LJN Newsletters

Your OWN network is just as important to develop and maintain as it is for any professional. Because we spend so much of our time helping others to focus on cultivating their networks, we often neglect to tend to our own.

A television station's report that two stores in the D'Lites chain of dietary ice cream franchises were mislabeling their "small" portions as low calorie and low carb was "substantially true," and a defamation claim by a franchise owner was properly dismissed, a Manhattan appeals court said on March 15.

It is a fact pattern common to asbestos-related lawsuits: A plaintiff recalls generally working around different products that may or may not have contained asbestos, but cannot pinpoint specific time periods or locations where those products were present and could have exposed the plaintiff to asbestos. Typically, the alleged exposure occurred three or more decades ago, with no potential corroborating documents or witnesses surviving to the present date. This scenario places defendants in the untenable position of defending a claim without access to any information on the products, or the alleged exposure, that will either confirm or deny that the identified products were both present in the plaintiff's workplace and actually contained asbestos.

In 1992, the American Bar Association called upon members of the legal profession to provide leadership and education in eradicating sexual harassment. According to the 1992 ABA report, "[l]awyers play a special role in educating society about sexual harassment and eliminating it from the workplace.

Entertainment Law in Review, 2015-2016

While recently preparing for a middle school presentation, my son was struggling with accidental omissions in his delivery. In striving for perfection, his fear of someone in the audience recognizing his error grew. Like many who engage in public speaking, he had convinced himself that the only way to be successful is to be flawless. That is the great myth of public speaking, and one can that easily be overcome by remembering that most people have no idea what you are going to say, so they will never recognize your mistake.

A number of conflicting decisions over the past year and a half concerning whether provisions prohibiting waiver of duties or liabilities under the New York Franchise Act prohibit franchisors from interposing franchisee "non-reliance" franchise agreement disclaimers when confronting fraud actions brought under the Act makes clear that this critical area of law will remain muddied until the courts decisively rule on the subject.

For the inside counsel revolution to succeed, the General Counsel must follow a basic dictum: Hire the best. The key to the legal function's credibility with the CEO and senior line executives is to seek broad-gauged lawyers who are outstanding technical experts, wise counselors and effective leaders to occupy the top specialists jobs in the company and to be general counsel in the main operating divisions.