Pennsylvania

Expert Analysis

• Opinion

  Big Business Lobby Tries To Hobble Litigation Finance, Again

  

  In its most recent petition advocating mandatory disclosure of litigation finance, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce simply rehashes the same arguments from its previous failed efforts to convince the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the dire implications of undisclosed funding relationships, say members of IMF Bentham Ltd.

• Energy Efficiency Resources Must Stay In The Mix

  

  A proposal by PJM Interconnection threatens to exclude energy efficiency resources — the electricity savings achieved through the use of more energy-efficient products — from competing in its capacity market. This precedent could lead to additional barriers for other advanced energy technologies in wholesale electricity markets, says Richard Drom of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC.

• What Counsel At Retailers Should Know About Data Breaches

  

  Just last week it was announced that Target reached a record $18.5 million settlement with 47 states and Washington, D.C., in its data breach case. Unfortunately, Target was not the high-water mark for data breaches: They will continue, and the cost of responding to them will continue to rise, says Donald Houser of Alston & Bird LLP.

• Employers Beware: What Not To Ask During A Job Interview

  

  For many employers it may seem like second nature to ask about a job applicant’s salary history. However, what was once a seemingly innocuous question will soon get an employer in deep water in Massachusetts, Philadelphia and New York City, says Amy Puckett of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP.

• Juries Must Know About Products' Standards Compliance

  

  In a recent case, the Pennsylvania Superior Court excluded defense evidence of a product's adherence to regulatory and industry standards. But such evidence is central to the issue of whether a product is unreasonably dangerous — and because juries are tasked with resolving that issue, the exclusion of this evidence makes little sense, says Albert Piccerilli of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads LLP.

• Series

  The Return Of Attorney-Conducted Voir Dire

  

  If we truly believe in providing litigants with a jury of one’s peers, we must adopt strategies to ensure that parties and their representatives have a say in selecting their jury. When only judges participate, the result is a less representative and less fair cross section of the community, say Stephen Susman, Richard Jolly and Roy Futterman of NYU School of Law's Civil Jury Project.

• Monthly Column

  Gray Matters: Identities Are Us

  

  Lawyers faced with clients who can’t or won’t listen to their advice must consider that the core of this risky decision may be a person's inability or refusal to relinquish a prime identity in times of uncertainty, say dispute resolution experts Robert Creo and Selina Shultz.

• Series

  Revisiting Affiliated Ute: A Rare Presumption In 11th Circ.

  

  The Eleventh Circuit has made clear that it will strictly construe the U.S. Supreme Court's Affiliated Ute decision as well as the omission language of Rule 10b-5(b). This will continue to present challenges to the plaintiffs bar in this circuit, say Brian Miller and Samantha Kavanaugh of Akerman LLP.

• My Milkshake Is Better Than Yours: Part 2

  

  In the second installment of this two-part series on disruptive innovation among mid-size law firms, Jill Dessalines, founder of Strategic Advice for Successful Lawyers and former senior vice president at McKesson Corp., explores a number of ideas for keeping clients and maintaining market position.

• Noncompete Agreements Under Siege At The State Level

  

  Compared with many other areas of employment law, the law of noncompetition agreements has been relatively static. More recently, however, many states have turned their attention to noncompetes and considered significant changes in how they are used and enforced, say attorneys with Paley Rothman.