Publications
On hearing the thunder of “cloud computing,” one might expect to look to the sky and see a computer (about to fall). Yet the meaning and significance of “cloud computing” remain nebulous (pun intended). “Cloud” is a metaphor for the amorphous Internet. In cloud computing, the Internet serves as the computer, combining software with infrastructure, […]
I. What is Bet the System Litigation (BTSL)?Bet the System Litigation. As lawyers, we probably all have an idea of what we think that means. However, if you give any serious consideration to the phrase, you quickly will come to recognize that this could mean radically different things to different people. Do you Bet the […]
I. IntroductionOne of the selling points of arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) is the relative finality of an award. Arbitration awards may be vacated only under limited circumstances. The Second Circuit’s July 9, 2007, ruling in Applied Industrial Materials Corp. v. Ovalar Makine Ticaret Ve Sanaya, A.S.,1 which imposes a duty on arbitrators […]
Directors and officers of large companies expect their benefits to include insurance protecting them from third-party claims arising from actions they take performing their corporate duties. This coverage, known as directors and officers (D&O) insurance, indemnifies directors and officers and pays defense costs in actions brought against them in their corporate capacities. Directors and officers […]
In every medical malpractice case, the lawyers carefully present their evidence and craft suggested language for the jury charge. But if the lawyers stop there and overlook how the jury should express its verdict, they risk losing the ability to uncover errors committed by the jury and having the trial or appellate court overturn a […]
In an article in the June 18, 2010 issue of Insurance Litigation Reporter entitled “Gulf Oil Catastrophe—Round 1 Transocean Insurers v. BP Additional Insured Claim” (Insurance Litigation Reporter, vol. 32, no. 9), we reported that Transocean’s excess liability insurers (who provided $700 million excess of $50 million of coverage to Transocean under marine liability policies), […]
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 58(a) requires that “every judgment and amended judgment” be set out in a “separate document,” distinct from the district court’s opinion or memorandum. The requirement was intended to “eliminate…uncertainties” about when a judgment has entered and the clock for filing post- verdict motions and notices of appeal begins to run. […]
Law360, New York (September 15, 2010) — The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held in In re Novartis Wage and Hour Litigation, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 13708, __ F.3d __ (2d Cir. July 6, 2010), that pharmaceutical sales representatives employed by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. were not exempt from the Fair Labor […]
As summer draws to a close, I’ve prepared a short “to-do” list of objectives for my term in office. The focus is to: (a) increase the diversity of our membership, including racial, ethnic, geographic, and in-house representation among our ranks, (b) streamline our committees structure to enhance the effectiveness, accountability and productivity of core committees, […]
I am pleased to report that this year’s Fall CLE program at the Princeton Club was a big success. The fine program of panel discussions before a packed house was organized by CLE Co-Chairs Anna Erenburg and Rich Parke working in close concert with their active committee members under the watchful eye of Board Liaison […]
Connecticut’s appellate system has strived for greater simplicity, openness, transparency and justice. It has succeeded on some measures, but obstacles to fully realizing this goal remain in place. In this article, I take stock of where we are at the end of 2010 and mention a few items on my appellate wish list for 2011. […]
If you want to remove a multi-defendant case from the Connecticut Superior Court to federal court, you should be aware of the special rules that apply to multi-defendant cases. The removal statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1446(b), provides that “[t]he notice of removal of a civil action or proceeding shall be filed within thirty days after […]
Reproduced by Wiggin and Dana LLP with permission. Copyright 2010 Matthew Bender & Company, Inc., a member of the LexisNexis Group. All rights reserved. Eight years ago, in the fall of 2002, we authored an article in the pages of the Antitrust Report that warned of the dangers of assuming that state antitrust law would […]
Collective action lawsuits alleging violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) continue to proliferate at a dizzying rate. Many, if not most, of these suits challenge the classification of mid-level, white-collar jobs as exempt from the FLSA’s overtime pay requirements. While no employer is immune from this ongoing scourge of FLSA litigation, some […]
In the past two years, the Obama Administration has shifted immigration enforcement policy from stemming illegal immigration by targeting undocumented workers through workplace raids to targeting employers who employ undocumented workers through I-9 audits, fines and debarments. This strategy was announced in 2009 by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who said that the new worksite […]
Prior to passage of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980, ownership rights of federally funded inventions were often retained by the U.S. government. As a result, prior to enactment of the act, the government had amassed a portfolio of over 25,000 patents, fewer than 4 percent of which were ever commercialized. Commercialization of federally funded inventions […]
Business losses resulting from data breaches, computer system malfunction, employees’ Internet usage, computer viruses, and other risks relating to information technology infrastructure and activities have grown exponentially with the evolution of the internet and the ability to collect, store, and use electronic data on a mass scale. For many years, companies had traditional insurance policies […]
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has signaled that it is renewing its emphasis on combating systemic discrimination. In 2006, the EEOC adopted recommendations from an internal task force report that focused on strengthening the EEOC’s nationwide approach to investigating and litigating systemic cases. The task force defined systemic cases as “pattern or practice, policy […]
Acting within the scope of the Congressional mandate to “Promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts”,1 Congress has given to inventors a limited monopoly in the form of a right to exclude others from making, using or selling the invention2 in exchange for public disclosure sufficient to enable one skileld in the relevant art […]
Writing for a unanimous Connecticut Supreme Court in a decision dated August 8, 2000, Justice Katz found that a report prepared by an environmental consultant, retained by a corporation’s outside counsel to help respond to a Department of Environmental Protection inquiry, is protected by the attorney-client privilege. Olson v. Accessory Controls and Equipment Corporation et […]
Over time, particular courts often develop reputations, for better or for worse. For example, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has a reputation for being the most liberal of the federal appellate courts. The 4th Circuit has a reputation for being quite conservative. That’s what happens when a panel of justices uphold the constitutionality of […]
Companies, and their owners, often choose franchising as a business model because of the promise of great expansion opportunities. It is, therefore, a rare franchise system that does not have national and even international aspirations. As a system expands, however, issues regarding the best way to support the system’s expansion take on greater importance. The […]
[Reprinted with permission from The Connecticut Law Tribune v. 24, no. 27 June 29, 1998] Corporation Law You are in-house counsel at a major Connecticut corporation. Your neighbor, who is running for state Senate, asks your help in organizing a fund-raiser. Separately, an incumbent U.S. senator asks to speak to your employees. Meanwhile, your secretary […]
In a precedent-setting ruling, a New York trial court deciding the divorce case of Giahn v. Giahn recently awarded all of a Jewish couple’s assets to a wife because her husband repeatedly failed to give her a religious divorce and used promises of doing so to coerce her into an unfair financial settlement. By way […]
As a successful and popular method of distribution, franchising has its advocates and its detractors, its success stories and its failures. These opposing viewpoints create a number of legal and business issues that occupy franchise executives and lawyers alike. Fast Food Furor. One of the biggest stories in franchising this year has very little to […]
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Ever since Congress enacted the American Competitiveness and Corporate Accountability Act of 2002, more commonly called the Sarbanes–Oxley Act or, for brevity, “Sarbanes” (some use the acronym SOX), people in the nonprofit world and those who advise them have been discussing and speculating on what it means for nonprofits. The short answer: a whole lot. […]
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