Features
What the Subprime Crisis Could Mean for Your Company
The continuing economic crisis, driven in large measure by the subprime mortgage meltdown, is affecting major segments of the economy. Not a day goes by that there is not something in the press regarding the effects of billions of dollars of mortgage failures. Criminal investigations into all industries involved in the process are underway. The Department of Justice is considering creating a task force, much in the same way the Bush Administration created the Corporate Fraud Task Force in the aftermath of the Enron failure.
Features
Monitoring Outside Litigation Counsel
This is the second in a series of articles discussing how in-house counsel can better manage litigation matters.
Features
401(k) Participants May Sue for Breach of Fiduciary Duty
In a closely watched case arising under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended ('ERISA'), the U.S. Supreme Court recently clarified the right of employees to sue plan fiduciaries for mismanaging their individual 401(k) accounts. <i>LaRue v. DeWolff, Boberg & Associates, Inc.</i>, 128 S. Ct. 467, 42 EBC 2857 (2008)
Features
When Is a Settlement Binding?
On April 5, 2007, the Court of Appeals voided a decade-old court-ordered stipulation that had settled a contested litigation over a rent-stabilized apartment. The landlord in <i>Riverside Syndicate Inc. v. Munroe, et al.</i> 10 N.Y.3d 18, was allowed to renege on a settlement on the theory that the stipulation violated public policy and unlawfully waived the tenant's rights. The ramifications of this ruling are extraordinary. A party to a court ordered settlement can reap the benefits for as long as is opportune (the court ruled that there is no applicable statute of limitations).
Features
Mixed-Use Communities: The Residential Tenant's Perspective
Before committing to membership in a mixed-use community, potential tenants should carefully review the terms contained in the community's declaration of protective covenants, conditions, restrictions, and easements. This article enumerates significant considerations that should be examined when reviewing the declarations.
Business Crimes Hotline
Recent rulings of interest to you and your practice.
Features
Attorney-Client Privilege
This article examines two issues that can arise when a company and its former officer or director are adverse to each other and one seeks access to potentially privileged documents of the other.
Features
Going It Alone
U.S. antitrust enforcement, once the impetus for numerous foreign blocking statutes, now epitomizes the type of global cooperation necessary for effective law enforcement. But the past six years offer potent counterexamples that highlight the dangers of unilateralism and disrespect for foreign sovereignty ' some relatively minor, others far more consequential.
Features
Lawyers and Money Laundering
While the duty of lawyers representing financial institutions in the U.S. is almost solely toward their clients, in the EU, lawyers have affirmative obligations to report suspected money-laundering activity to government authorities. In other words, lawyers may be involuntarily conscripted as enforcement agents or 'gatekeepers' at the institutions they represent. American lawyers in the European offices of U.S.-based 'international' law firms are not exempt.
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