Features
Expansion of Right of Publicity Continues To Create Tensions with First Amendment
Broadly defined, the right of publicity is a person's right to control the commercial use of his or her identity. It has been over half a century since the term "right of publicity" was first coined by Judge Jerome Frank in 1953. Since that time, courts have been struggling to define the scope of the right of publicity protection, and to resolve the inherent conflicts between the right of publicity and the freedom of expression embodied in the First Amendment.
Features
Taxpayer Suffers SILO (Pre-tax) Loss in Wells Fargo
In <i>Wells Fargo & Company v. United States</i>, a court considered for the first time SILOs involving domestic municipal transit agency lessees. While one would have thought that the domestic and federally approved nature of the transactions would have some influence on the decision, they did not.
Features
Managing the Compensable Workday in a New Electronic World
What is work? When does the workday begin and end? These seemingly easy questions are not so easy anymore. Here's why.
Features
Gross Leasable Area and Excluded Area
In an environment where it has become increasingly difficult for landlords to lease space in their retail projects, landlords have employed a new strategy to compensate for the ever increasing vacant space within their retail projects.
Features
In the Spotlight: Islamic Finance and Its Impact on Leasing Transactions in the U.S.
When commercial real estate markets in this country recover, foreign funds will once again play a significant role. For that reason, it is important for every owner of commercial real estate in the United States today to know something about Islamic finance.
Features
Market Value for Property Tax Purposes in a Recessionary Market
A market value analysis for property tax purposes differs significantly from a market value analysis for other business purposes, such as financing or acquisitions. When deciding whether to file a property tax appeal and pursue the negotiation of a settlement and/or trial of your appeal, it is essential to understand this crucial difference in valuation methodology.
Features
Substantial Contribution Claims
Where a creditor retains a professional to advance a particular position in a Chapter 11 case whose efforts result in the making of a substantial contribution to the case, such creditor can potentially get reimbursed for all of its out-of-pocket expenses, including for reasonable compensation for professional services rendered.
Features
Challenges and Solutions for Electronic Billing
Coming into 2010, it has become clear that, for law firms, not only is electronic billing here to stay, but adoption by corporate clients will continue to accelerate.
Features
An Economic and Demographic Case for Alternative Fee Arrangements
We have known for some time that the law profession is aging. Until now, the effect that such aging could have on law firm revenues has been entirely masked by law firms raising hourly billing rates well in excess of general inflationary pressures, rising costs of operations and the increased experience of its practitioners. Now we are in an environment where competitive and market forces will almost certainly alter the ability to raise hourly billing rates consistent with historic patterns. The time has come to embrace alternatives to hourly pricing.
Features
Expert Witnesses
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California denied a motion to exclude the expert testimony of a witness who has worked in advertising and celebrity endorsements for more than three decades.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›