Business Law

Members of the Opinions Committee and its constituency list are invited to review the Spring/Summer 2020 issue of In Our Opinion, the quarterly newsletter of the Legal Opinions Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association. Edited by Jim Fotenos (former co-chair) of the Opinions Committee, the Spring/Summer issue includes a helpful chart of published and pending opinion reports and articles of interest to opinion practitioners. Read more

In re Clinkingbeard, 2020 WL 1517932 (Bankr. D. Kan. Mar. 30, 2020) navigates the crossroad between Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code and a state law governing the perfection of a security interest in a motor vehicle. In this case, a discrepancy between the owner shown on the security agreement and the owner shown on an electronic certificate of title left the lender unsecured in a bankruptcy proceeding. Read more

The California Court of Appeal determined that expanding a bank’s duties to include investigating and disclosing possible fraudulent activity was not warranted and that nonsuit in favor of the bank was properly granted. Kurtz-Ahlers, LLC v. Bank of America (Cal. Ct. App. May 8, 2020). Read more

Holding that Congress had no authority under either Article I or Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to abrogate sovereign immunity for States that infringe on protected copyrights, the United States Supreme Court struck down the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act of 1990 (“CRCA”). In a discussion that may have a significant impact on the practice of Bankruptcy law, the Court affirmed that the Bankruptcy Clause is “unique” among Article I Clauses, suggesting that it would affirm its controversial Katz decision should the opportunity arise. Read more

Courtesy of CEB, we are bringing you selected legal developments in areas of California business law that are covered by CEB’s publications. This month’s feature is from the March 2020 update to Understanding Fiduciary Duties in Business Entities. References are to the book’s section numbers. See CEB’s BLS Landing Page for special discounts for Business Law Section members. The most significant legal developments since the last update include developments in such important topic areas as fiduciary duties in for-profit corporations; fiduciary duties in family businesses; duties of investment advisers and broker-dealers; breach of fiduciary duty litigation; and D & O insurance. Read more

The high-profile Chapter 11 of Sears produced another decision involving the high-profile Mall of America (“Mall”). MOAC Mall Holdings LLC v. Transform Holdco LLC (In re Sears Holdings Corp.), 2020 WL 2319194 (S.D.N.Y. May 11, 2020). Read more

The Consumer Financial Services Committee (CFSC) regularly presents educational programming of interest to California consumer financial services attorneys at its monthly meetings. CFSC members historically participate in joint legislative days at the California Legislature with the committee’s members have an opportunity to meet and discuss financial and lending issues with the Legislature’s staff ... Read more

July 16, 2020 at 10:00 a.m.: Nonprofit Organizations Committee Presents “Can Charities Accept Cash or In-Kind Donations From Cannabis-Related Businesses?” Read more

The Business Litigation Committee focuses on issues facing litigators with broad commercial practices, including substantive areas such as trade secret law, and procedural matters such as discovery, e-discovery, privilege, ADR and international litigation. The committee publishes eBulletins addressing hot topic themes relevant to commercial and business litigation with articles drafted by committee members and guest authors. Read more

The Franchise Law Committee has released an analysis of new issues and guidance concerning disclosures of historical financial performance representations (FPRs) in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The concepts may have relevance to all business transactions with representations about past performance. Read more