In The Media

TLG’s Managing Partner Jeff Tenenbaum authored a chapter in the just-released American Society of Association Executives-published book, Professional Practices in Association Management, Fourth Edition: The Essential Resource for Effective Management of Nonprofit Organizations. The chapter is entitled, “Legal Issues in Association Standard Setting, Certification and Accreditation Programs, and Codes of Ethics.”

American Society of Association Executives

Tenenbaum Law Group’s Managing Partner Jeff Tenenbaum is quoted in this article in CEO Update about the eligibility of 501(c)(6) trade and professional associations for funding in the latest iteration of the federal Paycheck Protection Program, including the limitation on those associations that engage in significant lobbying activity.

CEO Update

Tenenbaum Law Group Managing Partner Jeff Tenenbaum is quoted extensively in this article in the Winter 2020 issue of the American Society of Association Executives’ Associations Now magazine on strategies for association CEOs for negotiating their next employment contract.

Associations Now

Tenenbaum Law Group Managing Partner Jeff Tenenbaum is quoted extensively in this article in the Fall 2020 issue of the American Society of Association Executives’ Associations Now magazine on the current state of the association meetings industry, with a focus on legal considerations. In the wide-ranging article, Jeff discusses evolving changes in hotel contract force majeure clauses, speaker contracts in the virtual conference setting, standards of care and mitigating liability risks for hosting in-person meetings, requiring liability waivers for meeting attendees, and event cancellation insurance in the current market.

Associations Now

“That’s where regulations start clashing. You can try to prevent someone with COVID-19 from entering the workplace, but the steps available remain limited,” according to Jeffrey S. Tenenbaum of the Tenenbaum Law Group, a practice specializing in nonprofit law and based in Washington, D.C. “While obviously not completely analogous, the EEOC has advised that flu vaccinations may not be mandated for all em­ployees,” said Tenenbaum. “Exceptions have to be made for re­quests for disability, medical or religious accommodation,” he said. “It is not lawful to require all employees to be vaccinated. And, it must be coupled with appropriate notice to employees. As such, the EEOC has advised that employers should consider encouraging, rather than requiring, employees to get the flu vac­cine each year.” It might evolve into a Constitutional fight if the federal govern­ment attempts to mandate citizens get vaccinated, Tenenbaum said. Even in the heyday of polio, the federal government did not mandate taking the vaccine. An example, he said, is the potential liability if a firm offers flu vaccines on premise. Even though waivers would be signed, there still are issues, such as employees feeling pressured into being inoculated by management or their peers.

The NonProfit Times

Tenenbaum Law Group is very proud to have been awarded – in its first year – the (top) Tier 1 designation in the Washington, DC metropolitan area for Nonprofit/Charities Law for 2021 by Best Law Firms/U.S. News & World Report. The firm is one of only six law firms in the region to have been granted this distinguished 2021 honor.

Generally speaking, no, according to attorney Jeffrey Tenenbaum of the Tenenbaum Law Group. Waivers “cannot hurt the association from a legal risk management perspective,” and requiring a waiver will likely help the organization, Tenenbaum wrote in a recent article. However, “waivers are regularly challenged and nullified by courts for a variety of reasons,” so it is not a good idea to rely on them as a “complete liability shield.”

Associations Now

"While it is unclear how the IRS may apply its 16-year-old guidance to the modern-day virtual trade show and whether its guidance today might be different, taken literally, it would seem a virtual trade show of any kind would not qualify for the existing trade show safe-harbor exception from UBIT,” said association attorney Jeff Tenenbaum, managing partner of Tenenbaum Law Group. “That being said, that does not automatically mean that virtual trade show income would be taxable as UBI; it would simply be ineligible for the safe harbor and subject to the standard three-prong UBIT analysis. Moreover, while the UBI exception for corporate sponsorship income does not apply to ‘qualified conventions and trade shows,’ if virtual conferences are deemed to not fall within that definition, then it may well be possible to restructure some of these business relationships as corporate sponsorships. In short, this is clear as mud."

ASAE’s Inroads