Features

Tips for Achieving More Certainty of Specific Performance Availability
Both litigators and transactional lawyers know the basic drill: specific performance is available for breach of a contract whose subject matter is so unique that money damages will not adequately compensate the non-breaching party. But it does not necessarily follow that specific performance is generally available for breach of an agreement that involves real estate. This article discusses why and suggests some ways parties can achieve more certainty in this regard.
Features

Evolution of Pre-Bankruptcy Planning Raises Questions of Good Faith
In recent years, as extensive pre-bankruptcy planning has evolved, bankruptcy filings frequently involve affiliates of larger companies, engineered with a structuring of liabilities in mind. The question of whether these targeted filings are for a legitimate bankruptcy purpose or should be dismissed has been the subject of significant high-profile litigation.
Features

How the Texas Two-Step Changes How Plaintiffs Litigate Mass Torts
By enabling defendants to shield themselves from mass tort liability, the "Texas Two-Step" is a new obstacle for plaintiffs pursuing mass tort cases against manufacturers of dangerous products.
Features

Bankruptcy Considerations When There Is a Default On A Redevelopment Project
If economic pressures become intense and defaults are a possibility, redevelopers and their lenders will be driven to consider the unique issues presented when there is a default on a redevelopment project, including consideration of a bankruptcy filing to stave-off creditor lawsuits or real estate foreclosure
Features

Could the $18.8M Talc Verdict Threaten J&J's Bankruptcy Plan?
The verdict, which excluded punitive damages, could have been much larger. But the jury's award has the potential to threaten the $8.9 billion settlement and, as a result, a proposed Chapter 11 reorganization plan in the bankruptcy of Johnson & Johnson's LTL Management.
Features

Antitrust Actions In Entertainment Industry Sectors
The growth in size of companies dominating sectors of the entertainment industry has been subject to antitrust challenges with mixed results. What are some notable recent developments in this area?
Features

Second Circuit Affirms Slashing of Unreasonable Fees In Dismissed Involuntary Bankruptcy Case
An involuntary bankruptcy petition is a limited, risky remedy for both creditors' counsel and debtor's counsel. The fee problems encountered by counsel for the petitioners and the putative debtor in this case provide a cautionary tale.
Features

Mass. Appeals Court Holds That Email to Landlord Constituted 'Effective Notice' to Prevent Automatic Lease Renewal
Despite a provision in a commercial lease that prohibited electronic notice, the Massachusetts Appeals Court sided with a tenant in holding that an email to its landlord constituted effective notice to opt out of an automatic five-year lease extension.
Columns & Departments
Development
Court Reserves Decision Pending Further Proceedings When ZBA Produced Inadequate Findings of Fact to Support Variance Grant Landmark Designation Upheld Despite Town's Failure to Call Public Hearing Within Code's Time Limit
Features

9th Circuit Bases Attorney Fees On What Class-Action Clients Get In Hand
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit made clear its view — that class-action plaintiffs' lawyers generally should not be awarded fees that exceed the amount their clients get from a settlement — as the court struck down a $1.7 million fee award in which a copyright plaintiffs' class received less than $53,000 in an infringement dispute settlement.
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- 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 ›