Pennsylvania

Expert Analysis

• Uniformity Goal Eludes Defend Trade Secrets Act, 5 Years On

  

  Five years after the enactment of the Defend Trade Secrets Act, work remains to be done on achieving uniformity across jurisdictions, because state law differences being imported into the DTSA are creating the same patchwork of law the act was intended to rectify, say attorneys at MoFo.

• Judge's Rebuke Of Mass. AG Has Lessons For All Attorneys

  

  A Massachusetts federal judge’s recent rebuke of the state Attorney General’s Office for refusing to respond to discovery requests in Alliance for Automotive Innovation v. Healey highlights six important considerations for attorneys who want to avoid the dreaded benchslap, say Alison Eggers and Dallin Wilson at Seyfarth.  

• How 5-Year-Old Defend Trade Secrets Act Has Met Its Goals

  

  Case law and data reveal that, five years after its enactment, the Defend Trade Secrets Act has opened up federal courts to litigants and has proven effective against extraterritorial misappropriation, while concerns about inconsistency and overuse of ex parte seizures have not borne out, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

• Font Considerations To Give Your Legal Briefs An Edge

  

  Following the D.C. Circuit’s recent notice discouraging use of the font Garamond in legal briefs, Jason Steed at Kilpatrick looks at typeface requirements and preferences in appellate courts across the country, and how practitioners can score a few extra brief-writing points with typography.

• Opinion

  Justices Must Resolve Off-Label Drug Warning Predicament

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court should hear Janssen Pharmaceuticals v. AY, and rule that drugmakers are not required to include off-label warnings, in order to protect companies from being held liable for failing to do what federal law prohibits, say Sheldon Bradshaw and Lisa Dwyer at King & Spalding.

• Make Profitability Management Part Of Your Law Firm Culture

  

  As the legal industry continues to change in the post-pandemic world, law firms should adapt to client demands by constantly measuring and managing the profitability of their services, says Joseph Altonji at LawVision.

• 4 Trends In Discoverability Of Litigation Funding Documents

  

  Recent rulings shed light on how courts and international arbitration tribunals decide if litigation funding materials are discoverable and reaffirm best practices that attorneys should follow when communicating with funders, say Justin Maleson at Longford Capital and Michele Slachetka and Christian Plummer at Jenner & Block.

• Cannabis Legalization's Effects On Insurance Industry

  Excerpt from Practical Guidance

  

  Resolution of the legal uncertainty presented by the dueling federal and state approaches to cannabis will pave the way for legal cannabis businesses to access the insurance protections the industry needs for everything from workers' compensation to auto insurance to general liability, says Christy Thiems at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

• 7 Lessons For Young Lawyers Starting Their Careers

  

  This year's law graduates and other young attorneys must recognize that the practice of law tests and rewards different skills and characteristics than law school, and that what makes a lawyer valuable changes over time, says Vernon Winters, retired partner at Sidley.

• COVID Eviction Bans May Not Continue To Survive In Court

  

  State and local moratoriums against evictions during the pandemic are likely to withstand plaintiffs' constitutional challenges in the short term, but plaintiffs may start to see more success as time goes on, say attorneys at Goodwin.

• The Pandemic's Bright Spots For Lawyers Who Are Parents

  

  The COVID-19 crisis has allowed lawyers to hone remote advocacy strategies and effectively represent clients with minimal travel — abilities that have benefited working parents and should be utilized long after the pandemic is over, says Chelsea Loughran at Wolf Greenfield.

• Opinion

  Revise Mansfield Diversity Mandates To Also Benefit Veterans

  

  The well-intentioned efforts and salutary purposes of the legal industry's Mansfield Rule diversity metric are tainted by the Diversity Lab initiative's omission of veterans, who are underrepresented at large law firms and entitled to advantageous treatment based on more than 200 years of public policy, says Robert Redmond at McGuireWoods.

• AGs To Fill Void As Justices Say FTC Can't Impose Restitution

  

  State attorneys general are likely to emerge as even more influential consumer protection enforcers, taking the lead in federal-state restitution partnerships, following the U.S. Supreme Court's determination Thursday in AMG Capital v. Federal Trade Commission that the FTC is not authorized to seek equitable monetary relief, say Alissa Gardenswartz and former Sen. Mark Pryor at Brownstein Hyatt.

• Bankruptcy Litigation Could See More Third-Party Funding

  

  The next few years could be an opportune time for bankruptcy litigants to capitalize on the advantages of third-party financing as the obstacles to its use — including attorney ethics issues and prohibitions against champerty — seem to be clearing at a slow but steady pace, say Daniel Simon and Natalie Rowles at McDermott.

• Perspectives

  States Must Factor Race In COVID-19 Vaccine Prioritization

  

  In order to ensure equity and efficiency in controlling the pandemic, states should use race as a factor in vaccine prioritization — and U.S. Supreme Court precedent on affirmative action and racial integration offers some guidance on how such policies might hold up in court, say law professors Maya Manian and Seema Mohapatra.