The Wall Street Journal just ran a noteworthy article on Judge Jed Rakoff’s path-breaking judicial opinion. Judge Rakoff, a federal trial court judge who sits in the Southern District of New York, recently refused to approve a settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Citibank because the settlement omits any facts that would [...]
Archive for the ‘Litigation’ category
Judge Rakoff Holds Bank and Regulator to a Higher Standard
November 30, 2011Epilogue: Dukes v. Wal-Mart
August 17, 2011The dust is still settling after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Dukes v. Wal-Mart case. In its decision, the Court held that 1.5 million women could not be certified as a class against the retailer. Federal Civil Procedure Rule 23(a) requires that any party seeking class action certification must demonstrate [...]
Supreme Court Issues Wal-Mart vs. Dukes Ruling
June 20, 2011Today, the Supreme Court issued its much anticipated Wal-Mart v. Dukes ruling. In a few days, I’ll post a more in depth analysis of the decision, particularly as it applies to the Court’s dismissal of the plaintiffs’ central sociological theory, which alleged that Wal-Mart’s corporate culture promoted employment discrimination. The Court ultimately held that this [...]
Apple Asserts iPhone and iPad Shape Trademarks
April 25, 2011Apple recently sued Samsung, claiming that the Korean manufacturer’s mobile phones and tablets infringe the trademark rights related to the iPhone and iPad line of products. I have written extensively about Apple’s unique and sophisticated approach to securing its design-related innovations with overlapping intellectual property rights. As I’ve mentioned in those writings, very few manufacturers [...]
Betty Dukes v. Wal-Mart – Part II
December 22, 2010In the prior post, I mentioned the case of Dukes vs. Wal-Mart, where the trial and appellate courts certified more than a million women in a class-action lawsuit alleging employment discrimination at Wal-Mart stores across the United States. If you are the defendant corporation, you now face the scenario in which millions of individuals allege [...]
Betty Dukes v. Wal-Mart – Part I
December 15, 2010Can 1.5 million women stand together in a class-action suit to sue Wal-Mart for employment discrimination? That’s the narrow legal issue that the U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to decide by reviewing the Ninth Circuit appellate case Betty Dukes v. Wal-Mart. This specific issue gets to the heart of what is known as a class-action [...]
