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Features

Reconsidering the Special Facts Exception Image

Reconsidering the Special Facts Exception

Linda Margolin

Special facts is a court-created equitable doctrine that allows a land use applicant to avoid the impact of a change of zone enacted while the application is pending, by showing significant governmental delay of the application together with proof that but for the delay, the landowner would have been able to vest in its use before the zoning was changed. In November 2013, the Court of Appeals decided <i>Rocky Point</i>, a case that the plaintiff (represented by the author) hoped would not only allow it to prevail, but would also clarify the special facts doctrine.

Legal Spending Trends Image

Legal Spending Trends

Kris Satkunas

Recently, the LexisNexis CounselLink division published a study of the spending patterns of corporate legal departments. The study unveiled macro-economic trends about the shifting spending habits from the largest category of law firms to those that are "Large Enough." The basis of the analysis was two million invoices, covering 300,000 matters, which were valued at more than $10 billion in legal fees.

Features

Are You Blawging, Or Flawging? Image

Are You Blawging, Or Flawging?

Josh King

Lots of attorneys are being told that they need to start blogging (or "blawging", as many attorneys refer to it). From a marketing perspective, this advice makes a lot of sense. There's an old advertising adage, credited to David Ogilvy from the pre-"Mad Man" days of advertising, that when it comes to big-ticket purchases, "long copy sells."

Features

Another Look at Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plans Image

Another Look at Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plans

Aegis J. Frumento & Stephanie Korenman

By establishing a prearranged plan to trade their companies' stock in compliance with SEC Rule 10b5-1, corporate executives avail themselves of the only formally codified affirmative defense against a charge of insider trading. However, statistical evidence demonstrating that executives in trading plans outperform their peers by 6% to 10% have twice brought trading plans under academic and journalistic scrutiny.

Columns & Departments

Drug & Device News Image

Drug & Device News

ALM Staff & Law Journal Newsletters

New Plan in Mesh Litigation <br>Change Would Let Generic Drug Companies Make Not-Yet Approved Label Changes<br>Trial over Billion-Dollar Molecules Yields $400,000 Verdict

Features

Business of Branding: Avoiding Bad Investments in Your Marketing Image

Business of Branding: Avoiding Bad Investments in Your Marketing

Jeff Roberts

Like your finances, your firm's marketing efforts should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that your short- and long-term plans are in order.

Features

With Virtual Currency, Does Virtually Anything Go? Image

With Virtual Currency, Does Virtually Anything Go?

Laura Grossfield Birger

In late 2013, a Subway sandwich franchise in Pennsylvania was making the news for being one of the first small American businesses to accept bitcoin as payment for purchases. According to press reports, that franchise generated a lot of interest among hungry bitcoin enthusiasts, who went out of their way to visit the store. Should this be dismissed as a mere publicity stunt, or is the use of bitcoin something that deserves some thought?

Columns & Departments

Bit Parts Image

Bit Parts

Stan Soocher

Nashville Federal Court Finds Plausible Copyright Infringement Claim over "Remind Me" Phrase<br>Puerto Rico District Court Rules There Were Implied Licenses for Music Festival Artworks, But Were the Licenses Irrevocable?<br>Songwriting Income and Record Production Activity Don't Support Long-Arm Jurisdiction

Accounting for Obamacare Image

Accounting for Obamacare

Lawrence L. Bell

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare, created the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP), a part of each state's Health Insurance Marketplace, where small businesses with under 50 full-time equivalent employees can purchase group health plans. The small business owner is continually being placed in an untenable position without the ability to do any planning.

Features

A Dangerous Undertaking Image

A Dangerous Undertaking

Rachel S. Faulkner

Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote that "it would be a dangerous undertaking for persons trained only to the law to constitute themselves final judges of the worth of pictorial illustrations." If Holmes didn't think he could do it, which of us thinks we're up to the task? Nonetheless, this was just the challenge taken up by Judge Block of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in <i>Cohen v. G&amp;M Realty L.P.</i>

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