Features
QDRO or Buyout: Preparing Today for a Secure Tomorrow
Some 84 million Americans work for companies that maintain ERISA-covered retirement plans that are divisible by QDROs, which guarantee the non-worker spouse (the non-owner) a share of the pension. Here's what you need to know.
Columns & Departments
Decisions of Interest
Analysis of several key rulings.
Features
How Can Employers Protect Their Confidential and Proprietary Information?
This article explores the developing law related to employee social media use and its effect on the confidentiality and protectability of employers' trade secrets and other proprietary information.
Are University Football Players Employees?
In a move that has surprised many, Chicago-area NLRB Regional Director Peter Sung Ohr has determined that Northwestern University football players who receive grant-in-aid are employees of the University and an appropriate bargaining unit.
Features
The New York Uniform Commercial Code Comes of Age
Parties in large non-consumer transactions with no connection whatsoever to New York often choose its law to govern their transactions, and New York statutes permit them to do so. What most people do not know is that the New York Uniform Commercial Code is outdated.
Features
Supreme Court Rules on Standing In False Advertising Cases
Until the Supreme Court's recent decision in <i>Lexmark International v. Static Control Components</i>, Inc., courts were divided regarding the proper test to determine whether a plaintiff has standing to bring a false advertising claim under 15 U.S.C. '1125(a). The Supreme Court resolved the circuit split by rejecting the previously applied standards, and created a new, uniform "zone of interests" test.
Columns & Departments
Landlord & Tenant
Discussion of a case in which a landlord was not entitled to recover fees.
Features
When Med Mal and Mass Tort Claims Overlap
Medical malpractice litigation is often complex, in-depth, and issue-heavy. Mass tort litigation is the same. What happens when those two areas of practice converge during the course of a case?
The Ever Shifting Landscape in Prescription Drug Design Defect Litigation
Aside from preemption, it is quite possible that no legal doctrine has caused more angst to both sides of the pharmaceutical product liability bar, and in turn, the courts, than the interplay of negligence versus strict liability and the viability of a design defect claim against manufacturers of FDA-approved prescription drugs.
Features
Lease Accounting Project
Following their recent meetings in March, the FASB and IASB remain at odds on the key issue of how lessees should account for all leases once they are recognized on a balance sheet.
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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 ›
- 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 ›