A wave of legislation designed to aid tenants during the COVID-19 pandemic has had an outsized effect on commercial landlord-tenant relations in New York City. The bill that has attracted perhaps the most attention is known as the "Guaranty Law."
Unsigned Lease Agreement Not Binding
Requirement That Tenants Speak English Supports Fair Housing Act Claim
Nonpayment During Pandemic Not Excused By Lease's Casualty Clause
Tenant's Diligent Efforts to Convert Property Satisfied Lease Obligation
No Automatic Entitlement to Special Permit
Adverse Impact on Burial Sites Justified Variance Denial
Area Variance Denial Upheld
Special Permit Grant Reinstated
State tax credits are valuable tools for helping meet the costs of producing films, TV shows, commercials, and other media and entertainment productions. But if more than one production company is involved with a project, a legal dispute can arise over which company owns the right to the tax credit funds.
The Mass. Appeals Court ruled that a legal malpractice claim brought by representatives of the iconic musician Prince's estate against an attorney and his firm is governed by Massachusetts, not Minnesota, law.
Defamation litigation crops up often in the entertainment industry. Two recent Texas Court of Appeals opinions raise issues worth noting in such cases, though each of the Texas decisions had different outcomes.
The attorney-client privilege is a critical component in the legal process but its protection is constantly being challenged in complicated corporate investigations. There are measures that attorneys should, where possible, take steps to mitigate the risk of losing the privilege.
With 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.
“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.
Insiders (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.
The 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.
While 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.
