Features
Practice Tip: The SPILL Act
Thanks to a recent act of Congress, the oil spill may be seeping into product liability law. Meet the SPILL Act.
Features
Recent Developments in Class Actions
This article reviews two cases ' one decision and one case under review by the U.S. Supreme Court ' in which class counsel sought certification of a class after a similar class was denied certification in another jurisdiction.
Features
In the Spotlight: Franchise Law
Many commercial leases involve franchises. Consequently, a dispute between a franchisor and franchisee can result in problems for a landlord.
Features
What Goes Up Can Come Down
The Dodd-Frank Act directs the Sentencing Commission to amend the Sentencing Guidelines for certain fraud offenses, just as SOX did ten years ago. Those SOX amendments led to sentences greater than under the original Guidelines Manual, and a similar result will likely follow from Dodd-Frank.
Features
Sentencing of Individuals in FCPA Cases
The DOJ exercises virtually unlimited discretion in deciding who gets charged in FCPA cases and, for all practical purposes, in deciding the amount of the financial penalty imposed against corporate violators. But sentencing of individual defendants is ultimately a matter of judicial, not prosecutorial, discretion.
Features
The Limited Scope of the Duty to Cooperate
Although it is important for both policyholder and insurer to review carefully the cooperation clause in a liability insurance policy to determine its precise, expressed scope, it also is important for the parties to recognize that ethical rules and decisional law may serve to limit the stated scope of any duty to cooperate.
Features
Don't Delay, Obtain a Stay
A recent Sixth Circuit opinion may rebuke implicitly a controversial holding of the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel in 2008, holding that the lien-stripping effect of a sale pursuant to ' 363(f)of the Bankruptcy Code could be unwound on appeal.
Features
Some Formerly in Foster Care May Now Return to the System
As of Nov. 11 of this year, under certain circumstances, some children who have aged out of the foster care system may voluntarily re-enter it.
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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 ›
- 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 ›