Media & Entertainment

Expert Analysis

• Avoiding Inadvertent Privilege Waivers In E-Communications

  

  Attorneys at WilmerHale highlight recent developments in privilege law, the significant challenges raised by nontraditional working arrangements popularized during the pandemic, and ways to avoid waiving attorney-client privilege when using electronic communications.

• Entertainment Cos. May Not Be Insured For Pandemics

  

  With COVID-19 leading to the cancellation or postponement of film and television productions, concerts and sports events, entertainment companies must carefully review their insurance policies to determine whether their losses are covered, since contractual language varies widely, say Cassandra Franklin and Bruce Friedman at JAMS.

• 5 Tips For Drafting Effective Legal Billing Guidelines

  

  To properly manage outside counsel, it's imperative for a company's legal department to implement and maintain rules on what they will and won't pay for, on staffing cases and requesting rate increases, and on how matters will be handled, says Chris Seezen at Quovant.

• Opinion

  Don't Cancel Your Summer Associate Programs

  

  While pulling off an effective summer associate program this year will be no easy feat, law firms' investments in their future attorneys should be considered necessary even during this difficult time, says Summer Eberhard at Major Lindsey.

• Avoiding M&A Deal-Breaking Disputes During A Downturn

  

  As the COVID-19 pandemic complicates the valuation of companies involved in mergers and acquisitions, targets and acquirers alike should take several prudent preclosing steps to mitigate the risk of deal-breaking disputes and subsequent litigation, say Ann Gittleman and Jenna O'Brien at Duff & Phelps.

• 5 Ways To Reduce Post-Pandemic Legal Malpractice Exposure

  

  History suggests that legal malpractice claims will rise following the current economic downturn, and while a certain percentage of the claims will be unavoidable, there are prophylactic steps that law firms can take, says John Johnson at Cozen O'Connor.

• Opinion

  Justices Should Construe Computer Fraud Law Narrowly

  

  In U.S. v. Van Buren, the U.S. Supreme Court should follow burglary and trespass cases to limit the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act’s scope to accessing or misusing employer data and avoid the absurd result of criminalizing an employee's unauthorized Facebook visit, say Anthony Volini and Karen Heart at DePaul University.

• Opinion

  Credibility Concerns About Virtual Arbitration Are Unfounded

  

  Concerns that videoconferenced arbitration hearings compromise an arbitrator's ability to reliably resolve credibility contests are based on mistaken perceptions of how many cases actually turn on credibility, what credibility means in the legal world, and how arbitrators make credibility determinations, says Wayne Brazil at JAMS.

• Opinion

  Google's Fair Use Defense At High Court Is Disingenuous

  

  Because strong copyright protection does not hinder interoperability, Google’s argument in its U.S. Supreme Court case against Oracle that all application programming interfaces are subject to fair use should not prevail, says James Skyles at Skyles Law Group.

• A Lawyer's Guide To Client Service Continuity Planning

  

  Ensuring uninterrupted client service and compliance with ethical obligations in a time when attorneys are more likely to fall ill means taking six basic — yet often ignored — steps to build some redundancy and internal communication into legal practice, say attorneys at Axinn.

• Virtual Meetings Could Be Fertile Ground For Legal Discovery

  

  Many remote meeting technologies include recording features as default settings, raising three primary concerns from a legal discovery and data retention perspective, and possibly bringing unintended consequences for companies in future litigation, says Courtney Murphy at Clark Hill.

• Revisiting Proposed Solution To State Immunity From IP Suits

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Allen v. Cooper that states cannot be sued for copyright infringement invites reconsideration of former Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters' proposal to condition states' exercise of intellectual property rights on waiving sovereign immunity, says Sarah Fink at Wilson Elser.

• Contingent Fees A Great Option For Cos. During Downturn

  

  In-house counsel may assume that "elite" law firms will turn up their noses at the idea of contingent fees, but such arrangements, whether pure or hybrid, are offered by many firms — even to defendants — and may be the answer to tight litigation budgets, say attorneys at Fish & Richardson.

• The Role Of Remote Mediation After The Crisis Is Over

  

  When the dark cloud of COVID-19 has passed and resolution centers are once again peopled with warring parties and aspiring peacemakers, remote mediations will likely still be common, but they are not going to be a panacea for all that ails the dispute resolution industry, says Mitch Orpett at Tribler Orpett.

• 7 Steps To Romancing The Virtual Classroom

  Excerpt from Lexis Practice Advisor

  

  For professors, trainers, lawyers, students and businesses grappling with the unexpected challenges of distance learning, trial attorney and teacher James Wagstaffe offers best practices for real-time online instruction.