Media & Entertainment

Expert Analysis

• Opinion

  7th Circ. Decision Creates Minefield For Insurance Industry

  

  The Seventh Circuit's recent decision in Emmis v. Illinois National Insurance unfairly limits directors and officers coverage for policyholders, encourages litigation of insurance claims and also generates enormous liability exposure for brokers, say attorneys at Plews Shadley.

• E-Discovery Experts Could Increase Fed. Court Efficiency

  

  As electronic data demands on federal courts continue to increase, it may be time to consider whether the courts should establish an office that could be staffed with technical experts familiar with electronic discovery issues, says Douglas Smith of Kirkland.

• 4 Things FTC Competition Bureau Looks For In White Papers

  

  Most written advocacy to the Bureau of Competition is of an extremely high quality, but sometimes we notice that there’s some room for improvement, says Daniel Francis, an associate director at the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition.

• Before The DST Settles: What To Know About UK Digital Tax

  

  With the introduction of detailed legislation on July 11 for what the United Kingdom considers to be “a targeted, proportionate and temporary tax,” the U.K. hopes to keep the pressure on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development for a comprehensive consensus-based solution to a digital services tax, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

• Remembering Justice Stevens As A Law Firm Leader

  

  Rothschild Barry's John Coffey, who joined Justice John Paul Stevens' law firm in 1965, shares what it was like to watch Justice Stevens practice law, mentor younger lawyers and land a malfunctioning plane.

• Data Analytics Decision Highlights Product Liability Questions

  

  In Rodgers v. Laura & John Arnold Foundation, a New Jersey federal court recently held that a public safety assessment based on data analytics was speech rather than a product. The decision suggests that consumers led astray by analytics may want to consider remedies outside of product liability law, say Davis Walsh and Richard Beaulieu of McGuireWoods.

• Opinion

  TTB Label Regulations Infringe Brewers’ Civil Liberties

  

  While the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is easing some of its alcohol labeling restrictions — including those related to patriotic imagery — the reforms will continue to restrict brewers’, vintners’ and distillers’ freedom of speech, says Michael DeGrandis of the New Civil Liberties Alliance.

• Answers To Key Legal Finance Ethics Questions

  

  While there is discussion in some quarters about new regulations on commercial legal finance, the hands-off approach taken by the majority of courts and legislatures is an implicit recognition that it is already sufficiently regulated, says Danielle Cutrona of Burford Capital.

• Perspectives

  Looted-Art Heirs May Find A Sympathetic Forum In NY Courts

  

  The New York Appellate Division decision last week in Reif v. Nagy — in favor of the heirs in a Holocaust looted-art claim — is noteworthy because of the manner in which it rejected the defendant’s claim of laches, just a few weeks after the Second Circuit had dismissed a Holocaust looted-art claim on those very grounds, says Martin Bienstock of Bienstock.

• Federal Agencies Need A Uniform Record-Keeping Process

  

  The administrative record is very important to federal agency litigation — as showcased in last month's U.S. Supreme Court decision concerning the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census — yet there is no set of consistent principles to guide agencies in compiling these official records, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

• Defense Of Copyright Claims: Don’t Let Your Proof Go Poof

  

  The recent proliferation of communications platforms in which content literally disappears after a short period of time has increased the risk of companies losing out on important evidence that would be crucial in copyright litigation, says Evynne Grover of QBE North America.

• The Role Of Dictionaries In Last Term's High Court Decisions

  

  Since 32 of the 67 decisions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court during its October term cite dictionaries, it’s worth reviewing the opinions to learn which dictionaries the justices consulted and how they used them, say Bruce Wessel and Brian Weissenberg of Irell & Manella.

• How To Evaluate The Rise In Legal Employment

  

  Although the rate of employment for law school graduates — which had been falling steadily — saw a small increase over the last year, other factors, such as fewer graduates overall and potential future job growth stagnation, temper the good news for those pursuing law degrees, say Tiffane Cochran and Tyler Grimm of AccessLex Institute.

• Revenge Porn Can Be Outlawed Under The First Amendment

  

  To date, 46 states and the District of Columbia have passed needed legislation penalizing nonconsensual distribution of pornographic images of another person, but constitutionally outlawing this phenomenon is tricky and some statutes will likely be struck down, says Nicole Ligon, supervising attorney of the First Amendment Clinic at Duke Law.

• Online Marketplaces: Continuing Product Liability, CDA Issues

  

  Two federal circuit courts recently ruled on whether online marketplaces can incur liability for products manufactured or sold by third parties, and on whether the Communications Decency Act of 1996 bears on this question. The cases highlight the difficulty of assessing whether a claim is speech- or product-related, says Steven Kramer of Eckert Seamans.