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High Court May Limit the Reach of the Wire Fraud Statute
On Dec. 9, 2024, the Supreme Court will hear argument in Kousisis v. United States, a case that will again review the reach of the federal mail and wire fraud statutes. At issue this time is the so-called “fraudulent inducement” theory of property fraud — namely, whether deception to induce a commercial exchange can constitute mail or wire fraud, even if the infliction of economic harm on the alleged victim was not the object of the scheme.
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'Melendez/Bochner': No Guarantee the Guaranty Law Survives Constitutional Scrutiny
After nearly four years of litigation, the Second Circuit held recently that a small commercial landlord lacked standing to seek declaratory relief against the City of New York challenging the Guaranty Law under the Contracts Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
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Fifth Circuit Rejects Majority 'Independent Economic Value' Test for Infringement Damages
Most of the federal circuit courts that have addressed what qualifies either as a "compilation" or as a single creative work apply an "independent economic value" analysis that looks at the market worth of the single creation as of the time when an infringement occurs. But in a recent ruling of first impression, the Fifth Circuit rejected the "independent economic value" test in determining which individual sound recordings are eligible for their own statutory awards and which are part of compilation.
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The Power of Your Inner Circle: Turning Friends and Social Contacts Into Business Allies
Practical strategies to explore doing business with friends and social contacts in a way that respects relationships and maximizes opportunities.
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Authentic Communications Today Increase Success for Value-Driven Clients
As the relationship between in-house and outside counsel continues to evolve, lawyers must continue to foster a client-first mindset, offer business-focused solutions, and embrace technology that helps deliver work faster and more efficiently.
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Court Rules Mere Conduit Defense Not Suitable for a Motion to Dismiss
At the motion to dismiss stage, courts usually won't consider affirmative defenses. This issue arose recently in a preferential transfer case, where a defendant sought to dismiss a complaint by arguing it was a mere conduit, not an initial transferee.
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Individual Liability of Condominium Sponsor's Principals
When are the principals of a condominium sponsor individually liable for harms suffered by purchasers? In Board of Managers of 570 Broome Condominium, the First Department declined to dismiss a condominium board's fraud and breach of fiduciary claims against individual defendants.
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Compliance and Third-Party Risk Management
To gauge the level of risk and uncover potential gaps, compliance and privacy leaders should collaborate to consider how often they are monitoring third parties, what intelligence they are gathering with and about their partners and vendors, and whether their risk management practices have been diminished due to cost and resource constraints.
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Slight Decrease In Commercial Foreclosures Hints at Market Stabilization
While the commercial real estate market faced significant headwinds in 2024, recent data suggests that the tide may be turning. The combination of lower interest rates, a decline in foreclosures, and improving market conditions offers a glimmer of hope for property owners and investors alike.
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How Secure Is the AI System Your Law Firm Is Using?
In a profession where confidentiality is paramount, failing to address AI security concerns could have disastrous consequences. It is vital that law firms and those in related industries ask the right questions about AI security to protect their clients and their reputation.
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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 ›
- 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 ›
- What Does 2024 Hold for Cybersecurity?Our annual poll of experts on the trends and developments to watch out for in 2024 in AI, data privacy, cybersecurity, e-discovery and more.Read More ›