LJN Newsletters

An "eligible" whistleblower is a person who voluntarily provides original information about a possible violation of the federal securities laws that has occurred, is ongoing, or is about to occur. If that information leads to a successful SEC action resulting in an order of monetary sanctions over $1 million, the whistleblower(s) can collect their bounty. Over the lifetime of the program, the SEC has addressed more than 390 award claims and has awarded more than $67 million to 29 individuals, known as claimants, in connection with 16 actions.

The recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure completely overhauled the sanctions portion of Rule 37, and were designed to resolve conflicts on the standards to apply in ordering spoliation sanctions. But one recent decision indicates that neither may be the debate on the standards a federal court can employ in ruling on a spoliation motion.

In-depth discussion and analysis of the latest rulings.

Among the various rights and protections afforded by the Bankruptcy Code to a debtor-in-possession, one of the most potent is the debtor's broad authority to assume or reject existing executory contracts and unexpired leases. Indeed, this power is one of the most useful tools available to a debtor, and in certain cases, it can be a major or even a primary reason for the bankruptcy filing.

The Supreme Court's recent decision in Bouaphakeo v. Tyson Foods provided useful guidance for class-action litigants regarding the proper use of representative evidence ' i.e. , that which requires the trier of fact to draw conclusions about one subset of the class, or even an individual putative class member, based on an analysis of a different part of the class.

Social media has made even the most mundane and possibly personal pieces of data available to many with a press of a finger. Such an open relinquishment of private information is almost assumed, and has become part of the American culture. Those who think about how easy it is to access data understand how their own data has become part of the searchable cyberspace.

Issuing its second decision in Supap Kirtsaeng's long-standing dispute with John Wiley & Sons ' and its first copyright decision in nearly two years ' the SCOTUS recently clarified the applicable standard for evaluating the appropriateness of an attorney's fee award under Section 505 of the Copyright Act, holding that a district court should give substantial weight to the objective reasonableness of the losing party's position, while also taking into consideration all other circumstances relevant to the attorney's fees inquiry.

The prolonged wait for the extension of the renewable energy tax credits throughout 2015 may have somewhat dimmed investor interest for backing renewable energy projects through the monetization of the tax credits.