Features

Early Termination Provisions: A Landlord's Saving Grace … If Done Right
The focus of this article is the “early termination provision,” a lease provision that affords landlords the tactical advantage they need. Specifically, this article seeks to: 1) guide the practitioner through the pitfalls of a poorly drafted termination provision; and 2) advise the practitioner how to craft a proper and effective termination provision.
Features

Only 30% of Workday Is Spent on Billable Hours, Report Says
U.S. lawyers are still spending too little of their workday on billable hours, a year after an eye-opening report found lawyers devoted only 29% — 2.3 hours — of each eight-hour workday to billable hours.
Columns & Departments
Bit Parts
<i>Friday the 13th</i> Screenplay Author's Copyright Termination Notice Found Valid<br>Infringement Suit over Justin Timberlake's “Damn Girl” Allowed to Proceed
Features

Meritas' New Cybersecurity Standard Requirement Assures Legal Clients
Meritas, a nonprofit association of law firms, now requires its law firm members to follow a new cybersecurity standard. The reason for this new standard? Law firms' clients.
Features

Valuation Implications of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
This article focuses on the impact of tax reform on C corporations and looks at the significant and complex changes to pass through entities.
Features

Second Circuit Rejects Use of Involuntary Bankruptcy Petition As Collection Tool
A bankruptcy court properly dismissed a creditor's involuntary bankruptcy petition “for cause” when it “would serve none of the Bankruptcy Code's goals or purposes … and [when] the sole [petitioning] creditor is not substantially prejudiced by remedies available under state law,” held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in </i>In re Murray.</i>
Columns & Departments
Upcoming Events
TexasBarCLE 28th Annual Entertainment Law Institute<br>Annual Entertainment, Sports & Media Law Institute
Features

Which Financial Representations Will Justify a Discharge Objection after Lamar, Archer?
The Supreme Court's decision in <i>Lamar, Archer & Cofrin, LLP v. Appling</i> has significantly constricted the range and nature of statements that will support a successful objection by a creditor to the discharge of a debt that was obtained by the statements in question. This constriction could have a very real impact on how entities that loan money or provide services on credit review and collect information regarding a borrower's creditworthiness.
Columns & Departments
IP News
Obviousness Determination Can Be Different for Apparatus and Method Claims<br>Petitioner “Bears the Burden” On Demonstrating Real Parties in Interest
Columns & Departments
Business Crimes Hotline
Petrobras Pays $853.2 Million to U.S. and Brazil Authorities to Settle FCPA Charges
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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 ›