Features
Challenging Estate Plans
Part One of this two-part series discussed bypass trusts, QTIP trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts (SLATs) and qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs). This final installment reviews additional trusts with a focus on how matrimonial practitioners may attack assets held in such trusts.
Firms Helping Military Employees
Many Am Law 100 firms have done extensive pro bono work for veterans since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan more than a decade ago, and are also helping their military employees.
Features
'Customary Operations' or a Vacant Building?
Many times, courts are faced with the question of whether a loss location is "vacant" under a commercial property policy when trying to determine if the building owner or lessee is conducting customary operations. This article explores various decisions across the United States as to what is considered "customary operations," thereby rendering the property "vacant."
<b><i>Sales Speak:</i></b> Redefining Sales
Over 30 years ago, Bill Flannery introduced the legal world to the concept of "large account management." Three decades later, the concept finally seems to be taking hold in law firms. They know that managing key client relationships professionally leads to improved client service, client retention, revenue growth and better referrals.
Features
Cloud-Computing Agreements
Strong agreements are essential for any cloud service that supports critical IT systems. While the circumstances of each cloud implementation are different, this article provides an overview of key areas that need to be considered for any agreement to acquire cloud-based services.
Second Circuit Allows Facebook Posts As Evidence
Introducing a rap video and images of tattoos from a defendant's Facebook page as evidence in a drug-and-murder gang prosecution did not violate the rights of the accused, a federal appeals court held in May.
Features
'Operating Interests,' 'Working Interests,' 'Production Payments' and 'Overriding' Royalty Interests
The recent decline in oil prices and the historically low and stagnant natural gas prices are causing various parties in the oil and gas industries to seek bankruptcy protection. As a result, bankruptcy judges must apply specialized Bankruptcy Code provisions and varying other applicable non-bankruptcy laws to determine the rights of debtor and non-debtor parties to such agreements as those providing Overriding Royalty Interests (ORRI) and Net Operating Interests (NOI).
Features
<b><i>Social Media Scene:</i></b> How Social Are Your Social Media Activities?
The modifier "social" is supposed to separate social media from other forms of marketing and PR. But the tactic's social aspect is also the part that either prevents us from using it or from using it as the two-way communication tool it's supposed to be.
GA Court: New Expert Can Be Substituted In, Even at Late Date
What happens to the plaintiff who learns late in the lawsuit process that his expert is not up to snuff? The Supreme Court of Georgia recently clarified the answer to this question for one set of plaintiffs whose originally proferred expert was deemed ineligible to offer a valid opinion.
Features
Using a Service Mark In Commerce
The Federal Circuit has now ruled that advertising a service that the applicant intends to provide in the future, but is not actually providing on the date of the application, is not "use in commerce." Thus, advertising submitted to the USPTO with a use-based application as a specimen of use of the mark in commerce, must relate to existing services already being provided to customers.
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- 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 ›
- Risks of “Baseball Arbitration” in Resolving Real Estate Disputes“Baseball arbitration” refers to the process used in Major League Baseball in which if an eligible player's representative and the club ownership cannot reach a compensation agreement through negotiation, each party enters a final submission and during a formal hearing each side — player and management — presents its case and then the designated panel of arbitrators chooses one of the salary bids with no other result being allowed. This method has become increasingly popular even beyond the sport of baseball.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 ›
- The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year LaterThe DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.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 ›