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Pension Plans Changes: Will Retiring Partners Shoulder the Risk?
For some firms in the Great Recession, reduced revenues combined with the overwhelming pressure from multimillion-dollar pension liabilities — a holdover from the days when pensions were simply a promise firms made to retiring partners — were too much to bear. But with the Great Recession now a decade in the past and another recession brewing, has the industry learned from its mistakes?
Features

TRO Bid in Arts Case Results in COVID-19 Rebuke from Judge
At this moment in COVID-19 time, if your case involved stopping the sale of counterfeit unicorn products on the Internet, sorry, that wouldn't be an emergency. That was the message from U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger, in a decision denying a request for a temporary restraining order filed on behalf of Art Ask Agency, the exclusive licensee for the fantasy art of British artist Anne Stokes, who is popular among the Dungeons and Dragons crowd.
Features

COVID-19: A Massive Impediment to Bankruptcy Relief
With Uncertainty As to When the Pandemic Will Ease, Bankruptcy Courts Do Not Seem to Be a Panacea Leading to Successful Reorganizations or Orderly Liquidations for Troubled Companies The impact of COVID-19 on efforts of businesses to reorganize or even orderly liquidate in bankruptcy has been swift and devastating
Features

How a Law Firm's Comp System Affects Profitability and Partner Satisfaction
Compensation systems are typically a strategic afterthought, seen as the means by which to allocate the spoils of a successful strategy. They're viewed as affecting the level of grousing among partners, but not a firm's performance. The data, however, indicates the reverse is true.
Features

COVID-19: How to Keep Cybersecurity in Mind When Negotiating Work-From-Home Vendor Contracts
COVID-19 spurred an overnight surge in demand for work-from-home vendors — from videoconferencing companies to cloud service providers. This caused some companies to rush into service contracts without fully appreciating the privacy and cybersecurity risks involved.
Features

New FCPA Decision Limits DOJ's International Reach
In recent years, we have seen the DOJ expand its international focus, as it looks to punish foreign nationals, often for conduct that occurred almost entirely outside of the territorial borders of the United States. DOJ's eagerness, however, has not been matched by judicial enthusiasm concerning the extraterritorial application of U.S. law.
Features

UMG Defense Lawyers Discuss Ruling in Artists' Suit Over Warehouse Fire
In April, a U.S. District Judge tossed a six-count, $100 million-complaint against Universal Music Group that was filed after a 2008 warehouse fire that reportedly destroyed master recordings. The class action was originally brought by or on behalf of recording artists. After the ruling, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partners Scott Edelman and Deborah Stein and associate Nathaniel Bach, who served as defense counsel in the litigation, discussed the case.
Features

Practical Tips for Securing Patent Rights for AI-Generated Inventions
While AI is rising as a key commercial player at the global scale with an expected market size of almost $400 billion by 2025, are patent laws around the world equipped to incentivize this revolution?
Features

COVID-19: Should Landlords Apply Security Deposits to Unpaid Rents?
There are currently several bills in various stages of being passed into law in several states as of early April, which would restrict, on a temporary basis, the eviction of commercial tenants from their leased premises for failure to pay rent, Whether these bills get signed into law and survive judicial scrutiny remains to be seen. The question then is whether a landlord may enforce the security deposit section of its lease and take the deposit should the tenant miss a rent payment.
Features

Avoiding Trade Secret Losses During Corporate Collaboration
Effective corporate collaborations — whether close customer relationships, supplier partnerships or formal joint ventures — demand that sensitive information be shared. Without proper agreements and well-defined boundaries, however, those corporate collaborations can lead to loss of trade secret protection and entangle the parties in litigation.
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