LOS ANGELES, Calif., October 22, 2020. Buchalter is pleased to announce the formation of a new industry group exclusively focused on the exponentially-growing and ever-evolving agribusiness industry. Over the past several decades, Buchalter’s agribusiness practice has expanded to the representation of some of the largest and most innovative players in the industry, now utilizing thirty lawyers across multiple practice groups.

The attorneys in the Agribusiness Industry Law Group have substantial experience representing every aspect of the industry, including agricultural lenders and investors, food growers, food processors, packers, marketers, and distributors, to wineries and cannabis and hemp producers, many of which operate on a global scale.

Clients are regularly advised in connection with:
• Secured Lending and Recovery Rights
• Agrifinance
• Marketing and Distribution Agreements
• Mergers, Acquisitions, Joint Ventures and Vertical Integration
• International Transactions and Protections
• Licensing Agreements and Intellectual Property
• Transportation
• Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA), Packers and Stockyards Act (PSA), and state agricultural liens
• Regulatory
• Labor and Employment Issues
• Estate Planning
• Water Rights and Land Use

Joseph Welch, Shareholder in the Orange County and Seattle offices, will Co-Chair the group along with Los Angeles Shareholder, Ariel Berrios. “With Buchalter representing numerous clients in this rapidly-expanding industry, the formation of the Agribusiness Industry Law Group was a natural outcome as we continue to see significant increased demand from our clients for these services,” said Welch. “As Chair of the Agribusiness Committee for the state-wide California Lawyers Association, I’ve noticed tremendous need in this space with very few large firms committed to providing the comprehensive and multifaceted solutions that clients need. The timing for Buchalter couldn’t be better,” Welch continued.
Attorneys in the agribusiness practice are often called upon to serve as outside general counsel to some of the largest marketers, distributors, and producers of fruits and vegetables sold in the nation’s largest food retailers, such as Costco, Walmart, Kroger, Loblaws, and Albertsons. Attorneys are also widely respected by clients, peers and market observers, and are recipients of multiple awards and honors for their practices, including from Chambers and Partners. Many have presented at industry related conferences, and authored numerous client alerts.

Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman PC is pleased to announce that Edward D. Altabet has joined the firm and serves as the New York office managing partner. Altabet focuses his practice on commercial litigation and investigations. He previously served as founder and managing member of Altabet Law LLC.

Altabet will be a member of the firm’s Commercial Litigation, International Investigations, and White Collar Defense & Government Investigations Groups. He litigates matters before state, federal, and appellate courts, focusing his practice on contracts, business torts, lenders’ and creditors’ rights, secured transactions, securities, partnership disputes, and executive employment issues. Altabet also represents companies and senior executives, as well as religious and not-for-profit corporations, in connection with internal and regulatory driven investigations relating to allegations of financial misconduct, undisclosed self-dealing, accounting fraud, improper allocation of restricted funds, and FCA violations. With this experience, Altabet routinely serves as outside general counsel for numerous clients.

Altabet’s arrival follows that of partners Shanlon Wu and Julie Grohovsky in Washington, DC, and the launch of the White Collar Defense & Government Investigations Group in July, 2020.

Altabet earned his J.D. and LL.M. from Cornell Law School, his M.A. from Columbia University, and his B.A. from Binghamton University.

In-House Impact: Life Sciences 2020 is the first dedicated national forum for life sciences legal leaders to accelerate their journey (and that of their teams) from legal specialist to strategic business partner.

For the first time, we’ll be shining a light on how the most high-impact legal teams are embedding innovation, collaboration and creativity into their DNA, sharing exactly how that’s allowing them to move from minimizing risk to maximizing opportunity in operating as true partners to their rapidly growing scientific business and helping them get better drugs to patients faster.

Download your copy of the Event Guide to see what else you will take away.

Among those sharing their stories of what’s working – and what’s not – in making this critical journey, include:
• Monika Dorda, Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Global Pharmaceuticals, GSK
• Maurus Schreyvogel, Chief Legal Innovation Officer, Novartis
• Marcela Kirberger, General Counsel & Secretary, Roche Diagnostics Corporation
• Eric Sherbet, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, IQVIA
• Yvonne Tran, Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer, Schrödinger
• Laurie Keating, Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
• Marie E. Pasquale, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Incyte
• Michael MacDougall, Senior Vice President & General Counsel, EMD Serono
• Jonathan Biller, Chief Legal Officer, Agios Pharmaceuticals
• Paul Savidge, General Counsel, Spark Therapeutics
• John Ryan, General Counsel, The Jackson Laboratory
• Richard Rew, Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Luminex Corporation
• Shaun Ryan, Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Moderna
• Heather Goodman, General Counsel, Two Labs Pharma Services
• Christine Bellon, Chief Legal Officer, Beam Therapeutics
• Dina Ciarimboli, General Counsel, Thrive Earlier Detection Corp
• Beth Zelnick-Kaufman, most recently Chief Legal Officer, The Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard
• Javier Rodriguez, Chief Legal Officer, Indivior
• Greg Bokar, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Sunovion
• Brenda Furlow, General Counsel, Secretary & Chief Compliance Officer, Bio-Techne

Register now.

Chamberlain Hrdlicka will host its first virtual Tax and Business Planning Seminar Tuesday through Thursday, November 10-12, 2020.

This year’s seminar will showcase presentations from Chamberlain Hrdlicka’s nationally recognized tax, estate planning, bankruptcy, corporate and employee benefits attorneys across the firm’s all four offices, including Houston and San Antonio. The event is open to the public, but particularly well suited for accountants and business leaders responsible for financial operations, financial planners and lawyers who guide clients in tax matters. Up to 11 CLE and 13.2 CPE credits available in Texas.

Attendees will gain valuable knowledge from members of Chamberlain Hrdlicka’s nationally recognized tax, labor and employment, corporate and employee benefits practices.

This three-day series will include half-day seminars on topics such as:

• Recent Tax Court valuation opinions that could put you in dire straits;
• Top employee benefits plan issues;
• Tax implications of the Paycheck Protection Program and related expenses;
• Bankruptcy in the COVID-19 age;
• Tax planning in a down-cycle economy;
• Impact of COVID-19 on state and local taxes (SALT);
• Estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax case law developments;
• 2020 International tax update; and,
• Old but gold strategies in estate planning.

Workshops will be led by Houston and San Antonio-based shareholders: Brett T. Berly, Sebastien N. Chain, Phyllis A. Guillory, Jarrod Martin, Joshua A. Sutin, Jaime Vasquez, Juan F. Vasquez, Jr. and Justin E. VandenBout.

Registration on or before November 9 is $20 per day or $50 for all three days. Check out complete details.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that Avery Simmons, a partner in the firm’s Charlotte office, has been named a 2020 Leader in the Law by North Carolina Lawyers Weekly.

Nominated by their peers, the Leaders in the Law are North Carolina attorneys who have gone above and beyond in their profession and the community. They are regarded as among the most influential individuals within the state’s legal community. The award winners were selected by a panel of judges and will be honored in a virtual awards ceremony on Nov. 30.

Simmons, who is a member of the firm’s Board of Directors, represents financial services and mortgage company clients with compliance matters, including risk management and remediation, state investigations, regulatory compliance, and operational implementation of legal guidelines. She also works to manage the implementation of regulatory changes with her client’s internal business units and legal/compliance teams, including development of new business functions, quality control processes, and ongoing testing and reporting components and regimes. One of the primary focuses of her practice is the litigation of large commercial construction disputes. Simmons has extensive experience representing owners, developers, engineers, and general contractors in state and federal courts and in private arbitrations. Her experience encompasses the construction of multifamily housing, campus housing, alternative energy projects, schools, highways, and major infrastructure projects.

Simmons received her J.D. from The Catholic University Columbus School of Law and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

About Bradley
Bradley combines skilled legal counsel with exceptional client service and unwavering integrity to assist a diverse range of corporate and individual clients in achieving their business goals. With offices in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and the District of Columbia, the firm’s nearly 550 lawyers represent regional, national and international clients in various industries, including banking and financial services, construction, energy, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, real estate, and technology, among many others.

13 from firm earn Texas Super Lawyers recognition

DALLAS – Noted trial lawyer and managing partner of Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, LLP, Monica Latin has been recognized as one of the Top 100 attorneys in the state in the 2020 edition of Texas Super Lawyers.

Latin, who also earned a place among the Top 50 female attorneys in the state and the Top 100 attorneys in Dallas-Fort Worth, joins a total of 13 firm attorneys who were honored across nine practice areas in the latest edition of the respected legal guide.

Carrington Coleman attorneys included in the 2020 Texas Super Lawyers legal guide are:

• Cathy Altman, Construction litigation
• Mike Birrer, Employment & labor
• Lyndon Bittle, Insurance coverage
• Neil Burger, Business litigation
• Ken Carroll, Appellate
• Bruce Collins, Business litigation
• David Drumm, Real estate
• Carmen Eiker, Family law
• Kelli Hinson, Business litigation
• Jason Katz, Business litigation
• Monica Latin, Business litigation
• Christie Newkirk, Employment & labor (employer)
• J. Michael Sutherland, Business bankruptcy

Texas Super Lawyers is published by Thomson Reuters and appears in Texas Monthly and Super Lawyers magazines. Selection is limited to no more than 5 percent of Texas attorneys and is based on a statewide survey of lawyers and extensive editorial review.

Earlier this year, five firm attorneys – Parker Graham, Alex More, Debrán O’Neil, Andrea Perez and Brent Rubin – were included in the 2020 edition of Texas Rising Stars. A companion guide to Super Lawyers, it recognizes attorneys age 40 or younger or who have been in practice for fewer than 10 years.

Akerman LLP, a top 100 U.S. law firm serving clients across the Americas, today announced the expansion of the Healthcare Practice Group with Ricky Benjamin. He joins Akerman in Atlanta as a partner, bringing experience in an array of healthcare regulatory, transactional and risk management issues, including leading internal investigations stemming from government inquiries.

Benjamin has three decades of healthcare experience in healthcare regulatory, transactional and risk management issues, serving as trusted counsel to long term care facilities, health systems, hospitals, academic medical centers (specifically on the complexities of the competing laws within the academic environment of Title IX, FERPA, HIPAA and Title VII), physician practice groups, laboratories, ambulatory surgical centers, nurses, medical device manufacturers, and compounding pharmacies. As a former in-house general counsel and compliance officer, Benjamin serves as trusted counsel to his clients. He provides a combination of knowledge of the healthcare industry and its complex web of federal and state laws, including the federal Antikickback Statute, Physician Self-Referral Laws (Stark), Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA), Data Privacy & Cybersecurity, including responding to investigations by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) amid allegations against his clients of Unfair Trade Practices.

Benjamin defends Fraud lawsuits and counsels on a wide variety of healthcare issues. He represents clients by responding to Civil Investigative Demands, (CIDs), and leading internal investigations under the FCA, and by the FTC, FDA, CMS, OIG and DOJ, as well as internal audits to prevent, detect, and mitigate enterprise and regulatory risks. He has experience in medical malpractice defense (national opioid litigation supervisory team leader) and qui tam litigation, government investigations (leading Health System through drug diversion investigations by the OIG), and regulatory compliance counseling, including drafting Compliance Plans and implementing Compliance Programs.

“Acker, the world’s destination for fine and rare wine, announced today the appointment of Stacey Chervin Sigda as the company’s General Counsel. The announcement comes on the heels of Acker’s latest appointments of Jamie Pollack as Global Managing Director of Business Development and Sales, and Alicia Martell, Global Head of Authentication and Quality Control,” was posted in Cision PRWeb.

“Stacey previously served as Senior Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Global Employment Counsel at a competing firm, and will be bringing her extensive wealth of expertise in legal compliance, litigation, negotiations, and mergers and acquisitions to Acker. With her almost three decades of legal experience and specialized knowledge of the wine business, Stacey has spearheaded significant legal work within the auction industry.”

Read the article.

“The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a litigation release today alleging charges of microcap fraud that involved an attorney prominent in the US crowdfunding sector,” reports JD Alois in Crowdfund Insider.

“According to the SEC complaint, Jillian Sidoti, affiliated with the law firm known as CrowdfundingLawyers.net, facilitated alleged fraudulent dumping of securities of penny stock company Blake Insomnia Therapeutics.”

“According to the SEC complaint, as an attorney for Blake, Sidoti apparently drafted and signed documents that contained materially false information regarding the operations and control of Blake, including a private placement memorandum and registration statements filed with the Commission.”

Read the article.

“The U.S. sued Google on Tuesday, accusing the $1 trillion company of illegally using its market muscle to hobble rivals in the biggest challenge to the power and influence of Big Tech in decades,” reports Diane Bartz and David Shepardson in Reuters U.S. Legal News.

“The Justice Department lawsuit could lead to the break-up of an iconic company that has become all but synonymous with the internet and assumed a central role in the day-to-day lives of billions of people around the globe.”

“The lawsuit marks the first time the U.S. has cracked down on a major tech company since it sued Microsoft Corp for anti-competitive practices in 1998. A settlement left the company intact, though the government’s prior foray into Big Tech anti-trust – the 1974 case against AT&T – led to the breakup of the Bell System.”

Read the article.

“RFCyber Corp. filed a complaint for patent infringement against defendants Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Samsung Electronics America, Inc. … alleging that Samsung infringed its contactless payment method via its Samsung Pay service on its mobile devices,” reports Kirsten Errick in Law Street’s Tech.

“According to the plaintiff, Samsung has infringed at least claim 1 of the ’218 patent by having products with an ‘e-purse,’ allegedly using the plaintiff’s patented method. The ‘method comprising: providing a portable device including or communicating with a smart card pre-loaded with an emulator configured to execute a request from an e-purse applet and provide a response the e-purse applet is configured to expect, the portable device including a memory space loaded with a midlet that is configured to facilitate communication between the e-purse applet and a payment server over a wireless network, wherein the e-purse applet is downloaded and installed in the smart card when the smart card is in communication with the payment server…’ furthermore, the e-purse applet and the payment server communicate over a network to create a secure channel for various operations.”

Read the article.

Chamberlain Hrdlicka is pleased to announce that it will host its first virtual Tax and Business Planning Seminar Tuesday through Thursday, November 10-12, 2020 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday and at 12:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday. The year’s seminar will showcase presentations from attorneys in each of our offices. The event is open to the public, and ideal for accountants, business leaders responsible for financial operations, financial planners and lawyers who guide clients in tax matters.

Attendees will gain valuable knowledge from members of Chamberlain Hrdlicka’s nationally recognized tax, labor and employment, corporate and employee benefits practices.

This three-day series will include half-day seminars on topics such as:

• Recent Tax Court valuation opinions that could put you in dire straits;
• Top employee benefits plan issues;
• Tax implications of the Paycheck Protection Program and related expenses;
• Bankruptcy in the COVID-19 age;
• Tax planning in a down-cycle economy;
• Impact of COVID-19 on state and local taxes (SALT);
• Estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax case law developments;
• 2020 International tax update; and,
• Old but gold strategies in estate planning.

Workshops will be led by Atlanta-based Shareholders John Hackney, Scot Kirkpatrick and Christopher Steele, Senior Counsel Steve Wyatt, Associate Jasen Hanson, Philadelphia-based Shareholder and SALT Practice Co-Chair Jennifer Karpchuk, Shareholder and SALT Practice Chair Emeritus Stewart Weintraub and Special Counsel Mark Lubin.

Registration on or before November 9 is $20 per day or $50 for all three days. 3.0 hours of CLE credit has been approved for Georgia attorneys on Tuesday and 4.0 hours of CLE credit has been approved for Wednesday and Thursday. 3.6 hours of CPE credit are recommended for Georgia CPAs for Tuesday and 4.8 hours of CPE credit are recommended for Georgia CPAs for Wednesday and Thursday. Anyone is welcome to register to attend.

Register Now

Houston, Texas – (October 20, 2020) – National law firm, Chamberlain Hrdlicka, continues to broaden its services with the recent launch of the Privacy and Data Security Practice.

The personal information companies accumulate has become a highly valuable – and increasingly risk-laden – business asset. As more countries introduce new data protection laws to regulate the collection, use, disclosure and security of personal information, many companies find it more and more challenging to navigate the myriad complex regulations in order to comply with their data privacy and security obligations. The rise in technology innovation combined with the rapid increase in cybersecurity threats poses concerns that Chamberlain Hrdlicka’s new practice can address properly with their expert team of attorneys.

Aly Dossa, shareholder at Chamberlain Hrdlicka, has been appointed to lead the new practice, which will counsel clients on a wide range of privacy and protection issues, including: information handling; cross-border data transfers; data breaches and theft; global compliance obligations; workplace privacy; training programs; compliance audits; data privacy policies and programs; mobile and online privacy; cloud computing security; commercial transactions support, including M&A due diligence; and management of HIPAA and health care privacy issues.

Larry Campagna, Managing Shareholder of the firm, expressed how important this practice has become for clients: “When I was a young lawyer, we fought a fifteen year war in the federal courts to force the IRS to pay the largest settlement ever for the mishandling of confidential taxpayer data. Now, many private companies have realized that they face similar risks. Aly and his team will help our clients follow best practices in how they handle data, how they protect sensitive information, and how they can comply with the evolving rules in various jurisdictions.”

In the event of data breaches or alleged improper use of data, the new practice will provide swift, effective incident response and represent clients from initial event through government investigations and litigation, if necessary. The group will offer a wide range of privacy and protection issues, including:

• information handling;
• cross-border data transfers;
• data breaches and theft;
• global compliance obligations;
• workplace privacy;
• training programs;
• compliance audits;
• data privacy policies and programs;
• mobile and online privacy;
• cloud computing security;
• commercial transactions support, including M&A due diligence;
• management of HIPAA and health care privacy issues.