Features

'Best Efforts' Clauses In Commercial Leases
Undefined terms of art such as "best efforts" are often utilized in commercial leases, but the interpretation of those terms and the enforceability of the clause, when left to the courts, will turn on how the lease is drafted.
Features

Improving Firm Profitability Through Contracts
The best and most effective way to drive firm profitability is through influencing partner behavior. The best way to incent the partners is by linking their compensation clearly and directly to the achievement of the firm's business strategy.
Features

Severing a Master Lease Raises Thorny Issues
A master lease structure is often used where a single landlord and a single tenant intend to lease multiple properties. By using a master lease structure to cover multiple properties as opposed to individual leases, the parties can streamline administration of a large-scale portfolio of properties. However, master lease severance comes with a series of complications.
Features

The Scrivener's Error Doctrine In Commercial Lease Drafting
What are the limits of efforts to rescind or reform an agreement based upon a mistake? Can a mere "Scrivener's Error" during drafting result in a wholesale extinguishing of a lease document?
Features

District Court Provides Guidance on 'Psychedelic Confusion'
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently provided critical guidance on what the court observed as the "psychedelic confusion" surrounding the intersection of Bankruptcy Code §365, governing the assumption and rejection of executory contracts, and Bankruptcy Code §503, governing administrative priority.
Features

Removing Restrictive Covenants
In Rockwell v. Despart, the Third Department recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?
Features

Removing Restrictive Covenants In New York
In Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?
Features

Applying 'Part Performance' In Practice
The doctrine of part performance can overcome the strictures of the Statute of Frauds when parties enter into unwritten business deals, or into written business deals with unwritten ancillary terms and they do not contemplate all of the possible circumstances that might arise in the course of their dealings.
Features

COVID-19 and Lease Negotiations: Early Termination Provisions
During the COVID-19 pandemic, some tenants were able to negotiate termination agreements with their landlords. But even though a landlord may agree to terminate a lease to regain control of a defaulting tenant's space without costly and lengthy litigation, typically a defaulting tenant that otherwise has no contractual right to terminate its lease will be in a much weaker bargaining position with respect to the conditions for termination.
Features

Impact of Disney's Motion to Compel Arbitration In Scarlett Johansson's Lawsuit Over 'Day-and-Date' Release of 'Black Widow'
Johansson alleges that, in order to generate new subscribers for Disney+, Disney intentionally interfered with her talent agreement with Disney affiliate Marvel Studios for her featured role in Black Widow — and thus allegedly induced Marvel to breach a promise in the Johansson/Marvel agreement for the film to be initially distributed in exclusive "wide theatrical release." Updated Oct. 1 to reflect a confidential settlement reached in the case.
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