In August 2023, the U.S. Sentencing Commission announced that it would allow for the retroactive application of Amendment 821, which provides (in Part B) a decrease of two offense levels for “Zero-Point Offenders” whose crime did not involve aggravating factors. As a result, certain currently incarcerated individuals may be eligible for reduced sentences, effective February […]
Every passing month seems to bring with it a new set of “market making” events that consistently catapults the deal and debt financing economy in a new direction. Nonetheless, there are certain trends that the JMBM attorneys on the “financing frontlines” see repeatedly, and this fall seemed as good a time as any to convey […]
In early July, California Superior Court Judge James P. Arguelles held that the regulations adopted by the California Privacy Protection Agency (the CPPA) on March 29 2023, which implemented key provisions of the California Consumer Privacy Act (the CCPA), could not be enforced until March 2024. For many companies, the first reaction to the decision […]
An article by Bob Kaplan titled, “Bank Uses State Receivership to Avoid Foreclosing on Problematic Apartment Building,” was published in the July–August 2023 edition of the Turnaround Management Association’s Journal of Corporate Renewal. You can read the article here.
An article by Jessica Bromall Sparkman and Rod Berman titled “Inconsistency and Confusion in the Judicial Treatment of Counterfeiting Claims” was published in the May–June 2023 issue of The Trademark Reporter on June 30, 2023.
On June 1, 2023 in United States et al. ex rel. Schutte v. SuperValu Inc., the Supreme Court rejected an attempt to shift the scienter requirement in federal False Claims Act (FCA) cases. The Court unanimously reaffirmed the current standard, which requires a defendant to act “knowingly,” with actual knowledge, deliberate ignorance, or reckless disregard. […]
An article by Brad Cohen titled, “Tax and Estate Planning for Postmortem Celebrity,” was published in the syllabus for the 47th Annual Entertainment Symposium for the UCLA Ziffren Institute for Media, Entertainment, Technology & Sports Law. This article was originally published by LA Lawyer Magazine in May 2017.
Brad Cohen and Alex Palabrica wrote an article titled, “IRS vs. NFTs,” published by LA Lawyer Magazine on June 1, 2023.
The Supreme Court has imposed new restrictions on federal white collar fraud prosecutions in two related cases stemming from alleged corruption during the tenure of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, continuing a trend of push-back against what the Court perceives as federal prosecutorial overreach. In rulings issued on May 11, 2023, the Court unanimously […]
It’s fairly well-known that if you want to feature a song in a video posted on social media, you should first obtain a license for the synchronization rights. But what about a song that isn’t featured in a video but just happens to be playing in the background when a video is created? Even if […]