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Delaware
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May 20, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
Delaware was full of drama last week, as proposed changes to the state's corporate law statutes raised eyebrows and a professor's friend-of-the-court brief sparked a very unfriendly public exchange. Delaware's court of equity banged the gavel on pipeline and social media disputes, and shareholders filed new suits alleging insider trading, vote bungling, unfair stock buybacks and merger shenanigans. In case you missed any of it, here's the recap of all the top news last week from Delaware's Chancery Court.
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May 20, 2024
Feds Fight Proposed Delay In Hunter Biden's Tax Trial
Hunter Biden shouldn't be allowed to delay his criminal tax trial in California just because his lead attorney says the dates run up against Biden's upcoming trial in Delaware on firearms charges, the special counsel's office told a federal court.
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May 20, 2024
Co-Head Of Deadlocked $5B Wealth Firm Asks To Dissolve
A New York investment advisory firm managing $5 billion for elite clients including a minority owner of the St. Louis Cardinals is heading for trial in Delaware's Court of Chancery after one of its controlling members asked for a judicial dissolution, saying the company was deadlocked.
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May 17, 2024
Qorvo Wins $38.6M In Akoustis Trade Secrets And Patent Trial
A Delaware federal jury on Friday told Akoustis Technologies Inc. to pay wireless company Qorvo Inc. nearly $38.6 million for misappropriating its trade secrets and infringing its patents, following a two-week trial over radio frequency filter technology.
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May 17, 2024
Scammer Cops To SIM Scheme Including $400M Crypto Theft
A Colorado woman on Thursday pled guilty in D.C. federal court for her part in a SIM swapping scheme that appears to encompass more than $400 million stolen from the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
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May 17, 2024
3rd Circ. Won't Rethink Cancellation Of $10M Win In TM Battle
Texans can continue to be subjected to the earworm that is the "Kars 4 Kids" jingle, as the Third Circuit declined this week to reconsider its ruling against a local charity that had temporarily won a $10 million judgment in a trademark dispute over the name.
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May 17, 2024
Pfizer Unit Wins $107.5M Patent Verdict Against AstraZeneca
A Delaware federal jury on Friday said that AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP should pay $107.5 million in royalty damages for infringing a Pfizer-brand cancer treatment patent, although a final decision won't be issued until after a bench trial on some of AstraZeneca's additional defenses.
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May 17, 2024
RedBird Flags Brookfield 'Gamesmanship' In Chancery Suit
Private investment firm RedBird Capital Partners has urged Delaware's Court of Chancery to strike unauthorized motions by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners seeking dismissal of a RedBird suit to recover a $150 million escrow included in a $5.7 billion sale of data centers to Brookfield affiliates last year.
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May 17, 2024
'Confusing' Evidence Leads To New Patent Trial For Shopify
A Delaware federal judge Friday granted in part Shopify Inc.'s bid for a new trial in an infringement suit over a series of patents for website generation owned by Express Mobile Inc. after Express won a $40 million jury verdict in 2022.
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May 17, 2024
Cantor, Lutnick Strike Deal With Window SPAC Investors
Shareholders of a special purpose acquisition company that took a now-bankrupt smart window manufacturer public have reached a tentative agreement to settle their proposed Delaware Chancery Court class action against Cantor Fitzgerald LP and its billionaire chair and CEO Howard Lutnick.
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May 17, 2024
Chancery Rulings Stir Up Del. Corporate Bar Push-Back
Intrigue surrounding closed-door talks on amendments to Delaware's General Corporation Law picked up in recent days, bringing greater scrutiny to an often sedate effort stirred up this year by a draft proposal seen as potentially removing some corporate policing powers traditionally given to the state's courts.
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May 17, 2024
EndoStim Emerges From Delaware Insolvency Proceeding
Delaware's Court of Chancery has approved the final accounting for medical device company EndoStim Inc.'s state-administered insolvency proceeding after no creditor or other party raised any objections at a final hearing on Friday.
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May 17, 2024
Dozens Of Pro Bono Attys Back 3rd Circ. Nominee Mangi
Forty-nine pro bono partners, counsel and chairs from major law firms and organizations wrote to Senate leadership on Friday with concerns that the staunch opposition against Third Circuit nominee Adeel Mangi over his pro bono work will have a chilling effect on future attorneys seeking judgeships, according to a letter shared with Law360.
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May 17, 2024
Judge Sets Hearing For Delay In Hunter Biden's Tax Trial
A California federal judge agreed Friday to consider Hunter Biden's request to push back his $1.4 million criminal tax trial, setting a hearing to address his claim that the dates interfere with his Delaware gun trial and threaten to prevent him from getting a fair shake.
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May 17, 2024
3rd Circ. Seeks Briefing On Wesco's Impact In 401(k) Fee Suit
The Third Circuit asked a digital services business and employees who sued the company alleging it saddled their retirement plan with excessive recordkeeping fees to explain whether the workers' bid to revive their tossed suit should be kicked to a lower court in light of a recent precedential ruling.
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May 16, 2024
No Double Jeopardy In Philly Execs' Embezzlement Case
Two former Philadelphia nonprofit executives convicted for an embezzlement scheme weren't subject to double jeopardy when a judge rescheduled trial after several jurors left, the Third Circuit ruled Thursday, reasoning that the court had no other choice.
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May 16, 2024
3rd Circ. Shuns Teva's 'Novel' Appeal On Israeli Investor Class
The Third Circuit on Thursday turned away an appeal brought by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., saying the class certification stage was not the right time to hear arguments over the "novel" question of the applicability of U.S. securities laws to Israeli-listed shares.
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May 16, 2024
PTAB Will Review Cash-Out Patent Challenged By DraftKings
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board said Wednesday it will review a patent owned by DraftKings Inc. rival Colossus Bets on a way for gamblers to "cash out" of a sports bet to cut their losses before a game is over.
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May 16, 2024
3rd Circ. Revives Wesco Retirees' ERISA Fee Case
The Third Circuit reinstated a proposed class action Thursday accusing Wesco Distribution Inc. of letting its employee retirement plan pay exorbitant administrative fees, ruling a trial court's "partly valid" criticisms of the suit weren't enough to warrant dismissal.
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May 16, 2024
Rue21 Seeks To Reject 51 Leases As Stores Close
Bankrupt teen retailer rue21 has asked a Delaware bankruptcy court for approval to reject its leases at 51 store locations where going-out-of-business sales have already wrapped up or aren't planned, saying the move would represent "a significant cost savings" to the bankruptcy estate.
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May 16, 2024
DOL Unveils Long-Delayed Abandoned Retirement Plan Rules
After being sidelined for more than a decade, a plan for expanding U.S. Department of Labor rules for terminating retirement plans abandoned by employers are moving forward again, the agency reported Thursday, along with a long-delayed role in the process for bankruptcy trustees.
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May 16, 2024
C3.ai Shareholder Sues In Del., Citing Baker Hughes Pact
A shareholder of artificial intelligence-driven software developer C3.ai Inc. filed a derivative suit in Delaware's Court of Chancery late Wednesday, alleging breaches of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment related to the California company's strategic partnership with Baker Hughes Co.
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May 16, 2024
Olo Investor Sues In Chancery To Stop Raine Group Takeover
A shareholder in New York online food-ordering company Olo Inc. sued its officers, directors and largest stockholder in Delaware's Court of Chancery on Wednesday, alleging the board had approved a stock buyback program that would hand control of the company to its largest shareholder for no consideration.
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May 15, 2024
Bolt Financial Cancels $37M In Shares To End CEO Loan Suit
Bolt Financial Inc. will cancel over $37 million in shares to settle a derivative suit against the company's board of directors that accuses its former CEO of purposely defaulting on a $30 million loan, according to a filing in Delaware's Court of Chancery.
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May 15, 2024
Chancery Nixes BuzzFeed Worker Arbitration Bid
Delaware's Court of Chancery dismissed from an arbitration access dispute on Wednesday 85 BuzzFeed Media Enterprises employees who sued for arbitration of a stock conversion right, rejecting claims that company employment agreements require Delaware courts to handle the issue.
Expert Analysis
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Del. Ruling Guides On Advance Notice Bylaw Amendments
The Delaware Chancery's Court's recent denial of investment fund Paragon Technologies' injunction motion against Ocean Power Technologies underscores the importance of carefully crafting and enforcing corporate advance notice bylaw amendments, especially in light of universal proxy rules, say attorneys at Venable.
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Series
Baking Bread Makes Me A Better Lawyer
After many years practicing law, and a few years baking bread, I have learned that there are a few keys to success in both endeavors, including the assembly of a nourishing and resilient culture, and the ability to learn from failure and exercise patience, says Rick Robinson at Reed Smith.
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Federal Courts And AI Standing Orders: Safety Or Overkill?
Several district court judges have issued standing orders regulating the use of artificial intelligence in their courts, but courts should consider following ordinary notice and comment procedures before implementing sweeping mandates that could be unnecessarily burdensome and counterproductive, say attorneys at Curtis.
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Wachtell-X Ruling Highlights Trend On Arbitrability Question
A growing body of case law, including a California state court's recent decision in X Corp. v. Wachtell, holds that incorporation of specific arbitral body rules in an arbitration provision may in and of itself constitute clear and unmistakable evidence of delegation of arbitrability to an arbitrator, and thus such clauses should be drafted carefully, say attorneys at Norton Rose.
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7 E-Discovery Predictions For 2024 And Beyond
The legal and technical issues of e-discovery now affect virtually every lawsuit, and in the year to come, practitioners can expect practices and policies to evolve in a number of ways, from the expanded use of relevancy redactions to mandated information security provisions in protective orders, say attorneys at Littler.
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Justice O'Connor Was Architect of ERISA's Lasting Success
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor laid the foundations of Employee Retirement Income Security Act jurisprudence, defining a default standard of review, preemption rules and the act's interplay with employment law, through opinions that are still instructive as ERISA approaches its 50th anniversary, says José Jara at Fox Rothschild.
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On The Edge: Lessons In Patent Litigation Financing
A federal judge's recent request that the U.S. Department of Justice look into IP Edge patent litigation, and that counsel be disciplined, serves as a reminder for parties asserting intellectual property rights — and their attorneys — to exercise caution when structuring a litigation financing agreement, say Samuel Habein and James De Vellis at Foley & Lardner.
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Opinion
Conflicts Abound When Activist Short-Sellers Publish Reports
The self-serving relationship between activist short-sellers and plaintiff-side litigators is conflict-ridden and hinders the fact finder's impartiality when a short report forms the basis for lead plaintiffs' allegations, say Nessim Mezrahi and Stephen Sigrist at SAR.
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5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2024
Over the next year and beyond, litigation funding will continue to evolve in ways that affect attorneys and the larger litigation landscape, from the growth of a secondary market for funded claims, to rising interest rates restricting the availability of capital, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.
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Key Issues When Navigating A Tenant's Bankruptcy
In light of recent Chapter 11 filings by Rite Aid and WeWork — companies with thousands of commercial leases — practitioners should review issues that can arise when bankruptcy is used to exit a lease, including the consequences of lease rejection and the statutory cap on landlord damage claims for a rejected lease, say attorneys at Proskauer.
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4 Legal Ethics Considerations For The New Year
As attorneys and clients reset for a new year, now is a good time to take a step back and review some core ethical issues that attorneys should keep front of mind in 2024, including approaching generative artificial intelligence with caution and care, and avoiding pitfalls in outside counsel guidelines, say attorneys at HWG.
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5 Privacy And Cybersecurity Resolutions For 2024
In 2023, companies grappled with an unprecedented array of data privacy and cybersecurity challenges that are likely to continue in 2024, meaning businesses will be well-served to incorporate strategies, such as data governance and website configuration, into their compliance programs, say Steven Stransky at Thompson Hine and Violet Sullivan at Crum & Forster.
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Fed. Circ. Patent Decisions In 2023: An Empirical Review
The Federal Circuit decided 306 patent cases last year, which is still well down from the pre-pandemic norm of around 440, and on the whole the court's decisions were markedly less patentee-friendly in 2023 than in 2022, says Dan Bagatell at Perkins Coie.
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What The Law Firm Of The Future Will Look Like
As the legal landscape shifts, it’s become increasingly clear that the BigLaw business model must adapt in four key ways to remain viable, from fostering workplace flexibility to embracing technology, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.
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4 PR Pointers When Your Case Is In The News
Media coverage of new lawsuits exploded last year, demonstrating why defense attorneys should devise a public relations plan that complements their legal strategy, incorporating several objectives to balance ethical obligations and advocacy, say Nathan Burchfiel at Pinkston and Ryan June at Castañeda + Heidelman.