On December 10, 2019, GKG Law's Keith Swirsky participated as a panelist on the Aviation International News (AIN) webinar "Necessary Steps to a Successful Aircraft Transaction."  Throughout the aircraft buying and selling process, there are several steps where the deal could go sideways, including miscommunication, ethics issues, misunderstanding of regulations, and any number of traps for the unwary. During this webinar, Keith and his co-panelists discussed the planning and key actions that should be taken during an aircraft transaction in order to reduce the number of surprises, avoid costly mistakes, and in turn lead to a successful transaction experience.

Key lessons:

• Identifying and assembling the right team (early in the process)
• How to ensure a great client experience
• Preparing a checklist of action items/steps
• Timing considerations to complete the action items/steps
• Conducting the closing and post-closing follow-up
• Caveats for financial stages and regulation compliance

More information on "Necessary Steps to a Successful Aircraft Transaction" can be found here. 

On December 5, 2019, GKG Law's Oliver Krischik led a Lorman CLE webinar on the topic "Office of Foreign Assets Control Risk Assessment."  The webinar addressed the May 2, 2019 release of new guidance by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) stating that holistic sanctions “Risk Assessments” must be a part of a company’s Sanctions Compliance Program (SCP) for the SCP to qualify as a mitigating factor in enforcement decisions. These risk assessments require banks and businesses to understand (1) how individual departments and product lines might be exposed to sanctions risk, (2) how to identify high-risk transactions and parties, and (3) which of these risks can be addressed with appropriate controls. Yet, many banks and businesses continue to rely on processes that do not reflect the diverse range of sanctions programs and measures in place today.

For example, OFAC’s sanctions now country-based embargoes, lists of prohibited parties, sectoral sanctions with transaction-specific restrictions, as well as numerous general licenses that authorize certain activity with a sanctions nexus. This topic helps persons at the C-Suite, department management, and transaction review levels understand how to evaluate risks posed by parties, transactions, and entire lines of business. In addition, the material explains how companies can identify measures to mitigate sanctions risk at systemic and transaction-specific levels. Moreover, this topic covers specific issues concerning financial transactions with a historically high-risk of sanctions exposure. As OFAC continues to raise its standards for compliance practices, this information is critical for businesses to ensure that their SCP meets the new requirements and mitigates unnecessary risks across their organizations.

This webinar was hosted by Lorman Education Services.