March 11, 2016

An Overview of Corporate Transactional Practice & Expert Witnessing

Q&A with: Neil J. Wertlieb , Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP Please tell us about your current practice and the types of transactions you typically handle. My practice at Milbank focuses on corporate transactions, primarily acquisitions, finance, securities offerings, real estate and hospitality, and restructurings. My practice also involves corporate governance matters and contracts generally. I’d...

March 11, 2016

10 Legal Issues with Fantasy Sports

By: James Gatto , Sheppard Mullin LEXIS PRACTICE ADVISOR RESEARCH PATH: Business & Commercial > E-Commerce > Social Media > Articles > Sweepstakes, Contests and Prize Promotions 1. Fantasy Sports Models Need to Avoid Federal and State Gambling and Lottery Laws Many federal and state laws are potentially relevant to fantasy sports models, including gambling and anti-lottery laws. Broadly stated, in...

March 11, 2016

A Briefing on Emerging Issues Impacting Transactional Practice 2016

HIGH-IMPACT EVENT TO GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM MORE LIKELY, PREDICT FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS ACCORDING TO ONE MEASURE, RECENT WORLD EVENTS have financial professionals unnerved. Forty-five percent of those surveyed by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) say the probability of a “high-impact event” to the global financial system in the next 12 months has increased. Risk managers are even more...

March 11, 2016

Personal Trusts Under New York Law

By: Ian Weinstock , Kostelanetz & Fink LLP LEXIS PRACTICE ADVISOR RESEARCH PATH: New York Business & Commercial > New York Estate Planning > Trusts > Practice Notes What Is a Trust? A trust is a legal arrangement pursuant to which a grantor (a.k.a., settlor, donor, trustor) transfers property to a trustee to administer on behalf of one or more beneficiaries according to the terms of the instrument...

March 11, 2016

Employee GPS Tracking: There's an App for That

By: Courtney King, Ice Miller LEXIS PRACTICE ADVISOR RESEARCH PATH: Labor & Employment > Privacy, Technology, and Social Media > Monitoring and Testing Employees > Articles > Video and Audio Surveillance and Eavesdropping of Employees Utilizing global positioning system tracking to monitor employees’ on-duty conduct is not uncommon. This article discusses a recently filed lawsuit that presents...

March 11, 2016

Understanding, Drafting, and Negotiating Independent Contractor Agreements

By: Jeffrey Bosley , Davis Wright Tremaine LLP LEXIS PRACTICE ADVISOR RESEARCH PATH: Labor & Employment > Independent Contractors > Agreements and Restrictive Covenants > Practice Notes > Independent Contractor and Consulting Agreements An effective independent contractor agreement will withstand both judicial and regulatory scrutiny of independent contractor status and provide a practical framework...

March 11, 2016

Profiles of Lexis Practice Advisor Journal™ Advisory Board Members - Julie Capell & Michael Overly

Julie Capell : Partner, Wintson & Strawn LLP JULIE CAPELL IS A LABOR AND employment attorney and partner with Winston & Strawn LLP. She provides strategic labor and employment guidance by crafting policies and procedures that protect employers and minimize the risk of litigation. In addition, she is well versed in the unique body of employment laws and regulations that continually evolve in the state of California...

March 11, 2016

Director Duties in a Transnational Energy Insolvency

By: Cameron Kinvig LEXIS PRACTICE ADVISOR RESEARCH PATH: Financial Restructuring & Bankruptcy > Identifying Bankruptcy Risk > Oil and Gas Agreements > Practice Notes With oil prices at multi-year lows, the upstream oil and gas industry is reeling. Many exploration and production concerns, as well as oilfield and offshore service providers, have filed for bankruptcy. Many more are likely to do so in the...

March 11, 2016

Introduction to Real Property 1031 Exchanges

By: Spencer Compton , First American Title Insurance Company LEXIS PRACTICE ADVISOR RESEARCH PATH: Real Estate > Commercial Purchase and Sales > 1031 Exchanges > Practice Notes Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code provides that no gain or loss will be recognized when property held for productive use in trade or business or for investment is exchanged for like-kind property that will also be held for...

December 01, 2015

A Briefing on Emerging Issues Impacting Transactional Practice

ENERGY DEPARTMENT UNVEILS ROADMAP SEEKING TO DOUBLE U.S. ENERGY PRODUCTIVITY BY 2030 THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY HAS UNVEILED A strategic plan laying out a path businesses, state and local governments, consumers, and other stakeholders can use to double U.S. energy productivity by 2030. The strategies and actions identified in the report, Accelerate Energy Productivity 2030: A Strategic Roadmap for American Energy...

December 01, 2015

Understanding the NLRB’S Positions on Regulating Employees’ Social Media Usage

By: Marcia E. Goodman and Lori Zahalka , Mayer Brown LLP LEXIS PRACTICE ADVISOR RESEARCH PATH: Labor &Employment > Privacy, Technology, and Social Media > Navigating Social Media > Practice Notes > Understanding the NLRB’s Positions on Regulating Employees’ Social Media Usage AN EMPLOYER’S SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY THAT INFRINGES upon employees’ section 7 rights, or that could be...

December 01, 2015

Confidentiality, Nondisclosure and Secrecy Agreements

By: Rebecca K. Myers , Vandenberg & Feliu, LLP LEXIS PRACTICE ADVISOR RESEARCH PATH: Business & Commercial > Commercial Contracts > Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreements > Practice Notes > Confidentiality Agreements CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENTS, ALSO REFERRED TO AS nondisclosure agreements (NDAs), or secrecy agreements, are legal agreements between parties specifying information that one...

December 01, 2015

Carsharing Getting Relatively Easy Regulatory Ride

By: Korey Clark FOR-PROFIT RIDESHARING, OFFERING PASSENGERS RIDES for money, and carsharing, renting cars for short periods of time, have both been around for decades, really catching on only recently in their smartphone app-based iterations. But while the modern variety of ridesharing has riled a longstanding industry and government regulators alike, the equivalent form of carsharing seems to have encountered relatively...

December 01, 2015

A View of Asset-Based Lending

Q&A with David W. Morse , Banking & Finance Chair at Otterbourg P.C. What led you to choose commercial finance and institutional lending as your area of practice? Serendipity is the word that comes to mind. While I knew that I preferred to do transactional work, I certainly never thought specifically about being a finance lawyer, much less a secured lending lawyer. I was fortunate that at the time I started...

December 01, 2015

Due Diligence in Life Sciences Mergers & Acquisitions

By: Reb Wheeler , Mayer Brown LLP LEXIS PRACTICE ADVISOR RESEARCH PATH: Mergers & Acquisitions > M&A by Industry > Life Sciences M&A THE LIFE SCIENCES INDUSTRY HAS BEEN AMONG THE MOST active sectors for mergers and acquisitions in recent years. There are a variety of issues that are uniquely or particularly relevant to life sciences companies and their products that will have important implications...

December 01, 2015

Drafting and Negotiating Effective Cloud Computing Agreements

By: Michael R. Overly , Foley & Lardner LLP. LEXIS PRACTICE ADVISOR RESEARCH PATH: IntellectualProperty & Technology > Software & Information Technology >Cloud Computing > Practice Notes > Drafting and Negotiating EffectiveCloud Computing Agreements by Michael R. Overly, Foley & Lardner LLP Cloud computing involves accessing a provider’s software and infrastructure remotely and often...

December 01, 2015

“Regulation A-Plus” Limited Public Offerings under Securities Act Section 3(b)(2)

By: Robert N. Rapp , Calfee Halter & Griswold LLP LEXIS PRACTICE ADVISOR RESEARCH PATH: Securities & Capital Markets > State Securities Regulations – Blue Sky Laws> Blue Sky Laws > Practice Notes > “Regulation A-Plus” Limited Public Offerings under Securities Act Section 3(b)(2) ON JUNE 19, 2015, U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION (SEC) rules implementing congressionally...

December 01, 2015

FDA Releases First Two Rules under the Food Safety Modernization Act

By: Breia L. Schleuss and Rachael Dettmann Spiegel, Faegre Baker Daniels LLP THE FOOD SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT (FSMA) REPRESENTS one of the most sweeping and substantial changes to U.S. food safety laws in over 70 years. After years of delays in publishing final rules, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must adhere to court-ordered deadlines to release final rules throughout 2015 and 2016. The first two of these...

November 26, 2015

Drafting Advice: Developing Social Media Policies

By: Joseph Domenick Guarino , DLA Piper LEXIS PRACTICE ADVISOR RESEARCH PATH: Labor & Employment > Privacy, Technology, and Social Media > Navigating Social Media > Practice Notes > Developing Social Media Polices Social media platforms enable users to share ideas and exchange information in a highly effective manner. However, the use of social media by employees carries potential legal risks. These...

November 26, 2015

Managers, Agents & Attorneys

By: Christiane Cargill Kinney , LeClairRyan LEXIS PRACTICE ADVISOR RESEARCH PATH: California Business & Commercial > Entertainment Law > Practice Notes > Managers, Agents and Attorneys Before drafting any agreement for services to be provided to an artist by a personal manager, agent or attorney in the field of entertainment, it is important to understand the nature of these respective roles within the...

November 26, 2015

Hong Kong’s Role in China’s Financial Reform - The Era of the “New Normal”

By: John Chrisman, David Richardson and Alan Lee Corporate Deparment, Hong Kong Office of Dorsey & Whitney* SINCE ADOPTING THE OPEN DOOR POLICY SOME 35 YEARS ago, 1 Mainland China 2 has largely completed the transition from a centrally planned economy to a market-based economy, while achieving remarkable growth during the process. In the second decade of the twenty-first century, the country is seeking sustainable...

November 26, 2015

Profiles of The Lexis Practice Advisor Journal™ Advisory Board Members - Linda L.Curtis & Ira Herman

Linda Curtis PARTNER, GIBSON, DUNN & CRUTCHER LLP LINDA CURTIS IS A PARTNER AT Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Los Angeles, and Co-Chair of the firm’s Global Finance practice group. Her practice focuses on all aspects of corporate finance, with a specific focus in recent years on acquisition financings. Linda also represents clients in debt capital markets transactions and other secured and unsecured senior...

November 26, 2015

Challenges of Taxing the Sharing Economy

By: Jessica L. Kerner IN 2007, A HOTEL ROOM SHORTAGE IN SAN FRANCISCO prompted two roommates to create a website to rent out air mattresses in their apartment. Less than eight years later, the company they founded, Airbnb, has been valued at more than $25 billion. 1 The success of Airbnb is mirrored in other “peer-to-peer” startups, such as Uber, Lyft, and HomeAway, which are capitalizing on technological...