Articles

04.20.12

CMBS 2.0: Still in Need of Work

Since their arrival in the 1980s, commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) have held great promise for commercial real estate borrowers. They greatly increased capital flows into commercial real estate and offered lower-cost loans in exchange for cumbersome loan documentation and less ...


04.20.12

Surviving False Claims Act Allegations: What Every Government Contractor Needs to Know to Maximize ...

In recent years, an increasing number of governmental and private party “whistleblower” claims alleging fraudulent claims for payment from the U.S. federal government have been brought against government contractors under the federal False Claims Act (FCA.)Civil violations of the FCA ...


04.20.12

ACO Fraud & Abuse Waivers

In an extraordinary effort to provide accountable care organizations (ACOs) with flexibility to establish innovative arrangements among hospitals, physicians and patients, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector ...


04.20.12

Courts, Sports And Videogames: What's In A Game?

Although one of the clearest legal thinkers, Louis Brandeis, conceived the modern right of publicity, "unclear" would be an adjective all lawyers would apply to the current state of right of publicity law, regardless of which side of the issue they usually argue. Indeed, although the ...


04.20.12

Designing Medicaid Benchmark Benefits for New Adult Beneficiaries

On Dec. 16, 2011, the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a bulletin providing guidance with respect to: (i) new state flexibility to design the ...


04.20.12

Unintended Environmental Consequences of the Demise of Redevelopment in California

California has a rich history of seizing opportunities that, at first glance, seem perilous. Following a significant industrial and manufacturing era in California, many communities in the state were saddled with properties contaminated with hazardous substances. These brownfields properties were ...


04.20.12

Were Those Jeans Really 'Born In The USA'?

The Federal Trade Commission has closed its investigation into the legality of advertising claims made by Lucky Brand Dungarees Inc. The FTC initiated the inquiry in an effort to determine if Lucky Brand’s claims that its clothing is “hand crafted in America,” “born in ...


03.26.12

You've Got to Know When and How to Ask: A Look at Eight Years of 'Certified' Questions to the ...

Until very recently, federal and out-of-state courts confronting an unsettled issue of California law were forced to guess at how the California Supreme Court would resolve the issue and then undertake to decide the case. Neither federal courts sitting in diversity nor sister-state courts applying ...


03.23.12

'Macomber' Highlights Danger In Appealing Fee, Cost Awards

Isn't appealing from the judgment sufficient to challenge a fee or cost award made pursuant to that judgment? Sometimes, but frequently not.Like other notice-of-appeal issues, there are plenty of traps for the unwary who appeal fee and cost awards. When and how to appeal depends on a number of ...