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What's New in the Law
Recent high-profile cases of interest to you and your practice.
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Taming the Tenant's Form of Lease
Accustomed to manning the ramparts in defense of its landlord client's form of lease, it is always a bit unsettling for a landlord's lawyer to be advised by its client that "for this national tenant, we must work from the tenant's form of lease." Suddenly, instead of engaging in the familiar determination of which of the tenant's requested lease revisions are acceptable to the landlord, the lawyer is faced with determining which essential provisions of a lease from landlord's perspective are either entirely or substantially missing from the tenant's form of lease and then negotiating to include such provisions.
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New York's Labor Law
Both Labor Law '240(1) and '241(6) impose a nondelegable duty on property owners to provide specified protections to workers. This duty exists regardless of whether or not the owner controlled, directed, or supervised the work. As the courts have repeatedly observed, the imposition of this duty protects workers, by placing ultimate responsibility for their safety upon owners and contractors, instead of on the workers themselves.
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Consent to Sublease
Substantial portions of commercial space are commonly available via sublease. In comparison with a direct lease (which customarily becomes effective upon execution and delivery by the Landlord and the Tenant), a sublease usually only becomes effective if and when the Sublandlord and Subtenant execute and deliver the Sublease and the Master Landlord executes and delivers a Consent to Sublease.
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Supreme Court Speaks Again on Punitive Damages
On June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court decided <i>Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker</i>, a ruling likely to fortify the view that an award of punitive damages should not exceed the amount of the compensatory award. To be sure, some will argue that there are, may be, or ought to be, exceptions; some will argue that the Court was only deciding federal common law in a maritime case and not the limits of state common law; and some may say there is still support for accepting punitive awards that exceed a 1:1 ratio.
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Yogi and Casey and Due Diligence
Yogi Berra and Casey Stengel remain icons in the lore of baseball. As attorneys, little did the authros realize that Yogi and Casey, in making their baseball remarks, were actually intending to guide us through the due diligence process that counsel deals with on a regular basis.
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LLC Interests May Constitute 'Securities'
Recently, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, in affirming convictions for securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and mail fraud, ruled in <i>U.S. v. Leonard</i>, that interests in various limited liability companies ("LLCs") onstituted "securities" for purposes of the federal securities laws. The Leonard analysis is instructive of the process that a court will follow in considering the status of non-traditional securities, such as LLC interests, under the federal securities laws.
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Realization ' Another View
For many managing partners, the practice of law is easy compared with the challenges associated with "realization": an 11-letter word that is the bane of all managing partners everywhere. And 100% realization? Well, that's the Holy Grail of law firm management. Given the choice of winning a Supreme Court case or solving the riddle of meeting their firm's realization goals, many managing partners might just tell the Chief Justices to take a hike.
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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 ›
- Risks of “Baseball Arbitration” in Resolving Real Estate Disputes“Baseball arbitration” refers to the process used in Major League Baseball in which if an eligible player's representative and the club ownership cannot reach a compensation agreement through negotiation, each party enters a final submission and during a formal hearing each side — player and management — presents its case and then the designated panel of arbitrators chooses one of the salary bids with no other result being allowed. This method has become increasingly popular even beyond the sport of baseball.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 ›
- The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year LaterThe DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.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 ›