May 2008
S. Michael Brooks (Counsel, Aird & Berlis LLP; CEO, Real Property Association of Canada) examines the "green" lease
PLI: So what makes a "green lease"?
S. MICHAEL BROOKS: There seem to be at least two (2) approaches to a green lease:
(i) A "paternalistic" approach where the obligations for reduced consumption and environmentally responsible behaviour are mandated by either the tenant or the landlord within the lease; and
(ii) A "co-operative" model, where mutual objectives are set out in the lease for both parties to achieve, leading to responsibilities and liabilities for both parties.
A tenant-paternalistic lease may be the case where government or a corporation with a strong green brand is a tenant, has internal "green" targets it is subject to, and wishes to force the Landlord to do its part to assist in compliance.
Lorelie S. Masters (Jenner & Block LLP) explains how insurance companies are seeking to exclude coverage for damage to computer assets
PLI: You contend that insurance companies may increasingly seek, in years to come, to exclude coverage for damage to computer assets from traditional coverage, such as property insurance. How are they going about doing this?
LORELIE S. MASTERS: Most standard-form, traditional insurance policies were written before the advent of e-commerce and did not anticipate cyber-risks. Although traditional insurance policies, such as comprehensive general liability insurance ("CGL") or media liability insurance, may afford coverage for a portion of cyber-risk, companies engaged in e-commerce or dealing to a significant in computer data assets may find that their liability and property insurers will balk at claims involving damage to computer assets and intellectual property. In addition, insurance companies selling traditional CGL or media insurance increasingly are specifically excluding coverage for such risks out of concern about the exposure and their ability to price adequately the additional coverage.
Garden Leave
Garden Leave: Employment contract termination provision that gives an employer the option to pay a soon-to-be former employee not to work for a specified period of time.
GARDEN LEAVE IN THE REAL WORLD: Garden leaves give Pocket MBA perfectly horrid flashbacks to autumn afternoons raking and raking and raking the detritus of the huge growths in its childhood backyard. Of course, there was the joy of the subsequent jump into the pile left on the street, itself followed by a fear of being sucked into that leaf-sucking garbage truck. Blehhh. So it was with some relief that Pocket MBA learned that there is no "s" on this week's term.
Continue reading "Garden Leave"
But Do They Have A Designated Hitter Rule? Client Team Criteria
Toolbox always thought it unfair that regular folks aren't announced at the beginning of the work day over a P.A. system like athletes are. It would be so cool, if when you walked in the door, you heard, over piped in applause (and some boos), "Now arriving, 15 minutes late as usual, and attending to commercial litigation matters…number 7, Toolbox." Alas, it seems never to be. Then again, that was before the emerging popularity of client teams, which is different from simply staffing a matter with dozens of attorneys under the watchful eye of a senior partner.
Continue reading "But Do They Have A Designated Hitter Rule? Client Team Criteria"
Taking Two Fifths Can Leave A Defendant Punch Drunk: Self-Incrimination And Parallel Proceedings
The only fifth that Toolbox has had occasion to use is Beethoven's. A fifth of scotch (roughly 25.6 ounces) would last Toolbox a good six months. That is, unless Toolbox ever had to take the Fifth, in which case, it might need the entire amount right away. Some people actually have to take the Fifth (Amendment) twice, which Toolbox reckons would require both the company of Beethoven and Johnnie Walker. The double dose of "I will not testify against myself" occurs when one is a defendant in parallel proceedings, i.e., criminal and civil proceedings concerning the same subject matter.
With Friends Like These… Global Security-Risk Disclosures
The SEC's Office of Global Security Risk (OGSR) sounds like something out of a James Bond flick. As with much of the SEC's operations, it is designed to help investors make better informed investing decisions by enhancing corporate transparency when it comes to threats to a company's prospects resulting from its global entanglements. As a part of the Division of Corporate Finance, the office "works closely with [the] Division review staff to monitor whether the documents public companies file with the SEC include disclosure of material information regarding global security risk-related issues." That's a relatively obtuse statement.
Continue reading "With Friends Like These… Global Security-Risk Disclosures"
Peter Brown (Baker & Hostetler LLP) assesses the current state of intellectual property law in the virtual world
PLI: Given the increasing popularity of virtual worlds, certain issues surrounding intellectual property matters have also begun to emerge. Can you review some of these starting with copyright and trademark law?
Peter Brown: In one of the first cases dealing with IP in the virtual world, Marvel Entertainment, Inc. sued NCSoft Corp., the publisher of City of Heroes. At issue was whether players, using a content creation engine in the game, could create avatars that resembled famous Marvel comic characters without implicating the plaintiff's copyright and trademark rights.1 In December 2005, a settlement was reached but its terms were not disclosed.
Peter Brown (Baker & Hostetler LLP) explains the virtual world
PLI: There's a lot of confusion surrounding the concept of "virtual worlds." What are they, where did they come from and where are they going?
Peter Brown: The virtual world originally consisted primarily of freestanding video machines (such as PacMan, Space Invaders, and Asteroids) and television-based video games produced by companies such as Atari and Nintendo. Interactive play between gamers was limited prior to the introduction of "massive multiplayer online role-playing games" (MMORPGs), which dramatically transformed the virtual world.
Continue reading "Peter Brown (Baker & Hostetler LLP) explains the virtual world"
Black Swan
Black Swan: Unexpected events that (1) are so improbable as to be outside our ability to predict them; (2) impose massive impact on the order of things; and (3) (as a result of human limitations and instinct) prompt post-hoc rationales, or narratives, to make them seem as if they were predictable in the first instance.
Pocket MBA would like to be able to say, on the occasion of the newsletter's fifth anniversary, that this weekly screed is a Black Swan. Certainly its success was highly improbable and unpredictable (lawyer with no particular finance background starts from square one of self-education on the matter and then sends weekly report to other lawyers), and it's easy to say in retrospect that success was a foregone conclusion. (What lawyer won't take a little free finance info?)
A Quarter-Score Years And 500 Downloads Ago: Effective Writing And Capturing The Reader
This year's legal writing issue coincides with the newsletter's fifth anniversary and roughly 500th download. Before Toolbox gets to what it will simply designate download 500 on effective legal writing, which incidentally, requires you to avoid detours like the following, you might be interested in the names and logos that PLI discarded before settling on "Lawyer's Toolbox."
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