Insights on Complex Litigation

Forty-two Arent Fox LLP attorneys have been rated as leaders in their profession by The Best Lawyers in America 2017.

In a surprising and promising development, the Senate Finance Committee released a Majority Staff Report on June 30, 2016 that gives the health care industry some hope that Congress may finally address some of the serious concerns with the implementation and enforcement of the Stark law.

In St. Paul Mercury Insurance Company v. Tessera, Inc., the federal court held that a lawsuit against an insured alleging a breach of a license agreement did not constitute a violation of an intellectual property right.

In the newly implemented Regulation Crowdfunding rules, the SEC identified intermediaries as the gatekeepers through which all investments must pass.

Manufacturers were reminded recently why resale price maintenance policies can be risky.

The SEC has just revolutionized private financing with Title III crowdfunding regulations implemented last month, opening the investment landscape to a relatively untapped market - nonaccredited investors - and harnessing the power of online advertising and social media.

In a highly anticipated decision, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Universal Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar that threw out existing law related to the implied certification theory of liability under the False Claims Act.

Complex Litigation partner Barbara Wahl published an article with Law360 on the Sumner Redstone litigation, in which the California trial court decided that the media tycoon had sufficient mental capacity to decide who should exercise his health care directive. 

The DOJ has finally acted on long-awaited website accessibility rules, though their approach was unexpected.

In fact, the House passed the DTSA by a vote of 410-2 on April 27, 2016, and today, May 11, President Obama signed it into law. The DTSA is codified at 18 U.S.C. 1836(b).

The Washington Business Journal announced that three projects that Arent Fox LLP advised on were honorees in its Washington-DC area’s Best Real Estate Deals of 2015.

The Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 was voted and approved on April 27, 2016 and is now on its way down Pennsylvania Avenue to the President’s desk for signing.

In a surprising move that could dramatically impact government enforcement actions against life science companies, the health care industry, and government contractors, a federal board has increased federal False Claims Act penalties by more than 100 percent. 

The Department of Justice recently announced it has reached a more than $780 million settlement with Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary Wyeth to resolve reported false pricing allegations.

Partners Jacques Smith and David Greenberg spoke with AHLA Weekly after the US Supreme Court heard oral argument on April 19 in a major False Claims Act case that has far-reaching implications for the health care industry and other highly-regulated sectors reliant on government funding.

Theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets, costs US businesses more than $300 billion a year, according to a 2013 report by the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property (a bipartisan group of high-ranking former US officials).

The US Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on April 19 in Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar, a key case addressing the implied certification theory of liability under the False Claims Act. 

Arent Fox LLP Complex Litigation associate Temitope K. Yusuf was named a Rising Star by Minority Corporate Counsel Association.

Federal prosecutors appearing at the American Conference Institute’s 16th Annual Forum on Fraud and Abuse in the Sales and Marketing of Medical Devices earlier this month outlined recent enforcement trends that should catch the attention of the health care industry.

In a recent opinion, the Ninth Circuit reversed the dismissal of a lawsuit against the developer of the highly-anticipated videogame Grand Theft Auto V.

Arent Fox LLP is pleased to announce the appointment of D. Jacques Smith and Kay C. Georgi to lead the firm’s internationally recognized Complex Litigation and  International Trade practices.

The year 2015 provided another bumper crop of decisions in trusts and estates disputes. While the courts generally experienced a nationwide decrease in the filing of civil lawsuits, trust and estate disputes continued to fill court dockets and a few noteworthy trends emerged.

Macy’s, Inc. and subsidiary Bloomingdale’s, Inc. were recently served with a class action complaint alleging that the retail chains misled consumers with a “phantom pricing scheme” that inflated the savings available on items marked for sale.