Columns | May 20, 2013
Outside Counsel
Evaluation Law Could Limit Ability to Terminate Probationary Teachers
Warren H. Richmond III, a partner at Harris Beach, writes that the term 'performance,' like the term 'significant factor,' has been left undefined by the legislation's drafters. Was it their intent that the term be narrowly defined so as to refer solely to performance as reflected by the completed APPR score received by a teacher?
Corporate Update
Securities Enforcement: 2013 Report Card
In his Corporate Securities column, John C. Coffee Jr., the Adolf A. Berle Professor of Law at Columbia University Law School, grades the plaintiff's bar and the SEC, finding that private enforcement of the securities laws boils down to the efforts of a relative handful of firms, with others seldom in control of the major cases that can generate deterrence, and that the SEC lacks the ability to handle the large, factually complex case.
Featured Columns
A Warmer Welcome for STEM Graduates?
In his Immigration Law column, Michael D. Patrick, a partner at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, writes that while encouragement of employers to sponsor certain highly educated, STEM-capable employees for permanent residence would have broad and longer-term benefits to the U.S. economy, many believe the overly restrictive temporary options will undoubtedly prove to have the opposite effect.
Featured Columns
'Good Company' Behavior Can Knock Out Class Actions
In his Complex Litigation column, Michael Hoenig, a member of Herzfeld & Rubin, writes that the class action system creates perverse incentives, harmful disincentives and significant conflicts with the normal law of sales as reflected in the Uniform Commercial Code.
Corporate Update
LIBOR Claims Rejected
Less than two months after a judge gutted sprawling antitrust litigation over alleged manipulation of global benchmark interest rates, shareholders have struck out in a related securities class action against Barclays plc.
Corporate Update
New Deals
Designer jeans company True Religion Apparel has agreed to be acquired by investment firm TowerBrook Capital Partners for $835 million. Also, natural gas pipeline operator Crestwood Midstream Partners and energy services companies Inergy L.P. and Inergy Midstream L.P. have agreed to form an integrated partnership with an enterprise value of $7 billion.
Business Law / Energy and Natural Resources / Legal Profession
Corporate Update
Proposed $1.6 Billion Deal Has Its Critics
Potential class members in the sudden acceleration litigation against Toyota Motor Corp. have filed objections to the proposed settlement reached on behalf of consumers asserting claims for economic damages.
Real Estate
Realty Law Digest
Herrick, Feinstein partner Scott E. Mollen reviews an award of attorney fees to a landlord after the dismissal of a tenant's harassment suit, a dispute over the fees allowed under a contract written by an architect, and a case involving a nonpayment petition that was timely dated and verified but served and filed late.
Attorneys Fees / Civil Practice / Contracts / Landlord/Tenant Law
Real Estate
Marketplace
The Greater Jamaica Development Group has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Blumenfeld Development Group to create a new retail and parking facility in downtown Jamaica, Queens. Also, EisnerAmper has signed an early renewal at 750 Third Ave, increasing the size of its New York City office.
Real Estate
Expressions of Insolvency May Trigger Recourse Liability
In their Financing column, Jason Goldstein and Joshua Sohn, members of DLA Piper, write that in the current commercial real estate finance market, many loans are "non-recourse" to the borrower and its sponsors, so if a borrower defaults on its loan, neither the borrower nor its sponsor are liable for the balance of the debt after the lender has exercised its remedies and recovered all of the assets of the borrower.
Bankruptcy / Contracts / Creditors and Debtors Rights / Real Property
