Commercial Contracts

  • October 24, 2024

    Broadcasters Doubt Legality Of FCC Blackout Reporting Regs

    TV broadcasters questioned a Federal Communications Commission plan to require cable and satellite companies to report programming "blackouts" caused by carriage disputes to a central database, saying the agency appears to lack legal authority to impose such a requirement.

  • October 24, 2024

    Chancery Won't Block Dura Medic Merger Insurance Claims

    Dura Medic, a private equity-controlled medical equipment supplier, and its directors and officers won their bid Thursday in Delaware's Court of Chancery to beat back, for now, a request for a temporary restraining order blocking a settlement that could put a $5 million directors and officers insurance policy beyond the reach of the previous owners' damage claims.

  • October 23, 2024

    Mich. Panel Reverses Insurer's $1.2M Fire Subrogation Win

    A Michigan state appeals court rejected a property insurer's subrogation bid against commercial tenants over a roughly $1.2 million building fire, finding that while the tenants' lease generally required them to keep their property in good condition, there was no specific provision holding them liable for their own negligence.

  • October 23, 2024

    Tribes Want Magistrate Judge To Drop Out Of $12M Award Suit

    Two Native American tribes have told a Wyoming federal court that a magistrate judge should recuse himself from an oil and gas company's lawsuit attempting to stop them from using their tribal judicial system to vacate a more than $12 million arbitration award.

  • October 23, 2024

    Investor Tied To Texas AG Seeks Investigation Info From Feds

    Real estate investor Nate Paul is looking to get more information from federal prosecutors about their investigation into federal fraud charges he's facing — topics that featured prominently during the failed impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — according to court filings from U.S. Attorney's Office employees.

  • October 23, 2024

    Judge Says $85M Signature Bank Lawsuit Came Too Late

    A New York federal judge has permanently tossed a lawsuit brought by a developer and its affiliates alleging that a former Signature Bank employee fraudulently misled them into unfavorable financial transactions, saying the claims are time-barred under the bank's one-year statute of limitations and not adequately pled.

  • October 23, 2024

    No Xenophobia Taint In Fired Prof's Jury Trial, Panel Says

    An Ohio state appellate court has upheld a jury's finding that a Cincinnati medical center did not violate employment law when it fired a tenured associate professor, rejecting the professor's argument that the medical center attempted to stoke "xenophobic bias" in the jury by mentioning his Chinese heritage during trial.

  • October 23, 2024

    UBS Wins $192M Award Confirmation In Eurobond Dispute

    An Egyptian businessman has lost his years-old bid in New York federal court to vacate an approximately $192 million arbitral award favoring UBS and other lenders in a dispute over a $100 million Eurobond default.

  • October 23, 2024

    Billionaire Sued For $25M Over Renewable Fuel Project Costs

    Air Products and Chemicals Inc. has slapped Canadian billionaire John Carter Risley with a suit in Delaware federal court seeking to enforce a $25 million personal guarantee after renewable fuels company World Energy, a company Risley has invested in, defaulted on more than $26 million in payments.

  • October 23, 2024

    9th Circ. Judge Suggests Equity Pact Counts As Wash. Loan

    A Ninth Circuit judge said Wednesday he was "struggling with" a company's stance that its equity-sharing agreement with two homeowners in Washington state doesn't amount to a loan covered by state laws regulating reverse mortgages, saying the arrangement appears to check the boxes of the statutory definition.

  • October 23, 2024

    NJ City Permitted Bigger Project To End Suit, Opponent Says

    A property owner's nonprofit has brought a new lawsuit claiming that the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, gave a developer more than $50 million in project benefits in a settlement that could nearly double the scope of a pair of mixed-use developments along the scenic Palisades cliffs.

  • October 23, 2024

    Jersey Shore Attractions Sued For Pay Over Iconic Phrase

    The woman whose voice has been played in a recording along a New Jersey shore town's boardwalk for over 45 years alleged in a revised state court complaint Wednesday she has never been paid more than few free tram car tickets despite it becoming an iconic slogan for the popular destination.

  • October 23, 2024

    How FINRA Filings Led To A $29M Defamation Verdict In Pa.

    Two firms that specialize in injury, employment and fraud matters teamed up for an unusual case that posed a tricky task: boiling down the technicalities of securities law in order to convince a Pennsylvania state jury that regulatory filings were misused for defamation.

  • October 23, 2024

    Del. Judge Won't Yet Revisit $242K Atty Sanctions In Ch. 7

    A Delaware bankruptcy judge said Wednesday that he won't, for now, set aside more than $242,000 in legal fees he ordered a lawyer representing the owners of an insolvent government contractor to pay in a clawback lawsuit, saying that since the sanctions order was appealed to the district court, he doesn't have jurisdiction.

  • October 23, 2024

    Trial Consulting Firm Says Ex-Worker Stole Trade Secrets

    Jury analysis firm Jury-X has accused a former employee of taking off with its trade secrets and exploiting a "backdoor" she put in the company's data tables to start her own competing juror selection services business that also copied her old employer's appearance online.

  • October 23, 2024

    Kirkland Adds Freshfields Atty To Boost Private Credit Bench

    Kirkland & Ellis LLP has welcomed an expert in leveraged finance from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, saying Wednesday that his diverse practice will strengthen the firm's liability management and opportunistic credit practices and support its position in the growing private credit sector.

  • October 22, 2024

    Texas Firm 'Tortured' Barratry Case, Appeals Court Hears

    A Texas law firm accused of ambulance chasing told a state appeals court that the opposition had "tortured" the case, saying during oral arguments Tuesday that Bandas Law Firm PC pursued the case merely as an extortion racket.

  • October 22, 2024

    Fraud Detector Inks $500K Deal In Webster Bank Breach Probe

    A fraud detection vendor servicing Webster Bank NA will pay $500,000 to settle an investigation into a data breach that exposed the personal information of nearly 158,000 Connecticut residents, the state attorney general's office has announced.

  • October 22, 2024

    Colo. Justices Suggest Remanding 'Half-Baked' Privilege Case

    Colorado Supreme Court justices appeared reluctant Tuesday to do more than remand a case over whether attorney-client privilege protects communications by an insurance company's lawyers with engineers hired for processing a claim, with two justices calling the appeal "half-baked" since the trial judge admitted she used the wrong standard.

  • October 22, 2024

    Hagens Berman Says Vorys 'Opportunistically' Seeking Lead

    Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP is fighting a bid by Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease LLP to take the lead in a proposed consolidated class action against gaming giant Valve Corp., saying that after they defeated Valve's arbitration provision Vorys sought to "opportunistically" seize the leadership role.

  • October 22, 2024

    'A Lot Of Nerve': Judge Slams Ex-Sparks Owners' Fee Claim

    A California judge overseeing a suit by former Los Angeles Sparks basketball team co-owners claiming they're owed free game tickets for life said their argument that they also deserve attorney fees because the lawsuit serves the public interest is potentially frivolous, adding, "Somebody in my view has a lot of nerve."

  • October 22, 2024

    Judge Tells Firm To Tighten Up Testimony In Nassar Fee Trial

    A Michigan federal judge cautioned a local personal injury firm Tuesday to reel in the head of the firm on the witness stand, warning he was losing the jury in a long "inside baseball" legal discussion in his efforts to get a greater cut of fees from a Colorado firm for work on a Larry Nassar abuse settlement.

  • October 22, 2024

    Supervisor Could've Prevented Electrician's Death, Widow Says

    The widow of a man who was electrocuted told a Texas appeals court during oral arguments Tuesday that it wouldn't matter if there was a supervisor looking over the deceased man's shoulder, claiming the question never came up because there wasn't a qualified supervisor on site.

  • October 22, 2024

    IQVIA, Veeva Blast Summary Judgment Bids In Secrets Suit

    Life sciences data giant IQVIA Inc. and competitor Veeva Systems Inc. slammed each other's summary judgment bids made public Tuesday in a trade secrets lawsuit in New Jersey federal court, with Veeva arguing that IQVIA's purported trade secrets are hardly confidential and IQVIA saying Veeva's assertions are "a last-ditch effort to avoid liability."

  • October 22, 2024

    10th Circ. Affirms Energera Broke Deal By Filing Patent Suits

    The Tenth Circuit has ruled that both basic logic and "ordinary grammar" support the finding that a covenant not to file any further patent infringement lawsuits was broken by Colorado oil field equipment supplier Energera when it continued to sue Fuel Automation's future customers over "related" patents.

Expert Analysis

  • What 7th Circ. Samsung Decision Means For Mass Arbitration

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    The Seventh Circuit's recent decision in Wallrich v. Samsung highlights the dilemma faced by mass arbitration filers in the face of nonpayment of arbitration fees by the defending party — but also suggests that there are risks for defendants in pursuing such a strategy, says Daniel Campbell at McDermott.

  • How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act

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    In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed the Administrative Procedure Act in ways that undermine Congress and the executive branch, shift power to the judiciary, curtail public and business input, and create great uncertainty, say Alene Taber and Beth Hummer at Hanson Bridgett.

  • Understanding 2 Types Of Construction Payment Clauses

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    Given the recent trend of states prohibiting pay-if-paid clauses in construction clauses in favor of fortifying contractor protections with pay-when-paid clauses, parties involved in construction projects should take care to understand the nuances between the two clauses, say Jeffery Mullen and Josephine Bahn at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?

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    A Pennsylvania federal court’s recent dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims in Morgan v. Noss should remind attorneys to avoid the temptation to repackage a claim’s facts and law into a mirror-image counterclaim, as this approach will often result in a waste of time and resources, says Matthew Selmasska at Kaufman Dolowich.

  • Loper Fuels Debate Over Merchant Cash Advances As Credit

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent rejection of the Chevron doctrine in Loper Bright may escalate a Florida federal court dispute between the Revenue Based Finance Coalition and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over whether merchant cash advances should be considered credit under the Dodd-Frank Act, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Nuclear Power Can Help Industrial Plants Get To Net-Zero

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    In the race to fight climate change and achieve net-zero emissions, the industrial sector currently faces immense challenges — but the integration of nuclear energy is a promising solution, so companies should consider the financial and regulatory issues, opportunities, and risk-mitigating factors, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Series

    Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing Dungeons & Dragons – a tabletop role-playing game – helped pave the way for my legal career by providing me with foundational skills such as persuasion and team building, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.

  • A Look At The Regulatory Scrutiny Facing Liquid Restaking

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    Recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement actions highlight the regulatory challenges facing emerging financial instruments like liquid restaking tokens and services, say Daniel Davis and Alexander Kim at Katten.

  • 3 Notes For Arbitration Agreements After Calif. Ruling

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    After last month's California Supreme Court decision in Ramirez v. Charter Communications invalidated several arbitration clauses in the company's employee contracts as unconscionable, companies should ensure their own arbitration agreements steer clear of three major pitfalls identified by the court, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • 3 Leadership Practices For A More Supportive Firm Culture

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    Traditional leadership styles frequently amplify the inherent pressures of legal work, but a few simple, time-neutral strategies can strengthen the skills and confidence of employees and foster a more collaborative culture, while supporting individual growth and contribution to organizational goals, says Benjamin Grimes at BKG Leadership.

  • How Justices' E-Rate Decision May Affect Scope Of FCA

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s eventual decision in Wisconsin Bell v. U.S., determining whether reimbursements paid by the E-rate program are "claims" under the False Claims Act, may affect other federal programs that do not require payments to be made by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, says David Colapinto at Kohn Kohn.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Hyperlinked Documents

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    Recent rulings show that counsel should engage in early discussions with clients regarding the potential of hyperlinked documents in electronically stored information, which will allow for more deliberate negotiation of any agreements regarding the scope of discovery, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Loper Bright Limits Federal Agencies' Ability To Alter Course

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to dismantle Chevron deference also effectively overrules its 2005 decision in National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X, greatly diminishing agencies' ability to change regulatory course from one administration to the next, says Steven Gordon at Holland & Knight.

  • Addressing The Growing Hazards Of Mass Arbitration

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    Though retail companies typically include arbitration provisions in their terms of service, the recent trend of costly mass arbitrations filed by plaintiffs may cause businesses to rethink this conventional wisdom, say attorneys at BCLP.

  • Opinion

    Prejudgment Interest Is A Game-Changer In Ill. Civil Suits

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    Civil litigation can leave plaintiffs financially strained and desperate for any recovery, especially when defendants use delaying tactics — but the Illinois Legislature's move to allow prejudgment interest has helped bring litigants to the table earlier to resolve disputes, minimizing court expenses and benefiting all parties, says Benjamin Crane at Coplan + Crane.

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