Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Rider & Bennett, L.L.P.

ADAPT RECIPE FOR ESTATE PLAN TO INDIVIDUAL OWNER
Marya Robben and Marlo Turcotte, Partners in Rider Bennett's Trusts and Estates Department, co-authored an article appearing in the August 2006 issue of Upsize Minnesota.

To view the article in its entirety, please click on the PDF icon above.

Marya Robben practices in the areas of estate planning, guardianship/conservatorship law, probate administration and trust law. She is a member of the American, Minnesota State, North Dakota State and Hennepin County Bar Associations. Marya serves on the board of the Minnesota Association of Guardians and Conservators and is editor of its quarterly journal. She is past-chair of the Probate and Trust Law Section and was recently named a 2006 ""Rising Star"" by Minnesota Law & Politics magazine.

Marlo Turcotte practices in the areas of estate planning, administration of trusts and estates, estate and gift taxation, and antenuptial and postnuptial agreements. She is a member of the Minnesota State and Hennepin County Bar Associations, and a corporate member of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO). She is involved with the International Institute of Women Entrepreneurs (IIWE) and was recently named a ""Rising Star"" by Minnesota Law & Politics magazine.

08-22-2006

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Hodgson Russ LLP

Office romances may touch the heart, but enflame employer liability
This article originally appeared in the August 22-23, 2006 edition of Boca Raton News, www.bocanews.com. Reprinted with permission.

Employers may face workplace disruptions and exposure to legal liability when workplace relationships go awry. In their weekly Boca Raton News column, Hodgson Russ partners Larry Corman and Glenn Rissman discuss steps employers can take to reduce the likelihood of being held liable for legal claims arising out of attempted or actual office romances.

08-22-2006

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Dechert LLP

Suits Target Fund's Early Pull-Outs; Lawyers Seek to Recoup More than $41 Million From Bayou Group Investors
Lawyers for Bayou Group LLC, a hedge fund that collapsed last year, have sued to recover money from investors who pulled out in the fund's final two years, saying they "knew or should have known" of its fraud. The lawsuits were filed by Dechert LLP, which represents the Bayou estate in federal bankruptcy court. The lawsuits, filed in the past few months, say the defendants "knew or should have known" that the transfers by which they got their money out "were made in furtherance of fraud," and thus "were not obtained by the defendants in good faith for reasonably equivalent value." At a bankruptcy-court hearing last month, Dechert lawyer Gary Mennitt said the defendants must "show that they acted in objective good faith...that they were not on inquiry notice that there was a fraud or insolvency." He added, "We think there were a lot of indicators that could have told a reasonable investor that they should have delved deeper.

08-22-2006

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Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Jerry Maatman Published in National Underwriter
In his article, “ Whistle-Blower Retaliation Liability Cascading” in the August 14 issue of National Underwriter Property & Casualty, Jerry describes the difficulty an employer faces in attempting to disprove a plaintiff’s claims.

He notes that “Retaliation claims often require that an employer prove a negative allegation—that the reason for a personnel decision was business-related, such as poor performance. The employer must establish that its action was not based on an employee asserting his or her legal right to file a claim for workers’ comp, claim discrimination or harassment, or to ‘blow the whistle’ for any reason. This defense is difficult because such questions inherently raise ‘mixed-motive’ issues. Did the employer make the personnel decision for a legitimate business reason or because of the worker's assertion of a claim?”

Jerry explains that since courts typically decline to grant motions for summary judgment, employers are often forced to defend retaliation claims before a jury. The most difficult type of retaliation claim to defend, however, he says, is one brought under a Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) compliance issue. “By statute, an employer has the burden of proof to demonstrate a legitimate, nonretaliatory explanation for its personnel decision relative to the employee asserting a claim. The ‘whistle-blower,’ on the other hand, can establish liability if he or she demonstrates that the ‘whistle-blowing’ was at least one of the several motivating factors for the adverse personnel decision at issue. If the plaintiff in a SOX case establishes liability, the employer must reinstate the worker immediately (even pending further legal proceedings) as one of several remedies.”

He concludes by advising companies that “diligent efforts to substantiate and document legitimate, business-related reasons underlying personnel decisions pays dividends in keeping the company out of legal harm’s way and creating impediments to plaintiff’s lawyers suing on retaliation theories.

08-22-2006

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Piper Rudnick, L.L.P.

Carter Joins DLA Piper as West Coast Regional Diversity Manager
DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP has announced that Sean T.Carter has joined the firm as West Coast Regional Diversity Manager. He will take a leadership role in supporting and implementing local and national diversity initiatives involving the firm's offices in Austin, Chicago, Dallas, East Palo Alto, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. Carter joins the firm from private practice where he represented clients in a broad range of areas including bankruptcy, estate planning, and civil litigation.

""Sean will help support the firm's strategic goal of improving the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women and minority lawyers at the firm,"" said Peter C.B. Bynoe, a senior partner in DLA Piper's Chicago office and chairman of the firm's National Diversity Committee. ""He has extensive experience in developing and implementing diversity initiatives, which will help the West Coast achieve measurable diversity benchmarks.""

""DLA Piper recognizes the importance of having a talented and diverse workplace, and we look forward to Sean taking the lead in shaping integrated and national diverse programs that will benefit the firm and our clients on the West Coast,"" said David Gross, managing partner of the firm's San Francisco office.

Prior to opening his private practice, Carter was a commercial litigator at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal and Baker & McKenzie, where he represented clients in all phases of litigation in federal and state court.

Before working at Baker & McKenzie he served as a judicial law clerk for Chief Judge J.B. McDade, U.S. District Court (C.D.Ill.).

Carter has substantial experience in recruitment efforts to increase representation of diverse law students and lawyers. He has also worked with legal clinics and internal firm committees to achieve a wide variety of pro bono initiatives.

Carter currently serves as an instructor for recent law school graduates preparing to take the California Bar Examination, and is an active member of the Northwestern University School of Law's Alumni Admissions Committee. He is admitted to practice in California and every federal court within the State.

He received a B.A. from the University of California at Berkley, and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law with honors in legal writing and research.

08-22-2006

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Jenner & Block LLP

Firm Urges Supreme Court to Thwart Patent Invalidity Claim by License Holder
A pharmaceutical patent licensee in good standing cannot seek a declaration that the licensed patent is invalid or unenforceable, according to a Jenner & Block brief recently filed in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of a non-profit biomedical research and treatment institution.

The Firm’s client, California-based City of Hope, collaborated with Genentech, Inc. in the 1980s to develop techniques now used to produce life-saving therapeutic antibodies. After years of litigation with a third party who claimed rights to the techniques, City of Hope and Genentech obtained a patent which they in turn licensed to MedImmune, Inc., a biotechnology company.

Under the terms of that license, MedImmune pays royalties in exchange for immunity from being sued for infringement of the patent. However, in 2003 MedImmune filed a lawsuit in California district court seeking to escape from its royalty obligations under the license by arguing that the underlying patent is invalid and unenforceable. At the same time, MedImmune continues to pay royalties to Genentech and City of Hope to keep the license as a shield against an infringement suit and lock in the royalty rate if the attack on the patent fails.

According to the Firm’s brief, MedImmune’s lawsuit cannot proceed because the company’s continued maintenance of the license prevents a “ripe” or actionable controversy from arising. Under Article III of the Constitution, a federal court may only hear actual “cases and controversies,” which generally arise “only after one party has actually invaded the other’s legally protected interests” or such invasion is imminent, the brief explains. Therefore, the lawsuit would be appropriate only if MedImmune breached or repudiated its license, which is “a contingency that may never occur, since MedImmune’s avowed aim is to maintain the license as a shield against the suit,” according to the Firm’s brief.

The Firm also argues that under a longstanding rule of equity, MedImmune may not keep the benefits of its license and at the same time attack the validity of the underlying patent in order to escape its license obligations. “This kind of one-sided suit is inherently inequitable,” the brief explains, and the longstanding rule of equity should not be “abandoned now to allow MedImmune to bring a virtually unprecedented lawsuit.

08-22-2006

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Thomason, Hendrix, Harvey, Johnson & Mitchell, PLLC

Bruce McMullen - UT Law Class of '09 Keynote Speaker
The University of Tennessee College of Law welcomed the Class of '09 during the Introductory Period Aug. 21-25. The program included a keynote address by Bruce McMullen, partner in the Memphis firm of Thomason, Hendrix, Harvey, Johnson & Mitchell and 1996 UT law graduate, a panel of recent graduates sharing suggestions for maximizing the law school experience, lunch with student advisors followed by a tour of the law school, and a dinner for the entering class sponsored by the Deans and the Faculty.

08-22-2006

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