Commercial Contracts

  • March 04, 2024

    SEC Fines Adviser $950K Over Ryder Buyout Disclosures

    A New York-based investment adviser will pay a $950,000 civil penalty to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly failing to timely disclose information about its ownership of commercial rental truck company Ryder System Inc. leading up to a May 2022 takeover offer.

  • March 04, 2024

    Calif. Justices Rule Fiat Can't Offset Lemon Law Restitution

    The California Supreme Court on Monday reversed a lower court ruling and held that Fiat Chrysler cannot deduct the trade-in value of a lemon vehicle from restitution the automaker owes a consumer under the state's Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act.

  • March 04, 2024

    Split Calif. Panel Backs Drinking Water Regs On Oil Operators

    A split California appellate panel threw out a trial court ruling finding drinking water regulations put in place by the California Geologic Energy Management Division are invalid, saying, instead, the challenged regulations are consistent with the overall statutory scheme and supported by substantial evidence.

  • March 04, 2024

    5th Circ. Says Hurricane Coverage Battle Must Be Arbitrated

    A Louisiana property owner and its eight domestic insurers must arbitrate the owner's claims that they mishandled and delayed paying its Hurricane Laura property damage claim in bad faith, the Fifth Circuit ruled Monday, reversing a district court's decision that found an arbitration provision at issue unenforceable.

  • March 04, 2024

    DOJ Worried Binance Founder's Travel May 'Become An Issue'

    Binance founder Changpeng Zhao should have to notify the government of any travel as he awaits sentencing, prosecutors have said, telling a federal court in Washington they remain concerned he could be a flight risk.

  • March 04, 2024

    Defunct Conn. Nursing School Hit With 2nd $5M Placeholder

    Connecticut Attorney General William Tong's office secured a $5 million prejudgment remedy against a shuttered nursing school over the weekend, leaving the defunct for-profit Stone Academy on the hook for $10 million in total as it continues to battle claims including breach of contract and unfair trade practices in separate lawsuits.

  • March 04, 2024

    5th Circ. Says $100M Royalties Row Belongs In Fed. Court

    The Fifth Circuit has vacated a Texas federal court's remand of a $100 million suit in which a proposed class of mostly Texas property owners is accusing Devon Energy Production Co. of underpaying oil and gas royalties, ruling that the Class Action Fairness Act's "local controversy" exception does not apply.

  • March 04, 2024

    French Spinal Care Co. Can't Get €4.2M Award Enforced

    A Delaware judge has blocked the enforcement of a €4.2 million ($4.56 million) arbitral award issued in a dispute over failed plans for a French medical equipment company to expand into Colombia, ruling that the company misinterpreted an arbitration clause that referred to a nonexistent arbitral forum.

  • March 04, 2024

    Electric Co. Must Face Claim It Kept Coal Partner In The Dark

    Consumers Energy Co. still faces potential liability for excluding a minority owner from a decision to shut down its last remaining coal-fired power plant in 2025, a Michigan state judge ruled Friday, while also narrowing the company's dispute ahead of trial.

  • March 04, 2024

    Antibe Therapeutics To Pay Nuance $24M In Licensing Fight

    Canadian company Antibe Therapeutics Inc. said Monday it has lost its dispute in arbitration with Chinese firm Nuance Pharma Ltd. over a licensing deal for an anti-inflammatory drug, saying it has agreed to pay out $24 million as the license agreement is rescinded.

  • March 04, 2024

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    A Swedish music producer's takeover, a proposed award payable in Tesla shares, Truth Social stock squabbles, and an unusually blunt slap-down from the bench added up to an especially colorful week in Delaware's famous court of equity. On top of that came new cases about alleged power struggles, board entrenchment, consumer schemes and merger disputes.

  • March 04, 2024

    Conn. Trial Attys Slam Proposed Offsets For Jury Awards

    Connecticut lawmakers on Monday considered a bill that could reduce economic damages awarded to personal injury and wrongful death plaintiffs when a collateral payment source, such as an insurer, has a right of subrogation, a measure that trial lawyers panned as an insurance industry perk that would undo precedent.  

  • March 04, 2024

    Justices Won't Review Concrete Co. Licensing Fight

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away a petition arguing that state courts are "eroding" the rule requiring clear evidence that a party agreed to arbitrate a particular dispute, in a case centering on an arbitral award favoring a concrete company in a licensing feud.

  • March 04, 2024

    Trump's Former Finance Chief Pleads Guilty To Perjury

    Allen Weisselberg, the longtime former financial chief of Donald Trump's real estate business empire, admitted Monday to lying under oath in the New York attorney general's civil fraud case as part of a plea deal to serve five months in jail.

  • March 01, 2024

    Google Gets Ad Tech Monopolization MDL Trimmed

    A New York federal judge on Friday threw out a number of claims in sprawling multidistrict litigation over Google's alleged monopoly in digital advertising, although the judge held that Google must continue to face limited claims from publishers and advertisers in several cases.

  • March 01, 2024

    Wash. Judge Doubts Public Was Shut Out Of Shelter Plan

    A Washington state appellate judge on Friday asked opponents of a plan to turn a hotel near Seattle into a shelter for homeless people why a pair of community meetings weren't enough to meet King County's obligation to listen to public feedback. 

  • March 01, 2024

    Gilstrap Orders Damages Retrial To Avoid $67.5M 'Train Wreck'

    Chief U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap ordered a damages retrial in infringement litigation between G+ Communications and Samsung on Friday, warning there would otherwise be a "guaranteed 'train wreck'" since both parties failed to explain what they believed the $67.5 million verdict means.

  • March 01, 2024

    Wash. Seeks Injunction To Force GEO ICE Prison Inspections

    The Washington state labor and health departments have urged a Washington federal judge to compel GEO Group to let inspectors inside a Seattle-area immigrant detention facility, saying the private prison giant will otherwise continue to block entry and keep regulators from investigating complaints about unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

  • March 01, 2024

    Cannabis Consulting Co. Says Clinic Owes $101K On Contract

    A laboratory and consulting firm that focuses on the cannabis industry alleged that a Michigan clinic owes the firm more than $100,000 for unpaid services, according to a lawsuit filed in Colorado federal court.

  • March 01, 2024

    BofA Trims Zelle Fraud Victims' Suit For Good On 3rd Try

    A California federal judge has again trimmed a lawsuit accusing Bank of America of refusing to reimburse Zelle fraud victims, narrowing the case to a breach of contract claim and denying the plaintiffs another opportunity to rework their complaint.

  • March 01, 2024

    11th Circ. Revives Alabama Life Insurance Class Action

    An Eleventh Circuit panel on Friday revived a South Carolina man's Alabama class action alleging his life insurer's costs on his $100,000 policy weren't linked to life expectancy, though the policy said they would be.

  • March 01, 2024

    Colo. Judge Says Atty Depo Is Just 'Nature Of The Beast'

    The lawyer who helped a startup founder negotiate an acquisition deal with another company must sit for a deposition in the founder's suit alleging he was taken advantage of, a Colorado federal judge ruled, saying it was the "nature of the beast" for deals lawyers to sometimes get pulled into litigation.

  • March 01, 2024

    FTC Backs Colo. Right-To-Repair Expansion

    A Federal Trade Commission representative appeared at a Colorado legislative hearing in support of a proposed "right-to-repair" law requiring manufacturers to provide documentation, software, data and certain tools to allow consumers to fix their own digital electronic equipment.

  • March 01, 2024

    Romantics Singer Can't Tune Out Atty's Copy-Paste Error

    A founding member of The Romantics can't regain control of the band's finances after his attorney mistakenly copied an opposing brief that said the singer should lose, a Michigan state appeals panel has ruled, because the lawyer had certified that she read the brief before filing. 

  • March 01, 2024

    Musk Says OpenAI, Altman Broke Co.'s Founding Principles

    Elon Musk has accused former business partner and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman of setting the business' "founding agreement aflame," alleging in a California state lawsuit that he betrayed his promises to run the company as a nonprofit and make technological advances open to the public so artificial intelligence development would be "for the benefit of humanity."

Expert Analysis

  • Mitigating Costs And Delays In The Energy Transition

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    Achieving net-zero will require constructing a massive amount of new wind, solar and energy storage infrastructure — and while cost overruns and delays are to be expected, contractors and owners can proactively address these problems in their project documents, say Christopher Ryan and Jesse Sherrett at Shearman.

  • How Int'l Strategies Can Mitigate US Child Labor Risks

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    Recent reports of child labor in the U.S. raise significant compliance concerns under state and federal child labor laws, but international business and human rights principles provide tools companies can use to identify, mitigate and remediate the risks, says Tom Plotkin at Covington.

  • Strategic Succession Planning At Law Firms Is Crucial

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    Senior partners' reluctance to retire, the rise of the nonequity partner tier and generational differences in expectations are all contributing to an increasing number of departures from BigLaw, making it imperative for firms to encourage retirement among senior ranks and provide clearer leadership pathways to junior attorneys, says Laura Leopard at Leopard Solutions.

  • What An NCAA Drug Test Change Could Mean For Cannabis

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    If the NCAA follows through with its decision to remove cannabis from its banned list of substances, it will affect college athletes, athletic directors, public relations employees, and marketing departments at universities and colleges, and it will have a significant economic effect on the cannabis industry, say Stanley Jutkowitz and Sydney Jenkins at Seyfarth.

  • 3 Items To Check When Evaluating AI Terms And Conditions

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    When determining which generative artificial intelligence tool is right for a particular user, there are a few considerations that can provide prospective customers with a starting place and help them spot terms and conditions that are more or less aggressive than the market standard, says Peter Cramer at Proskauer.

  • Maximizing Law Firm Profitability In Uncertain Times

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    As threats of an economic downturn loom, firms can boost profits by embracing the power of bottom-line management and creating an ecosystem where strategic financial oversight and robust timekeeping practices meet evolved client relations, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Strategic Consulting.

  • Alleged $636M Deal Error Highlights Ethics Considerations

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    Adelman v. Proskauer, a malpractice suit that allegedly arose from a cut-and-paste error resulting in potential damages of $636 million, presents an intriguing juxtaposition of facts and legal issues — and practical ethical considerations for transactions attorneys, says Richard Leisner at Trenam Law.

  • Calif. Law Tests Noncompete Prohibitions' Potential Reach

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    California’s newly enacted law, which voids employee restrictive covenants, whether signed in or out of the state, has the potential to upend typical agreement negotiations, and highlights ongoing questions concerning how California's worker protections fare in other jurisdictions, says Sarah Tishler at Beck Reed.

  • What UCC Article 12 Adoption Means For Digital Assets

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    Until it is widely adopted, both owners of digital assets and their secured lenders will need to exercise caution in jurisdictions that have adopted Uniform Commercial Code Article 12, and care will need to be taken when creating, transferring and managing digital assets to comply with its requirements, say Margo Tank and David Whitaker at DLA Piper.

  • 5th Circ. Ruling Reminds Attys That CBP Can Search Devices

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    The Fifth Circuit’s recent Malik v. Department of Homeland Security decision adds to the chorus of federal courts holding that border agents don’t need a warrant to search travelers’ electronic devices, so attorneys should consider certain special precautions to secure privileged information when reentering the U.S., says Jennifer Freel at Jackson Walker.

  • Alleged $636M Deal Error Shows Value Of Old-School Methods

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    Though Proskauer Rose has now settled claims involving a copy-paste error in deal documents that could have resulted in $636 million in damages, the debacle reminds attorneys that classic revision methods using paper copies can help avoid drafting errors and actually save time in the long run, says Richard Leisner at Trenam.

  • Avoiding The Ethical Pitfalls Of Crowdfunded Legal Fees

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    The crowdfunding of legal fees has become increasingly common, providing a new way for people to afford legal services, but attorneys who accept crowdsourced funds must remember several key ethical obligations to mitigate their risks, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • Tornado Cash Saga Presents Thorny Issues For Fintechs

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    A recent Texas federal court ruling and a U.S. Department of Justice indictment concerning the cryptocurrency mixer service Tornado Cash raise novel and important issues regarding smart contracts that could complicate the development and nature of decentralized crypto projects, as well as the future of fintech business models, say attorneys at Venable.

  • 4 Ways To Approach The Nuances Of AI Vendor Contracts

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    There is no immediate road map for negotiating contracts presented by artificial intelligence and machine learning vendors, but a phased approach can be used to direct a customer's diligence and to better assess whether additional contractual terms should be included in these agreements, say Reeya Thakrar and Ira Kalina at Faegre Drinker.

  • CFPB, FTC Actions Show Consumer Terms Need Fresh Eyes

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    Providers of consumer financial products and services should take recent statements and actions from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Trade Commission as an invitation to review their consumer-facing disclosures to ensure that the terms are clear, easy to understand and prominently displayed, say Christina Grigorian and Eric Hail at Katten.

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