Commercial Law

Features

Amendments to the Ohio Business Opportunity Law went into effect a few months ago, offering what franchise attorneys are calling a balanced approach that improves pre-sale disclosures to protect franchisees but also gives franchisors greater protection from lawsuits that cite minor, technical violations of the state's rules.

Columns & Departments

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, although 'deeply troubled' by his behavior, refused to sanction prominent entertainment attorney Marc Toberoff for alleged discovery violations during his lengthy court battle over the rights to Superman.

Columns & Departments

The 2010 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that artists can be entitled, under their pre-existing recording agreements, to half of record-label income from digital sales has triggered claims involving thousands of artists.Following are three recent developments in this litigation area.

Features

This article examines the typical DIP financing indemnification provision and the less frequently seen pre-petition indemnification provision, and examines the effect of pre-petition indemnifications on the bankruptcy estate.

Features

In January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed down its decision in <i>Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. v. United States.</i> The decision reverses the only lower court case that had decided a LILO or SILO transaction in favor of the taxpayer, and likely ends the decade-long litigation of these contentious leveraged lease cases.

Columns & Departments

Highlights of the latest franchising news from around the country.

Features

This article marks the debut of an occasional column that will provide franchise attorneys with practical advice about conducting arbitrations.

Features

In a troubling development for franchisors, a Missouri federal district court has conditionally certified a class of plaintiffs in a collective action brought against Hotshots Sports Bar &amp; Grill under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and Missouri's wage and hour laws. The ruling in <i>White v. 14051 Manchester, Inc.</i> is concerning because it holds, at least preliminarily, that employees of independently owned franchises may be considered employees of the franchisor under the FLSA, based on a common form of control exercised in most franchisor-franchisee relationships.