Why Data Competency Is a Requisite for Tomorrow's Practitioners
October 01, 2019
Whether they like it or not, lawyers interact with data every day. While there is no need for them to seek advanced degrees in data science or statistics, it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to provide adequate representation without being skilled in the uses of data.
Crowdfunding, Reg D and Reg A
October 01, 2019
The New Routes for Access to Capital and the Potential Legal and Regulatory Risks
Although the business community lauded the arrival of new crowdfunding laws, the enforcement community has had a different take on them. As stated in 2017 by then Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein: "The potential downside of crowdfunding is that it occurs outside the watchful eye of a regulated banking and financial industry. Unregulated websites therefore provide a platform for criminals to defraud potential investors."
The 'Silly Season'
October 01, 2019
That term refers to the months of October through December. It's a way of pointing out to partners that the necessary activities of practice management that so many of them had avoided for the first nine or 10 months of the year now had to be addressed. Clients that had not been billed now had to be invoiced. Outstanding invoices, many issued in the cold days of early March and April, now had to be collected and current work would not only have to be billed but collected as well.
Fifth Circuit Subordinates Claim for Deemed Dividends
October 01, 2019
"… [P]ayments owed to a shareholder by a bankrupt debtor, which are not quite dividends but which certainly look a lot like dividends, should be treated like the equity interests of a shareholder and subordinated to claims by creditors of the debtor," held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
"Mismarking": Developments in Valuation Fraud
October 01, 2019
As the DOJ expands its mismarking inquiries beyond stocks and bonds and into areas like private equity, recent cases illuminate the increasing need for robust internal controls designed to eliminate the incentives for an employee or manager to overvalue assets.
What Is Your Dashboard Report Telling You? Chances Are, Not Much.
October 01, 2019
Firms are struggling to capture compelling business intelligence about themselves. Until recently, most operated with a cadre of legacy operating systems, financial platforms and reporting technologies from different manufacturers that have no mechanism for connecting with each other. The disparate nature of these technologies has exacerbated the struggle to leverage data and display results in a reporting mechanism that helps direct the firm's decision-making.
A Tenant's Perspective on SNDAs: Non-Disturbance Is Not Enough
October 01, 2019
Part Two of a Two-Part Article
Part One of this article outlined the basic elements of a subordination, non-disturbance and attornment agreement (SNDA), which regulates two competing interests in the same property — tenant's right to possess its premises pursuant to its lease and mortgage lender's security interest in that same premises. Part Two explains the differences between the concepts of "non-disturbance" and "recognition," while contending that lease recognition is more important to the tenant than not having its possession disturbed.
Marriott Moves to Dismiss Data Breach Lawsuit, Says Passport Numbers Useless to Hackers
October 01, 2019
In Its Motion To Dismiss, Marriott Insisted the Breach Caused No Harm to Its Guests and Attached a Declaration By a Former Government Official Who Wrote: "A U.S. Passport Is Virtually Impossible to Forge Successfully."
Marriott is insisting that last year's cyberattack did no harm to its hotel guests, not least of which because hackers cannot use stolen passport numbers.
8th Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Lawsuit Attacking Approved Bankruptcy Sale
October 01, 2019
Sales of substantially all of a debtor's assets are commonplace in corporate Chapter 11 bankruptcies. The sale is supervised and approved by the Bankruptcy Court. Purchasers desire to know that if the sale is consummated, they will be protected from subsequent attacks on the sale and the sale process and presumably more bidders will participate, resulting in greater returns for the estates and creditors. Issues surrounding the finality of a bankruptcy sale were recently reviewed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
