Features

Legal Tech: Spring 2019 E-Discovery Case Law Review
The amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in 2015 intended to clarify some of the ambiguities that caused inconsistent rulings in e-discovery matters. One such amendment was to Rule 37(e), which seemed to indicate that courts would not levee punitive sanctions without establishing “intent to deprive.” Despite this language, though, courts continue rely on their inherent authority to issue sanctions, meaning organizations must take their preservation obligations seriously.
Features

Court of Appeals Upholds Privatization of Interior Landmark
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Law authorizes the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to designate interior landmarks as well as exterior landmarks. An interior site is eligible for designation only if the public has access to the site, but once the LPC has designated the interior landmark, can the LPC authorize its owner to close the landmark to public access?
Features

Permitted Uses: Flexibility and Adaptability
When negotiating permitted-use clauses under retail leases, landlords attempt to achieve the most comprehensive limitations possible so as to avoid conflicts with other tenants' leases and violations of exclusive-use clauses that are maintained by other tenants in the retail facility. Tenants, however, should be very careful to incorporate a certain degree of flexibility and adaptability into their leases' permitted-use clauses to take into account an evolving landscape.
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As Section 101 and the Progeny of Mayo and Myriad Continue to Wreak Havoc on Portfolios, How Is The Life Sciences Industry Fighting Back?
Since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Mayo and Myriad, the Federal Circuit has expanded the holdings and invalidated more patents directed to biological discoveries. If the newly discovered correlations and properties of what is found in nature cannot be patented, what strategies for protection are left for companies doing biological research?
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Sony Music Must Hand over Internal List over Kesha Sex Abuse Claims
As the now four-and-a-half-year-long legal dispute between Kesha and her former music producer Dr. Luke continues in New York court, a state appeals panel has decided that the pop singer can compel Sony Music Entertainment to identify people interviewed in its internal investigation that examined Kesha's claims of sexual misconduct by the producer.
Columns & Departments
Development
City Not Estopped from Preventing Construction of Building Despite Longstanding Interpretation of Zoning Resolution
Columns & Departments
Real Property Law
Broker Breaches Fiduciary Duty By Making Offer That Competes With Client<br>Amendment to Association Bylaws Not Effective Until They Are Recorded<br>Seller Entitled to Cancel Contract When It Could Not Clear Title<br>Buyer's Waiver of Defects In Title Preclude Cancellation By Seller<br>Questions of Fact Preclude Summary Judgment on Mortgage Contingency Issues<br>Broker Not Entitled to Summary Judgment on Fraud Claim By Prior Owner<br>Easement By Prescription Established
Features

Litigation Expense Deductibility: New Appellate Court Decision
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued a decision that explains some of the requirements for deducting litigation expenses. The facts of the case are bizarre, but the controlling legal principles are not.
Features

The Unlicensed Real Estate Broker in New York: Beware
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York recently determined that because New York prohibits unlicensed real estate brokers from pursuing payment in its courts for services rendered, a plaintiff who performed real estate work for a client who then did not pay had no standing to sue.
Features

Counsel Concerns: Low Sanctions Are Upheld in Lawyer's Case Over Booking Discrimination Suit
The case is rooted in an underlying lawsuit filed nearly two decades ago in New York by black music promoters Leonard Rowe and Lee King against the William Morris Agency and several other booking and talent agencies.
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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 ›