2023 Legislations That Could Impact Your Law Firm

Keeping up with current legislation is a must in the area of law. Lawyers should make it a priority to check the legislation daily and update themselves and their firm. Not following the legislation can lead to lawyers making many mistakes in terms of substance in their practice. Legal professionals should act by taking into account the current legislation, in their state, county and country, while preparing the petitions and creating their business environment.

Having a deep command of current legislation and being aware of important issues will always carry your law firm forward. A successful, reliable and well-equipped business should always follow the updates closely, as no client will trust a firm with old information and a firm that does its job according to the old legislation, will always come out on top. If you neglect the current rules and regulations you can subject your firm and your clients to losing money, time, cases and overall trust due to a renewed law that you may overlook. In this blog, we will review some current information from the 2023 legislation, that law firms should not bypass, that will be useful for law firms across the U.S.

Commercial Property Law: 2023 will see the first in a series of regulations as part of the government’s target to reduce emissions to net-zero by 2050. Those who are looking to renew or take on a new lease could find shrewd landlords including clauses that pass on the cost of compliance to tenants. Additionally, tenants negotiating new leases might have an opportunity to consider greater flexibility (to sub-let), paying rent monthly as opposed to quarterly, or tie rent to turnover.

Employment Law: Employee rights will continue to increase as we expect to see Bills for flexible working, the allocation of tips, and those tasked with caring responsibilities to pass. We should also see increased rights for parents of babies receiving neonatal care and enhanced protection for women on maternity leave as well as those on adoption or shared parental leave in redundancy situations.

Internet rules: A 24-year-old law that’s foundational to the internet and the social media and scape that we know today is suspected to get the U.S. Supreme Court’s attention in 2023.The high court will consider how far Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act can go to insulate the owners of internet sites from liability over user-generated content. This law keeps websites from YouTube to mom-and-pop retailers that host user reviews from getting sued over what third party posts to their sites.

Intellectual Property: Europe’s new patent regime will finally launch. The Unified Patent Court (UPC) will start operation on 1 June 2023, at the same time as European Patents with unitary effect (or simply unitary patents) become available throughout the 26 Member States. The UPC will also start to bring some much-needed consistency to patent litigation in Europe.

In essence, law firms should prioritize staying updated on any changes in laws and regulations that could affect their clients and their own operations. This can be done by regularly reviewing legal updates and attending industry conferences and events to stay informed. There are multiple websites that can be subscribed to in order to make it easier to be aware of these changes: The ABA, Legal Intelligencer, Jurist and JD Supra are a few of the most popular ones.

Keeping yourself and your firm in the loop of updates are a sure fire way to put your business in the right direction to succeed. Your clients will thank you!