Features
<b><i>Sales Speak:</i></b>Lawyers Are in the Relationship-Building Business, But Are They Connecting?
Some things appear to be so simple that we assume (dangerously) that everyone "gets it." But a significant number of lawyers either have no system ' formal or otherwise ' for getting and staying in touch with key people, or do a dismal job of staying connected.
Columns & Departments
Cooperatives & Condominiums
Analysis of two important rulings.
Features
Average Lateness Methodology
Two recent decisions from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, affirmed the use of "average lateness" methodology to examine both the subjective and the objective components of the ordinary course of business defense to preference actions. This article explains the those decisions.
Columns & Departments
Med Mal News
Important news from Texas and New York.
Ninth Circuit Upholds Marley Estate False Endorsement Claim
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided there was sufficient evidence to support a jury's finding that merchandiser A.V.E.L.A. violated the Lanham Act by using the unlicensed image of Bob Marley on t-shirts and other merchandise in a manner likely to cause confusions.
Corporate Trends Worth Considering
Now that the first quarter of the calendar year is almost over, it is helpful to identify trends that might warrant particular attention from corporate executives and their counsel. Here are the details.
Features
Mind Your Step: Navigating Landmines in the Joint Defense Landscape
In the mass tort litigation context, where one plaintiff typically brings similar claims against numerous defendants within a particular industry, the coordination of defense efforts among codefendants can be a very prudent course of action. This practice, however, is fraught with landmines that can have a devastating effect on clients and practitioners alike.
Features
NY's Highest Court Grants License to Change NY's Licensing Law
A year ago, York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, appears to have redefined and narrowed the limits of what distinguishes a license from a lease by expanding the scope of what may be deemed a license. In doing so, the court adopted an approach it had never previously used in such cases.
Features
Federal Judge Rules For Defendant in Porn Copyright Case
An anonymous <i>pro se</i> defendant has beaten copyright infringement claims brought against him in federal court by a maker of pornographic videos. The defendant's victory runs counter to the result in a similar case in front of a different Eastern District judge.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- 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 ›
- 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 ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt 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.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.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 ›