Real Estate

  • April 16, 2024

    Feds, PPG Reach $22.8M Deal To Clean Up NJ Superfund Site

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a settlement with PPG Industries Inc. on Tuesday under which the company has agreed to cough up more than $22.8 million to cover the estimated future cleanup costs and maintenance at the Riverside Industrial Park Superfund Site in Newark, New Jersey.

  • April 16, 2024

    Hedge Fund Asks Court To Toss REIT's Suit In Takeover Row

    New York hedge fund Blackwells Capital LLC fired off the latest shot in its ongoing board takeover spat with a Texas-based hotel real estate investment trust, asking Monday for a federal judge to toss a lawsuit aimed at warding off the proxy contest.

  • April 16, 2024

    Tribes, Lawmakers Call On Biden To Protect Historic Sites

    A coalition of Native American tribal communities and federal lawmakers on Tuesday delivered a petition containing more than 800,000 signatures calling on the Biden administration to protect, expand and designate a slew of national monuments and sacred lands under the Antiquities Act.

  • April 16, 2024

    Companies Wrongly Found Insolvent, Texas Court Rules

    A Texas appeals court on Tuesday reversed a decision by a lower court that named two companies partially owned by a real estate developer that filed for bankruptcy as insolvent as well, saying a state court "abused its discretion" by putting the two entities in receivership.

  • April 16, 2024

    Claim That Hilton Insurance Spat Is Moot Surprises 11th Circ.

    Counsel for Affiliated FM Insurance Co. appeared to surprise an 11th Circuit panel Tuesday in arguing that the basis for a coverage denial claim brought by the two owner-operators of an Atlanta-area Hilton hotel is belied by the fact that the companies' insurance claims have been whittled down to nothing.

  • April 16, 2024

    Atty Sanction's 'Chilling Effect' Worries Mich. Justice

    A Michigan Supreme Court justice asked Tuesday whether upholding sanctions against an attorney who joined a case after earlier frivolous litigation would scare away lawyers from agreeing to represent clients in those situations, echoing concerns shared by the plaintiff and defense bars.

  • April 16, 2024

    Builder Ends EEOC Suit Accusing It Of Firing White Worker

    A manufactured-home builder will pay $135,000 to end a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit accusing it of firing a white worker because he has a multiracial family and refused to take part in conversations belittling Black people, the agency said Tuesday.

  • April 16, 2024

    11th Circ. Asks If Undivided Settlement Can Still Be Covered

    An Eleventh Circuit panel seemed torn Tuesday on whether to allow insurance coverage for a $557,000 nonapportioned Georgia federal settlement that potentially included both covered theft and noncovered negligent deconstruction, awarded to a Georgia mill owner who hired the insured.

  • April 16, 2024

    High Court Sides With Texas Landowners In Takings Dispute

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in favor of landowners in a dispute with Texas, finding the owners can pursue their takings claim pursuant to state law but leaving open a larger Fifth Amendment takings question.

  • April 15, 2024

    Structured Deposits Recalled In Ex-Ecuadorian Official's Trial

    A bookkeeper testified Monday in Miami federal court that he conducted a series of structured deposits and other suspicious transactions while working at a tile company owned by the son of Ecuador's former comptroller general, who's accused of laundering millions of dollars in bribes from Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht SA.

  • April 15, 2024

    Enviro Groups Urge 9th Circ. To Uphold Ax Of DOI Land Swap

    Environmental groups and the National Congress of American Indians have thrown their support behind the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in calling on the Ninth Circuit to uphold a lower court ruling that the federal government's land exchange with agribusiness J.R. Simplot Co. was unlawful.

  • April 15, 2024

    Oil Co. Warns NC Justices Of 'Unfair' Results In Taking Case

    An oil company and two other former plaintiffs from a settled state government land-taking proposed class action have warned the North Carolina Supreme Court that if the justices affirm an intermediate appellate ruling in a similar case, they would be reinforcing "unfair, unequal, disparate and divergent" treatment of property owners.

  • April 15, 2024

    Canadian Supplement Co.'s Sale Hits Ch. 15 Snag In Del.

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge appeared skeptical Monday that an American judge can weigh in on a dispute over rights to Canadian assets, as counsel for a troubled nutritional supplement supplier based in Canada argued for U.S. recognition of a sale order from an insolvency court in its home country.

  • April 15, 2024

    9th Circ. Says Court Must Consider Pay In Navajo Benefits Bid

    The Ninth Circuit has vacated a ruling that a Navajo Nation member failed to prove he was wrongfully denied relocation benefits after the U.S. gave his ancestral lands to the Hopi Tribe, with a split panel remanding the case to federal district court with instructions to consider evidence of his income.

  • April 15, 2024

    4th Circ. Upholds W.Va.'s Win In Coal Mine Cleanup Suit

    The Fourth Circuit on Monday affirmed a West Virginia federal court's order ending developers' allegations that the state's environmental regulators' reclamation efforts at an old coal mining site constituted illegal dumping, finding the lower court correctly concluded the efforts are exempt from regulations prohibiting open dumps.

  • April 15, 2024

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Last week, Delaware justices mulled whether one Chancery Court vice chancellor properly voided four company bylaws — just as another vice chancellor voided one more. Fights among Truth Social investors continued, and shareholders launched new cases involving Macy's, United Airlines, and Clayton Dubilier & Rice LLC and Stone Point Capital LLC.

  • April 15, 2024

    Conn. Atty Aided $1.4M Transfer Scam, Developer Says

    Connecticut attorney Carole W. Briggs "intentionally orchestrated and participated in" a business email compromise scam that stole more than $1.4 million from a New Jersey-based real estate development company last year, according to a civil lawsuit in federal court.

  • April 15, 2024

    Addiction Recovery Home Says City Seeks Wrongful Eviction

    An addiction recovery home is suing the city of Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission in federal court, saying they are wrongly using zoning rules in a bid to evict residents from one of its homes in violation of the Fair Housing Act and Americans with Disabilities Act.

  • April 15, 2024

    Clark Hill Adds Fla. Real Estate Atty With 17 Years' Experience

    Clark Hill PLC has hired a longtime real estate attorney with almost two decades of experience who spent the past nine years working on transactional and other related real estate matters as a solo practitioner, the firm announced Monday.

  • April 15, 2024

    Justices Won't Hear Brokerage's Arbitration Claim In Fees Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear HomeServices of America's argument that certain class members in a lawsuit over real estate agents' commissions should have been compelled to arbitrate their antitrust claims rather than taking them to a jury.

  • April 15, 2024

    High Court Passes On Tenants' Debt Collection Dispute

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider a Ninth Circuit ruling that revived a suit filed by tenants who hit a California law firm with a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act suit.

  • April 15, 2024

    Justices Pass On Norfolk Southern Claim To Rail Line Control

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear Norfolk Southern Railway Co.'s challenge to a 2022 Surface Transportation Board ruling that the freight railroad company can't control Virginia's Belt Line, which opened it up to an antitrust suit from rival CSX Transportation Inc. over its rate-setting.

  • April 12, 2024

    Real Estate Authority: RE Women In BigLaw, Q1, Proptech

    Law360 Real Estate Authority covers the most important real estate deals, litigation, policies and trends. Catch up on this week's key developments by state — as well as on gender diversity rates among 20 BigLaw real estate practices, M&A and financing stats from the first quarter, and the 2024 Real Estate Technology Conference in New York.

  • April 12, 2024

    Peru Says Gramercy's $100M Bond Arbitration Bid Too Late

    Peru is hitting back at Connecticut-based hedge fund Gramercy's bid to enforce a $100 million arbitral award that it secured over the country's valuation of old government bonds, telling a D.C. federal court that the investor had failed to bring its challenge within three years of learning of the alleged misconduct as required by a bilateral trade agreement. 

  • April 12, 2024

    Hedge Fund Fires Back At Hotel REIT With Proxy Contest Suit

    Blackwells Capital LLC has fired back at Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc. with a lawsuit against the hotel REIT and its board chair Monty Bennett, seeking a green light to move forward with a campaign to place its own candidates on the company's board.

Expert Analysis

  • Preparing Law Students For A New, AI-Assisted Legal World

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    As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the legal landscape, law schools must integrate technology and curricula that address AI’s innate challenges — from ethics to data security — to help students stay ahead of the curve, say Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics, Ryan Abbott at JAMS and Karen Silverman at Cantellus Group.

  • Sellers Seeking Best Deal Should Focus On Terms And Price

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    Rising interest rates and a decline in the automotive mergers and acquisitions market mean that a failed deal carries greater stakes, and sellers therefore should pursue not only the optimum price but also the optimum terms to safeguard their agreement, says Joseph Aboyoun at Fox Rothschild.

  • Series

    ESG Around The World: South Korea

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    Numerous ESG trends have materialized in South Korea in the past three years, with impacts ranging from greenwashing prevention and carbon neutrality measures to workplace harassment and board diversity initiatives, say Chang Wook Min and Hyun Chan Jung at Jipyong.

  • General Counsel Need Data Literacy To Keep Up With AI

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    With the rise of accessible and powerful generative artificial intelligence solutions, it is imperative for general counsel to understand the use and application of data for myriad important activities, from evaluating the e-discovery process to monitoring compliance analytics and more, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

  • Illinois Trump Tower Ruling Illuminates Insurance 'Occurrence'

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    In Continental Casualty v. 401 North Wabash Venture, an Illinois appellate court found that Trump Tower was not entitled to insurance coverage for operating its HVAC system without a permit, helping to further define a widely litigated general liability insurance issue — what constitutes an "occurrence," say Robert Tugander and Greg Mann at Rivkin Radler.

  • A Look At Successful Bid Protests In FY 2023

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    Attorneys at Sheppard Mullin look beyond the statistics in the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s recent annual report on bid protests, sharing their insights about nine categories of sustained protests, gained from reading every fiscal year 2023 decision in which the protester had a positive result.

  • A Bird's Eye View Of NYC's New Parapet Inspection Law

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    Building owners in New York City should be ready for the city's new parapet inspection requirements going into effect in January, which will likely necessitate additional construction work for countless buildings not previously subject to formal inspections, says Benjamin Fox Tracy at Braverman Greenspun.

  • AI Isn't The Wild West, So Prepare Now For Bias Risks

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    In addition to President Joe Biden's recent historic executive order on safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence, there are existing federal and state laws prohibiting fraud, defamation and even discrimination, so companies considering using or developing AI should take steps to minimize legal and business risks, says civil rights attorney Farhana Khera.

  • Navigating Discovery Of Generative AI Information

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    As generative artificial intelligence tools become increasingly ubiquitous, companies must make sure to preserve generative AI data when there is reasonable expectation of litigation, and to include transcripts in litigation hold notices, as they may be relevant to discovery requests, say Nick Peterson and Corey Hauser at Wiley.

  • Finding Focus: Strategies For Attorneys With ADHD

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    Given the prevalence of ADHD among attorneys, it is imperative that the legal community gain a better understanding of how ADHD affects well-being, and that resources and strategies exist for attorneys with this disability to manage their symptoms and achieve success, say Casey Dixon at Dixon Life Coaching and Krista Larson at Stinson.

  • AI's Baked-In Bias: What To Watch Out For

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    The federal AI executive order is a direct acknowledgment of the perils of inherent bias in artificial intelligence systems, and highlights the need for legal professionals to thoroughly vet AI systems, including data and sources, algorithms and AI training methods, and more, say Jonathan Hummel and Jonathan Talcott at Ballard Spahr.

  • How Fla. Bankruptcy Ruling May Affect Equity Owners

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    A Florida bankruptcy court’s recent ruling in Vital Pharmaceuticals — which rejected the Third Circuit’s Majestic Star decision that determined a bankrupt corporation’s flow-through status was not protected by the automatic stay — may significantly affect how equity owners can mitigate the impact of flow-through structures in bankruptcy, say Eric Behl-Remijan and Natasha Hwangpo at Ropes & Gray.

  • Calif. Ruling May Open Bankruptcy Trustees To Tort Liability

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    In Martin v. Gladstone, a recent California appellate court decision, the application of tort concepts to bankruptcy trustees could pose a new concern for trustees and federal receivers when controlling and maintaining commercial property, says Jarrett Osborne-Revis at Buchalter.

  • 5th Circ. Ruling May Beget Fraud Jury Instruction Appeals

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    The Fifth Circuit’s recent U.S. v. Greenlaw decision, disapproving disjunctive fraudulent-intent jury instructions, will likely spawn appeals in mail, wire and securities fraud cases, but defendants must show that their deception furthered ends other than taking the victim's property, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.

  • Considerations For Navigating Mixed-Use Developments

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    As mixed-use developments continue to rise in popularity, developers considering this approach to urban planning must be aware of key considerations ranging from title and zoning laws to proper engagement with stakeholders, says Mehdi Sinaki at Michelman & Robinson.

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