AttorneysEd Center

In a very closely watched decision, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on the "fair use" defense raised against a charge of copyright infringement by the artist Richard Prince. Anthony LoCicero of Amster, Rothstein and Ebenstein LLP analyzes this decision and comments on its impact on the applicability of the fair use defense to all forms of copyrightable works.

In its Kirtsaeng decision, the Supreme Court extended the First Sale Doctrine to copyrighted works sold abroad. Anthony F LoCicero of Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein discusses the implications of this case, not only for copyrighted works, but also for its potential implications to trademark and patent law.

Tom Mason of Zuckerman Spaeder discusses whether a lawyer can be part of multiple firms and the ethical consequences of multiple affiliations. Topics include: • Those states which permit multiple affiliations and those states which do not, see, e.g. ABA Formal Opinion 90-357; DC Legal Ethics Opinion 338); • The impact on conflict-checking procedures when a lawyer is affiliated with more than one firm (New York State Ethics Op. 793 and 876); • Confidentiality issues in conflicts checks among firms with affiliated lawyers (ABA Model Rule 1.6(b)(7); • The issue of which cases a lawyer brings to which firms and the potential for disputes when a lawyer takes a lucrative case to one firm rather than another; and • The issue of fee-splitting and whether the rules for fee division between different firms apply when a lawyer is affiliated with multiple firms (Ohio Supreme Court Ethics Op. 2008-1; California Formal Ethics Op. 1986-88).

Tom Mason of Zuckerman Spaeder discusses the “no-contact” rule which prohibits a lawyer from contacting represented persons without the permission of the person’s attorney. Topics include: • How to handle contacts initiated by the represented person; • With represented organizations, who can be contacted without pre-clearance from the organization’s attorney; • Contacts for the purpose of replacing the represented person’s current lawyer; • Contacts with in-house counsel of a represented organization; • Client-to-client contacts and the lawyer’s role in advising the client about such contacts; • Contacts with non-lawyer government officials in matters involving the government; and • Conflicts of laws: which ethics rules apply.

Former EEOC General Counsel Eric Dreiband, currently a partner at Jones Day, discusses investigations and litigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and its priorities, court decisions that address the EEOC's process and challenges to employer policies, and strategies to utilize in responding to EEOC investigations and litigation.

The Second Circuit's recent decision in Bechtel v. Administrative Review Board, No. 11-4918-ag (March 5, 2013), announced that it would also follow the burden-shifting framework adopted by other Circuits to whistleblower retaliation claims under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Join Courtney Worcester for a discussion of Bechtel and other Circuit decisions and what they mean for employers facing retaliation claims.

With the explosive growth of mobile applications, companies and their counsel are scrambling to keep pace with the myriad compatibility, privacy, licensing, and implementation issues that come with these types of applications. Join Aaron Tantleff of Foley & Lardner LLP as he discusses and shares the legal risks involved in developing, launching and managing mobile applications in 2013 and beyond, including: • Real-life examples of a mobile application program that spun out of control and what can be done to prevent and mitigate the issues; • Issues regarding data collected through applications (i.e., personal data and geolocation), and data-sharing agreements, data collection, and e-discovery issues; • Application store trademarks and copyrights; • Risks companies face regarding ownership, license agreements, developer agreements, transaction processing agreements, and bundling arrangements with carriers and device distributors; • Top factors delaying application launches; • The uncertainties that arise when creating a mobile application and the implications for other departments of a company;

Even as the understanding and prevalence of the Cloud continues to escalate and as companies continue to migrate data and services to the Cloud, counsel for many companies are still attempting to review contacts for cloud services as if they were software contracts or fail to understand and appreciate issues regarding security, performance, availability, disaster recovery and business continuity. In addition, many fail to properly appreciate the implementation process or the effort involved to move to another vendor and thus, fail to consider the costs of signing on and how it may lock the company in with the vendor as switching vendors may be cost prohibitive. Join Matt Karlyn and Aaron Tantleff of Foley & Lardner LLP as they discuss some of the more significant issues that arise during negotiations with cloud providers and how to effectively negotiate terms and mitigate risks.

In M&A transactions, the results of a legal due diligence investigation can significantly impact the terms of the transaction and in some cases, whether the deal even moves forward. Proper intellectual property due diligence investigation may lead to the restructuring of a deal, change in the purchase price, reaching out to third parties or walking away from the deal. However, in many deals, the intellectual property assets are the only material assets or represent the key assets driving the deal, and unfortunately, all too often the documentation supporting a target's intellectual property assets (or lack thereof) are overlooked or not reviewed, because of the erroneous assumption that a target company outright owns all key intellectual property, and that such intellectual property will transfer automatically upon the close of the deal, or that any defects that may exist with respect to the intellectual property can be cured with standard representations,

In the wake of Dodd-Frank, complaints by whistleblowers are on the rise and are unlikely to decrease anytime soon. Join Roger Lane, Michael Thompson and Courtney Worcester as they walk through the top ten tips internal and external counsel should follow in conducting an internal whistleblower investigation to mitigate both legal exposure and costs.