Capital Markets

Expert Analysis

• Lesser-Known Litigation Funding Best Practices For Attorneys

  

  Following the American Bar Association's recent publication of third-party litigation funding guidance, Jiamie Chen and Dai Wai Chin Feman at Parabellum Capital outline some additional considerations, including the ethical limitations on single-case funding and the futility of economic prenegotiations between attorneys and their clients.

• Using Sidecar Funds As A Source Of Capital Amid Volatility

  Excerpt from Lexis Practice Advisor

  

  Private investment fund sponsors seeking additional sources of capital to protect or enhance their portfolios may consider sidecar vehicles to help navigate pandemic-related liquidity issues, but should carefully analyze whether such structures would breach existing fund documents or agreements with limited partners, say Michael Suppappola and Emily O'Brien at Proskauer.

• Opinion

  ADA Protects Lawyers With Disabilities, But We Must Do More

  

  As an attorney with cerebral palsy, Danielle Liebl at Reed Smith says that while the 30-year-old Americans with Disabilities Act has protected her against discrimination, the legal industry must do more to accommodate lawyers with disabilities and make them more comfortable in self-identifying.

• Perspectives

  Legal Deserts Threaten Justice In Rural America

  

  Many small towns and rural counties have few lawyers or none at all, which threatens the notion of justice for all Americans and demands creative solutions from legislators, bar associations and law schools, says Patricia Refo, president of the American Bar Association.

• How COVID-19 May Change Long-Term Aviation Outlook

  

  Survival is an immediate concern for many airlines facing pandemic-related drops in air travel, which is exerting economic pressure that will fundamentally change the landscape for companies throughout the aviation ecosystem, say Matthew Herman and Amna Arshad at Freshfields Bruckhaus.

• Using Blockchain To Settle Trades Could Alter Litigation

  

  On the heels of Paxos Trust's and the Depository Trust Clearing Corp.’s recent interest in using distributed ledger technology to settle equities trades, analysts at The Brattle Group explore how having a record of every transaction can help answer a thorny damages question in securities class actions.

• Analyzing Upward And Downward Trends In Legal Tech

  

  Advances in legal technology are often accompanied by bombastic overstatements, but it is important to separate the wheat from the chaff by looking at where various technologies stand on the hype curve, says Lance Eliot at Stanford Law School.

• What UK Insolvency Law Changes Mean For US Finance Cos.

  

  In light of recent amendments to the U.K. insolvency regime that enhance restructuring options, introduce stay and moratorium powers, and include new safe harbors, U.S. financial institutions should determine whether rights under existing arrangements could be stayed, say attorneys at Allen & Overy.

• Opinion

  ABA's New Guidance On Litigation Funding Misses The Mark

  

  The American Bar Association should revise its recently approved best practices on third-party litigation funding as they do not reflect how legal finance actually works and could create confusion among lawyers, says Andrew Cohen at Burford Capital.

• COVID-19 Is Straining Compact Between Utilities, Regulators

  

  The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission recently barred utilities from collecting late fees as COVID-19 strains their finances, but reducing previously approved sources of revenue to meet the utility's authorized revenue requirement may run afoul of the regulatory compact between utilities and their regulators, say Dane McKaughan and Todd Kimbrough at Holland & Knight.

• What Firms Should Ask Before Hiring Attorneys From Gov't

  

  In the final year of any presidential administration, there is an undeniable appetite on the part of large law firms for government-savvy legal talent, but firms need to first consider how they will actually utilize their new star hire, says Michael Ellenhorn at Decipher.

• The Ethics Of Using Chatbots For Legal Services

  

  Delegating legal work to robots involves several risks, including running afoul of statutes dictating unauthorized practice of law, but with the right precautions, law firms can lawfully employ artificially intelligent chatbots that can imitate human conversations, say attorneys at Haynes and Boone.

• Changes To Del. Law May Boost Public Benefit Corp. Appeal

  

  Recently adopted amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law eliminate the most burdensome requirements of converting to a public benefit corporation, improve protections for stockholding directors, and limit shareholder litigation, which could prompt private companies to consider the formation strategy with fresh eyes, say attorneys at Freshfields.

• Market Rebound May Curb Securities Class Actions, Damages

  

  The stock market's dramatic recovery from its pandemic-prompted plunge may provide securities class action defendants an opportunity to rely on the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act’s rarely invoked bounce-back provision to ward off stock-drop claims, or sharply limit available damages, say John Schreiber and John Tschirgi at Winston & Strawn.

• Opinion

  ABA Must Seize Opportunity To Respond To Bar Exam Chaos

  

  The challenges of administering bar exams this year have put the future of the profession in jeopardy, but the American Bar Association at its ongoing annual meeting can adopt a resolution that would urge jurisdictions to take emergency actions with respect to licensure of new attorneys, says Nicholas Allard, former president of Brooklyn Law School.