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March 08, 2011
News
The Philadelphia Business Journal’s blog published a post praising a piece by David Walton originally published on From the Sidebar, a Cozen O'Connor blog published by litigator Hayes Hunt. Walton, a member of the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice Group, wrote about his struggle with a stutter and how he has used it to become a better trial lawyer. The blog post was also mentioned in Abovethelaw.com’s Non-Sequiturs last week.
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March 07, 2011
News - Intellectual Property, Trademark & Copyright
Scott Schwartz on Fox29 news
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March 07, 2011
Publication - Labor & Employment
On February 17, 2011, Philadelphia City Council Member Donna Reed Miller introduced a bill which would amend the Philadelphia law ''Regulation of Businesses, Trades and Professions,'' by adding a chapter titled ''Fair Criminal Record Screening Standards.'' If enacted, this bill would outline procedures for all Philadelphia employers in the timing and conducting of criminal background checks on potential employees during the initial interview or primary application process.
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March 04, 2011
Publication - Labor & Employment
On Tuesday, March 1, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in the long-awaited “cat’s paw” case of Staub v. Proctor Hospital. The decision will likely broaden the permissible theories under which a current or former employee might bring a discrimination lawsuit against a company. It may also serve as another cautionary tale for those who use social media for employment-related decisions.
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March 02, 2011
News
Stephen Miller, a member in the Criminal Defense and Government Investigations Practice Group, was quoted in a Bloomberg News article. The article addressed Danielle Chiesi, former consultant for New Castle Funds LLC, pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud charges. Mr. Miller commented on how this affects accused co-conspirator Raj Rajaratnam, noting, ''The plea is bad for Rajaratnam any way you look at it. If she's cooperating, that’s really bad for him. If not, the plea allows the government to focus all its guns [on Rajaratnam].''
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March 01, 2011
Publication
On February 23, 2001, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that Pennsylvania's attorney-client privilege operates as a ''two-way street'' and protects confidential communications from client-to-attorney as well as communications from attorney-to-client. See Gillard v. AIG Ins. Co., No. 10 EAP 2010 (Pa. Feb. 23, 2011). The Court's decision marks the end of lingering uncertainty that has existed in Pennsylvania regarding the scope of attorney-client privilege - uncertainty that was sharply brought into focus by the Pennsylvania Superior Court's May 2007 decision in Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. Fleming, 924 A.2d 1259 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2007). There, the Superior Court construed the Pennsylvania privilege statute narrowly and held that only communications from client-to-attorney (and not attorney-to-client) were privileged.
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February 25, 2011
Press Release - Intellectual Property
Cozen O’Connor Records Most Trademark Filings In Pennsylvania and Philadelphia For 2010
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February 25, 2011
Publication - Antitrust & Competition, Business, Insurance Corporate & Regulatory, Insurance Coverage - Insurance
On January 31, 2011, one of the world’s largest reinsurance brokers, Guy Carpenter & Co. LLC, and its former affiliated reinsurer agreed to pay $4.25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the Connecticut attorney general alleging these companies engaged in a series of conspiracies to create closed reinsurance markets and drive up reinsurance costs. This settlement, which concludes an investigation and landmark litigation that spanned more than three years,
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February 24, 2011
News
Stephen A. Miller, member in the firm's Commercial Litigation Practice Group, discussed the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Dow Jones Newswires article ''2nd Update: US Supreme Court Clears Way for Seat Belt Lawsuits.'' The article addresses the recent decision in Williamson v. Mazda Motor of America that federal vehicle safety regulations do not protect car manufacturers from lawsuits involving lap-only seat belts. Stephen is quoted as saying, ''the ruling demonstrates why it is too simplistic to think of the Roberts Court as always pro-business.''
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February 18, 2011
Publication - Bankruptcy, Insolvency & Restructuring, Business
Controversial Fraudulent Conveyance Decision in Tousa Reversed - Bankruptcy, Insolvency & Restructuring Alert! - In what has validated lenders’ belief in the propriety of a parent corporation’s borrowing based in part on the parent company’s guarantees and assets of its operating subsidiaries, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, on February 11, 2011, reversed the controversial Southern District of Florida Bankruptcy Court’s decision in In re TOUSA, Inc., which dramatically expanded the powers of a bankruptcy trustee to set aside as a
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February 18, 2011
Publication - Labor & Employment
Our Winter 2011 Labor and Employment Observer covers topics of interest to in-house counsel, human resources professionals, and corporate management.
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February 17, 2011
Publication - Construction Law, Insurance Coverage - Insurance
Construction Defect: New Jersey Appellate Division Leaves the Door Open for Continuous Trigger in Construction Defect Cases - Insurance Coverage Alert! - Over the past decade, courts across the country have delivered countless number of decisions on the scope of liability coverage for underlying construction defect claims. Most of these decisions focus on whether claims of faulty workmanship constitute an occurrence, and if so, whether the business risk exclusions apply to preclude coverage. Just as important, but often overlooked, is the issue of trigger.
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February 16, 2011
Press Release
Cozen O’Connor Names Seven New Shareholders
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February 14, 2011
Publication - Subrogation & Recovery - Insurance
A Tale of Two State's Views on the Economic Loss Rule - Subrogation and Recovery Alert! - Confused, overworked and overwhelmed by an Economic Loss Rule recovery matter? Washington and Utah have crafted unique conflicting responses to the Economic Loss Rule. This Alert reviews both state's views on the Economic Loss Rule, and evaluates their impact on potential subrogation claims in those states.
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February 14, 2011
Publication
‘Bad Vehicles’ Could Cause Crash in Class Actions - The Legal Intelligencer - In U.S. Supreme Court parlance, a "bad vehicle" is a case whose factual or procedural posture exerts an adverse influence on the legal rule that the justices announce and apply. As we all know, the court does not issue legal rulings sua sponte. Rather, it can only decide specific cases selected from the pool of petitions seeking review at any given time.
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February 09, 2011
Publication - Products Liability
The Preemptive Scope of the Vaccine Act: Must Unavoidable Damages be Determined on a Case-by-Case Basis? - Life Sciences Alert! - On January 11, 2011, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania decided Wright v. Aventis Pasteur, et al., 2001 Pa. Super. 9 (2011) in which it determined as a matter of first impression that the National Childhood Vaccine Act (Vaccine Act) does not preempt any design defect claim based on state law, but rather requires case-by-case inquiry to determine whether a particular vaccine’s side effects are unavoidable.
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February 09, 2011
Press Release - Antitrust & Competition, Bankruptcy, Insolvency & Restructuring, Construction Law, Corporate, Family Law, Health Care & Life Sciences, Labor & Employment, Private Client Services, Professional Liability, Real Estate, Real Estate Litigation, Tax, Transportation & Trade, Utility & Energy, White Collar Defense & Investigations
Forty-three Cozen O’Connor lawyers from six of the firm’s national offices have been selected for inclusion in the 2011 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Lawyers were selected for inclusion in the 2011 edition based on a rigorous peer–review of more than 3.1 million detailed evaluations.
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February 09, 2011
Publication
Almost a year ago, the Delaware Court of Chancery opined in dictum that if a company’s board and shareholders thought derivative actions would best be litigated in a particular forum, the company would be ''free'' to adopt an appropriate venue provision in its charter. See In re Revlon Inc. Shareholders Litig., 990 A.2d 940, 960 & n.8 (Del. Ch. 2010).
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February 07, 2011
Publication
For those attorneys and insurance carriers who have insisted to plaintiffs’ counsel that certain funds be set aside for the payment of future medical bills following a liability case settlement – but have met strong opposition from plaintiffs’ counsel, or more commonly from, third-party vendors such as the Garretson Firm Resolution Group – a January 5, 2011 decision by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana has interpreted the requirements of the Medicare Secondary Payer Act (MSP Act), 42 U.S.C. § 1395y, as it relates to Medicare’s future interests, a positive development in liability defense as a means to counter such resistance and ensure compliance with statutory requirements.
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February 07, 2011
Publication - Business, Corporate
Delaware Supreme Court Affirms Use of Net Operating Loss Poison Pills - Corporate Law Alert! - In the recent case, Versata Enterprises, Inc. and Trilogy, Inc. v. Selectica, Inc., the Delaware Supreme Court upheld the Delaware Chancery Court’s ruling that the use of a net operating loss poison pill was valid. This holding is significant because it is the first time the court has examined the validity of a net operating loss poison pill and, further, the first time the court has ruled on any pill that was actually triggered.
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