Pardon Our Dust
We recently launched this new site and are still in the process of updating some of our archived content. Some details of this article may be incomplete, links may be broken, and other elements may not display properly yet. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
Many of our business clients are facing potential shelter in place emergency executive orders by state and local governments related to the COVID-19 virus that will shut down business operations. With emergency executive orders being entered by the hour, a team of MWC consultants has been advising clients on how to tackle these orders and effectively engaging public officials in jurisdictions across the country.
The below map depicts states where governors have issued an order requiring non-essential businesses to close and states that have yet to take that action. Governors are continuing to weigh if this type of executive action is needed in their state. Our National Practice Team is tracking the continuously evolving landscape in states across the country.
State-Mandated Closures of Non‐Essential Businesses
Two Important Takeaways
- Clients should engage before an emergency executive order is entered. When engaged, we immediately survey client business operations and determine what, if any, action is contemplated in relevant jurisdictions. Communicating with these officials before an order is crafted gives us an opportunity to argue the unique attributes of a client’s operations — these discussions very well might be reflected in the content of any future emergency executive order. Worst case — we can help the client identity allies and important decision makers in each jurisdiction as these decisions are revisited.
- In states where an emergency executive order has already been issued, please know that MWC is still able to assist our business clients. In these instances, we thoroughly review the emergency executive order in place. Most of these orders include standard exemptions for critical infrastructure jobs, like medical operations, food and drug and transportation, but there are generally also exemptions for jobs in industries designated by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency as critical infrastructure. This is an important list that provides a safe harbor for many clients. Additionally, some jurisdictions add industries of unique significance to that particular jurisdiction. As a result, a business might be allowed to keep certain lines of business open in one jurisdiction, but be forced to close in others.
These government decisions have large financial repercussions for our clients, and MWC is finding a high level of interest in these services. We have built a capability to serve our clients in all 50 states, allowing us to provide critical client service under the McGuireWoods Consulting brand.