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25383 matches |  13840-13846 displayed

1  1976 1977 1978 1979 1980  3627

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Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr, L.L.P.

Winstead Team Wins Best Financing Deal of the Year
Winstead Sechrest & Minick P.C.’s work on the financing of the new Yankee Stadium in New York City, one of the largest municipal bond transactions of the year, was named by the Dallas Business Journal as one of the Winning Deals of 2006 in the category of Best Financing or Restructuring.

The firm was recognized in the Dallas Business Journal's second annual Mergers & Acquisitions Awards, which recognize financiers and dealmakers in North Texas and the most outstanding deals of the past year. Another Winstead deal, the purchase of Tote Systems International L.P. by Lone Star New Markets L.P., received honorable mention in the same category.

In the Yankee Stadium deal, Winstead’s CEO-elect Denis Braham led a team of attorneys in representing two New York bond insurers, Financial Guaranty Insurance Company and MBIA Insurance Corporation, in their insurance of approximately $950 million in bonds, three reserve funds and 16 interest rate swap agreements with four different banks.

The bonds will pay for the design, development, acquisition, construction, and fitting out of the new stadium to be located near the current Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, New York. The stadium, approximately 1.3 million square feet, will include 60 luxury suites and seat over 52,000 spectators.

“In the case of the Yankee Stadium finance deal, we were fortunate to have a team of attorneys with national experience in complex sports venue transactions,” said Braham, chair of the firm’s Sports Business and Public Ventures Practice Group. “Our sports practice group works with other Winstead practices to help local and national clients succeed and this is truly a firm-wide accomplishment. I couldn’t be more proud of our team.”

Braham was assisted in the deal by attorneys from the firm’s Public Finance, Real Estate, Construction, Bankruptcy, Public Law, Tax and Environmental Practice Groups.

12-06-2006

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Downey Brand LLP

Employment Law 2007: What you need to know NOW
Downey Brand is holding its annual employment law seminar. This year’s seminar will address a wide range of employment issues that challenge companies on a daily basis.

Join us for an overview of recent employment law developments and practical guidance on how to meet these challenges. Topics will cover the most critical developments in employment law over the past year, including the impact of an increased minimum wage, as well as developments in harassment, retaliation, and employment litigation. We will also review recommendations for avoiding employment claims and addressing employee relations problems.

Our employment practice is one of the largest in the region with over ten attorneys who focus on representing employers. We serve as counsel to hundreds of employers, both in the private and public sectors. Downey Brand is also one of the few full-service employment practices in the region that counsels employers in Employee Benefits Law (ERISA).

12-06-2006

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Young, Clement, Rivers & Tisdale, L.L.P.

Partner J. Rutledge Young, Jr. has been selected by his peers for inclusion as a Best Lawyer for Bet-the-Company Litigation.
This distinction grants him recognition as one of the nation’s top litigators—a leader that companies should hire to spearhead their litigation, to handle the make-or-break cases in which everything is on the line. Only 200 lawyers nationwide were chosen for this prestigious honor.

12-06-2006

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Townsend, Townsend & Crew, L.L.P.

Patent Attorney's New Book Reveals What Every Company Needs to Know To Maintain a Competitive Edge
M. Henry Heines Navigates The Complex Maze of Patents, and How They Impact Mergers and Acquisitions, Marketing, and Research and Development

In 2006 alone, patent disputes in this country led to dozens of settlements and jury awards in the multimillion dollar range – with such highlights as a $288 million settlement between Toshiba Corporation and Micron Technologies in favor of Toshiba, and a jury award to Autodesk Inc. of $160 million from Microsoft. With such enormous sums of money at risk, the understanding and management of patents is more important than ever before. Even when the stakes are not quite so high, it is critical for businesses to strategically protect their most valuable asset – their intellectual capital, that is, their proprietary products, processes, know-how, and all other aspects of their technology platforms and company specialties. In his new book, PATENTS FOR BUSINESS: The Manager’s Guide to Scope, Strategy, and Due Diligence (Praeger, March 2007), patent attorney M. Henry Heines lays out what every company needs to know about its patents and the ways that a well-managed patent portfolio can help the company establish and maintain a competitive edge.

While patents are often thought to be the province of attorneys, understanding patents – including how they work, how a company’s own patents can be used for competitive advantage, and how to confront patents that threaten the company’s operations – is essential for today’s manager.

“Patents are a major corporate asset, and knowledge of how patent rights are created, managed, and exploited to maximum effect is a valuable management skill,” writes Heines, a partner in the law firm of Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP. By making these issues clear and accessible to a non-legal audience, his new book tells businesspeople what they need to know about patents when it comes to buying and selling companies, raising capital, entering into joint ventures and other partnerships and alliances, marketing products and services, and research and development. And PATENTS FOR BUSINESS enables managers and executives to create truly collaborative working relationships with their patent attorneys.

Heines addresses the wide range of patent questions that arise in the course of doing business – including the questions that will be asked in intellectual property “due diligence” reviews – and how to be ready with the right answers, how to identify and manage the risks of infringement liability before they result in high legal costs or damages, and how to use patents to secure and maintain market exclusivity. PATENTS FOR BUSINESS helps businesspeople determine to what extent their proprietary subject matter is truly protected and the strength of their case against competitors. It also answers questions about patent ownership, such as “What are the relative rights of joint inventors?” and “What are the relative rights and obligations of employers and employees?”

Walking readers through the process of developing and managing their portfolio of patents and inventions, Heines details such subjects as:

•Identifying candidate inventions for patenting. “The creativity, ingenuity, and resourcefulness that are readily applied in technical matters can be applied to patenting as well,” Heines writes, explaining that there are essentially no limits to the types of invention that can be patented. He explores precisely how to think about technological advances with an eye toward patenting, and how to develop broad patent coverage for a given invention by considering such questions as “What competitive activities do I wish to control or eliminate by patent coverage?” and “What are the greatest possibilities for licensing or royalty income from the invention?”

•A working knowledge of patent claims and claiming strategies. How a patent is written, and the claims the patent holder asserts, determine the patent’s power as a competitive tool. Heines explains how the scope of a patent can be both broad and narrow to balance the impact of the patent against its vulnerability to challenge, and demonstrates through examples ranging from nanotechnology to supersonic rockets both how to read a patent claim and how a well thought-out claiming strategy can secure a sustainable patent position.

•The legal standards of patentability. Heines explains the concepts of “prior art,” “novelty” and “nonobviousness,” outlining the threshold standards an invention must reach in order to qualify for patentability. He explores the many ways in which these standards can be met, even when the invention lies very close to, or even overlaps with, the prior art, including inventions that are completely dominated by existing patents. He also shows how a simple discovery, such as a newly found interaction between otherwise known substances, can form the basis of multiple patents of different scope, each encompassing a different class of infringers and infringing activities.

Including a glossary of terms and a listing of resources, PATENTS FOR BUSINESS is an accessible and practical guide that will help businesses navigate the legal and technical maze of patents. It is sure to prove a handy reference for anyone involved in product development, corporate strategy, or intellectual property.

12-06-2006

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Smith Anderson Blount Dorsett Mitchell & Jernigan LLP

Smith Anderson Lawyers Ranked Among the "Most Influential" by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research
Two Smith Anderson lawyers were ranked in the 2005-2006 list of The Most Influential Lobbyists in the 2005 North Carolina General Assembly recently released by The North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research.

Smith Anderson partner and head of the Firm's Public and Government Affairs practice, Dave Horne, was ranked as the 5th most influential lobbyist out of 50 lobbyists who received rankings. Mr. Horne received his first ranking in 1989, and last year appeared on the list as the 7th most influential lobbyist.

Receiving a ranking of #48, Smith Anderson lawyer, Dana Simpson, appears on the list for the first time this year. Mr. Simpson, age 32, and one other lobbyist tied as the youngest lobbyists appearing in this year's rankings.

The Center ranks the top 50 lobbyists out of 638 registered lobbyists and bases its rankings on results from a survey conducted of all 50 state senators, 120 representatives, 442 registered lobbyists and 16 state capital news correspondents asked to identify the most "influential" lobbyists during the 2005 session of the General Assembly.

Mr. Horne's honors this year also include receiving the North Carolina Medical Society John Huske Anderson award which recognizes laypersons whose contributions positively impact the medical profession and public health as exemplified by Smith Anderson name partner John Anderson (1907-1990) and selection for the Woodward/White 2007 list of The Best Lawyers in America in the Government Relations Law category.

The Smith Anderson Public and Government Affairs team advises clients on how best to effectively communicate their message to political and government leaders. With over 50 years of combined experience, our team provides clients with an understanding of the political, regulatory and legal environment and an experienced perspective on how decisions impacting public policy are made.

12-06-2006

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Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo P.C.

Mintz Levin attorney Harvey Saferstein Speaks at Association of Business Trial Lawyers Event
Harvey Saferstein, a member practicing in the firm's Litigation Section, spoke at a luncheon seminar sponsored by the ABTL on December 6, 2006 at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. The topic: When Things go Wrong and Your Witness Craters (or otherwise falls apart), covered what to do when dealing with the unprepared and/or uncontrollable witness.

Harvey's litigation activities include trial and appellate counsel in antitrust cases and class actions in federal and state trial and appellate courts. He has also appeared before federal and state agencies and represented various businesses in federal and state investigations into antitrust and consumer protection matters. His counseling work encompasses advising clients on how to comply with state and federal antitrust laws, consumer protection laws, and other business regulation; conducting compliance seminars and programs for major corporations; advising on and conducting Hart-Scott-Rodino compliance and filing procedures in mergers and joint ventures such as the Robinson-Patman Act; and compliance counseling for major infomercial producers regarding consumer protection laws, intellectual property rights and media law. Harvey's litigation management cases have involved organizing, setting up and hiring personnel for a free-standing "branch" office in Chicago, IL, to represent a Chicago-based client in a hostile takeover. He also coordinated a post-trial team to overturn a $700 million federal antitrust jury verdict.

12-06-2006

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Healy & Baillie, L.L.P.

OIG Has A Bee In Its Bonnet About Doctors Investing In Devices
Health law partner Kathleen McDermott is quoted in the December 6th issue of Medical Newswire regarding watchdog agency scrutiny over physicians’ joint ventures with medical device makers.

Like the tycoon in the old Remington shave commercials, a doctor may like a medical gadget so much that he buys the company that makes it. But in that case, the doctor could be buying into a whole world of legal woe, experts warn.

The HHS Office of Inspector General rushed to respond Oct. 6 to a letter from trade association AdvaMed asking for guidance about doctors investing in joint ventures involving medical devices. The OIG has been seeing a lot of doctors investing in medical device makers and distributors, including group purchasing organizations, and the watchdog organization is growling.

The OIG’s landmark 1989 Special Fraud Alert on Joint Ventures, a touchstone of physician compliance, applies to these ventures, the agency warned.

“It is an important reminder that the device industry is subject to the same fraud and abuse guidance that applies to other health care industries,” says attorney Kathleen McDermott with Blank Rome in Washington, DC.

A doctor can’t receive more money for sending more patients to the company he has invested in, the OIG warns.

“There’s been a lot of discussion about joint venture transactions, and the OIG just wanted to remind folks that there is guidance out there,” says Portland, OR attorney Mark Bonanno. A good rule of thumb is that doctors should never profit from the “volume or value” of their patient referrals, says Bonanno.

“There has been, in fact, a proliferation of arrangements that raise serious questions about anti-kickback compliance,” says McDermott. These include physicians investing in GPOs as well as imaging centers. “Physicians in some sectors have been very entrepreneurial, which is not necessarily wrong.”

The OIG seems to be especially concerned when “the physician is in a position to either purchase the device or influence the purchase of the device,” says AdvaMed Counsel Chris White. The OIG guidance seems to apply most of all to common arrangements in the orthopedic and cardiology specialties, with doctors investing in implantable spinal rods and other devices.

Kathleen McDermott represents health care providers and government contractors in the areas of compliance counseling, internal investigations, government investigations and complex health care litigation. She has been involved in over 100 False Claims Act matters and has been recognized by Washingtonian magazine as one of the top attorneys in Washington DC to handle qui tam whistleblower suits and disclosures to the government. She provides legal guidance to the provider, payor, pharma, device and clinical research industries on structuring business arrangements for compliance with State and federal fraud and abuse regulations. Ms. McDermott is a former assistant U.S. attorney and health care fraud coordinator for the District of Maryland, and currently serves as a vice-chair of the American Health Lawyer’s Association Fraud & Abuse Practice Group.

12-06-2006

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