In a 6-3 decision issued January 13, 2022, the Supreme Court cast significant doubt on the viability of a pillar of President Biden’s plan to fight to the spread of Covid-19. The Court’s majority held that challengers were likely to succeed on their claim that the Occupational Safety and Health...
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive orders, commencing at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, effectively froze statutory and court imposed deadlines for all manner of legal proceedings. For civil proceedings, at least, that stoppage lasted through Nov. 3, 2020. In the months since, a few courts have had a chance to...
A timely new article entitled “The state of the campaign to end mandatory arbitration of sexual misconduct claims in employment agreements” written by RPJ Partner Mark H. Moore was recently published by Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw Today. In this in-depth piece, Mark discusses the growing practice of employers of requiring arbitration...
While the policy impetus behind the confidentiality prohibition—preventing employers from silencing complaints about harassment and discrimination—may be worthy, the reality is that employers will normally not settle without a confidentiality provision. In what seems like much simpler times, parties to New York employment disputes, including disputes involving claims of discrimination...
Partner Mark Moore was recently quoted in a comprehensive overview of the legal challenges facing colleges and universities published on January 22 by The Chronicle of Higher Education, entitled “The New Risk Management” and authored by Alexander C. Kafka. In addressing post-pandemic litigation over tuition refunds, Mark stated: “Because many...
In late October, eight off-Broadway theaters, including The Actors Temple, Soho Playhouse, the Triad, and the New York Comedy Club, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan’s federal district court against Governor Andrew Cuomo, the New York Attorney General, and Mayor Bill de Blasio, seeking an order that would allow them to...
Partner Heidi Reavis is a guest contributor this week in The New York Law Journal, discussing the protracted Weinstein settlement negotiations which have had the effect of favoring the litany of Weinstein attorneys over the Weinstein victims. See her article, “Spotlight on Weinstein Counsel and the Culture of Complicity.” The...
On June 30, the New York Attorney General’s Office announced that they had reached a settlement of nearly $19 million with Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein, The Weinstein Company, and company board members and executives, hailing it as a major victory on behalf of victims of Weinstein’s sexual misconduct. However, just...
Many people don’t know how much can be lost by going to court. For even small lawsuits with relatively small damages at play, the addition of attorneys’ fees and costs of legal proceedings can multiply the overall cost tenfold, which can in some cases lead to loss of assets, including...
Thirty years ago, mediation—settlement negotiations guided and supervised by a third party neutral—was something of an alien concept for New York civil litigators. We remember many conversations dismissing participation in early mediation of a case as a sign of weakness or simply as an opportunity for free discovery. Today, however,...