Ernie C. Jolly On April 4, 2013, the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) released its anticipated report on the political intelligence industry, an emerging field where operatives research, analyze, and sell market sensitive political information.[1]  Required under the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 (the “STOCK Act”), the GAO’s report discusses: 1) the extent [...]

Tom Ahmadifar On January 25, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (“D.C. Circuit”) ruled that President Obama’s three January 2012 appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) were unconstitutional.[1] In Noel Canning v. N.L.R.B.,[2] the D.C. Circuit held that an action by the NLRB against Noel Canning was [...]

Ashton Simmons In In re Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP[1], the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Sothern District of New York approved a settlement plan as part of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s Chapter 11 proceedings, under which former partners will pay approximately $71 million in settlement payments. The Court also rejected a motion from an ad hoc [...]

Elizabeth C. Grant The United States Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission released their highly anticipated Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) on November 14, 2012. Although many looked to the agencies to clarify aspects of the FCPA and shed new light on enforcement actions, the Guide provides few [...]

Diane E. Ghrist In Gatz Properties, LLC v. Auriga Capital Corp.,[1] the Delaware Supreme Court held that the Delaware LLC Act does not explicitly impose default fiduciary duties when those duties have not been provided for in the LLC agreement. This per curium decision vociferously knocked Chancellor Strine’s assertion that managers of Delaware LLCs owe [...]

Charles Huang The Delaware Chancery Court in Shocking Technologies, Inc. v. Michael[1] held that a corporate board member breached the fiduciary duty of loyalty when the member attempted to convince the only investor interested in the company to demand a board seat while the company was in financial distress. The court rejected the board member’s [...]

William Genschow In Fulton County Employees Retirement System v. MGIC Inv. Corp.[1], the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that mortgage insurance companies are not subject to liability for fraudulent statements about their holdings and future liquidity when they do not predict a large market crash, and have some substantial liquidity at the time the [...]

Jake Harper On August 24, 2012, a jury seated in the Northern District of California handed out a verdict in favor of Apple, Inc. in its patent infringement suit against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., and its subsidiaries.[1] In a ground-breaking case that pitted two global technology corporations against one another, the jury found that a number [...]

Art Howson In Rogers v. Petróleo Brasileiro, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that the commercial activities exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) did not provide subject matter jurisdiction over a claim against a Brazilian state-owned oil company based on the company’s failure to convert bearer bonds into preferred [...]

Yaritza Velez In Fort Properties, Inc. v. American Master Lease LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that a real estate investment tool designed to enable property owners to buy and sell properties without incurring tax liability was too abstract and, therefore, patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The investment [...]