Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Gray, Plant & Mooty

Gray Plant Mooty Brings Home a “Best Places to Work” Award for 5th Consecutive Year
3Gray Plant Mooty has been named one of the “Best Places to Work” for 2007 by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. This marks the fifth consecutive year that GPM has been recognized for its outstanding work environment—the only law firm in Minnesota to reach that milestone.

“Gray Plant Mooty has a long history of employing people who value professional excellence in their work and personal respect in their work relationships,” explains Tamara H. Olsen, GPM’s Managing Officer. “We love to do great work—and we enjoy doing it with each other. That combination has created a rich culture of highly satisfied employees. It’s immensely gratifying to be recognized year after year as one of the best places to work in Minnesota.”

Companies earn the “Best Places to Work” award based on how employees respond to the Business Journal’s online survey, which addresses issues such as work environment, opportunities for personal growth, embracing new ideas, and day-to-day operations. To be considered, companies must have an office with 10 or more employees in the Twin Cities’ 11-county metro area, or be a Minnesota-based company with at least 1,000 employees anywhere in the state. Companies must also meet a participation requirement—with at least 50% of employees completing the online survey.

A record 220+ companies were nominated this year—up 10% from 2006—which makes GPM’s achievement especially noteworthy. Companies are grouped by size: small (10-100), medium (101-1000) and large (1001+); Gray Plant Mooty won in the medium category with 332 employees in its Minneapolis and St. Cloud offices.

08-17-2007

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Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.

Joseph Sedarski Joins Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.
Joseph Sedarski has joined Fredrikson & Byron as an associate in the Real Estate Group. Joe will focus in the areas of real estate, land use, and environmental law. He also has experience in serving clients in construction, regulatory/administrative, real property, and energy matters. With his background in civil and environmental engineering, Joe supports business transactional matters, as well as environmental, real estate, and construction litigation.

Previously, Joe spent 13 years as a Professional Engineer, consulting in the areas of civil, environmental, and geotechnical engineering; and was licensed in Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Joe has worked for national environment/civil engineering consulting firms in the Midwest and on the East Coast.

08-17-2007

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Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.

Ellen Meyer Joins Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.
Ellen Meyer has joined Fredrikson & Byron’s Employment & Labor Law Group as a senior associate. Ellen will continue to focus on the defense of employment-related actions, including claims of discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, defamation, breach of non-competition covenants, breach of fiduciary duty, and wage-and-hour violations. Prior to joining Fredrikson & Byron, Ellen practiced for nearly 10 years in both Boston and Chicago. Ellen received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.

08-17-2007

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Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP

New Worksite Enforcement Measures and Final “No-Match” Rule
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security announced a series of immigration enforcement measures that address, among other targets, worksite enforcement. The major elements include:

* Issuance of the “no-match” regulation, which was published in the Federal Register yesterday
* An increase in civil fines of approximately 25% for violations of the Immigration Reform and Control Act
* Continued expansion of criminal investigations against employers
* Future publication of a regulation to reduce the number of documents acceptable for I-9 purposes
* Future regulatory proposal to require federal government contractors to use DHS’s electronic employment eligibility verification system, E-Verify (formerly known as Basic Pilot)
* Promotion and future enhancement of electronic employment verification

The DHS’s long-awaited no-match regulation details the availability of “safe harbor” protection in certain instances and becomes effective Sept. 14. The DHS also addressed several closely associated issues regarding I-9 requirements.

Scope of "No-Match" Regulation

The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) prohibits the continued employment of a person while knowing he or she is not authorized to work in the United States. The government can charge an employer for violating IRCA on the basis of “actual knowledge” or “constructive knowledge.” The DHS added two more examples of constructive knowledge and provided limited “safe harbor” protection if an employer takes certain steps to resolve the “no-match” and meets other criteria.

"Constructive knowledge" is knowledge that may fairly be inferred through notice of certain facts and circumstances which would lead a person, through the exercise of reasonable care, to know about a certain condition. An employer must take reasonable steps after receiving information indicating that an employee is not authorized to work to minimize the risk of a government finding it had constructive knowledge and therefore violated IRCA.

08-16-2007

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Ward and Smith, P.A.

Ward and Smith, P.A. Attorney Paul A. Fanning Achieves National Certification
Paul A. Fanning, an attorney with Ward and Smith, P.A., successfully completed the requirements for national certification by the American Board of Certification in both business and consumer bankruptcy law.

The American Board of Certification is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the public and improving the quality of the bankruptcy bar. To be certified, a lawyer must: practice law full time for at least five years and be in good standing in all states in which a license to practice law is held; devote at least 30% of practice time and at least 400 hours to bankruptcy related matters in the last three years; have documented involvement in business and consumer bankruptcy; have earned at least 60 hours of bankruptcy education in the past three years; and pass an extensive one and a half day-long written examination covering business and consumer bankruptcy issues. The American Board of Certification offers separate certification programs in business and consumer bankruptcy and creditors' rights. All three certification programs are accredited by the American Bar Association.

Mr. Fanning graduated from Wake Forest University School of Law in 1998. He is a member of the American Bar Association and the Bankruptcy Council of the Bankruptcy Law Section of the North Carolina Bar Association. Mr. Fanning's practice experience encompasses bankruptcy, collections, creditors' rights, and lender liability. He concentrates his practice in representation of creditors in bankruptcy and collections, including workouts, reorganizations, and liquidations. Mr. Fanning serves clients throughout North Carolina and the southeast from his office in Greenville. Mr. Fanning also is certified as a Board Certified Specialist in Business and Consumer Bankruptcy Law by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization.

08-16-2007

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Milberg, Weiss, Bershad & Schulman, L.L.P.

Court Certifies Securities Fraud Class Action Against Magma Design Automation, Inc.
Shareholders filed this lawsuit against Magma Design Automation and several of its officers for alleged violations of Section 10(b) and Section 20(a) of the 1934 Exchange Act. Now pending before the Court is Plaintiffs’ motion for class certification.

As in almost all lawsuits by shareholders of public companies, the investors in this case easily satisfy the requirements of Rule 23. First, there are too many of them to make individual suits practical. Second, all of the shareholders’ claims involve substantially the same questions of law and fact. Third, the claims actually presented by the lead shareholder in this case are typical of the claims that would be asserted by other investors. And fourth, the parties to the case have given the Court every reason to think that the lead plaintiff and his attorneys will

adequately represent the interests of other class members. Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(a). Finally, the Court has little trouble concluding that, as with most suits against public companies, a class action is “maintainable” in this case because Magma Design Automation treated its all of its shareholders in the same fashion, which both raises the specter of “inconsistent or varying adjudications with respect to individual members of the class,” and makes a class action “superior to other available methods for the fair and efficient adjudication of the controversy.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b). See also Blackie v. Barrack, 524 F.2d 891, 902 (9th Cir. 1975).

Faced with the Ninth Circuit’s policy of liberally construing Rule 23 in the context of class actions suits, Defendants raise one basic argument in opposition to class certification. Defendants view the crux of the case as a dispute about whether the company made false and misleading statements regarding its financial prospects during the course of recently concluded patent litigation, which Plaintiffs view as having had an adverse impact on the company and its stock price. Yet the shareholders’ complaint itself sets forth claims for relief based of a series of statements that occurred long before the litigation even began, when Magma Design Automation was using patented technology, but was not yet embroiled in a legal dispute about their use of it. Defendants contend that these earlier statements are not properly the subject of a claim under the securities laws, and moreover, that a “properly constituted” class would not even include the lead plaintiff, who purchased his stock before the litigation had begun.

08-16-2007

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Lewis, Johs, Avallone, Aviles & Kaufman, L.L.P.

Link to our Insurance Coverage Law Blog
For recent legal developments concerning insurance coverage law link to our blog. For information about the blog contact Elizabeth Fitzpatrick. For more information about our Insurance Coverage Law Practice Group

08-16-2007

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