Absent Class Members Suing in State Court Are Not Bound by Prior Federal District Court Decision
Recently, in <i>Smith v. Bayer Corp.</i>, the Supreme Court addressed whether a federal court decision denying class certification had any preclusive effect on efforts by other plaintiffs to seek certification in state court under nearly identically worded state procedural rules.
Practice Tip: Lost Profits Calculations Can Be a Minefield for Practitioners
Lost profits calculations can be a very tricky proposition and are not to be entered into lightly. In the context of product liability, as in any other context, the party alleging the loss has to prove certain elements.
Protecting Confidential Information Following FCC v. AT&T
In <i>FCC v. AT&T</i>, the Supreme Court made clear that businesses that wish to protect information submitted to the government had better be ready to demonstrate that the information falls under FOIA Exemption 4. Therefore, businesses should take proactive steps to ensure that they are prepared to make such demonstration when the need arises.
Employee Benefits Administration Goes High Tech ' Almost
According to a 2009 survey conducted by the Profit Sharing/401k Council of America, over 90% of all plans surveyed offered balance inquiries and investment changes online. So what's the problem?
Features
Negative Comments About an Employer May Still Be Protected
In <i>MasTec Advanced Technologies</i>, the NLRB found that the criticism expressed by employees was concerted activity and thus protected activity under the National Labor Relations Act. Consequently, the employer's termination of the employees was deemed unlawful.
Features
NLRB Issues Final Rule on Informing Employees of Their Rights Under the NLRA
On Nov. 14, 2011, the final rule issued by the NLRB, entitled Notification of Employee Rights under the National Labor Relations Act, was scheduled to become effective. Due to resistance and apparent confusion surrounding its new employee rights notice-posting rule, the NLRB pushed back the rule's effective date by more than two months.
2011 Law Department Compensation Benchmarking Survey
News reports about the overall U.S. economy may still be trending negative, but there is good news in the results of <i>Corporate Counsel's</i> 2011 Law Department Compensation Benchmarking Survey.
Features
Communications Problems and Solutions
This article describes a handful of the communication complaints that law departments often encounter, and offers some ways to address them.
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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 ›