Practitioner Contributions

Is Conventional Wisdom Wise? Every year, around eighty-five thousand people apply to American law schools. If they have thoroughly done their research, they have read a few books, spoken to countless friends and relatives, browsed hundreds of law school websites, and attended a few forums, all in an effort to determine where they want to [...]

Every year, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) publishes its business plan which outlines its key priorities for the coming year. When the FSA published the Business Plan 2011/12 this April, unlike other years there was also the additional challenge of managing the regulatory reform agenda of dividing the FSA’s responsibilities between the new regulatory authorities [...]

C-144/10 Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) Anstalt des Offentlichen Rechts (Berliner) v JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, Frankfurt Branch, (CFI, Third Chamber, 12 May 2011) The European Court of Justice has provided clarification – and at the same time, welcome news for banks – in a landmark ruling on Article 22(2) of Regulation 44/2001 (Brussels Regulation) which implements [...]

The introduction by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) of the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 (the 2011 Takeover Code) and the SEBI (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2011 (the ICDR Amendment) has brought about significant changes in substantive, procedural and disclosure norms governing corporate [...]

It was once commonplace for defendants to assert an inequitable conduct defense in a patent litigation to render a patent unenforceable. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) recognized that “the habit of charging inequitable conduct in almost every major patent case has become an absolute plague.”1 According to one [...]

On August 12, 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) new Regulation 21F, mandated by Section 922(a) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank), became effective.1 Under the new regulation, a whistleblower who voluntarily provides the SEC with original information and whose information leads to a successful enforcement action [...]

As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) ramps up its efforts to investigate corporate accounting and financial malfeasance in the wake of the current financial crisis, U.S. companies and their directors and officers may find themselves the subject of a formal or informal investigation. They will, in turn, look to their Directors [...]

It was once commonplace for defendants to assert an inequitable conduct defense in a patent litigation to render a patent unenforceable. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) recognized that “the habit of charging inequitable conduct in almost every major patent case has become an absolute plague.”1 According to one [...]

The U.S. Supreme Court keeps writing about class arbitration, but uncertainty continues to reign. Many thought Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International Corp.1 gave clear guidance about how to interpret arbitration agreements that said nothing about class arbitrations: if the arbitration agreement is silent on whether the parties agreed to arbitrate on a class basis, then [...]

In June 2010, the Government announced its intention to restructure the UK’s financial services regulatory framework.1 Central to this is the replacement of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) with a new “twin peaks” regulatory structure that combines oversight of the financial system as a whole with firm-specific supervision. The Bank of England (BoE) Financial Policy [...]

Introduction This article examines the current legal landscape with regard to the enforcement of post-employment restrictions by companies against former employees. While primarily focused on developments in the United States, given the increasing incidence of cross-border enforcement efforts, the discussion also includes reference to European enforcement issues. It is not surprising that the challenging economic [...]

Introduction Businesses today are continuously evolving beasts, rapidly devouring and shedding subsidiaries and business units to take advantage of ebbs and flows in the global economy. Moreover, more so now than at any other time in history, a company’s value lies not in its physical assets, but in the more intangible intellectual property―the trademarks, patents, [...]

The maxim seems to be true that every economic crisis brings its own corporate governance reform. As this crisis is longer than any previous one, it is perhaps not surprising that new governance proposals continue to appear. At the heart of last year’s Corporate Governance Code (Governance Code) was the principle that the relationship between [...]

Over the past year and a half, anyone paying attention to the ever-changing landscape of securities litigation has witnessed a dramatic rise in the number of cases involving “Chinese reverse merger” companies. Quite understandably, what appear to have caught the attention of the plaintiffs’ bar are the often dramatic discrepancies in the financial figures presented [...]

Employers without a unionized workforce often pay little attention to the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Often this is because of the mistaken belief that the NLRA does not apply to them. Two recent developments, however, highlight the need for virtually all employers to understand their obligations under the NLRA. First, the National Labor Relations [...]

What is the U.S. government’s policy on compliance programs? As an antitrust attorney or a compliance and ethics practitioner, you are understandably concerned about this. Certainly you want your company or your client to have a strong ethics and compliance program to help keep the company and its people on the right path and doing [...]

The pace of merger activity in the hospital industry has increased dramatically over the past few years. In 2010, there were 89 mergers involving 227 hospitals, a substantial increase over the prior year, and mergers continued to be announced on a regular basis in 2011.1 In addition, the purchase of physician practices by hospitals is [...]

The Internet has afforded anyone, anywhere, a wealth of information at one’s fingertips. Within the current and ever-expanding age of technology, Brazilian- and U.S.-based courts continue to draw legal boundaries within a seemingly boundless cyberspace. The boundlessness of the Internet, and its related technologies, transcends geographical limits and poses worldwide issues of regulation. One such [...]

In three federal lawsuits – two in New York and one in California – two Internet users have brought to the fore another chapter in the ongoing drama over Internet privacy. That new chapter is “history sniffing.” The lawsuits allege that Internet advertisers, several major U.S. corporations, and a popular adult website have employed hidden [...]

The launch of the new top level domain name .XXX is underway. .XXX domain names are now available for registration by entities in the adult industry through accredited registrars.1 However, the introduction of .XXX matters not only to individuals, businesses and organizations in the “adult” industry but also to all intellectual property holders with trademark [...]