The new year has ushered in major changes for many New Yorkers. Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed 730 bills into law so far this year, and 87 remain pending her review. The most significant change will impact workers in NYC and the rest of the state, with the minimum wage increasing to $16 per hour in 2024. The new laws also deal with issues from water quality to security for tenants in public housing.

For those interested in learning more about the legislative process, the Senate’s Bills and Laws page provides a detailed explanation of how the legislature works and how bills are considered. It also includes a video of how the legislation is created from start to finish.

One of the biggest trends in legal practice is the idea of “law new.” It’s a concept that’s often hard to define, but it focuses on looking at ways to deliver legal services in new and innovative ways. This can include working with underserved communities, coming up with new methods of helping clients and creating strategies that might not be a part of a firm’s normal practice.

This bill would amend the City’s data breach notification laws to make them more consistent with the requirements of New York’s SHIELD Act. Specifically, the bill would require City agencies that suffer a security breach of personal information to promptly disclose such information to affected persons and to the City’s Chief Privacy Officer and the Office of Cyber Command.

The bill also makes technical amendments to the City’s open meetings law, such as defining “public bodies” to clarify that it applies to city councils, town boards of trustees, village boards of supervisors and school boards, along with their committees and subcommittees.

New laws will also help the homeless, provide a safe harbor for teen drivers and protect college students from bias-related and hate crimes. In addition, the legislation known as Matthew’s Law will allow local pharmacies to offer fentanyl and other drug adulterant testing resources in an effort to decrease accidental overdose deaths. The law is named after Matthew Horan, a New York teenager who died from an opioid and fentanyl overdose in 2020.