Category Archives: PLI Press

Book Update: Holtzschue on Real Estate Contracts and Closings: A Step-by-Step Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate (Third Edition)

Holtzschue on Real Estate Contracts and Closings provides thorough legal, technical, and strategic guidance to help implement dispute-free residential deals more quickly and easily. This book clearly explains the governing law and customary industry practices, enabling practitioners to efficiently handle real estate transactions. It covers managing the appropriate documents, tax issues, and brokers, drafting and negotiating the contract, with sample forms that save time and effort, preparing for the closing, including the documents and scheduling details, and closing the sale, including delivering and reviewing deeds and other paperwork, and dealing with insurance policies, tax documents, and closing checks.

The new release includes the following updates:

  • Chapter 2, Drafting and Negotiating the Contract, includes a new caveat emptor case that rejected the special facts doctrine, an article about a proposed amendment to RPAPL 881 concerning licenses, a new remedies case, a mortgage commitment contingency case where a purchaser acted in good faith, easement cases, and a time of the essence case where notice was too short.
  • Chapter 4, The Closing,discusses the uncertainty as to the effective date of the Corporate Transparency Act and rules.

The Tables of Authorities have also been updated.

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PLI PLUS subscribers can access this title through their subscription.

Book Update: Patent Claim Construction and Markman Hearings

Patent Claim Construction and Markman Hearings provides in-depth guidance to this important area of patent practice, walking the reader through the entire process of preparing for, conducting, and appealing a Markman hearing. This book helps readers understand how courts decide “what a person of ordinary skill in the field of the patent invention would understand the language of the claim to mean”, the impact of prior constructions on a new hearing, how to decide what claims or claim elements should be construed by the court, what constitutes intrinsic and extrinsic evidence in interpreting the claim, at what point in the overall patent proceeding a construction hearing should be held, and what are the rules that will be used when a contested construction is an issue in an appeal to the Federal Circuit.

The new release includes the following updates:

  • Reviews a case in which a district court judge recused himself from the case on remand from the Federal Circuit because he had “no idea how to reconcile the facts presented to the court with the Federal Circuit’s holding” and did not believe that that he could “set aside [his] previous conclusions to make an impartial determination.” (See section 1:3.1).
  • Covers Vascular Solutions LLC v. Medtronic, where the Federal Circuit rejected the notion that a term—“substantially rigid portion/ segment”—needed to be consistent across claims. (See section 2:2.1[B][5]).
  • Includes discussion of a case in which the Federal Circuit explained how to determine whether the lower court or Board construed a claim or whether it has simply compared the claim to prior art or an allegedly infringing technology (See section 11:2).

Appendix C, Table of Authorities and Index have also been updated.

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PLI PLUS subscribers can access this title through their subscription.

Book Update: The Circular 230 Deskbook: Related Penalties, Reportable Transactions, Working Forms

The Circular 230 Deskbook: Related Penalties, Reportable Transactions, Working Forms is an essential compliance resource for every tax professional who practices before the IRS, helping practitioners comply with complex Circular 230 amendments more easily while avoiding costly penalties and sanctions. This practice guide shows you how to meet mandated duties applicable to six types of covered opinions, comply with critical requirements for written tax advice, carry out prescribed duties when advising in preparation of tax returns, satisfy reporting/list maintenance rules for six types of reportable transactions, and qualify for ”safe harbors” that free you from burdensome Circular standards, exploit proven defenses against the Code’s section 6662 penalties, and avoid common errors that can trigger these 6662 penalties.

The new release includes the following updates:

  • Chapter 1, Deference: When the Court Must Yield to the Government’s Interpretation, discusses a D.C. Circuit Court decision ruling in favor of the taxpayer after noting that the regulation in question was amenable to both a pro-taxpayer and pro-IRS reading and that the IRS itself had previously agreed with the taxpayer’s reading.
  • Chapter 4, Circular 230, advises that the IRS and Treasury issued proposed amendments to various sections of the Circular in late December 2024. The proposal is driven, in large part, by losses the IRS sustained in two cases (Loving v. IRS and Ridgely v. Lew) limiting its authority under the statute that authorizes the promulgation of the Circular.

The Table of Authorities have also been updated.

Order a print copy today.

PLI PLUS subscribers can access this title through their subscription.

Treatise Update: Derivatives Deskbook: Close-Out Netting, Risk Mitigation, Litigation (Second Edition)

Derivatives Deskbook: Close-Out Netting, Risk Mitigation, Litigation (Second Edition) is a comprehensive resource for all users of swap agreements and derivatives, from financial institutions to corporate end-users. This treatise defines the key terminology and identifies the major players, discusses the full range of required documentation, highlights the best practices for the legal risk management of derivatives and includes numerous practice-tested legal forms.

The new release includes the following updates:

  • Chapter 1, Introduction, explains that statistics illustrate that in spite of the complete regulatory overhaul of the OTC derivatives market since the 2008 financial crisis, the use of OTC derivatives continues to grow rapidly (Section 1:1).
  • Chapter 7, U.S. Bankruptcy Implications of Close-Out Netting, examines the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling that section 546(e) does not protect transfers made through a financial institution to a third party as an intermediary (Section 7:2.3).
  • Chapter 8, Best Practices Recommendations, advises parties to carefully consider forum and jurisdictional issues in the drafting of what are considered boilerplate provisions in an OTC derivatives contract, but which may impact the entire outcome of the transaction (Section 8.8).
  • Chapter 9, U.S. Regulatory Summary, explores the availability of judicial remedies for violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) by foreign counterparties (Section 9.1).

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PLI PLUS subscribers can access this title through their subscription.

PLI @ ACLEA’s Mid-Year Meeting

PLI was well-represented at ACLEA’s Mid-Year Meeting in San Diego earlier this month. 

Alexa Robertson, Vice President, Publishing & Legal Information Services, spoke on the panel “Publishing Trends: Where We Are Now and the Brave New World Ahead” with Sharon Sandle, an ACLEA Director and Director of the Law Practice Resources Division of the State Bar of Texas, and Annette Turcotte, Director of Operations at Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc. 

Andrew Ottiger, VP of Accreditation & Compliance, moderated the session “A Conversation with the Regulators,” which featured Shelley Sutton, the Attorney Services Administrator at the Kansas CLE (a department of the Kansas Supreme Court), Sydnie Kuhre, Board Director at the Utah Supreme Court, Board of Continuing Legal Education, and Jonita Rose, Program Analyst at the Office of Professional Competence, The State Bar of California.

Treatise Update – Investment Adviser Regulation (Third Edition)

Investment Adviser Regulation: A Step-by-Step Guide to Compliance and the Law (Third Edition) is an essential resource for investment advisers, securities attorneys, compliance personnel, and federal and state regulators. This treatise 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. It also clarifies key status issues that determine registration and disclosure duties as well as liability exposure.

The new release includes the following updates:

  • Chapter 14, Privacy of Client Financial Information: An Overview, includes updated discussions regarding the FTC’s amendments to the Safeguards Rule,; the NYDFS’s finalization of amendments to the Cybersecurity Regulation that require additional governance obligations regarding the Chief Information Security Officer ’s role and resources; and the Bermuda Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), which applies to organizations that use personal information in Bermuda.
  • Chapter 42, Mutual Funds, covers the most recent reporting requirements affecting mutual funds.
  • Chapter 43, Managed Advisory Accounts & Wrap Fee Programs, discusses the SEC’s Division of Examinations April 2024 risk alert that highlights the Division staff’s observations regarding compliance with the Marketing Rule.
  • Chapter 54, Municipal Advisor Regulation, discusses enforcement actions related to municipal advisors regarding both their regulatory obligations and their fiduciary obligations. In addition, this update provides further analysis of the interrelationship between municipal advisory activities and other professional activities undertaken by municipal advisor firms. The discussion of applicable MSRB and SEC rules is also updated to reflect more recent rulemaking by the MSRB.
  • Chapter 64, Blockchain and Digital Assets, updated to cover regulatory developments involving digital securities and commodities.

The Table of Authorities and Index have also been updated for this release.

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Treatise Update: Copyright Law: A Practitioner’s Guide (Second Edition)

Copyright Law: A Practitioner’s Guide (Second Edition) provides up-to-date analysis of court decisions and practical advice for the protection of copyrights. This book helps readers to understand the scope of copyright owners’ exclusive rights, prove copyright infringement and obtain appropriate remedies, renew, restore, and recapture copyrights, know when Internet-related activities constitute copyright infringement, find out who owns a work for clearance purposes, exploit unique defenses and statutory safe harbors that exist in the digital environment, get insurance against litigation risks arising from possible infringing uses, and to know when and how to register copyrights with the Copyright Office.

The new release includes the following updates:

  • The Ninth Circuit’s ruling that, for choreography, courts look at whether the “coherent whole” is protectable and will consider unique elements beyond individual poses, such as footwork; movement of the limbs, hands, fingers, and head; tempo; body shapes and positions; and transitions (see section 2:5.4).
  • The D.C. Circuit’s holding that the copyright deposit requirement constituted an unconstitutional taking of property (see section 5:2.1).
  • The Supreme Court’s decision in Warner Chappell Music, Inc. v. Nealy resolving a circuit split and holding that a plaintiff may recover damages for any “timely claim” (see sections 11:7.3 and 12:2).
  • The Tenth Circuit’s decision that repeatedly ignoring takedown requests and mocking the author of the allegedly infringed material were sufficient to plausibly allege material contribution to direct copyright infringement (see section 11:8.3[B]).

The Table of Authorities has also been updated.

Order a print copy today.

PLI PLUS subscribers can access this title through their subscription.