LJN Newsletters

The Department of Labor (DOL) issued regulations that revise the ERISA claims procedure regulations for employee benefit plans that provide disability benefits. The scope of the new regulations are broader than you may realize and apply to any plan, regardless of how it is characterized, that provides benefits or rights that are contingent on whether the plan determines an individual to be disabled.

The First Circuit Widens the Controversy

In In re Tempnology, the First Circuit held that the debtor's rejection of a trademark license strips the nondebtor licensee of any right to continue to use the trademarks. In so doing, the court takes the same approach as the Fourth Circuit and rejects the approaches advocated by the Third and Seventh Circuits.

No Tacking of Adverse Possession Claims
Issues of Fact Preclude Injunction Requiring Removal of Encroachments
Statute of Limitations Bars Foreclosure Claim
Permission Bars Prescriptive Easement Claim

Data privacy is one of the most important issues facing corporations, and amidst the challenges of protecting customer data, the regulatory landscape that oversees it is shifting on an almost daily basis. With changes occurring at such a rapid pace across all corners of the globe, it's not surprising that organizations are increasingly finding themselves inadequately prepared to deal with these regulations.

While laws such as the FCPA do not necessarily prohibit hiring individuals with criminal records or bad credit records or who are former government officials, they do require employers to identify these individuals and assess whether their hire would pose a threat, violate the laws outright or impose an administratively difficult burden due to the need to monitor their activities.

Exmark Manufacturing Company Inc. v. Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group, LLC

The rate of the reasonable royalty awarded to a successful patent plaintiff must be based on the facts of the case. A damages expert cannot merely pay lip service to the Georgia-Pacific factors and then “pluck” a royalty rate from thin air.

At 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.

With an Eye on Efficiency, Firms Are Ditching Old Methods for a More Corporate Form of Governance

A growing number of firms in the United States and the United Kingdom are eschewing historical partnership norms in favor of more centralized management, and with that comes fewer and fewer partnership votes.