signaling this dramatic change in how the federal government views non-compete agreements in the workplace. This is welcome news for employers who use non-competes and similar restrictive covenants to protect their businesses.