Expert Analysis

• Sandbagging Issues To Watch In Deal Documents

  

  Attorneys at Kramer Levin explore how transactional practitioners address sandbagging in acquisition agreements, the default rules that courts may apply when deal parties are silent on the issue, and how sandbagging comes up in the context of representation and warranty insurance policies and any related special indemnities in acquisition agreements.

• Ky. Ruling Shows Need For Consistent Insurer Claim Replies

  

  The Kentucky Supreme Court's recent ruling in Ashland Hospital v. Darwin Select Insurance, allowing a hospital to continue seeking coverage for a medical malpractice claim, warns insurers against invoking a prior-notice exclusion to bar coverage after previously rejecting a notice of potential claim as insufficient, say Chet Kronenberg and Lindsay DiMaggio at Simpson Thacher.

• Opinion

  Federal Courts Should Adopt Supreme Court's Amicus Stance

  

  The federal courts of appeals should adopt the U.S. Supreme Court's new approach to amicus curiae briefs, which allows the friend-of-the-court submissions to be filed without consent from the court or the parties, says Lawrence Ebner at Atlantic Legal Foundation.

• NY Panel's COVID Nursing Home Case Order Spurs Questions

  

  The New York Litigation Coordinating Panel's recent final order to coordinate the resolution of COVID-19 nursing home cases leaves critical parameters for the cases coming under the order undefined, such as time frame and injury, say Christopher Potenza and Elizabeth Adymy at Hurwitz Fine.

• Check This List Twice: 4 Steps To Abate Coverage Concerns

  

  This holiday season give your company the gift of following easy administrative steps to avoid the far-too-common clerical errors that could lead to forfeited insurance coverage, say Vivek Chopra and Mattison Kim at Perkins Coie.

• Lessons On Notice From 7th Circ. Claims-Made Policy Ruling

  

  The Seventh Circuit's recent decision in Hanover Insurance v. R.W. Dunteman contains broad lessons for policyholders — as many claims-made policies include similar aggregation and claims notice provisions as the one at issue — on how to preserve coverage, say Brian Scarbrough and Maura Smyles at Jenner & Block.

• 3 Pricing Trends In Law Firm Use Of Litigation Funding

  

  As BigLaw firms increasingly include litigation funding as a financing option for clients, internal pricing groups are taking the lead on standardizing and centralizing firm processes, and aggregating risk budgets, says Brendan Dyer at Woodsford Group.

• Safeguarding Attorneys' Greatest Asset: Our Mental Health

  

  Attorneys who understand that mental fitness is their most valuable characteristic should prioritize mental health care accordingly, including with certain activities they may not realize qualify as self-care, says Wendy Robbins at Holland & Knight.

• Opinion

  Benefits Ruling Shows Need For Revised ERISA Procedure

  

  The Ninth Circuit's recent ruling in Collier v. Lincoln Life Assurance demonstrates that not only are there no uniform court procedures for Employee Retirement Income Security Act litigation, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are not always followed, demanding a reappraisal of ERISA civil procedure, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.

• 5th Circ. Class Action Rulings Reflect Post-TransUnion Trends

  

  In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2021 TransUnion v. Ramirez decision, Fifth Circuit case trends this year highlight the importance of closely evaluating standing challenges where the injury-in-fact is questionable, even where a statutory violation might exist, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

• Fla. Insurance Suit Trends To Look Out For After Hurricane Ian

  

  There will likely be tens of thousands of property insurance lawsuits filed in the wake of Hurricane Ian, and carriers and insureds will need to view claims through Florida's Valued Policy Law, the concurrent cause doctrine and anti-concurrent cause provisions, say David Levin and Spencer Leach at Baker Donelson.

• Property Policies Could Cover Organized Retail Crime Losses

  

  Following a recent surge in organized retail crime, policyholders can look to case law that suggests they may be able to skirt property policy loss exclusions if they can produce evidence of theft, says Micah Skidmore at Haynes Boone.

• Opinion

  Law Schools Are Right To Steer Clear Of US News Rankings

  

  By opting out of participating in the U.S. News & World Report annual rankings, law schools abandon a profoundly flawed system and free up their resources to adapt to the tsunami of changes overtaking the profession, says Nicholas Allard at Jacksonville University College of Law.

• Opinion

  Litigation Funders Seek Transparency In Disclosure Debate

  

  Litigation funders want to correct the record on calls for funding disclosure in the name of transparency, as this purported justification obscures the disclosure's adverse effects — prejudicing plaintiffs' cases and discouraging the assertion of meritorious legal claims, say Dai Wai Chin Feman and William Weisman at Parabellum Capital.

• Privacy Ruling Highlights Risks Of Third-Party Web Tracking

  

  The Ninth Circuit’s recent ruling in Javier v. Assurance — that third-party session replay software usage without user consent may violate a California privacy law — highlights why companies should remain proactive and review all technologies that collect information from their websites, say attorneys at K&L Gates.