LJN Newsletters

National cases of interest to your practice.

Although executive compensation has been the subject of evolving reform for several years, the bright spotlight of public attention is now focused on this issue, due in part to the bursting of the stock market bubble, the collapse of Enron, and a number of other highly publicized corporate scandals. The image of executives enjoying excessive compensation packages as revenues and earnings decline, and stock values of the companies they manage plummet, is a dangerously common stereotype.

Bullying isn't just a playground issue. In an era of declining unionization, job insecurity, and the global profit squeeze, bullying has become a serious workplace problem, even though workplace bullies usually prefer memos, informal disciplinary meetings and grinding criticism to spitballs. Left unchecked, on-the-job abuse adversely affects both employers and employees. Current legal theories, though, are inadequate to address this recent phenomenon.

Recent cases of importance to your practice.

Major investors in companies that commit violations of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act may not be immune to liability, according to a federal court sitting in the Southern District of New York. Vogt v. Greenmarine Holding, LLC, No. 02 Civ. 2059 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 1, 2004). Relying on Department of Labor (DOL) regulations, the court denied a motion to dismiss the claims of a class of plaintiffs who were terminated by a bankrupt company against the investors in the bankrupt entity.

Recent cases of importance to you and your practice.

The Supreme Court has held that Bankruptcy Code Section 330(a)(1) does not allow a Chapter 7 debtor's attorney to be compensated from the estate unless the attorney is employed by the Trustee with the approval of the Bankruptcy Court. Lamie v. United States Trustee, 2000 WL 110846 (U.S. 2004). This decision conclusively ends the controversy over the 1994 amendments to that Section, and puts Chapter 7 debtors' counsel on notice that, if not retained pursuant to Section 327, they are on their own with respect to fees.

In last month's issue, we discussed the fact that bankruptcy lawyers may think they do not have to worry about the rules of evidence ' and we then went on to prove otherwise. The Federal Rules of Evidence apply to most issues that arise in bankruptcy cases, according to Rule 9017 of the Federal rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. We discussed two of the four useful subjects under these rules: attorney-client privilege, and attorney work-product doctrine. Part Two of this article, below, discusses settlement offers and affidavits.