KL Gates

As we find ourselves in the new financial year, a number of the key financial thresholds relating to employees have changed. Click here to view our summary of the key thresholds for the 2026/2027 financial year. From 1 July 2026, the national minimum wage has increased by 6% to AU$26.44 per hour. Award minimum wages have also risen, by 4.75%.

1 July 2026 US Asset Management and Investment Funds Alert On 30 June 2026, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) issued a Request for Comment on Novel ETFs (the RFC).

Dallas – Global law firm K&L Gates LLP welcomes Patrick Knapp as a partner in its Corporate practice. He joins the firm’s Dallas office, further strengthening its capabilities in energy-focused transactions and financings. Knapp is an accomplished corporate transactional lawyer with extensive experience advising public companies, private equity-backed portfolio companies, and family offices on mergers and acquisitions, financings, and complex commercial transactions.

The US Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Slaughter (Slaughter) marks a major expansion of the president’s power to fire leaders of independent agencies—and a corresponding shift in political control over those agencies. The Court held that the statutory for-cause removal protection for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is unconstitutional because the FTC exercises executive power and must remain subject to presidential control. The Court drew an important limit the same day in Trump v.

9 July 2026 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET via Webinar Register The regulatory foundation of the nuclear industry is undergoing its most significant shift in decades. For fifty years, the ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) standard and the Linear No-Threshold (LNT) model have been the ironclad pillars of nuclear design, operation, compliance, and cost.

29 June 2026 US Labor, Employment, and Workplace Safety Alert Washington state has significantly expanded its Fair Chance Act through legislation enacted during the 2025 legislative session (EHB 1747), which is now codified at RCW 49.94 (Amended Fair Chance Act).

London – Global law firm K&L Gates welcomes Andrew Harper as a partner in its Finance practice in London. He joins the firm from Reed Smith LLP. Harper is an asset finance lawyer, with a particular focus on fixed-wing and rotary aircraft finance and leasing transactions. His experience includes secured debt and export credit agency-supported financings and operating, finance, and tax-based lease structures, as well as aircraft sales, purchases, and portfolio transfers.

Global law firm K&L Gates LLP and its lawyers have been named among the world’s leading intellectual property practices and professionals in Managing IP magazine’s “IP Stars” 2026 rankings for the Asia-Pacific and European Union regions. Additional rankings focused on the United States from Managing IP will be released later in the year.

26 June 2026 US Policy and Regulatory Alert California’s SB 707, the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024,1 marks the first statewide extended producer responsibility program for textiles in the United States. It fundamentally shifts responsibility to companies selling apparel and textile products in California, requiring them to help build and finance a system to collect, reuse, repair, and recycle those materials at end of life.

26 June 2026 US Policy and Regulatory Alert On 22 June 2026, President Donald Trump signed two significant executive orders aimed at accelerating quantum-technology innovation while simultaneously preparing federal systems and critical infrastructure for the cybersecurity risks posed by future quantum-computing capabilities. Taken together, the orders signal an update to the National Quantum Strategy (NQS).