Columns | May 25, 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?

Contracts / Government / Labor Law / Schools and Education

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.

Business Law / Civil Practice / Government

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.

Employment / Government / Immigration Law

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.

Civil Practice / Motor Vehicles / Torts

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.

Banking / Business Law / Civil Practice

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.

Civil Practice / Commercial Law / Products Liability

Outside Counsel

2013 Insurance Services Office CGL Changes: Implications to Risk Transfer

Jeremiah M. Welch, a partner with Saxe, Doernberger & Vita, and Julian D. Ehrlich, senior vice president of Aon's Construction Services Group, write that the underlying theme of several of the most significant ISO changes is new and added interdependence between the CGL policy and contract insurance requirements.

Insurance Law

Featured Columns

Closing Courtroom, Standard to Decide 'Severe Abuse,' Turnover Order Sought

In their New York Court of Appeals Roundup, Roy L. Reardon and William T. Russell Jr., partners at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, discuss a trio of decisions discussing the ability of a trial court to close the courtroom during a criminal proceeding to protect the identity of testifying undercover police officers, a case in which the court clarified the standard to be applied in determining when a parent can be found to have engaged in "severe abuse" of a child, and more.

Civil Practice / Constitutional Law / Creditors and Debtors Rights / Criminal Practice / Family Law / Social Services Law

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