Court Watch
Highlights of the latest franchising cases from around the country.
CPSC Poised to Implement Online Product Hazard Database
The CPSC is posed to unveil its own online reporting system and public database of actual and potential product hazards. Unless the CPSC implements adequate safeguards, information disseminated through the new online database may be wholly unverified.
Features
Attributes of Successful Managing Partners
Hardly a week passes without receiving information about a new publication or seminar about law office management. However, information is not readily available about what specifically managing partners and members of management committees should do to coalesce their partners, associates and staff into a well-managed and informed organization.
Features
The Alvord Decision: Why Periodic Review of Insurance Policies Is a Must for Franchisors
Franchisors, like other businesses, should periodically review their insurance policies to make certain that they understand the scope of their existing coverage and to identify (and remedy) any significant gaps in that coverage.
Features
Change As a Management and Marketing Tool
In this economic environment, the word "change" looms large in professional services dialogue. Professions can be fairly rigid and resistant to innovation. But the times seem to have accelerated the need for new ideas and structures to cope with new economic and social problems and opportunities.
Mac's Shell Service, Inc. v. Shell Oil Products: Looking for the Practical Answer
Even though franchising represents a significant part of the commercial activity in the United States and the U.S. Supreme Court regularly considers legal issues pertaining to commerce, it's rare for the Court to hear a case that is directly related to franchising. But such a rarity took place on Jan. 19, 2010, in <i>Mac's Shell Service Inc. v. Shell Oil Products Co.</i> Craig R. Tractenberg, a partner at Nixon Peabody LLP, was in attendance, and he describes the oral argument.
Alternative Fees
The desire among senior corporate counsel and management to control costs has pushed consideration of alternative fee arrangements (AFAs) to the forefront. Some estimates suggest that within five years, as much as half the Am Law 200 revenue might come from AFAs.
The 'Faithless Servant' Doctrine
Applying the "faithless servant doctrine," the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently permitted an employer to recover compensation it had paid to a high-level executive who had been the subject of numerous sexual harassment complaints by other employees.
Features
Employment Rights of Domestic Violence Victims
Several states have enacted laws to protect the employment rights of domestic violence victims, New York among them. Here's why.
Defending Spoliation Claims
The duty to adopt appropriate measures to preserve relevant evidence arises when a party receives notice of or reasonably anticipates litigation. Significantly, the preservation obligation can occur well before a lawsuit is actually filed.
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- Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTsA federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.Read More ›
- Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the RoughThere is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.Read More ›
- Compliance Officers and Law Enforcement: Friends or Foes?<b><i>Part Two of a Two-Part Article</b></i><p>As we saw in Part One, regulators have recently shown a tendency to focus on compliance officers who they deem to have failed to ensure that the compliance and anti-money laundering (AML) programs that they oversee adequately prevented corporate wrongdoing, and there are several indications that regulators will continue to target compliance officers in 2018 in actions focused on Bank Secrecy Act/AML compliance.Read More ›
- Removing Restrictive Covenants In New YorkIn Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?Read More ›
- Artist Challenges Copyright Office Refusal to Register Award-Winning AI-Assisted WorkCopyright law has long struggled to keep pace with advances in technology, and the debate around the copyrightability of AI-assisted works is no exception. At issue is the human authorship requirement: the principle that a work must have a human author to be eligible for copyright protection. While the Copyright Office has previously cited this "bedrock requirement of copyright" to reject registrations, recent decisions have focused on the role of human authorship in the context of AI.Read More ›