Articles

07.15.13

For Family Videos, Less Is, Well, Less: Welcome to the Age of Video Snippets

Video is everywhere. On your mobile. In HD. Which is great for capturing your precious family memories - your baby's first words, their first steps, birthdays, reunions, holidays. It's never been easier. Gone are the days when you need to think about taking out your bulky camcorder. Those ...


07.15.13

11 Ways to Finance Commercial Real Estate Energy Retrofits

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, commercial buildings account for 35 percent of U.S. (and 40 percent of global) electricity consumption. Most commercial real estate professionals accept that energy efficient buildings can, and do, impact the value of the underlying asset. Notwithstanding ...


06.24.13

Bipartisan Proposal May Pave a Path Forward for Federal Chemical Regulation Reform

To the surprise of many, on May 22, 2013, US Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and David Vitter (R-LA) announced a bipartisan bill - the Chemical Safety Improvement Act (CSIA) - to modernize the federal Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA). TSCA's approach to regulating chemical safety ...


06.17.13

NY's Limits on Executive Compensation and Administrative Expense Take Effect

New regulations limiting executive compensation and administrative expense by entities that contract with New York State are about to take effect and affected entities must now assess whether their current executive compensation practices and administrative expense experience will comply with the ...


06.10.13

New Blood: Replacing Opportunity Investors

Necessity being the mother of invention, the market turmoil of the past few years gave birth to many creative solutions to the problem of illiquidity in a down real estate market. One of those solutions was the sale to opportunity investors of preferred equity interests in entities holding real ...


06.01.13

Navigating the FCPA in Healthcare and Life Sciences

In 2012, companies and executives operating in the healthcare and life sciences industries had an outsize presence in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement actions. Given recent Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pronouncements, coupled with more ...


05.22.13

When Rights Of Publicity Trump 1st Amendment

In a recent 62 page decision by the Third Circuit obviously intended to give guidance in an unclear area of the law, the rights of publicity of a college athlete in a video game trumped the First Amendment arguments of the video game manufacturer: Ryan Hart v. Electronic Arts Inc., No. 11-3570 ...


05.01.13

Provider-Owned Health Plans

In the 1980s and 1990s, innovative healthcare providers created their own health insurance plans in an effort to develop a vertically integrated care financing and delivery system. Perhaps they were ahead of their time. As they confronted the risks and challenges of being in the insurance business, ...


05.01.13

A Shield For Software

In March, Congressmen Peter DeFazio and Jason Chaffetz introduced HR 845, the Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes (SHIELD) Act of 2013.According to DeFazio, the act is intended to "force patent trolls to take financial responsibility for their frivolous lawsuits[,]" ...


04.30.13

Risk Allocations in Construction Contracts

In the world of real estate development, one of the most significant and often undervalued agreements is the contract between the owner/developer and the general contractor.  Drafting and negotiating construction contracts for commercial and/or large scale construction projects is, in its ...