I’m a trial lawyer for injured people and businesses at The Beasley Firm. Founded in 1958, we have recovered over $2 billion for our clients through hundreds of verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million. We’re listed in Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News’s Top Lawyers, [...]
Do You Know The Muffin Man, Who Lives Under A Trade Secrets Injunction?
As The Legal Intelligencer reported, When a top-level executive suddenly quits to take a job at a competing firm, the courts have the power to block the start of the new employment if the evidence shows that such an injunction is needed to prevent a likely misappropriation of trade secrets, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The ruling came in Bimbo Bakeries USA Inc. v. Botticella, in which the appellate court considered whether the manufacturer of Thomas' brand English muffins was entitled to an injunction that barred one of its top-level executives from taking a new job ... Continue Reading
The Difference Between Fraud And Mistake Under The False Claims Act
The False Claim Act envisions a broad definition under 31 U.S.C. § 3729(b) for when a defendant "knowingly" makes a false or fraudulent claim to the federal government: (b) Knowing and Knowingly Defined.— For purposes of this section, the terms “knowing” and “knowingly” mean that a person, with respect to information— (1) has actual knowledge of the information; (2) acts in deliberate ignorance of the truth or falsity of the information; or (3) acts in reckless disregard of the truth or falsity of the information, and no proof of specific intent to defraud is required. The burden of persuasion for proving ... Continue Reading
Why Can’t Copyright Trolls Be Compelled Into Agency Hearings Or Arbitration?
[Update: I somehow missed Ron Coleman's earlier take on the article, but it's required reading if you're interested in the subject. Coleman and Walter Olson both seem on board with, as Olson words it, "steering rights owners into agency complaints or arbitration as an alternative, or at least precondition, to court action."] Via Kevin Drum, Wired's Threat Level has a profile of Steve Gibson, CEO of Righthaven, a company which has applied the much maligned — but often quite lucrative — "patent troll" model to copyright litigation on behalf of publishers: Borrowing a page from patent trolls, the CEO of fledgling Las ... Continue Reading
Deny, Deny, Deny: The One Rule Of Bad Leadership That All CEOs Follow
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a professor at Harvard Business School, commented yesterday on the ouster of BP's widely-loathed CEO, Tony Hayward, beginning a list of his follies with: Mr. Hayward must have studied management in a parallel universe, where a set of anti-rules for bad leadership are taught. Here's what I imagine are those anti-rules. Deny and minimize problems. Drop any mention of the high-minded principles you announced at the beginning of your term, such as safety and a culture that puts people first. Sweep them under the rug as you play down the significance of the crisis. Or better yet, ... Continue Reading
Retired NFL Players’ Suit: Is It Legal Malpractice To Not Find A Hearsay Exception For An Email By An Out-of-State Witness?
At The American Lawyer: Two separate classes of retired NFL players have sued the two firms, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and McKool Smith, alleging that they left some retirees out of the settlement and blew the chance for much greater damages, according to a copy of the complaint. The original class action accused the NFL players' union of intentionally excluding retired players from licensing deals, including the ultra-lucrative deal through which the video game maker Electronic Arts purchased the right to use player names and images in its popular John Madden franchise. The union, represented by Dewey & LeBoeuf, denied ... Continue Reading
Ninth Circuit Eviscerates The Barbie (Mattel) v. Bratz (MGA) Verdict
Via the WSJ Law Blog, the Ninth Circuit, in a significant published opinion with ramifications for copyright litigators, vacated the $10 million verdict — and, more importantly, the constructive trust and injunction — that Mattel won against MGA. Unusually, the panel summed up its own findings at the end: [Carter] Bryant’s employment agreement may not have assigned his ideas for the names “Bratz” and “Jade” to Mattel at all, and the district court erred by holding that it did so unambiguously. Even if Bryant did assign his ideas, the district court abused its discretion in transferring the entire Bratz trademark portfolio ... Continue Reading
Can Shirley Sherrod Sue Andrew Breitbart For Defamation?
Talking Points Memo reports the latest on the Shirley Sherrod fiasco: Shirley Sherrod said this morning on CNN that she would like to "get back at" Andrew Breitbart. Asked if she would consider a defamation suit against Breitbart, the conservative blogger who posted the edited clip that got her fired, she said, "I really think I should." "I don't know a lot about the legal profession but that's one person I'd like to get back at, because he came at me. He didn't go after the NAACP; he came at me," she went on. To recap the underlying facts here: ... Continue Reading
“The Shack” Lawsuits Raise A Law School Exam’s Worth of Federal Courts Issues
The Los Angeles Times featured a story about the legal saga that has enveloped the Christian bestseller The Shack: "The Shack," William Paul Young's novel about a man rediscovering lost faith after the murder of his 5-year-old daughter, started out as a manuscript no one would touch. Finally, pastors Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings discovered the book and created a start-up, Windblown Media, to publish it. The novel sold a million copies for them in the first year, eventually ending up at No. 1 on the New York Times' trade paperback bestseller list. Then Hachette Book Group got involved. In ... Continue Reading
Kenneth Feinberg Should Disclose More About His Compensation For Administering The BP Fund
Kenneth Feinberg, whose pro bono publico work in the 9/11 Compensation Fund was widely lauded, is back again administering the $20 billion BP Compensation Fund and is in the middle of a publicity tour on the Gulf of Mexico. C-SPAN just posted a video of him discussing the Fund and his work on it this morning. Unlike with the 9/11 Fund, though, this time Feinberg is getting paid, and that raises a few questions. Nobody questions Feinberg's integrity, but the whole point of having a nation of law, not men, is to make everyone accountable to that law, and Professor ... Continue Reading
Contingent Fee Lawsuits Can Be Very Taxing For Plaintiff’s Lawyers
At the WSJ Law Blog: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Legal Newsline reported on Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Treasury may be about to grant plaintiffs’ attorneys long-sought tax write-offs for the costs associated with fronting contingency-fee lawsuits. ... Apparently at the heart of the matter is an April letter Sens. Max Baucus (D., Mont.) and Richard Durbin (D., Ill.) sent to Michael Mundaca, assistant secretary for tax policy seeking clarity on the 9th Circuit ruling in the 1995 case of Boccardo v. Commissioner. In the Boccardo case, the IRS asserted that out-of-pocket expenses incurred by attorneys on behalf of ... Continue Reading
