Commercial
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April 09, 2024
Tech Poised For Key Role In Real Estate Recovery
As the clouds recede from two years of economic headwinds, an anticipated real estate upturn could benefit from enormous advances taking place in technological innovation, according to the many key players who attended the 2024 Real Estate Technology Conference in New York.
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April 08, 2024
Mich. Judge Not Persuaded Wineries' Agritourism Is Speech
A Michigan federal judge has found a local ban on wineries hosting weddings is not a commercial speech restriction despite the advertising potential of such events, again trimming a contentious zoning dispute ahead of trial.
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April 08, 2024
NYC Real Estate Week In Review
Kane Kessler and Nixon Peabody are among the law firms that handled the largest New York City deals that hit public records last week, a slow period that saw only three deeds at or north of $20 million hit records.
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April 08, 2024
2nd Circ. OKs Turnover Order In HNA $185M Award Feud
The Second Circuit on Monday affirmed an order forcing a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group to turn over its most valuable North American asset to an SL Green Realty Corp. affiliate owed about $185 million, following a dispute stemming from the affiliate's $148 million investment in a Manhattan skyscraper.
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April 08, 2024
NY Bar Assoc. Building Owner's Ch. 11 Dispute Gets Mediator
A New Jersey bankruptcy judge on Monday ordered mediation for two Chapter 11 cases tied to the owner of the historic New York County Lawyers Association Building in Manhattan, naming longtime bankruptcy lawyer Albert Togut to referee the process.
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April 08, 2024
FDIC Wants Developer's $85M Suit Over Bad Deals Tossed
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has urged a New York federal court to dismiss a developer's $85 million suit against a bank that is under FDIC receivership.
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April 08, 2024
Atlantic City Hotels Say Gov't Backing Can't Save Pricing Suit
Atlantic City casino-hotels continue to push a New Jersey federal judge to toss room rate price-fixing allegations they say get no help from a U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission intervening brief that argued algorithmic collusion is just as liable under antitrust law.
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April 08, 2024
EPA Announces Cleanup Plan For Brooklyn Superfund Site
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is monitoring three Brooklyn, New York, homes for contamination from toxic chemicals as the agency surveys a 190-acre area as part of a plan to address historic pollution from oil refineries along Newton Creek in Greenpoint.
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April 08, 2024
GRSM50 Adds 3rd Construction Pro From Sandberg Phoenix
Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP, now known as GRSM50, continued recent growth in its construction practice group Monday with the hire of two new partners joining the nationwide firm in its St. Louis and Tampa, Florida, offices from Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard PC.
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April 08, 2024
3 Firms Build $2.3B Hospitality Biz SPAC Merger
Singapore-headquartered Hotel101 Global Pte Ltd., a hotel prop-tech operator pioneering a standardized "condotel" business model, announced Monday that it plans to go public through a merger with blank-check company JVSPAC Acquisition Corp. in a deal built by three firms that will give it an equity value of $2.3 billion post-closing.
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April 05, 2024
Contractor Says Apartment Developer's Missteps Cost $8.5M
A general contractor has filed an $8.5 million lawsuit in North Carolina's Business Court accusing a developer of misleading it about an apartment complex project's safeguards and failing to cover the resulting cost overruns and delays.
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April 05, 2024
Suburban Boston Office Owners Embrace Deals, CBRE Says
Amid a turbulent period for office markets nationwide, suburban Boston's office market saw leasing activity more than double between the end of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, driven largely by concessions offered by landlords, according to a Thursday CBRE report.
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April 05, 2024
Brooklyn Loft Owner Files Ch. 11 To Stay Property Sale
An affiliate of the owner of 40 lofts in Brooklyn filed for Chapter 11 protection in a New York bankruptcy court with $50 million to $100 million in debt to prevent an asset sale initiated by the lenders who hold an approximately $69.8 million mortgage loan.
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April 05, 2024
Utility Atty Who Advised Google JV Opens Environmental Firm
An attorney who advised a Google joint venture on a group of master-planned communities and a California utility on billions of dollars in infrastructure work has launched boutique firm Forrest Environmental Law.
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April 05, 2024
Chinese Insurer Awarded Nearly $15M Over Hotel Theft Suit
A California federal judge awarded a Chinese insurer nearly $15 million in damages after a man accused of conspiring to fraudulently claim ownership of New York City's JW Marriott Essex House Hotel and other luxury properties failed to appear in the action.
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April 05, 2024
An Attorney's Path From Associate To Partner In 4 Years
At Canadian law firms, it generally takes an associate at least eight years to make partner.
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April 04, 2024
Trump Fraud Appeal Spotlights Underwriting Irregularities
Donald Trump's ongoing challenge to a $465 million civil fraud judgment for a decadelong valuation fraud conspiracy raises questions about insurance procedures, how underwriters price risk and who is harmed by the alleged fraud perpetrated by the former president and his associates.
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April 04, 2024
NY AG Wants Trump Insurer To Guarantee $175M Bond
New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a Manhattan judge Thursday to make sure the California insurer that agreed to post Donald Trump's $175 million bond in his civil business fraud case can actually pay.
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April 04, 2024
PE Firm Announces $1.25B JV To Buy, Develop Marinas
Private equity firm Centerbridge Partners LP and marina owner Suntex Marina Investors LLC have formed a joint venture that aims to acquire and develop new marinas in the U.S. that are worth more than $1.25 billion, according to a joint announcement.
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April 04, 2024
Last-Resort Insurers Grapple With Increasing Exposure
Insurance pools meant to serve as backstops for consumers shut out of traditional markets are grappling with increased exposure to natural disasters, according to experts and market data, a trend that observers say is concerning as climate change intensifies storms.
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April 04, 2024
Real Estate Fraudster Wins 3rd Circ. Bid To Testify
The real estate agent who helped ex-NFL player Irving Fryar in a scheme to defraud several banks out of $1 million in mortgages was wrongly denied the ability to testify on his own behalf at a hearing over alleged violations of his supervised release, the Third Circuit ruled in a precedential opinion Thursday.
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April 04, 2024
Real Estate Partner Brad Wright Joins Dorsey In Phoenix
Brad Wright, a real estate attorney with experience in developing projects with public amenities, has joined Dorsey & Whitney LLP's growing Phoenix practice from Polsinelli PC, the firm announced.
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April 04, 2024
MLB's Athletics To Play In Sacramento Before Move To Vegas
The Oakland Athletics will play the 2025 to 2027 seasons in Sacramento's 14,000-capacity minor-league ballpark while their planned stadium in Las Vegas is built, the franchise and Major League Baseball announced Thursday morning, officially making this season the team's last in Oakland after 57 years.
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April 04, 2024
Md. Lessee Owes Tax On Gov't Property, Appeals Court Says
A lessee of government property in Maryland that was sublet to other users was correctly denied a partial property tax abatement, the state appeals court has said, even though some subtenants were government entities.
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April 04, 2024
Project Owners Eager To Sell Energy Tax Credits, Report Says
Project owners are pursuing new financing strategies that would support the early sale of their clean energy tax credits as more projects in their initial development stage this year seek to capitalize on the incentives as early as possible, a report released Thursday said.
Expert Analysis
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Dispute Prevention Strategies To Halt Strife Before It Starts
With geopolitical turbulence presenting increased risks of business disputes amid court backlogs and ballooning costs, companies should consider building mechanisms for dispute prevention into newly established partnerships to constructively resolve conflicts before they do costly damage, say Ellen Waldman and Allen Waxman at the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution.
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Practical Skills Young Attorneys Must Master To Be Happier
For young lawyers, finding happiness on the job — with its competitive nature and high expectations for billable hours — is complicated, but three skills can help them gain confidence, reduce stress and demonstrate their professional value in ways they never imagined, says career counselor Susan Smith Blakely.
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Establishing A Record Of Good Faith In Mediation
Viacom v. U.S. Specialty Insurance, and other recent cases, highlight the developing criteria for determining good faith participation in mediation, as well as several practical tips to establish such a record, says Richard Mason at MasonADR.
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ABA Opinion Should Help Clarify Which Ethics Rules Apply
A recent American Bar Association opinion provides key guidance on interpreting ABA Model Rule 8.5's notoriously complex choice-of-law analysis — and should help lawyers authorized to practice in multiple jurisdictions determine which jurisdiction's ethics rules govern their conduct, say attorneys at HWG.
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How Crypto-Friendly Bank Failures Will Change Tech Industry
The recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Silvergate Capital are likely to result in significant shifts in how the global tech industry and its financial partners address legal, compliance, regulatory and business risks, says Erin Bryan at Dorsey & Whitney.
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4 Ways To Reboot Your Firm's Stalled Diversity Program
Law firms that have failed to see real progress despite years of diversity initiatives can move forward by committing to tackle four often-taboo obstacles that hinder diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, says Steph Maher at Jaffe.
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Top Questions, And Lessons, After Banking's Wild Weekend
While regulators alleviated some immediate concerns related to Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, even companies with minimal exposure to the failed institutions should monitor unfolding policy changes, cash management issues and increasing scrutiny on risk disclosures for public companies, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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DOJ's Google Sanctions Motion Shows Risks Of Auto-Deletion
The U.S. Department of Justice recently hit Google with a sanctions motion over its alleged failure to preserve relevant instant-messaging communications, a predicament that should be a wake-up call for counsel concerning the danger associated with automatic-deletion features and how it's been handled by the courts, say Oscar Shine and Emma Ashe at Selendy Gay.
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Everyrealm Case Spurs Big Workplace Arbitration Questions
If a New York federal judge's recent textualist ruling in Johnson v. Everyrealm denying arbitration of an entire employment lawsuit is appealed and upheld, it could set the stage for significant impairment of the enforcement of arbitration agreements, says Rex Berry at Signature Resolution.
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What To Expect From A Litigation Finance Industry Recession
There's little data on how litigation finance would fare in a recession, but a look at stakeholders' incentives suggests corporate demand for litigation finance would increase in a recessionary environment, while the number of funders could shrink, says Matthew Oxman at LexShares.
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A Look At The Feds' Extraordinary Reaction To SVB Collapse
With the receiverships of two banks in almost as many days, the emerging pattern of regulatory response holds the banking sector as a whole responsible for losses at individual institutions, a scenario that may not end with special assessments to cover Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, say attorneys at WilmerHale.
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Insureds Must Prep For Drought-Related Service Interruptions
Amid the ongoing U.S. water crisis, corporate policyholders must prepare for the emerging risk of service interruption property damage and time element loss, including through careful examination of their current and renewal property policies, says Micah Skidmore at Haynes Boone.
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How To Select The Right Arbitrator For A Construction Dispute
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
In construction disputes, selecting an arbitrator is a critical decision with many nuances to consider, as different types of potential panelists all come with their own experiences, views and possible biases, says Edward Gentilcore at Blank Rome.