Features

De Havilland's Loss in Docudrama Portrayal Suit
The California Court of Appeal created some First Amendment breathing room for the creators of docudramas — at the expense of legendary actress Olivia de Havilland — when the court ordered her suit against FX Networks over its Emmy Award-winning miniseries Feud be stricken under California's anti-SLAPP law, even if it did play a little fast-and-loose with de Havilland's character.
Features

Using Financial Metrics to Drive Business Development
Growing the top line requires a systematic approach that maximizes your available time and focuses you on the best opportunities. With greater clarity, you can be assertive in the pursuit of your financial objectives. With sustained focus on financial metrics, you stay in control of your book of business.
Features

Federal Circuit Reinstates Oracle's Copyright Infringement Claims Against Google, Rejecting Fair Use Defense
On March 27, 2018, in <i>Oracle America, Inc. v. Google LLC</i>, the Federal Circuit overturned a jury verdict in favor of Google from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. In doing so, the court revived Oracle's claim that Google's use of Oracle's open-source Java language code did not constitute “fair use.”
Features

Vendor Risk Management for Law Firms: 7 Steps to Success
Most firms have extensive cybersecurity measures in place, but emerging or unclear regulatory requirements embroil them in a never-ending cycle of evaluation, best-practices review, and implementation. Firms don't just need to have their own systems secured; a responsible firm must also reduce the risk of breach at their third-party vendors. As cloud service providers become commonplace, so too does a firm's responsibility to ensure their vendors are managing risk appropriately.
Features

Breakthrough Thinking: How to Discover and Drive Motivation in Business Development and Lead Attorneys to Greater Prosperity
Despite all the strategic planning CMOs may devote to individual attorney coaching and training, it is often not enough to support the lawyer client in connecting the dots of relationship building, reputation enhancing and contact management over the course of a career to make a remarkable difference.
Features

Challenging Disproportionate Forfeitures
<b><i>Part One of a Two-Part Article</b></i><p>In <i>Honeycutt v. United States</i>, the Supreme Court rejected the argument that a federal criminal forfeiture statute permits joint and several liability for criminal asset forfeiture judgments, thereby protecting defendants who were only marginally culpable for a larger offense.
Features

How Law Firms Can Prepare for FinTech Wave
<i><b>The Innovations and Industry Disruption Should Have Law Firms Snapping to Attention</b></i><p>The world of financial services is being upended by new technologies — from virtual currencies and blockchain to peer-to-peer lending and enhanced mobile banking — that are capturing customers, as well as the attention of Wall Street investors and industry regulators.
Features

Co-Writer Files Royalties Suit Against Iglesias
The title of Julio Iglesias's hit song “Me Olvide de Vivir” translates to “I Had Forgotten to Live.” But a Miami songwriter's copyright infringement lawsuit suggests the only thing the famed crooner “forgot” was to pay his collaborator.
Columns & Departments
Real Property Law
Broker Agreed to Commission Based on Rent for First Five Years of Lease<br>Statements in Earlier Action Did Not Accelerate Mortgage and Trigger Statute of Limitations<br>Death Does Not Extend Foreclosure Limitations Period<br>Neighbor Granted Statutory Licence to Paint Fence<br>Record Did Not Establish Conveyance of Easement<br>Co-Tenant Entitled to Partition
Features

Supreme Court Eyes Relaxing Rule on Foreign Patent Damages
<b><i>Despite Possibility of 'Chaos,' Presumption Against Extraterritorial Application May Give Way to Simple Proximate Cause Test, Justices Suggest</b></i><p>The U.S. Supreme Court seemed to be mulling a flexible test for foreign patent damages last month, with the categorical presumption against extraterritoriality taking a back seat.
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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 ›
- 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 ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.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 ›