Author Archives: Alexa Robertson

Updated Treatise! Friedman on Leases (Sixth Edition)

Friedman on Leases is widely regarded as the leading authority on commercial real estate leasing, recognized for its extensive and balanced coverage of tenant and landlord concerns. This fifth release of Friedman on Leases, Sixth Edition continues to deliver not only the foundational knowledge required by novice practitioners, but also analysis of and insight into the most current and relevant developments facing seasoned practitioners in the commercial real estate field.

The author, Andrew R. Berman, is Senior Vice-President and Associate General Counsel with Savills Studley in New York. He is a former real estate partner at Orrick Herrington, Akerman, and Sidley Austin, and is a law professor at New York Law School, where he founded the Center for Real Estate Studies and the Institute for In-House Counsel. Mr. Berman’s expertise in both practice and academia enable him to provide the broad perspective and insight that real estate professionals need in this rigorous and dynamic field.

Highlights of Release #5 include the following:

  • Fiduciary Capacity; Authority. Updated discussion reviews how Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania approach a landlord-trustee’s power to lease in the absence of a special power. (See section 2:1.2.)
  • Taxes, Assessments. Updated discussion covers when a lease requires the tenant to pay the landlord additional rent based on future increases in real estate taxes. (See section 5:2.1.)
  • Amount of Percentage Rent. Updated with new examples that illustrate the different approaches to determine percentage rent, as well as a new sample percentage rent provision with percentages that vary and a cap. (See section 6:2.)
  • Holdover Tenant Versus Foreclosing Mortgagee. Updated to include cases that illustrate the uncertainty over whether an attornment provision affirms that privity of estate exists between the tenant and the purchaser, or whether it extends liability by way of privity of contract. (See section 8:3.)

This essential treatise is available on PLI PLUS. If you would like to order a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu.

Treatise Update: Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds Regulation (Third Edition)

Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds Regulation offers definitive and up-to-date legal and compliance information. This two-volume treatise is filled with practical advice on complex issues involving valuation, distribution through intermediaries, structuring a 12b-1 plan, conducting a compliance review, and guarding against conflicts of interest. Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds Regulation is an essential compliance tool for securities attorneys, mutual fund practitioners, compliance personnel, and risk officers in fund complexes, and a valuable reference for business professionals and investors.

The latest update to Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds Regulation, Third Edition expands the treatise to cover developments affecting mutual funds and exchange traded funds. Highlights of this release include:

  • Chapter 5, Shareholder Reports. New discussion covers the June 2018 changes to Form N-1A adopted by the SEC regarding the reporting and disclosure of liquidity information by mutual funds in fund shareholder reports (see section 5:2.2[D]); reviews the SEC’s June 2018 adoption of new Rule 30e-3 under the Investment Company Act, which gives mutual funds a “notice and access” option for delivering shareholder reports (see section 5:3.2[B]); and examines Form N-PORT, which is the new form in which funds (except for money market funds) are required to provide additional and more frequent reports of portfolio holdings, risk metrics, and other data monthly (see section 5:4).
  • Chapter 13A, Liquidity Risk Management Programs and Swing Pricing. New discussion covers the SEC’s statement in the Investment Company Liquidity Disclosure Release that “funds that believe they would have to maintain dual liquidity classification programs” may apply for exemptive relief from the liquidity classification requirements of Rule 22e-4 if they believe their existing liquidity risk management programs would “effectively accomplish the Commission’s stated goals.” (See section 13A:4.7.)
  • Chapter 16, Purchase and Sales of Mutual Fund Shares. Updated discussion reviews FASB Accounting Standards Codification 820 (ASC 820) (previously FAS 157), including its definition of and framework for measuring fair value (see section 16:3.2); covers the amendments to Rule 22c-1 to permit certain registered open-end investment companies (not money market funds or ETFs) employing so-called “swing pricing” (see section 16:3.3); and examines Rule 22e-4 under the Investment Company Act, which requires open-end investment companies, including ETFs (but not money market funds), to adopt a liquidity risk management program that satisfies certain minimum requirements (see section 16:4.1).

This treatise can be found on PLI PLUS. If you would like to order a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu.

New Treatise Edition: Variable Annuities and Other Insurance Investment Products

The growth of variable insurance products has been dramatic and reflects broader trends that have occurred in financial services over the past few decades. Variable products are a clear example of how insurance companies have expanded their product base to more directly link insurance and investment. In recent years, other insurance investment products, such as SEC-registered fixed annuities, have grown in importance. PLI helps you keep pace with these developments.

Edited by Clifford E. Kirsch, noted authority in the area of securities regulation and compliance, and with valuable contributions from more than two dozen other distinguished practitioners in the field, PLI Press’s new Third Edition of Variable Annuities and Other Insurance Investment Products (formerly Variable Annuities & Variable Life Insurance Regulation) provides attorneys, compliance personnel, and business professionals with the most current legal, regulatory, and procedural guidance regarding variable annuities and other insurance investment products.

The comprehensive coverage in Variable Annuities and Other Insurance Products is grouped broadly into two sections. Part I focuses on variable insurance products, which are subject to a complex regulatory framework that includes the federal securities laws, state insurance laws, ERISA, and tax. Part II covers other types of insurance investment products such as insurance-linked securities.

This essential treatise can be found on PLI PLUS. If you would like to order a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu.

What’s New for December

What's New on PLI PLUSWe add content to PLI PLUS every month to ensure our subscribers have access to the most up-to-date and relevant secondary source legal documents. Renowned legal experts regularly update our acclaimed Treatises, Course Handbooks, Answer Books, Transcripts and Forms to reflect recent changes and developments in the law.

Click here to see what we added in December!

Treatise Update! Mergers, Acquisitions and Tender Offers

Mergers, Acquisitions and Tender Offers: Law and Strategies is a five-volume guide to domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, and tender offers, covering a range of aspects including corporate, securities federal income tax, antitrust, pre-merger notification, accounting, and valuation. The book focuses on private company and public company acquisitions negotiated and hostile transactions. The title takes a practical approach to these topics, and many of the chapters have appendices containing deal documents that illustrate the practical application of the particular topic.

Highlights of Release #16 include:

This essential treatise is available on PLI PLUS, our online research database. If you’d like to purchase a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu or call 877.900.5291.

2018 Federal Circuit Yearbook: Patent Law Developments in the Federal Circuit

Each year, the Federal Circuit Yearbook provides a concise, comprehensive review of every patent decision published by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit during the preceding year. With the Yearbook, readers may conveniently follow all recent patent law developments in the Federal Circuit, presented in a manner that reduces specialized patent and technical jargon to a minimum.

Cases summarized in the Yearbook include the following, among many others:

Utility and Inventions Patentable: Where claims “are substantially similar and linked to the same” law of nature, analyzing representative claims is proper. Section 101 issues may be resolved at the pleading stage before formal claim construction: “we have repeatedly affirmed § 101 rejections at the motion to dismiss stage, before claim construction or significant discovery has commenced.” See Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland Heartlab, Inc. v. True Health Diagnostics LLC, discussed in § 1:1.

Novelty and Statutory Bars: Federal Circuit concludes that inventor declaration without corroborating evidence alone is not always sufficient to overcome section 102(e) prior art. Despite prior case law (particularly in the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals), Federal Circuit seems to move law under section 102(e), directed to showing prior disclosure subject matter was not “by another,” closer to case law under section 102(g), directed to showing prior inventorship. See EmeraChem Holdings, LLC v. Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., discussed in § 2:4.

Nonobviousness: Circuit Judge Newman, in dissent, urged that it is time to “remedy” the Graham analysis—namely that the objective factors should be considered together with the first three Graham factors rather than first determining whether a prima facie case of obviousness had been shown. See Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. v. Hospira, Inc., discussed in § 3:7.

Claim Construction: Using functional language in an apparatus claim does not necessarily mean that the claim improperly covers both an apparatus and method. Functional language described capabilities of a system rather than user actions. See MasterMine Software, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., discussed in § 6:5.

The 2018 Federal Circuit Yearbook is available on PLI PLUS, our online research database. If you’d like to purchase a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu or call 877.900.5291.

Treatise Update! Investment Adviser Regulation

Investment Adviser Regulation: A Step-by-Step Guide to Compliance and the Law (Third Edition) guides practitioners through the maze of statutory, SEC, and state standards impacting investment advisers, as well as provides advice on the practical aspects of building a practice. This book clarifies key status issues that determine registration and disclosure duties as well as liability exposure.

The most recent update to this treatise expands its coverage of the rules and regulations affecting investment advisers. Highlights of this release include:

This treatise is available on PLI PLUS, our online research database. If you’d like to purchase a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu or call 877.900.5291.

 

New Journal! PLI Current: White Collar Practice Journal

We are pleased to announce the newest journal from PLI Press, PLI Current: White Collar Practice Journal. This journal is the first in a series of new journals from PLI Press dedicated to coverage of key practice areas. It will be published at least twice each year and features original articles written by the leading experts in this field—practicing attorneys, judges, scholars, and others, including PLI Press’s highly acclaimed authors and CLE faculty members—dedicated to bringing you expert commentary and analysis of developments in financial crimes and related issues.

Articles in this premier issue include:

This journal is available on PLI PLUS, our online research database. If you’d like to purchase a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu or call 877.900.5291.

 

New Edition! Insider Trading Law and Compliance Answer Book (2019 Edition)

Insider Trading Law and Compliance Answer Book is an easy-to-use guide to the reach of the insider trading laws, the specifics that must be proved in court, the available defenses, the penalties, the current approaches taken by the SEC and the Department of Justice to insider trading violations, and the best compliance policies and procedures for firms to enact to minimize the chances of a violation.

More than two dozen experts at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP share their knowledge in clear and succinct question-and-answer format. Updated with the latest key court decisions, the book provides timely and practical information for investors, corporate insiders, professional traders, investment advisers, broker-dealers, and other participants in the securities industry, as well as insights and analysis for the lawyers who advise and represent them.

Some highlights of the 2019 Edition:

  • New chapter: Insider Trading Law and Commodity Interests. Recent rulemaking and high-profile CFTC enforcement actions have made it clear that market participants and their counsel must be familiar with insider trading law as it applies to the commodity futures and derivatives markets. This new chapter explains the prohibitions on insider trading in the commodity futures market, compares the statutory provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act and the Securities Exchange Act, compares CFTC Rule 180.1 and the SEC Rule 10b-5, and discusses two recent “plant-the-flag” enforcement actions.
  • Are cryptocurrencies securities? In answering that question, the SEC signaled it will apply the “investment contract” test from Howey. Under that test, cryptocurrencies themselves might not be securities, but ICOs or other products sold to investors using cryptocurrencies as the underlying asset would be.
  • Nonpublic information and the Internet. See chapter 7 for new discussion of whether an issuer’s website can be a “recognized channel of distribution” for disclosures and whether information disclosed via social media is considered public.

This answer book is available on PLI PLUS, our research database. If you’d like to order a print copy, please email libraryrelations@pli.edu or call 877.900.5291.