Columns & Departments
Verdicts
In-depth analysis of two recent rulings.
Features

<b><i>Online Extra:</b></i><br> Legislation to Block a 'Netflix' Tax Is Shelved Amid Opposition
A Southern California assemblyman on Monday shelved legislation that would have blocked cities from taxing streaming video services such as Netflix and Hulu.
Features

Using Forum Selection Clauses to Reduce the Uncertainty of NY's and CA's Differing Views on Non-Compete Agreements
New York enforces reasonable employee agreements not to compete. California does not. This creates a nettlesome but common situation when a New York employer has employees who work in a different state. While the issue is not limited to New York and California, the laws of New York and California — where so many entertainment companies are based — are of special interest to the industry.
Features

Support Animals As an Accommodation for Persons with Disabilities
With increasing frequency, requests for emotional-support and service animals in housing lead to disputes under the Federal, State and City Discrimination Laws that protect the disabled. The requests are often mishandled by either the housing provider, the disabled person or both.
Features

Supreme Court Rules on Design of a Useful Article
Fashion, furniture, and other design-oriented companies will take note of the Supreme Court's recent decision in <i>Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc.</i>, which resolved a division among the federal circuits on the issue of the separability of designs of useful articles under the Copyright Act.
Features

Are Pharmacy Benefit Managers' Cost-Containment Claims a Shell Game?
In today's political climate, one of the hottest topics is the rising cost of healthcare and drugs. Following the last election, all industries should anticipate change, especially in healthcare. While much of the focus is currently on whether the Affordable Care Act will be repealed, one of the areas the government continues to scrutinize is costs.
Features

<i>Decision of Note</i><br>Suit Seeking Public Doman Status for 'Buck Rogers' Can Move Forward
Team Angry Filmworks' lawsuit seeking public domain status for science fiction hero "Buck Rogers" adventures is set to blast off now that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania denied a request to dismiss filed by the trust that licenses Rogers material.
Features

Institutional Deliberate Indifference
<b><i>When a Prisoner's Health Care Is Botched, the Providers' Employer May Be on the Hook</b></i><p>Prisoner Eighth Amendment allegations of cruel and unusual punishment due to deliberate indifference to their medical needs are common; most of them go nowhere. Once in a while, though, the care provided to a prisoner is so substandard that the case actually hurdles the defendants' motion for summary judgment and makes it to trial.
Features

David Boies' Film Venture Sues over <i>Jane</i> Financing
The Boies/Schiller Film Group (BSFG), a film finance venture founded by renowned litigator David Boies and Zachary Schiller, has filed suit against investor Peter Nathaniel and his Boca Raton, FL-based investment fund Impala Partners LLC, accusing Nathaniel and Impala of misrepresentations that resulted in BSFG losing millions in its production of <i>Jane Got a Gun</i>, a 2016 film starring Natalie Portman that received middling reviews and underwhelmed at the box office.
Features

Quarterly State Compliance Review
This edition of the Quarterly State Compliance Review looks at legislation of interest to corporate lawyers that recently went into effect, and looks at some recent decisions of interest from courts in Delaware, New York, and California.
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- 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 ›
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