You may hear the practice of law described as putting out fires, and your job as that of a fireman. We are frequently called in after the blaze at the corporation is out of control. Much as a fireman asks over and over, ‘Why do people smoke in bed... Read More
We all remember that first lesson on breach of contract damages. Our first day in Contracts, our own version of Professor Kingsfield of The Paper Chase , glowering up at a classroom of 1Ls and picking on the meekest of us to explain those infamous words... Read More
Earlier this year I discussed the companion cases of Bi-Economy Mkt., Inc. v. Harleysville Ins. Co. of N.Y. , 886 N.E.2d 127 (N.Y. 2008), and Panasia Estates, Inc. v. Hudson Ins. Co. , 886 N.E.2d 135 (N.Y. 2008), in which the New York Court of Appeals... Read More
In an Emerging Issues Commentary, Reed Smith LLPs Timothy Law and Toki Rehder advocate that given that insurance policies definitions of personal and advertising injury explicitly include the publication or making known of material that violates a persons... Read More
Paying bills used to be so complicated, and so filled with the unknown. An insurance premium was past due and the insurer had sent a notice of cancellation. The insured wrote a check, stuck a stamp on an envelope, took it to the post office, and hoped... Read More
“A gulf profound as that SERBONIAN Bog Betwixt DAMIATA and mount CASIUS old, Where Armies whole have sunk:” John Milton, Paradise Lost , Book II (1667) The Serbonian Bog, supposedly located in lower ancient Egypt near Palestine,... Read More
It’s late afternoon when the partner that you report to drops a file on your desk and informs you that the client needs an answer by the end of business tomorrow. The client is an excess insurer that wrote an umbrella insurance policy for a chain... Read More
So you have your tickets for Beyoncé’s “I AM…” concert. Or maybe you are planning to see Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band when they come to your favorite venue. Concert music not your gig? How about taking your kids... Read More
If your career path is in insurance or real estate litigation, you may become immersed in moldy law. Not moldy as in old, like those wonderful ancient law school real property topics of the Rule in Shelley’s Case and the Rule against Perpetuities... Read More
Three weeks ago, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled in favor of an insured in a commercial general liability (CGL) insurer’s declaratory judgment action that had sought a declaration that the insurer did not have a duty... Read More