Articles

03.01.18

Strange Things Are Afoot in Takings Case

"A petition for certiorari is pending in a strange takings case: Brott v. United States, 17-712. Although few come in contact with this kind of taking, the legal issues surrounding its process are what is strange. The case concerns a federal statute involving the conversion of abandoned ...


02.27.18

Trump Shouldn’t Avoid Answering Mueller’s Questions

President Trump’s lawyers are reportedly counseling him to avoid answering questions from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, including taking an aggressive approach to asserting executive privilege. As a former White House counsel who once took that position myself, back when President ...


02.23.18

The Music Modernization Act: What Is It & Why Does It Matter?

This bill was borne from good intentions and a genuine desire by songwriters, publishers and DSPs to solve a problem.The negotiated and much debated Music Modernization Act is now before our Congress and Senate, two groups embroiled in stalemates on health care, immigration and government ...


02.22.18

IPAB RIP

I come to bury IPAB, not to praise it.Like Brutus and his co-conspirators wielding the knife against Julius Caesar, the budget deal Congress passed in the early morning hours of February 9 put to death an idea whose time apparently never came and, now never will. The Independent Payment Advisory ...


02.22.18

EEOC Drives ADA Settlement Against Volvo

Why it mattersIn a deal with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Volvo agreed to pay $70,000 plus equitable relief after the agency accused the carmaker of rejecting an applicant because he was a recovering drug addict enrolled in a medication-assisted treatment program. A qualified ...


02.21.18

Applying Escobar’s Heightened Materiality Standard: Limiting FCA Liability

Editor’s Note: Since the Supreme Court decided Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar (Escobar), 136 S.Ct. 1989 (2016), several federal circuit courts and district courts have applied the ruling in a way that has limited False Claims Act (FCA) liability. (Click here ...


02.07.18

Grading the Nunes Memo

As a partner in one of the largest law firms in the state, I receive many memoranda from junior attorneys or clerks on various legal subjects. The memoranda are important because we need to rely on the quality of the research and analysis. They also are a tool to make decisions about hiring and ...


02.06.18

Exceptionally Appealing: Appeals Are for Losers

"Appeals are for losers. This should sound obvious. After all, what would a winning party be unhappy about? But litigation is complicated, and a win rarely emerges after a completely one-sided process where the winner prevails on every single point along the way and walks off with a judgment ...


02.01.18

The National Opioid Epidemic: The Emergence of a Multi-Layered Approach

On Oct. 26, 2017, Eric D. Hargan, acting secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced that, as a result of the opioid epidemic, “a public health emergency exists nationwide.” According to the CDC, from 1999 to 2016, more than 200,000 people died in the United ...


01.30.18

Endangered Species Case: Critical Habitat or Regulatory Taking?

The designation of private property as necessary habitat for some endangered species or other must actually be supported by evidence and must actually serve the intended purpose."Every now and then we have to wonder about the way that government operates. Some of us (at least) like to believe ...