Practice Areas
Commercial Contracts
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February 22, 2012
6th Circ. Snuffs Out Tobacco Settlement Antitrust Case
The Sixth Circuit on Wednesday rejected an antitrust challenge to the industry-shifting 1998 master settlement agreement between states and tobacco companies, ruling that tobacco manufacturer and state attorney general defendants were protected from the now-defunct General Tobacco's claims.
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February 22, 2012
Cobalt Reveals FCPA Probe Of Angola Oil Business
U.S. regulators have launched a formal probe into allegations that one of Cobalt International Energy Inc.’s oil drilling contractors bribed foreign officials in Angola, Cobalt said Tuesday.
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February 22, 2012
Ariz. Law Firm Can't Be Dragged Into Ill. Court: Judge
An Illinois federal judge on Friday dismissed an Arizona-based law firm from a suit accusing it and two former Macey Bankruptcy Law PC attorneys of stealing clients from Macey's Phoenix office, ruling the court did not have personal jurisdiction over the firm.
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February 22, 2012
NY Loft Developers Face Claims Of Mezz Loan Default
The developers of New York's Artisan Lofts, a 16-story condominium complex in downtown Manhattan, were hit with a lawsuit on Wednesday over allegations that they defaulted on a $16 million mezzanine loan used to help finance the conversion of the property from an office building.
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February 22, 2012
Office REIT Seeks Unpaid Rent From LA Law Firm
Los Angeles litigation boutique Iverson Yoakum Papiano & Hatch LLP was hit with a complaint Friday in California court alleging it owes $167,500 in unpaid rent at the downtown Los Angeles US Bank Tower.
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February 21, 2012
Ex-Freed & Weiss Atty Says Former Partner Betrayed Firm
A former Freed & Weiss LLC attorney sued one of the firm's former name partners for breach of contract in Illinois court Tuesday, claiming Paul Weiss tried to take over the firm and fired the plaintiff after he “refused to help [Weiss] accomplish his schemes.”
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February 21, 2012
AEG Slips Michael Jackson Wrongful Death Suit
Concert promoter AEG Live LLC on Tuesday escaped a wrongful death suit brought by the father of the late pop star Michael Jackson, after a California state judge found Joseph Jackson's claims were mirrored in an ongoing suit filed by his wife.
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February 21, 2012
2nd Circ. Bars Trusts From $138M Biovail, Investors Deal
The Second Circuit on Tuesday upheld a decision to exclude four investment trusts from a $138 million settlement between Biovail Corp. and shareholders, saying the fact that the founder had a controlling interest in them was an appropriate reason for disqualification.
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February 21, 2012
8th Circ. Revives Best Buy Suit Over DDR Mall Leases
The Eighth Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a ruling that Developers Diversified Realty Corp. affiliates violated leases with Best Buy Stores LP by self-insuring part of their shopping centers' liability coverage, but said further litigation is needed to determine their exact liability.
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February 21, 2012
SNR Denton Defamation Claims Revived In Secrets Row
An Illinois appeals court last week revived SNR Denton’s defamation and tortious interference counterclaims in a consulting company’s trade secrets suit that claims a former executive violated her noncompete agreement by joining the law firm and helping it poach employees for the firm's health care group.
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February 21, 2012
Ex-Lincolnshire CEO Sues To Shake Blame In $99M Award Row
The former CEO of Lincolnshire Management Inc. on Monday sued the private equity firm over a dispute arising from an underlying shareholder suit in which a $99 million award was ordered against two Lincolnshire-related investment firms.
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February 21, 2012
Arch Seeks $17M From Axiom Over Soured Underwriting Deal
Arch Specialty Insurance Co. accused underwriter Axiom Insurance Managers Agency LLC in New York federal court on Friday of breaking an agreement by charging too little to cover policies' actual risks, and seeks at least $17.2 million in damages.
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February 21, 2012
Adviser Took AllianceBernstein Secrets To JPMorgan: Suit
AllianceBernstein LP on Thursday went after a former employee in New York state court, accusing the financial adviser of using trade secrets to lure clients to JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he now works.
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February 21, 2012
Crane Collapse, Not Bum Advice, Doomed NYC Tower: Atty
A Herrick Feinstein LLP attorney told a New York state judge Tuesday that the lender of $70 million in bridge financing for an unfinished residential tower can't pin all the blame for the tower's failure on Herrick's alleged malpractice.
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February 21, 2012
High Court Nixes Nursing Home Death Arbitration Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday vacated a West Virginia high court's finding that arbitration deals couldn't apply to wrongful death claims against nursing homes, ruling the decision disregarded decades of precedent including AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion.
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February 21, 2012
Toyobo Clears Warranty Claims In $8M Body Armor Suit
A Massachusetts federal judge on Friday tossed breach of warranty claims against Toyobo Co. Ltd. in an $8 million suit brought by a body armor company claiming that Toyobo fraudulently sold defective fibers used to make bulletproof vests.
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February 17, 2012
Jackson's Estate Says Ex-Manager Swindled King Of Pop
The executors of Michael Jackson's estate on Friday sued the dead pop star's former manager Tohme R. Tohme, alleging he persuaded Jackson to sign a series of deals that guaranteed compensation and rights far beyond the norm of a personal manager.
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February 17, 2012
Texas Top Court Will Tackle Wind Farm Contract Dispute
Texas' highest court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal in a case centering on the enforceability of a liquid damages provision in a contract dispute between an Energy Future Holdings Corp. unit and three wind farms led by a predecessor of NextEra Energy Inc.
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February 17, 2012
Grand Canyon Developer Accuses Tribe Of Skyway Takeover
The developer of a glass walkway looking over the Grand Canyon sued a Native American tribe in Arizona federal court on Thursday over the tribe's alleged seizure of the property to get out of sharing more than $100 million in revenues.
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February 17, 2012
Eminem's Ex-Label Gets Affirmation Of Royalty Win
A California federal judge affirmed Wednesday that royalties stemming from digital downloads of rapper Eminem's two most recent albums will be included in the damages calculation for FBT Productions LLC, Eminem's former label, in its ongoing royalties dispute against his current label.
Expert Analysis
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Workers' Comp Insurance: The Most Important Tool
Unless a contractor is exempt from having workers' compensation insurance, its failure to maintain such coverage results in an automatic suspension of its license in California. Two key cases — Wright v. Isaak and Loranger v. Jones — illustrate this point, says Matthew Hicks of Sedgwick LLP.
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A Corporate-Friendly Breed Of Private Cloud Services
The growing number of private cloud services that offer the benefits of public cloud computing while providing protections that large corporations seek is being fueled by the goal of cloud service providers to expand their reach into the corporate market and the desire of traditional outsourcing providers to protect market share, say Kavi Grace and Paul Roy of Mayer Brown LLP.
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Review: Recent Securities Litigation, Rising Trends
While credit crisis-related litigation continued in 2011, it has extended beyond the securities class action realm, as evidenced by a recent surge in mortgage-backed securities actions. Another trend has been the increase in M&A-related securities litigation, something we expect to continue in the coming year, say attorneys with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
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Law School, Meet Litigation PR ...
The single most important thing law schools can do to manage their reputations in the face of litigation is apply the lessons learned from Wall Street during the recent financial crisis and strive for transparency in all communications. One need only look to Goldman Sachs’ woes or the struggles of Jon Corzine’s MF Global as examples of the catastrophic results of a campaign based on anything but complete honesty, says Spencer Baretz of Hellerman Baretz Communications.
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The Wide-Ranging Applications Of Calif. Anti-SLAPP Law
Although there are a number of subject matters to which California's anti-strategic lawsuits against public participation statute has been applied in the last few years, it is not always obvious whether a newly filed complaint can be targeted with such a motion, say Jeremy Rosen and Josephine Mason of Horvitz & Levy LLP.
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Case Study: Voom V. EchoStar
As the New York appellate court decision in Voom HD Holdings LLC v. EchoStar Satellite LLC demonstrates, the Zubulake standard on the preservation of electronic documents pending litigation may require in-house and outside counsel to put litigation holds in place even before litigation actually begins, says Ronald Minkoff of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC.
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Spotlight On Intercreditor Agreements In Bankruptcy
Some recent cases illustrate that intercreditor agreements are still not iron-clad in bankruptcy, and that courts remain willing to overlook the express terms of such agreements in the interests of achieving an equitable solution for all the stakeholders in a bankruptcy proceeding, say Debra Koker and William McMahon of Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.
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Revised Removal Statutes — Possibilities, Pitfalls: Part 2
The Federal Courts Jurisdiction and Venue Clarification Act of 2011 has brought about substantial clarification in the federal removal, jurisdiction and venue statutes. But the act still leaves substantial ambiguity in place when it comes to the scope of these statutes, say Colin Wrabley and Douglas Allen of Reed Smith LLP.
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A New Model For Treating Cleared Swaps Collateral
Collateral segregation rules are a cornerstone of the central swap clearing regime. Inasmuch as these rules are the state-of-the-art methodology in the protection of customers and reduction of systemic risk, they may potentially become the prototype for changes to customer collateral segregation rules in similar trading markets — for example, futures, say Julia Lu and John Clark of Richards Kibbe & Orbe LLP.
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You Say Brokering, I Say Facilitation
By removing and adding just a few key words to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations brokering regulations, the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls' proposed changes turn the brokering regulations into a facilitation — or "gray area" — regulation, says Steven Brotherton of Fragomen Del Rey Bernsen & Loewy LLP.