Telecommunications

Expert Analysis

• 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.

• COVID-19 Mitigation May Trigger New Tech Export Restrictions

  

  Companies that implement advanced technology to address pandemic-related concerns when they reopen must first determine whether U.S. export controls on new technologies and critical supplies apply, and may need to expand compliance programs accordingly, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

• 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.

• Opinion

  License To All Should Prevail In FRAND Patent Wars

  

  Because a license-to-all system for standard-essential patents — such as those held by Qualcomm and automakers — inhibits commerce less than an access-to-all system and is more consistent with standard setting organization policies, it should emerge as the default in the ongoing royalty calculation debate, says professor Thomas Cotter at the University of Minnesota Law School.

• 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.

• 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.

• How COVID-19 Applies To Weakened Competitor M&A Defense

  

  A New York federal court's February decision allowing the T-Mobile/Sprint merger and the large number of companies weakened by the pandemic will result in merging parties justifying potentially anti-competitive mergers primarily on the basis of efficiencies and weakened competitor status, say James Langenfeld and Chris Ring at Ankura Consulting.

• 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.

• 5 Tips For Drafting Effective Legal Billing Guidelines

  

  To properly manage outside counsel, it's imperative for a company's legal department to implement and maintain rules on what they will and won't pay for, on staffing cases and requesting rate increases, and on how matters will be handled, says Chris Seezen at Quovant.