Georgia

  • September 20, 2024

    Real Estate Recap: Infrastructure Rally, Insurance Reckoning

    Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including revived interest in infrastructure-focused funds and the next installment in a new series exploring the effects of extreme weather on the property insurance market.

  • September 20, 2024

    AGs Push To Can Google Privacy Deal With No Class Payout

    Nearly two dozen Republican state attorneys general are urging the Ninth Circuit to scrap a data privacy deal that requires Google to pay $62 million to plaintiffs' counsel and third-party organizations but gives no money to individual class members, arguing that consumers aren't adequately benefiting from the settlement.

  • September 20, 2024

    Enviro Group Threatens Suit To Protect Newt In Fla., Ga.

    The Center for Biological Diversity has notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service it plans to sue over the denial of Endangered Species Act protections to a newt species that lives in threatened pine forests and wetlands in southeastern Georgia and north-central Florida.

  • September 20, 2024

    IPO Trio Looks To Raise $536M Combined As Autumn Begins

    Three companies spanning the energy, healthcare and life sciences industries are preparing initial public offerings that could raise $536 million combined in the coming week, guided by six law firms, signaling an upturn in IPOs as autumn begins.

  • September 20, 2024

    Ga. Election Board Orders Election-Night Hand Count

    The Georgia Election Board's Republican majority voted Friday to establish a controversial new rule requiring counties to hand-count all ballots cast at polling places on Election Day, a move that comes shortly after a lawsuit was filed challenging the board's authority to issue such rules.

  • September 20, 2024

    Drew Eckl Battles Ex-Firm Attys Over Fees Arbitration

    Drew Eckl & Farnham LLP and breakaway firm Burke Moore Law Group LLP filed competing briefs with the Georgia Court of Appeals this week, as Drew Eckl fought to uphold a trial court's ruling that Burke Moore must arbitrate a dispute over fees earned by its name partners when they left to start their own shop.

  • September 20, 2024

    Ga. Airport Pat-Down Caused Catastrophic Injuries, Man Says

    A man sued the government and several unnamed parties in Georgia federal court Thursday, alleging that he fractured his thoracic vertebrae, spent 52 days in the hospital and had to undergo surgery after an airport screening incident at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

  • September 20, 2024

    Georgia Powerhouse: Alston & Bird

    Over the past year, Alston & Bird LLP attorneys have assisted the U.S. Soccer Federation in the creation of its national training center at Trilith in metro Atlanta and represented Mohawk Industries, the world's largest flooring company, in its U.S. public offering of $600 million senior notes.

  • September 19, 2024

    Dems Seek School Lunch 'Junk Fee' Ban After CFPB Report

    A group of Democratic senators has called on the Biden administration to crack down on payment processing fees in school lunch programs, citing a recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report that raised concerns about the charges parents pay to fund their kids' online lunch money accounts.

  • September 19, 2024

    Ga. Appeals Court Says Hospital Must Get Certificate Of Need

    The Georgia Court of Appeals for the second time has said that a Georgia hospital must obtain a new certificate of need from the state to convert its long-term care beds to short-stay acute care beds, following guidance issued by the state's justices earlier this year.

  • September 19, 2024

    Ga. Judge Won't Touch State's Unlimited Funds Law

    The state of Georgia has temporarily beaten back the latest challenge to a 2021 law that allows certain political candidates to sidestep campaign contribution limits, after a federal judge on Thursday declined to hand the state's Democratic Party an injunction blocking the statute.

  • September 19, 2024

    Ex-Williams Sonoma Worker Bilked $11M In Scam, Feds Say

    A former Williams Sonoma employee was indicted in California federal court over a yearslong scheme in which he allegedly defrauded the company out of $11 million after submitting fraudulent invoices for work that was never performed by a fictitious staffing business he secretly owned, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.

  • September 19, 2024

    Tax Or Fee, Utility Rates Beyond Review, Ga. Justices Hear

    A Georgia city told the state Supreme Court on Thursday that its use of utility fees to bolster city coffers was not an illegal tax, despite a sports bar owner's claims to the contrary, and that a trial court rightly said it could not decide the matter.

  • September 19, 2024

    Georgia Powerhouse: Dentons

    The attorneys at Dentons' Atlanta office have racked up an impressive list of accomplishments in the past year, from helping the city of Atlanta avoid punitive damages over its revitalization of an old railway corridor into a beltline trail park, to shepherding statewide anti-hate litigation into law.

  • September 19, 2024

    11th Circ. Asked To Revisit Coverage Ruling Over Comma

    Food company owner ECB USA Inc. is asking the Eleventh Circuit to reconsider a decision clearing a Chubb insurance unit from covering a $4.2 million settlement agreement over the lack of a comma in a professional services policy, arguing the ruling misapplied New Jersey law.

  • September 18, 2024

    Georgia High Court Won't Hear Missed Patent Deadline Case

    The highest court in Georgia has decided not to take up an appeal from a neurosurgeon in his nearly $102 million lawsuit, letting stand a lower court's finding that a patent docketing contractor used by remote law firm FisherBroyles can't be held liable for a missed patent application deadline.

  • September 18, 2024

    Staffing Co. Ex-CEO Gets Prison Time For $6M Billing Scheme

    The former CEO of a purported Georgia-based staffing company was sentenced to nearly eight years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraud-related charges in a $6 million scheme using fake payroll invoices he sent to a financing business in Florida while pretending to be someone else.

  • September 18, 2024

    Ex-Employees Can Bring ADA Benefits Suits, High Court Told

    A retired Florida firefighter called on the U.S. Supreme Court to find that former employees can bring claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act pertaining to post-employment benefits, challenging an Eleventh Circuit ruling that determined only current employees can file these disability bias suits.

  • September 18, 2024

    Georgia Powerhouse: Eversheds Sutherland

    Eversheds Sutherland had a busy year guiding Oglethorpe Power Corp. on a $20 billion expansion project that made a Georgia nuclear power plant the country's largest source of clean energy, favorably settling a construction cost-related dispute for Oglethorpe and helping another client secure financing for a facility to manufacture electric vehicles.

  • September 18, 2024

    Real Estate Atty Pleads Guilty To Ga. COVID Funds Fraud

    The former operator of a Georgia-based real estate law firm has pled guilty to two fraud charges totaling about $500,000, including fraudulently obtaining nearly $300,000 in COVID-19 government relief funds, as part of an agreement that blocks the U.S. attorney in Atlanta from bringing any additional related charges.

  • September 18, 2024

    Sidley Can't Escape Malpractice Suit In Ga. Over Tax Scheme

    A Georgia federal judge has found that Sidley Austin LLP must face its former clients' legal malpractice claims alleging they participated in a tax scheme under the firm's guidance, but threw out indemnity claims seeking reimbursement for paying the IRS $7 million over the scheme.

  • September 18, 2024

    Ga. Justices Rebuke Local GOP For Delays In Ballot Challenge

    The Supreme Court of Georgia on Tuesday shot down a county Republican Party's bid to keep several candidates for local office off the ballot for an election that was already held this year, scorning the GOP chapter for its "failure to litigate this appeal with dispatch."

  • September 18, 2024

    Video Game Giants Want Addictive Games Suit Tossed

    Microsoft Corp., Nintendo of America Inc., Activision Blizzard Inc., Roblox Corp. and other well-known companies in the video game industry moved to dismiss a lawsuit alleging they intentionally got users addicted to their games for profit Tuesday, arguing the case is barred by the First Amendment.

  • September 17, 2024

    Ga. Bars NCAA From Prohibiting NIL Compensation

    The NCAA and other athletic organizations cannot prohibit Georgia colleges and universities from providing student-athletes with name, image and likeness compensation under an executive order signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday.

  • September 17, 2024

    Insurer Must Defend Ga. Hotel In Sex Trafficking Suit

    A Georgia hotel's insurer must defend the hotel in an underlying suit brought by a woman claiming she was a victim of sex trafficking, a Georgia federal court said, finding that an exclusion for injuries arising for abuse or molestation did not apply.

Expert Analysis

  • It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers

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    Amid fierce competition for business, the transactional “trusted adviser” paradigm from which most firms operate is no longer sufficient — they should instead aim to become trusted partners with their most valuable clients, says Stuart Maister at Strategic Narrative.

  • 'Greenhushing': Why Some Cos. Are Keeping Quiet On ESG

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    A wave of ESG-related litigation and regulations have led some companies to retreat altogether from any public statements about their ESG goals, a trend known as "greenhushing" that was at the center of a recent D.C. court decision involving Coca-Cola, say Gonzalo Mon and Katie Rogers at Kelley Drye.

  • What VC Fund Settlement Means For DEI Grant Programs

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    An unexpected settlement in American Alliance for Equal Rights v. Fearless Fund, based on specific details of an Atlanta venture capital fund's challenged minority grant program, leaves the legal landscape wide open for organizations with similar programs supporting diversity, equity and inclusion to chart a path forward, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Missouri Injunction A Setback For State Anti-ESG Rules

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    A Missouri federal court’s recent order enjoining the state’s anti-ESG rules comes amid actions by state legislatures to revise or invalidate similar legislation imposing disclosure and consent requirements around environmental, social and governance investing, and could be a blueprint for future challenges, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

  • How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations

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    Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.

  • The Fed. Circ. In August: Secret Sales And Public Disclosures

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    Two recent Federal Circuit rulings — Sanho v. Kaijet and Celanese International v. ITC — highlight that inventors should publicly and promptly disclose their inventions, as a secret sale will not suffice as a disclosure, and file their patent applications within a year of public disclosure, say Sean Murray and Jeremiah Helm at Knobbe Martens.

  • Avoiding Corporate Political Activity Pitfalls This Election Year

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    As Election Day approaches, corporate counsel should be mindful of the complicated rules around companies engaging in political activities, including super PAC contributions, pay-to-play prohibitions and foreign agent restrictions, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles

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    Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.

  • Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.

  • 5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond

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    As lawyers and recent law school graduates begin their Master of Laws coursework across the country, they should keep a few pointers in mind to get the most out of their programs and kick-start successful careers in their practice areas, says Kelley Miller at Reed Smith.

  • Series

    Being An Opera Singer Made Me A Better Lawyer

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    My journey from the stage to the courtroom has shown that the skills I honed as an opera singer – punctuality, memorization, creativity and more – have all played a vital role in my success as an attorney, says Gerard D'Emilio at GableGotwals.

  • How Law Firms Can Avoid 'Collaboration Drag'

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    Law firm decision making can be stifled by “collaboration drag” — characterized by too many pointless meetings, too much peer feedback and too little dissent — but a few strategies can help stakeholders improve decision-making processes and build consensus, says Steve Groom at Miles Mediation.

  • Opinion

    Litigation Funding Disclosure Key To Open, Impartial Process

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    Blanket investor and funding agreement disclosures should be required in all civil cases where the investor has a financial interest in the outcome in order to address issues ranging from potential conflicts of interest to national security concerns, says Bob Goodlatte, former U.S. House Representative for Virginia.

  • What NFL Draft Picks Have In Common With Lateral Law Hires

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    Nearly half of law firm lateral hires leave within a few years — a failure rate that is strikingly similar to the performance of NFL quarterbacks drafted in the first round — in part because evaluators focus too heavily on quantifiable metrics and not enough on a prospect's character traits, says Howard Rosenberg at Baretz+Brunelle.

  • Replacing The Stigma Of Menopause With Law Firm Support

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    A large proportion of the workforce is forced to pull the brakes on their career aspirations because of the taboo surrounding menopause and a lack of consistent support, but law firms can initiate the cultural shift needed by formulating thoughtful workplace policies, says Barbara Hamilton-Bruce at Simmons & Simmons.

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