Features

Wells Fargo, Ending Its Appeal, Settles Whistleblower's $577K Retaliation Case
Wells Fargo & Co. has reached a settlement with a former branch manager who claimed she was fired for blowing the whistle on employees who had been opening accounts without permission, the sales-pressure conduct at issue in a scandal that erupted in 2016.
Features

<i>e-Discovery:</i> Four Cases Highlighting e-Discovery Trends in the Second Half of 2017
In the second half of 2017, case law served to clarify what does and does not constitute reasonable policies and procedures for preserving information subject to discovery — as well as the risks you run if you fail to follow through on those policies.
Features

Online Marketing Practices Continue to Pose Regulatory Threats for the Financial Services Industry
Last year, the FTC released a staff report on Cross-Device Tracking, which added to the FTC's efforts to regulate emerging issues in the ever-evolving area of online behavioral advertising. The advertising in question involves the collection of data from a particular computer or device regarding a user's Internet-viewing behavior over time and across non-affiliate websites. Cross-device tracking is the logical next step for this technology.
Features

Serving Two Masters: When 'Bankruptcy Remote' Meets Public Policy
<i><b>How Lenders to BREs Can Reduce the Risk of Debtor Bankruptcy Without Compromising Public Policies</b></i><p>Structured financing transactions, including those pertaining to commercial real estate, make extensive use of entities formed for the specific purpose of reducing the likelihood that assets will be involved in a potential bankruptcy proceeding. Known as “bankruptcy-remote entities,” or “BREs,” these entities are subject to structures and covenants in financing documents and their own formation documents, which are designed to reduce the likelihood that the BRE will file for bankruptcy protection.
Features

<i>Leadership:</i> No Immunity: Sexual Harassment & the Legal Industry
For members of a conservative industry that — literally — wrote the rulebook on sexual harassment, law firms need to be ready for a day of reckoning that seems inescapable (and may have already happened by the time this article is published).
Columns & Departments
Bit Parts
“Dead Man Statute” No Bar to Testimony About Alleged Oral Contract for Share of Royalties from Ben E. King Songs<br>Eleventh Circuit Sees No Personal Jurisdiction in Malpractice Lawsuit Against Law Firm that Handled Concert Industry Litigation<br>Tax Court Finds No Profit Motive in Music Club Operation
Features

Takeaways from the Swift End to <i>Waymo v. Uber</i>
The details might not be quite as dramatic as they were in <i>Waymo v. Uber</i>, but lawyers expect trade secrets to continue to be a fertile source for litigation.
Features

Anti-Forfeiture Statute Saves a Debtor's Exercise of Option to Renew Lease
In a recent decision, Bankruptcy Judge Christopher S. Sontchi addressed the question of whether a Chapter 11 debtor, the tenant under a commercial lease, could exercise an option to renew the lease during the bankruptcy proceedings, even though the debtor was in default under the lease and the lease specified that it could not be renewed if defaults existed at the time the option was exercised.
Columns & Departments
Landlord & Tenant
Section 8 Status Protects Tenant from Eviction<br>Questions of Fact About Acceptance of Surrender
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- 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 ›
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