Practice Areas
Industries
Midwest
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May 25, 2012
6th Circ. Loosens Causation Standard For ADA Suits
The Sixth Circuit on Friday joined the nation's other appeals courts in determining that the Americans with Disabilities Act does not require a worker suing for discrimination to demonstrate she was fired solely for her disability, reversing a trial court's ruling to the contrary.
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May 25, 2012
Ohio OKs Fracking Bill Requiring More Insurance, Disclosures
The Ohio legislature gave final approval Thursday to legislation that calls for oil and gas companies to reveal chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing and requires horizontal well owners to obtain at least $5 million in insurance coverage.
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May 25, 2012
Dow Jones, S&P Shut Down ISE's Index Option Sales
An Illinois appeals court on Friday upheld a lower court's decision barring International Securities Exchange LLC from selling Dow Jones and S&P 500-linked index options without a license, agreeing that misappropriation claims by The McGraw-Hill Cos. Inc. and others aren't preempted by federal copyright law.
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May 25, 2012
U Of Ill. FOIA Suit Belongs In State Court, 7th Circ. Says
The Seventh Circuit ruled Thursday that state court is the proper venue for the Tribune Co.'s attempt to force the University of Illinois to reply to its state Freedom of Information Act request regarding the school's admissions scandal, a request the school argues is barred by federal privacy law.
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May 25, 2012
6th Circ. Nixes KeyCorp ERISA Case Over Lack Of Injury
A KeyCorp 401(k) plan participant who sold company stock while its price was allegedly artificially inflated suffered no out-of-pocket loss and has no standing to sue, the Sixth Circuit said Friday, declining to revive a putative class action.
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May 25, 2012
State Workers Can't Get FMLA Damages, Iowa High Court Says
Iowa's highest court ruled Friday that state employees cannot sue for damages under the Family and Medical Leave Act's self-care provision, finding the state had not waived its sovereign immunity.
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May 25, 2012
Illinois Assembly Approves $1.6B Medicaid Cut
Both houses of the Illinois General Assembly passed a Medicaid reform bill Thursday that slashes $1.6 billion from the program in an effort to help the state’s flailing budget and includes cuts to hospitals, other Medicaid providers and programs that lower the cost of prescription drugs.
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May 25, 2012
Freddie Mac Can't Duck Suit Over Subprime Exposure
A federal judge on Friday declined to dismiss a proposed securities class action brought by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System against Freddie Mac over the housing entity's alleged failure to disclose its true subprime exposure, saying the plaintiffs properly stated their claims.
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May 25, 2012
6th Circ. Says Citizens Can't Sue States Over CAA Enforcement
The Sixth Circuit has reversed a lower court decision that private citizens can bring suits against state regulatory agencies that fail to enforce the Clean Air Act, ruling Friday that the Sierra Club's case against the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency must be dismissed.
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May 25, 2012
6th Circ. Burns 'Texas Toast' Crouton Mark As Generic
The Sixth Circuit ruled Friday that the term “Texas toast” could not be trademarked for use on crouton packaging because it was a generic term for oversized bread products, and not for a specific company's goods.
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May 25, 2012
Ohio Latest To Float Bill On Workers' Facebook Passwords
An Ohio state senator on Thursday said she has introduced legislation that would bar prospective or current employers from requiring workers to provide access to private electronic accounts like Facebook, following a similar trend by lawmakers in several other states.
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May 25, 2012
Cat's Paw Creates Worker Liability For Retaliation: 7th Circ.
The Seventh Circuit on Thursday held that the cat's paw theory allows an employee who causes an employer to retaliate against another worker to be held individually liable under Section 1981, a Reconstruction era law banning discrimination in contractual relationships.
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May 25, 2012
Syngenta To Pay $105M To End Herbicide Pollution Claims
Syngenta Crop Protection Inc. has agreed to pay $105 million to as many as 2,000 municipal water systems to settle class action allegations that its herbicide tainted water supplies, the company said Friday.
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May 25, 2012
EPA Agrees To Review Wis. Coal Plant's Permits
A Wisconsin federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit accusing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of failing to impose stringent enough permit provisions for a coal-fired power plant in the state, saying the agency has agreed to address the issues.
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May 25, 2012
Video-Linking Site Fights Porn Site's Injunction In 7th Circ.
An attorney for pornographic website operator Flava Works Inc. told the Seventh Circuit on Friday that a preliminary injunction against video-linking website myVidster.com must be upheld because the links infringe copyrights and a previous Ninth Circuit decision the defendant claims says otherwise doesn't apply.
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May 25, 2012
Dechert Opens Chicago Office With Securities Trio
Dechert LLP has opened a Chicago office that will be helmed by three securities litigation partners, all previously with Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, Dechert announced Wednesday.
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May 25, 2012
Ohio High Court Snuffs Challenge To Workplace Smoking Ban
The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a state ban on smoking in the workplace, ruling that the law did not represent an infringement of a bar proprietor's private property rights under the state constitution.
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May 24, 2012
Mergers Can Start Noncompete Clocks, Ohio Court Says
The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a merger sets a noncompete agreement in motion when the deal makes no provision for its continuation after a merger, refusing to let an insurance services provider enforce its predecessors' contracts with employees.
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May 24, 2012
ConAgra, P&G, Others Eye Ind. Superfund Settlement
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday sketched out a proposed settlement with ConAgra Foods Inc., Procter & Gamble Co. and 19 other companies to help cover cleanup expenses triggered by hazardous waste discharged into the Wabash River at an Indiana Superfund site.
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May 24, 2012
Ill. Asks FERC To Deny $178M PJM Upgrade Requests
The Illinois Commerce Commission on Wednesday called for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to dismiss $178 million worth of PJM Interconnection LLC electricity upgrade projects, arguing that PJM used an inappropriate cost allocation mechanism.
Expert Analysis
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Jeopardized By Cherryland: Bankruptcy Remote Financings
If the Michigan Court of Appeals decision in Wells Fargo Bank NA v. Cherryland Mall Limited Partnership is widely followed, an array of unanticipated consequences may arise that could have profound effects on the debt capital markets generally and on single purpose entity borrowers in particular, say attorneys with Fox Rothschild LLP.
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A New Model For Rejecting Disparate Impact Class Claims
While the district court decision in Pippen v. Iowa, against a class of plaintiffs alleging hiring discrimination, is not binding on other courts, we predict that employers and their defense counsel will cite it repeatedly for its thorough and thoughtful analysis and rejection of class action discrimination theories that have been — and continue to be — raised by plaintiffs’ attorneys across the country, say attorneys with Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
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Case Study: Sandager V. Dell Marketing
In recent years, False Claims Act cases brought by opportunistic qui tam relators who lack any inside information regarding the companies they sue have been dismissed either because they merely mimic the allegations of a previously filed case or do not plead their allegations of fraud with sufficient particularity. A recent example of this trend is U.S. ex rel. Sandager v. Dell Marketing LP, say attorneys with Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.
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Case Study: In Re Hartford Computer Hardware
In Re Hartford Computer Hardware Inc. provides a window into the distinction between the orders that are available in a plenary case under the Canadian Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act compared with the orders that can be recognized under Part IV of the act. Clearly, Canadian courts are very sensitive to the need for close cooperation with U.S. courts in cross-border insolvency matters, say Steven Golick and Patrick Riesterer of Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP.
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Plea Agreements With Antitrust Division Post-VandeBrake
If it is not an abuse of discretion for a trial judge to apply whichever sentencing guideline he prefers — as in the Eighth Circuit's decision in the VandeBrake case — then it becomes much more palatable for a defendant to roll the dice at trial rather than taking his chances that a judge will impose the sentence in a plea deal, say Brady Dugan and Diana Gillis of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.
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Where Rubber Hits Road: Examples Of Alternative Fees
Creating new approaches to fee agreements is something to embrace rather than fear — and when structured and managed correctly, it can be financially advantageous. Take, for example, fixed-fee arrangements, result-based billing and portfolio billing, say Bill Rudnick and Keith Maziarek of DLA Piper.
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A Call To Arms — 365(n) And Trademark Licensees
The Seventh Circuit decision in In re Lakewood Engineering & Manufacturing Co. Inc. is much anticipated and will be extremely important for trademark licensees. It will, however, be even more important as a guide for statutory construction and the appropriate use of legislative history, say Victor Vilaplana and Matt Riopelle of Foley & Lardner LLP.
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Pros And Cons Of SLCs
Shareholder litigation committees offer a powerful and effective response for any company facing a shareholder derivative lawsuit. Properly formed, they may allow the company to determine for itself how those claims should be handled. SLCs, however, are not without their costs and potential drawbacks, says Patrick Rooney of Fafinski Mark & Johnson PA.
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Helpful Health Care Guidance From Iowa Supreme Court
The Iowa Supreme Court recently issued two opinions that advance our understanding of important concepts, including a public hospital’s obligation to release internal audit reports pursuant to open records requests, and the standard of care applicable to a hospital board of directors in fulfilling its credentialing function, say William Miller and Alissa Smith of Dorsey & Whitney LLP.
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Dismissing FCA Cases Over Relators' Objections
The Tenth Circuit's recent decision in U.S. ex rel. Wickliffe v. EMC Corp. highlights a tool rarely used by the government in qui tam actions brought under the federal False Claims Act — dismissing the case over a relator’s objection — and provides guidance to approaches defense counsel may take with regard to this powerful procedural tool, say Lawrence Kraus and Christina Taylor of Foley & Lardner LLP.