Commercial Contracts

  • January 22, 2025

    Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds Slam Baldoni Atty's 'Media Blitz'

    Counsel for celebrity couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds told a New York federal judge that Justin Baldoni's attorney from Liner Freedman Taitelman & Cooley LLP has violated ethical rules with an "all-out media blitz" during their thorny litigation over the movie "It Ends With Us."

  • January 21, 2025

    LED Screen Distributor Lied About $10M Debt, Jury Told

    The owner of a now-defunct LED screen distribution company lied to his Korean manufacturing partner about repaying an over $10 million debt in order to keep receiving shipments and pay himself a hefty salary, jurors heard as a civil fraud trial opened in California federal court on Tuesday.

  • January 21, 2025

    SeaWorld Escapes New Trial Bid In Race Bias Case

    Parents who unsuccessfully sued SeaWorld claiming costumed performers at its Sesame Place park in Philadelphia discriminated against minority children by allegedly ignoring the children were denied a new trial, with a federal judge ruling Tuesday the parents offered "no substantive legal argument" supporting their claims.

  • January 21, 2025

    Receiver Sought For Partnership That Funded Affleck Films

    Film producer John P. Middleton has asked Delaware's Court of Chancery to appoint a receiver for The Film Capitol LLC, a partnership he formed in 2013 to provide funding for a production project with actor Casey Affleck.

  • January 21, 2025

    Colo. Court OKs Use Of LLC Test For LPs In Ranch War

    A Colorado state appeals court affirmed a trial court's decision to dissolve a partnership that owned a ranch in the state, ruling for the first time that a test for determining when judicial dissolution is necessary can be applied to limited partnerships.

  • January 21, 2025

    Asset Type Immaterial To Crypto Fraud Claims, SEC Says

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has argued that digital assets referenced in its fraud case in Texas against the principals of a purported cryptocurrency mining operation are "immaterial to the economic reality" of the allegedly fraudulent securities transactions at the heart of its action.

  • January 21, 2025

    Cornell Case May Be Bellwether For ERISA Transaction Claims

    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday from Cornell University and workers looking to reinstate a class action alleging their retirement plan paid excessive fees, in a case that could change the strategy for Employee Retirement Income Security Act plaintiffs in the future.

  • January 21, 2025

    ACC Asks Fla. High Court To Pause FSU's Suit

    The Atlantic Coast Conference said Tuesday that it intends to ask the Florida Supreme Court to take up its bid to halt Florida State University's grant-of-rights contractual lawsuit in favor of the conference's action in North Carolina.

  • January 21, 2025

    Payment Co. Says Okla. Tribe Lacks Jurisdiction In Fraud Suit

    Two owners of a payment processor have asked an Oklahoma federal judge to toss a Native American tribal entity's lawsuit claiming they defrauded it out of $1.5 million, arguing that it isn't a citizen for the purposes of diversity jurisdiction under Tenth Circuit precedent.

  • January 21, 2025

    Conn. Cannabis Co.'s Income Loss Not Covered, Judge Says

    A cannabis product manufacturer cannot get more than $1.3 million in business interruption coverage from a Berkshire Hathaway unit for a fire in one of its "flowering rooms," a Connecticut federal court ruled, finding it failed to establish a causal link between a suspension of operations and lost income.

  • January 21, 2025

    DOJ Fights Visa's Bid To Duck Monopoly Case

    The U.S. Department of Justice urged a New York federal court not to toss its case accusing Visa of illegally maintaining a monopoly over debit card networks, saying the company's dismissal bid misconstrues the law and wrongly tries to expand the market at issue.

  • January 21, 2025

    10th Circ. Skeptical Ruling Would Invite Bogus Claim Denials

    A Tenth Circuit panel appeared skeptical Tuesday that a lower court had cleared the way for the insurance industry to rely on flawed expert reports to justify claims decisions, with one judge suggesting the ruling was a limited one.

  • January 21, 2025

    6th Circ. Won't Reinstate $18.3M Verdict Against TransUnion

    The Sixth Circuit refused to reconsider a decision that vacated an $18.3 million jury award against TransUnion LLC, rejecting a request from a startup that claimed the credit reporting company kept hold of intellectual property related to the development of an insurance quote marketplace after their partnership dissolved.

  • January 17, 2025

    Law360 Names Practice Groups Of The Year

    Law360 would like to congratulate the winners of its Practice Groups of the Year awards for 2024, which honor the attorney teams behind litigation wins and significant transaction work that resonated throughout the legal industry this past year.

  • January 17, 2025

    Law360 Names Firms Of The Year

    Eight law firms have earned spots as Law360's Firms of the Year, with 54 Practice Group of the Year awards among them, steering some of the largest deals of 2024 and securing high-profile litigation wins, including at the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • January 17, 2025

    Google Judge Says Apple Intervention Could Open 'Floodgates'

    A D.C. federal judge seemed skeptical Friday about allowing Apple Inc. to intervene in legal wrangling between Google and the U.S. Department of Justice over the proper fix for Google's search monopoly, raising concerns that granting intervention would pave the way for other companies to do the same.

  • January 17, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs Vacating Some Trump-Era Oil And Gas Leases

    A split Ninth Circuit ruled Friday that an Idaho federal court, but not a Montana federal court, abused its discretion in striking down oil and gas leases sold during the Trump administration, but halted "surface-disturbing activity" while the federal government reconsiders the leasing decisions.

  • January 17, 2025

    NM Justices Reject Utility Challenges To Solar Rule

    New Mexico's top court issued a slip opinion explaining its decision to back a community solar rule enacted by state regulators and to reject arguments by an Xcel Energy unit and other utilities claiming the rule ran afoul of a Community Solar Act passed by lawmakers.

  • January 17, 2025

    Walgreens Can't Hold Great-Grandson To Decade-Old TM Deal

    A federal judge in Illinois has found that Charles Walgreen didn't break the terms of a deal he made a decade ago to not compete with the retail and pharmacy giant that his great-grandfather founded, which is now suing him over his commercial use of his last name.

  • January 17, 2025

    NC Biotech Co. Can't Restrain Co-Founder's Rival Biz Yet

    A biotechnology company can't stop its co-founder from conducting research and soliciting customers at his new company using what it believes is stolen confidential information, a North Carolina state court judge said Friday, pointing to a lack of urgency and glaring holes in the record.

  • January 17, 2025

    Pot Labs Say Mass. Co. Sold Dud Test Devices In $286M Suit

    The owners of more than two dozen cannabis testing labs across the United States and Canada have accused PerkinElmer Health Services Inc. of knowingly selling them equipment that it knew was incapable of handling the sort of tests the labs performed.

  • January 17, 2025

    Junior Players Claim Hockey Leagues Violate Antitrust Laws

    Two major junior club players are seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the professional hockey leagues in the U.S. and Canada from enforcing an "oppressive" rule that limits where the athletes can play, arguing the practice is illegal and harmful to players.

  • January 17, 2025

    US Steel Can't Quicken Probe Into Alleged Merger Plot

    U.S. Steel won't get an expedited look into communications between rival Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. and the United Steelworkers to look for evidence of an alleged conspiracy to sabotage its $14.9 billion merger with Japan's Nippon Steel Corp., after a Pittsburgh federal judge deemed the request "premature" on Friday.

  • January 17, 2025

    NJ Beach Access Dispute Should Go To Trial, Panel Says

    A New Jersey appellate court ruled against beachfront property owners embroiled in a dispute over a dune walkover that provided direct access to Normandy Beach, ruling that the validity of one claim should be determined in a trial.

  • January 17, 2025

    NYC Mall Lenders, Developer Want Foreign Investor Suit Nixed

    Financial backers of a Staten Island mall project are asking a federal judge to toss a suit by foreign investors seeking damages, arguing that the investors are just trying to "claw back" whatever they can from others who lost even more money.

Expert Analysis

  • 8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney

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    A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.

  • Opinion

    This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process

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    In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Int'l Agreements Are Key For Safe Nuclear Waste Disposal

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    By replacing fossil fuels, nuclear energy has the potential to offer a major contribution to the global fight against climate change — but ensuring that nuclear power is safe and sustainable will require binding, multinational agreements for safe nuclear waste disposal, say Ryan Schermerhorn and Christopher Zahn at Marshall Gerstein.

  • Series

    Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.

  • Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

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    Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

  • Opinion

    FTC's Report Criticizing Drug Middlemen Is Flawed

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    The Federal Trade Commission's July report, which claims that pharmacy benefit managers are inflating drug costs, does not offer a credible analysis of PBMs, and its methodology lacks rigor, says Jay Ezrielev at Elevecon.

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

  • Del. Dispatch: Cautionary Tales Of 2 Earnout Effort Breaches

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    The Delaware Court of Chancery's tendency to interpret earnout provisions precisely as written, highlighted in two September rulings that found buyers breached their shareholder obligations when they failed to make reasonable efforts to hit certain product development milestones, demonstrates the paramount importance of precisely wording these agreements, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

  • Managing Sanctions Defense Across Multiple Jurisdictions

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    Companies called before multiple regulators to account for the same conduct in this era of increased global sanctions and import-control enforcement should consider national differences in law and policy, and proactively coordinate their responses in certain key areas, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • How Cos. Can Protect Supply Chains During The Port Strike

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    With dock workers at ports along the East and Gulf Coasts launching a strike that will likely cause severe supply chain disruptions, there are several steps exporters and importers can take to protect their businesses and mitigate increased costs, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • FTC Focus: How Scrutiny Of PBMs And Insulin May Play Out

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    Should Express Scripts' recent judicial challenge to the Federal Trade Commission succeed, any new targets could add litigation and choice of forum to their playbooks, and potential FTC court action on insulin could be forced to parallel venues as the issues between the commission and PBMs evolve, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Opinion

    AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

  • Kubient Case Shows SEC's Willingness To Charge Directors

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent fraud charges against Kubient's former CEO, chief financial officer and audit committee chair signal a willingness to be more aggressive against officers and directors, underscoring the need for companies to ensure that they have appropriate channels to gather, investigate and document employee concerns, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • 3 Coverage Tips As 2nd Circ. 'Swipes Left' On Tinder Claim

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    The Second Circuit's recent opinion in Match Group v. Beazley Underwriting, overturning Tinder's victory on its insurer's motion to dismiss a coverage action, reinforces three best practices policyholders purchasing claims-made coverage should adhere to in order to avoid late-notice defenses, say Lynda Bennett and Alexander Corson at Lowenstein Sandler.

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