The Route to Federal Court Clarified
While the Jurisdiction and Venue Clarification Act of 2011 does not change the jurisdictional requirements for removal, and the basic removal procedures are left largely unchanged, the Act does in-house and outside counsel a service by settling removal issues that often varied by circuit, including the first-or-last-served defendant rule, the standard for measuring the amount in controversy, and the permissibility of exceptions to the one-year bar.
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A New Philosophy for Managing Partners
An astute lawyer-manager must achieve the appropriate balance of building consensus among the partners versus managing as an autocrat.
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Managing Employee Leave under the ADAAA and FMLA
Managing employee leave has become a persistent and growing challenge at many companies. Here's why...
Four Rules for Tax-Exempt Organizations with Volunteers
As discussed last month, the use of volunteers and interns by nonprofit corporations comes with legal risks, particularly from potentially applicable wage and hour laws and from harms caused by or happened upon the volunteers and interns.
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The Supreme Court Finds Religion
The U.S. Supreme Court recently held in that the First Amendment's religion clauses provide for a "ministerial exception." In doing so, the Court promoted religious autonomy at the expense of ministers' rights and society's interest in eradicating discrimination.
When Sympathy Trumps Contractual Rights
Is "equity" more powerful than enforcing the terms of a renewal lease option in a lease between two sophisticated business entities? In <i>135 East 57th Street LLC v. Daffy's Inc.</i>, the Appellate Division, First Department, signaled that it is.
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Vicarious Liability
When is a franchisor's control over a franchisee so great that the franchisor risks being held vicariously liable for the actions of its franchisees?
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In the Spotlight: Lease Restructures
Although landlords do not want excess space to lease in a down market, there may be benefits to the landlord of a steady long-term income stream that offsets the impact of additional vacancy. In sum, for each side an early lease restructure may make sense.
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Drafting Better Commercial General Liability Insurance Requirements
A landlord generally does not want to impose obsolete or otherwise nonsensical requirements on its tenant, and a tenant generally does not want to promise to do things that are impossible. But both can regularly be found in lease insurance provisions.
Prepping for the 2010 Amendments to Article 9 of the UCC
In 2008, the Uniform Law Commission and the American Law Institute set to work on evaluating and improving Article 9. A set of amendments which were completed in May 2010 by the ULC and the ALI reflecting these efforts is ready for consideration by state legislatures. This article discusses some of the troublesome issues that prompted the work of these commercial law grandees and the solutions contemplated by the 2010 amendments.
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