Firm News

Date: September 20, 2017

KPPB LAW Brings “Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Legal Diversity” to NYC for this year’s National Association of Minority and Women Law Firms Conference. Attending NAMWOLF in NYC? Stop by booth 817 today to visit with Beeraj Patel, Sonjui Kumar, Radha Thiagarajan and Kirtan Patel.

Date: September 1, 2017

EEOC files suit against Estée Lauder for sex discrimination based on its paid parental leave program which granted less paid leave to fathers than to mothers. Although the company graciously provided new mothers an additional six weeks of paid parental leave for child bonding, they ran afoul of the law when they only gave new fathers two weeks of paid leave for child bonding. The policy also supposedly provides new mothers with flexible return-to-work benefits that are not similarly provided to new fathers. EEOC Washington Acting Director Mindy Weinstein states that federal law requires equal pay, including benefits, for equal work, and that applies to men as well as women." Companies need to be mindful of not making distinctions, whether intentional or not, when creating their own employee benefits and policies. Read more about this issue If you have questions about implications related to your parental leave policies, contact Radha Thiagarajan, Employment Law Practice, KPPB LAW.

Date: August 16, 2017

Thank you GLQC for a great opportunity to get to know your members while enjoying the roof top at Ponce City Market! Attorneys from KPPB LAW’s commercial real estate staff (pictured from left to right), Alice Wei, Nichole Roche, Alyson Markovich and Samir Patel taking in the city skyline. The Georgia Lenders Quality Circle (GLQC) is a non-profit association for banks, non-bank lenders, certified development companies, and other professionals, and service providers that are active in the origination, support, management, and liquidation of government guaranteed small business loans. The association seeks to provide a forum for its membership to exchange ideas, information, and insight with each other, development companies, agency officials, and the associate members in order to strengthen the industry, and promote a better environment in which to operate and prosper.

Date: August 7, 2017

So you are busy operating your business but have a great new idea: it may be a groundbreaking product or an underserved market that should be explored. But how do you implement this idea? You and your management team are already stretched. Where does the additional capital and expertise come from? Is a joint venture the answer? Partner Sonjui Kumar and Law Clerk Jesse C. Moore explore this topic in the latest issue of Khabar Magazine’s Business Insights. Read the full article here.

Date: July 12, 2017

Georgia Trend’s Kenna Simmons recently spoke to Georgia business leaders to gather perspectives on global business trends and how the state’s strong international relationships are supporting the state’s favorable trade climate. When Simmons spoke to Sonjui Kumar, Kumar (in her role as the chair of the Georgia Indo-American Chamber of Commerce) shared her thoughts on Georgia’s relationships with India, which ranks 21st for exports and 8th for imports and how it is a big player at the Port of Savannah. Kumar noted in the article, “We know there’s a change at the federal level, but [Atlanta] is still a welcoming city — the mayor, the governor, everyone has said that we are still open for business and we are not turning away trades.” Read the full article at http://www.georgiatrend.com/June-2017/Open-for-Global-Business/

Date: July 12, 2017

The KPPB LAW team is proud to attend its 14th consecutive conference for NASABA/SABANA. The KPPB LAW attorneys attending the 2017 conference in Washington D.C. include Sonjui Kumar, Kirtan Patel, Ritu Verma Gordon and Radha Thiagarajan. For more conference information this year’s convention focus on “Monumental Strides,” visit https://www.sabanorthamerica.com/.