Media & Entertainment

Expert Analysis

• 9th Circ. Antitrust Ruling Radically Changes NCAA Sports

  

  While a victory for student-athletes, the Ninth Circuit's recent finding that the NCAA violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by restricting grant-in-aid may give schools with wealthy athletic boosters a distinct advantage and make it difficult to maintain a level playing field, say attorneys at Segal McCambridge.

• Law Firms Must Beware Risks In Nontraditional Financing

  

  Law firms in today's financial crisis may be looking at nontraditional arrangements such as portfolio funding or factoring to provide liquidity and cash support, but firms must first consider lawsuits brought against Pierce Bainbridge and other recent developments, says Katherine Toomey at Lewis Baach.

• Opinion

  Copyright Office Should Call For Further DMCA Rebalancing

  

  By refusing to endorse a policy that would require websites to permanently ban certain content, the U.S. Copyright Office's recent Digital Millennium Copyright Act report, although laudable, does not go far enough to rebalance competing interests, say Doug Mirell and Josh Geller at Greenberg Glusker.

• 2 Tested Alternatives To Unavoidable Court Delays

  

  Those seeking resolution in commercial disputes that are stuck in an unavoidable but lengthy court backlog due to the pandemic must consider the advantages of arbitration and mediation over court proceedings, says former U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin now at Stroock.

• Opinion

  Minn. Ruling Represents Sensible Stance On Legal Finance

  

  The Minnesota Supreme Court's Maslowski v. Prospect Funding Partners decision this week reaffirms that the doctrine of champerty is archaic, impedes important litigation finance activity, and should be abolished in the handful of states where it remains alive, says Andrew Cohen at Burford Capital.

• Tax Compliance Issues For Rapidly Growing Media Cos.

  

  Our recent survey reveals that while many communications and media companies are planning new corporate structures or product offerings to keep up with their industry’s exponential growth, they need to improve how they identify and address indirect communications tax compliance, says Toby Bargar at Avalara.

• Best Practices For A Paperless Law Practice

  

  A significant challenge in practicing law remotely is the use and handling of documents without paper, because common digital tools such as email or even secure file transfer applications are problematic, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

• Blunting Copyright Enforcers' Excessive Settlement Demands

  

  In an online copyright landscape that creates incentives for enforcement agents to seek windfalls and for defendants to make settlement payments — as recently illustrated by a New York federal court's holding in Seidman v. Authentic Brands — there are several measures for mitigating unreasonable demands, says Jordan Feirman at Skadden.

• 5 Ways A Special IG Can Combat Crisis Relief Fraud

  

  As companies and their counsel prepare for enforcement by the newly confirmed special inspector general for pandemic recovery responsible for overseeing CARES Act funds, Christy Goldsmith Romero, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, shares how her office has investigated fraud, waste and abuse of federal relief funds following the 2008 financial crisis.

• Opinion

  If The DOD Wants Ligado's Spectrum, It Should Buy It

  

  The U.S. Department of Defense should stop blocking Ligado Networks' 5G network due to concerns it interferes with the department's GPS, and should instead pay the opportunity cost to buy Ligado's spectrum, say Thomas Lenard at the Technology Policy Institute and Lawrence White at the NYU Stern School of Business​​​​​​​.

• Opinion

  Lawyers Must Address Racial Injustice With Radical Candor

  

  The legal industry is uniquely positioned, and indeed obligated, to respond to the racial disparities made clear by the recent killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, but lawyers must be willing to be uncomfortable, says Tiffani Lee at Holland & Knight.

• 2nd Circ. Copyright Ruling Offers Relief From Late-Filed Suits

  

  After the Second Circuit's recent Sohm v. Scholastic decision on late-filed copyright infringement claims, defendants may have grounds for early dismissals of monetary damages claims, say Andrea Calvaruso and Taraneh Marciano at Kelley Drye.

• How Lawyers Can Network Better, Virtually And In Person

  

  The current decrease in formality and increase in common ground due to the work-from-home environment can make it easier to have a networking conversation, says Megan Burke Roudebush at Keepwith.

• Practical Tips For Presenting Your Case To Litigation Funders

  

  One mistake that attorneys commonly make when presenting a case to a third-party funder is focusing almost exclusively on liability and giving short shrift to the damages analysis — resulting in an aspirational damages estimate that falls apart under scrutiny, say Cindy Ahn and Justin Maleson at Longford Capital and Casey Grabenstein at Saul Ewing.

• Avoiding Inadvertent Privilege Waivers In E-Communications

  

  Attorneys at WilmerHale highlight recent developments in privilege law, the significant challenges raised by nontraditional working arrangements popularized during the pandemic, and ways to avoid waiving attorney-client privilege when using electronic communications.