President Obama chose the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 ("Fair Pay Act") as the first law he signed after taking the oath of office, noting that its purpose was "to ensure fundamental fairness for American workers. " The Fair Pay Act overturns a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that a female employee's Title VII sex discrimination complaint based on unequal pay was barred for failure to file with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") within 180 days of the employer's discriminatory action that led to the pay differential. The Fair Pay Act essentially confirmed Ms. Ledbetter's argument to the Supreme Court in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire, 550 U.S. 618 (2007) and the law in nine of ten Circuit Courts of Appeal, as well as the EEOC's long-standing position, that the 180-day period for filing an EEOC charge (300 days in states with an antidiscrimination agency) begins anew each time discriminatory compensation is paid as a result of earlier discriminatory conduct.

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The collapse of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme has investors and institutions around the globe facing losses estimated at a staggering $50 billion. The list of victims include Hollywood celebrities, American sports stars, sophisticated Wall Street investors, venerable charities, and even the British Establishment – all attracted by the promise of steady annual returns.

Background

While the audacity of Madoff's scheme is unprecedented in financial history, so is the breadth and extent of the network of broker/dealers, asset managers, accounting firms, institutional investment advisors, feeder funds, hedge funds, and other collective investment vehicles which helped funnel money to Madoff's firm. Now the afflicted investors are seeking recompense -- filing scores of lawsuits against the fund collectors, facilitators advisors and investment managers, not to mention accounting firms, law firms and others who allegedly failed in their fiduciary duties to protect their clients.

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The fall from grace of Lehman Brothers, the venerable investment bank, was brutally fast. Until June 2008, it had never even reported a quarterly loss as a public company. As recently as March 2008, Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld was awarded a $22 million bonus for 2007, a generous compensation package that also reflected a year in which the bank's net profit had risen 5% to a record $4.2 billion.

Nevertheless, Lehman quickly emerged as Wall Street's next victim of the credit and subprime mortgage crises, as real estate loans and other toxic assets increasingly weighed on its balance sheet, especially after the collapse of Bear Stearns in March. Even on the eve of Lehman's collapse Mr. Fuld expressed confidence that the bank would weather the financial maelstrom in which it found itself. "We have a long track record of pulling together when times are tough,'" Fuld said on a conference call with analysts on September 10, 2008. "We are on the right track to put these last two quarters behind us." Only a few days later, Lehman filed for bankruptcy.

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In recent months, the federal government has taken numerous steps to provide assistance to struggling businesses and industries and thereby stimulate the sagging U.S. economy. These stimulus efforts have taken a number of forms, including direct investments by the federal government in the ownership interests of the troubled businesses. In conjunction with this effort, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (the "IRS") have been active in issuing interpretations intended to facilitate government investments and otherwise ease certain restrictions applicable to these industries. One primary area of focus by the Treasury and the IRS has been to address the application of existing limitations under Internal Revenue Code section 382 on the use of net operating losses, built-in losses and deductions following a corporation's change in ownership. Congress has also entered the debate over whether to restrict the impact of section 382 limitations in this context. This article summarizes the most significant recent developments in this area.

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