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July 18, 2013
Publication - Tax
Two tax bills will make substantial changes to Pennsylvania taxes if finally enacted. The bills were part of the budget process. House Bill 465 has passed the House and Senate and requires the governor’s signature. Senate Bill 591 needs Senate concurrence in certain House amendments and the governor’s approval.
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July 18, 2013
Publication - Tax
The en banc Commonwealth Court held that private telephone line charges and directory assistance services were subject to the Public Utility Gross Receipts Tax (GRT), but non-recurring service charges were exempt. Verizon Pennsylvania, Inc. v. Commonwealth.
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July 18, 2013
Publication - Tax
A panel of the Commonwealth Court held that a taxpayer had standing to challenge a LERTA designation, but the complaint nonetheless was dismissed because it alleged no facts in support of the claim that the property was incorrectly classified as deteriorated.
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July 16, 2013
Press Release - Business, Government Relations - Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies
Stuart Shorenstein, of the firm’s Business Law Department and head of Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies’ New York team, has been named “Manhattan Democrat of the Year” by the New York County Democratic Committee at its first Annual Demmy Award Ceremony Monday, July 15. Among the nominees for the award were New York state district leaders and committee members.
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July 12, 2013
News - Professional Liability
In an article titled, “Attorneys Suspended Nine Months for Influencing Client's Story,” Thomas G. Wilkinson, member in Cozen O’Connor’s Commercial Litigation Department and co-chair of the Conflicts of Interest Subcommittee of the ABA Section of Litigation’s Ethics and Professionalism Committee, examines a recent New York Appellate Division case in which two attorneys received nine-month suspensions after admitting to influencing their client’s version of events.
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July 10, 2013
Publication - Bankruptcy, Insolvency & Restructuring
Barry Klayman and Mark Felger of the Wilmington office authored an article titled, "Single Employer Test Emphasizes De Facto Control Factor," in the most recent edition of The Delaware Business Court Insider. The article discusses two recent decisions from the Delaware district and bankruptcy courts on a parent corporation's liability under the federal WARN Act for a subsidiary's failure to provide advance notice of employee layoffs. To read the full article, click here.
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July 10, 2013
Press Release - Labor & Employment
A. Martin (Marty) Wickliff, Jr., a veteran trial lawyer with nearly 40 years of experience devoted to a national trial and appellate practice in all phases of labor and employment law, has been selected by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) for its National Roster of Neutrals to provide labor and employment alternative dispute resolution services as an arbitrator. Mr. Wickliff is a shareholder in the Labor & Employment Group at the Houston office of Cozen O’Connor, a leading law firm serving clients through 23 offices across two continents.
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July 10, 2013
News - Family Law
Jennifer Brandt was a guest on “Good Day” on Fox29 today to discuss post-nuptial agreements.
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July 03, 2013
Publication - Business, Public & Project Finance
This podcast will focus on two recent SEC public finance enforcement actions that reflect a common theme - issuers are liable under the securities laws for material misstatements or omissions made outside of an official statement or other offering document.
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July 03, 2013
Publication - Intellectual Property - Health Care & Life Sciences
On June 24, 2013, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court in Mutual Pharmaceutical Co., Inc. v. Bartlett held that state-law design-defect claims based on the inadequacy of a generic drug’s labeled warnings are pre-empted by federal law. This decision reversed the 1st Circuit’s affirmance of a jury verdict awarding Bartlett more than $21 million on her design-defect claim against Mutual Pharmaceutical under New Hampshire law.
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July 03, 2013
Publication - Employment Litigation, Labor & Employment
The scene is not uncommon, a beautiful hotel with several floors of luxurious rooms, restaurants and bars, and cascading waterfalls out at the pool. It is not your typical office, yet it is critical that hotel employers understand that the men and women who work in this setting are employees and that the hotel is a workplace. So, as informal, perhaps even as romantic, as the scene may be, employment laws proscribing harassment in the workplace apply in hotels as equally as they do in a medical practice, a law firm or an insurance brokerage house.
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July 02, 2013
Publication - Labor & Employment, Labor Relations & Disputes
Remember that group of employees laid off a few months ago? One has applied for a new job opening and was not rehired. Now that employee is claiming that the company has engaged in unlawful, discriminatory action in failing to rehire her. This scenario is all too real. Indeed, Gonzalez v. Molded Acoustical Products of Easton, 118 FEP Cases 877 (E.D. Pa. 2013), a recent case out of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, should remind employers of the risk exposure associated with hiring for positions that were previously impacted by reductions-in-force.
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July 02, 2013
Publication - Tax
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed per curiam a decision that the burden of proving a change of domicile is on the person claiming the change. Hvizdak v. Commonwealth, 92 MAP 2012 (Pa. June 17, 2013) (per curiam), aff’g 50 A.3d 788, (Pa. Commw. 2012).
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July 01, 2013
Press Release - Appellate, Business, Corporate, Subrogation & Recovery
Cozen O’Connor continues to grow with the addition of two senior lateral attorneys: corporate transactions attorney Jahan S. Islami, who joins the firm as a partner in the Florida office, and commercial litigator Matthew S. Steinberg, who joins the firm as a partner in the Los Angeles office. Mr. Islami previously was with K&L Gates.
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June 28, 2013
Publication - Professional Liability Insurance Coverage - Insurance
Law 360 reports that policyholders have chalked up major wins at the New York Court of Appeals and the Illinois Supreme Court this year, clinching rulings that widen coverage for defense costs, statutory damages and disgorgement losses, while excess insurers are cheering the Second Circuit for shielding their policies from being triggered early.
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June 26, 2013
Publication
Lawyers and law firms are increasingly using blogs, also referred to as "blawgs," along with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, to build their visibility and brand. While blogs do not have the traditional look and feel of attorney advertising, they certainly have at least some measure of commercial purpose. After all, it is unlikely that law firms would expend resources on this new form of communication if they did not at least hope to receive some return on their investment. Yet, blogs may not fit neatly inside regulations on attorney advertising that were written with more traditional media formats in mind.
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June 26, 2013
Publication - Professional Liability Insurance Coverage - Insurance
On June 11, 2013, the New York Court of Appeals, in J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc., et al. v. Vigilant Insurance Company, et al., reinstated a declaratory judgment action against D&O Liability insurers, reasoning that an SEC order requiring Bear Stearns & Co., Inc. (Bear Stearns) to pay $160 million in disgorgement did not conclusively establish that the payment was uninsurable.
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June 25, 2013
Publication - Employment Litigation, Labor & Employment
On June 20, 2013, in a 5-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) does not permit courts to invalidate a contractual waiver of class arbitration on the ground that the plaintiff’s cost of individually arbitrating a federal statutory claim exceeds the potential recovery.
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June 25, 2013
Publication - Hatch-Waxman & Biologics, Intellectual Property, Patents - Health Care & Life Sciences
On June 17, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision that addressed a “reverse payment” settlement agreement between a brand-name pharmaceutical company and multiple generic drug companies. The Supreme Court held that a settlement agreement in which a patentee pays an accused infringer not to enter the market – even if the agreement allows market entry before the patent term expires – is not presumptively lawful and is still subject to antitrust scrutiny.
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June 24, 2013
Publication
It’s critical to investigate subrogation potential in natural disaster losses. Natural disasters do not automatically preclude subrogation. Running June through November, the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is predicted to be active or "extremely active," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
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