Stating exaggerated claims at the beginning of a lawsuit can be a standard practice in litigation; however, a recent climate change lawsuit filed by seven California municipalities should remind litigators that unsupported exaggerations can cause collateral damage. The essence of the cities’ case is a public nuisance claim filed in California state court against several…
Author: Alex Belica
Help or a Hindrance: Long-running Debate over Dual-class Stock Continues
It’s a question almost as old as the stock market: should public corporations be able to use a dual-class share structure that preserves a key shareholder’s influence. A number of well-known companies including Ford Motor Company, Facebook and News Corp. maintain dual-class structures that grant outsized voting power to one person or a small number…
Ruling in Starbucks v. Simon Properties Dispute could Flavor Terms of Future Lease Agreements
As shopping malls struggle with declining sales and increasing vacancy rates, one of the nation’s largest mall operators, Simon Property Group, has gotten creative to stem the tide of store closures. Simon filed suit last year against Starbucks over its plan to close all retail locations for its Teavana brand of high-end specialty teas. In…
Texas Court Makes Quick Work of Obama-era Overtime Rule.
Since December 2016, employers with salaried workers all over the country have been riding a regulatory seesaw. That’s when a revised Obama administration Department of Labor regulation was supposed to take effect. The new rule raised the minimum salary required for an exemption from mandatory overtime from $23,660 annually to $47,476 per year for salaried…