The American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility recently issued a Formal Opinion, providing updated recommendations regarding lawyers’ obligations when using technology resources to communicate with clients and to protect confidential client information.

Since 1999, the Committee has advised that the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct permit an attorney to transmit

Like The Dude from The Big Lebowski, the “Hotel California,” located on the Baja Peninsula in Mexico, is likely no longer a fan of The Eagles.  Earlier this month, the iconic classic rock band filed suit against the hotel in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California seeking to take it to

Stuart Gordon was featured in the May 12, 2017, Long Island Business News article, “New Life on Lease,” which explains how retailers going through a bankruptcy can derive value from below-market leases.

“Retailers can utilize the provisions of the bankruptcy code to maximize value for the benefit of their creditors, from among other assets, leases,”

Steven Shapiro weighed in on the FDA’s warning letter to JÙS By Julie over health claims. The company markets a variety of blended ready-to-drink blended smoothies and shots as well as soups and salads.

Steve compared JÙS By Julie’s situation to similar letters issued to 14 U.S. companies that were fraudulently promoting their products as treatments for cancer.

On May 11, 2016, the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (“DTSA”) was signed into law, which includes a lesser-known provision affecting the rights and remedies of employers, including hospitals, health systems and private practices, seeking to protect their trade secrets and confidential information.

In part, the DTSA (18 USC §1833) provides Federal and State

The New York State Office of Inspector General (“OMIG”) has released its Work Plan for its new fiscal year, April 1, 2017 – March 31, 2018. The Work Plan summarizes new and ongoing activities OMIG will prioritize in the upcoming year, all of which aim to achieve three over-arching objectives: (i) enhance provider compliance; (ii)

A federal district court in West Virginia has ruled that a commercial general liability (“CGL”) insurance company had no obligation to defend its insured against claims for breach of contract.

The Case

Rock “N” Roll Coal Company, Inc., was sued for allegedly failing to make certain royalty payments under a lease. Rock “N” Roll filed

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has affirmed a district court’s decision that a settlement agreement reached between a policyholder and the company that was suing it was not enforceable against the policyholder’s insurance carrier.

The Case

The Interlachen Property Owners Association sued Kuepers Construction, Inc., alleging design and construction defects in

Steven Shapiro was quoted in a Natural Products Insider article entitled, “Dietary Supplement Industry Blasts N.Y. Labeling Legislation.”

In the article, Steven and other industry professionals weigh in on Assembly Bill 7607 which would require a dietary supplement in package form to bear a label containing the name and address of the manufacturer, distributor and

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ruled that an insurance company was not obligated to defend its insured against a claim that its advertisements had falsely described the insured’s own products where the claim did not allege that the insured had disparaged the competitor’s products. 

The Case

Vitamin Health, Inc.

A trial court in Pennsylvania has rejected an insurance company’s argument that it had no obligation to cover a civil action seeking to hold its insured responsible for contamination at a site where the contamination had not been detected during the policy periods, ruling that coverage had been triggered prior to “first manifestation.”

The Case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled that an exclusion for losses “arising out of asbestos” in 30-year-old excess insurance policies prevented a manufacturer from obtaining indemnification for thousands of negotiated settlements with personal injury plaintiffs.

The Case

General Refractories Company’s use of asbestos to manufacture various products brought about 31,440

In a cautionary tale for all companies, but especially healthcare organizations, on May 12, 2017, multiple news sources reported that a broad cyberattack using ransomware caused substantial interference with critical systems across Europe, Russia and Asia. (See e.g., New York Times, BBC News and Silicon Angle.)

According to the New York Times, the  attacks were

The US Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) recently announced that CardioNet, Inc., a cardiac monitoring services company, entered into a HIPAA settlement for $2.5 million resulting from the impermissible disclosure of unsecured electronic protected health information (“ePHI”). In addition to the settlement, CardioNet is required to engage in a

Stuart Gordon and Matthew Spero have published an article in Pratt’s Journal of Bankruptcy Law entitled, “Pre-Petition Waivers of Bankruptcy Protection:  Typically Unenforceable.”

Click here to read the article.