Legal Research

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Entertainment Law
Monday, January 4, 2010
By Michael I. Rudell and Neil J. Rosini

"Michael I. Rudell and Neil J. Rosini, partners in Franklin Weinrib Rudell & Vassallo, write: Reduced sales of DVDs and increased piracy of filmed entertainment are affecting the profits of studios and other financiers of motion pictures. To lessen their impact, changes are being made in deal terms offered to creative talent - such as actors and creative producers - and new relationships are emerging among such talent, financiers and distributors of theatrical motion pictures."

Professional Responsibility
Monday, January 4, 2010
By Anthony E. Davis

 "Anthony E. Davis, a partner of Hinshaw & Culbertson, analyzes the implications of the troubling privilege issues that confronted a lawyer in Brooklyn when he found that he owed conflicting duties to two clients in unrelated matters in connection with the same item of privileged information, and two new decisions dealing with whether the attorney-client privilege is lost when clients use their employers' technology to send e-mails to their lawyers."

OUTSIDE COUNSEL:

Courts' Recognition of Negligent Referral Claims
Monday, January 4, 2010
By Abraham B. Krieger

" Abraham B. Krieger, a partner at Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, writes: Although New York courts remain generally unsympathetic to causes of action for negligent referral or recommendation, given recent Appellate Division decisions, practitioners should be cautious and diligent with referrals and affirmative recommendations. Real estate attorneys may be responsible for referring clients to brokers, engineers or mortgage companies. Courts may hold the referring attorney liable under tort theories of negligent misrepresentation or where a duty is voluntarily undertaken, giving rise to an obligation to undertake such duty with due care. "

CORPORATE UPDATE:

Intrafamily Corporate Conflicts Under Ethics Rules
Thursday, December 31, 2009
By Barry R. Temkin

" Barry R. Temkin, counsel to Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass, writes that most lawyers are already aware of the proscription on representing conflicting interests and the ban on conflicts with the lawyer's own personal interest. These broad principles of the Rules of Professional Conduct do not answer the dilemma: If your partner represents Minicorp, may you ethically represent a prospective new client with a suit against Megacorp, even though Minicorp is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Megacorp?"  

SPECIAL REPORTS:

Litigation
Monday, January 4, 2010
" In this Special Section from the New York Law Journal: 'E-Discovery Problems Highlight Need To Amend CPLR,' 'Contracting Party Acting in Bad Faith?' and 'New Limits on E-Discovery Possible.' " 

Also, in the highlighted article from this section,

Free With Registration: When Non-Clients Sue Professionals for Negligence
"Karen Y. Bitar and Adam D. Cole, shareholders in Greenberg Traurig, review a recent First Department decision where the closely-divided panel determined that an engineering company that provided faulty mechanical specifications to its client, a condominium sponsor, to be incorporated into an offering plan, owed no duty to third parties who relied on the information in purchasing condominiums. The case has been appealed to the Court of Appeals, and may ultimately prove influential in a number of existing lawsuits against accountants and other professionals in which private feeder and hedge fund investors allege they were induced to purchase or hold investments relying on negligent audits and other misrepresentations."