Every real estate and construction contract contains a list of insurance requirements identifying specific types and amounts of coverage for one or both parties, but too often these requirements are included in a form exhibit that is attached to contracts year after year, project after project, without careful review.

In a new website post, Lyndon Bittle of Carrington Coleman discusses  “traps for the unwary” lurking in construction contract insurance requirements, focusing on the ubiquitous commercial general liability policy.

Many of the traps pop up in connection with making one party an additional insured on the other party’s liability policies, Bittle writes. “One deceptively problematic provision is a requirement that the owner be ‘named an additional insured,’ without further details. That request conveys almost nothing.”

Read the article.

Some companies, hoping to prevent negative online consumer reviews, include clauses in form contracts stating that bad reviews are prohibited and punishable by fines. However, the Federal Trade Commission seeks to protect U.S. consumers and ensure fair competition and business practices, according to a post on the website of Ryley Carlock & Applewhite.

The FTC’s Consumer Review Fairness Act states that such gas clauses  are illegal and void in form contracts.

Companies should treat such gag clauses in past contracts as void, and essentially should ignore negative reviews from a relatively few consumers, the authors advise.

Read the article.

The former compliance officer and president of pharmaceutical distributor Miami-Luken were charged alongside two West Virginia pharmacists by federal prosecutors in Ohio Thursday with conspiring to distribute controlled substances.

ABC News reports Miami-Luken’s former compliance officer, James Barclay, and former president, Anthony Rattini, were charged.

“In one instance, prosecutors claim that Miami-Luken distributed 3.7 million hydrocodone pills to a single pharmacy in Kermit, West Virginia — a town with a population of about 400 people from 2008 to 2011. That averages out to 9,250 hydrocodone pills for every resident of the town,” reports ABC’s Luke Barr.

Read the ABC News article.

Aman Demoz Solomon, an American who was working in Singapore as general counsel for a real estate investment management company, died in a five-story fall in a Singapore mall, according to The Straits Times.

The report said Solomon. 35, had been based in Singapore since February last year as general counsel and chief compliance officer for real estate investment management firm CBRE Global Investors Asia Pacific.

The 2008 graduate of Harvard Law School previously worked at global law firms Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Davis Polk & Wardwell as an associate.

Read the Straits Times article.

A disbarred attorney from Wading River, NY, was sentenced Tuesday to 24 months in federal prison for a wire fraud scheme that duped investors out of $2 million in supposed real estate investments, reports Newsday.

A U.S. district judge handed down the prison sentence to Alice Belmonte, 53, along with an order to pay $2 million in restitution to her victims. The former lawyer previously had served 30 months in state prison for operating a separate $4 million Ponzi scheme, officials said.

“Alice Belmonte, falsely holding herself out as an experienced practicing attorney, prevailed upon investors to trust her with their money and stole it from them,” Eastern District U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement.

Read the Newsday article.

Amy Sherry Fischer

At its 2019 annual meeting, held in July at The Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, N.C., the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) elected new IADC board of directors members for 2019-20, including new board leaders.

The IADC board oversees activities that benefit the organization’s members and their clients, as well as the civil justice system, the legal profession, and society in general. In addition to its core purpose involving professional development for members, the IADC takes a leadership role in many areas of legal reform. In a release, the association said IADC members are among the world’s leading corporate and insurance lawyers at large and small law firms and senior counsel in corporate law departments, as well as corporate and insurance executives. Members represent the largest corporations around the world, including the majority of companies listed in the FORTUNE 500.

The new IADC board leaders and members, along with their law firm or company affiliations, are:

President
Amy Sherry Fischer
Foliart, Huff, Ottaway & Bottom
Oklahoma City, Okla.

President-Elect
Andrew S. Chamberlin
Ellis & Winters LLP
Greensboro, N.C.

Immediate Past President
Craig A. Thompson
Venable LLP
Baltimore

Vice President of Corporate
Aldos Vance
Altec, Inc.
Birmingham, Ala.

Treasurer-Elect
Donna Lamontagne
Lamontagne, Spaulding & Hayes, LLP
Cranston, R.I.

Board Member
Bonnie Mayfield
Dykema Gossett PLLC
Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Board Member
Michele Smith
MehaffyWeber, P.C.
Beaumont, Texas

Board Member
Thomas W. “Trea” Southerland, III
Federal Express Corporation
Memphis, Tenn.

The IADC is the preeminent invitation-only global legal organization for attorneys who represent corporate and insurance interests. Founded in 1920, the IADC’s 2,500 members hail from six continents, more than 50 countries and territories, and all 50 U.S. states. The core purposes of the IADC are to enhance the development of skills, promote professionalism, and facilitate camaraderie among its members, their clients, as well as the broader civil justice community.

Opportune LLP, a global provider of business advisory services to the energy industry, announced that Randy Osterberg has joined the firm as managing director.

In a release, the firm said Osterberg has more than 35 years of energy experience. His principal focus will be to drive client prospect generation, retention efforts and expand the firm’s overall market brand.

His roles prior to joining Opportune include serving as a senior managing director with MUFG Union Bank’s energy group where he led deal teams that acted as lead arranger and administrative agent on credit facilities for both large public independents and private equity-backed companies.

Osterberg began his career with First City National Bank of Houston, First Interstate Bank and NationsBank. Randy holds a B.B.A. in Finance from Texas A&M University.

Sidley Austin LLP announced that former U.S. Congressman Peter Roskam (R-Illinois) has joined the firm’s Government Strategies group as a partner. Roskam was in public office for 25 years, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Illinois Senate and the Illinois House of Representatives.

In a release, the firm said Roskam held some of the most significant positions in the U.S. House of Representatives during his tenure. In addition to serving as the Chief Deputy Whip, he chaired three major subcommittees of the House Ways and Means Committee. As chairman of the Subcommittee on Tax Policy, he was a chief architect of the historic 2017 overhaul of the nation’s tax code. As chairman of Subcommittee on Health, he began the Medicare Red Tape Relief Project, led a series of hearings addressing the opioid crisis and authored several bills to make opioid addiction treatment more accessible. In addition, as the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight, he spearheaded efforts to increase supervision of the Internal Revenue Service, the firm said.

Keith Laska has been named chief executive officer of Hanzo, effective immediately. He succeeds Kevin Gibson, who remains as executive chairman.

Previously CEO of the SDL Language Technologies Division of SDL plc and CEO and co-founder of EUXmedia, Laska has been a member of the Hanzo board since 2016, the company said in a release.

Research revealed in NAVEX Global’s 2019 Definitive Corporate Compliance Benchmark Report uncovers key program drivers for an ethical organizational culture and improved business performance.

The report can be downloaded from the company’s website at no charge.

The comprehensive report on compliance benchmarks is based on almost 1,000 respondents from companies of all sizes and industries across the world.

Questions addressed in the report include:

• What elements should my compliance program include?
• Is my approach to risk management aligned to best practices and market trends?
• What’s the right amount of budget and resources for the size of my company?
• How do I continue to improve my current program?

Download the report.

Appellate lawyers with Houston-based Wright Close & Barger scored a 9-0 decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in a closely watched religious discrimination case that made national headlines and carried big implications for employers and state and local governments.

The ruling in Fort Bend County vs. Davis united both conservative and liberal justices with an interpretation signaling that employers must be expeditious when challenging a worker’s claim of job bias. The opinion also cemented the authority of the courts in discrimination cases like this one, the firm said in a release.

“We are grateful for this important decision, which ensures a fairer system for all victims of employment discrimination. It also clarifies the process for employers and governments,” said appellate specialist Raffi Melkonian who delivered oral arguments on behalf of plaintiff Lois Davis. The case marked his first time making oral arguments before the Supreme Court.

Read details about the case.

Reuters reports that civil rights groups who successfully blocked the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. census are seeking sanctions against government officials, saying they brazenly hid the truth about the inquiry’s origins during trial.

The American Civil Liberties Union asked a New York court to grant new discovery into the alleged misconduct, as well as monetary sanctions for the government’s “concerted campaign of delay and obfuscation” during trial last November.

Reuters’ Nick Brown writes that the plaintiffs cited a list of “false or misleading” testimonies that amounted to “fraud on the court,” perpetrated by officers of the U.S. Department of Commerce, DOJ and Census Bureau.

Read the Reuters article.

Donald Trump’s re-election campaign paid his go-to law firm nearly $1 million for consulting in the latest quarter, nearly double the amount spent by Democratic presidential candidates on legal services from their leading firm reports Bloomberg Law.

“Jones Day received nearly $975,000 from Trump’s team in the latest period to raise its fee total this year to more than $2.2 million,” writes Bloomberg’s Roy Strom. “Perkins Coie picked up just over $500,000 in the quarter from Democrats vying for the nomination, Federal Election Commission records reviewed by Bloomberg Law show.”

Some other firms representing Democratic candidates include Covington & Burling; Jenner & Block; Garvey Schubert Barer; Trister, Ross, Schadler & Gold; and Sandler, Reiff, Lamb, Rosenstein & Birkenstock.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.

The ABA Journal reports that a lawyer who sued Monster Energy in the cardiac death of a teenager can be sued for allegedly violating a confidentiality clause that was part of the case settlement.

The California Supreme Court has ruled that Monster Energy could sue Bruce Schechter and his firm, the R. Rex Parris Law Firm, based on language in the agreement that could be construed to bind the attorneys, reports the Journal‘s Debra Cassens Weiss.

Schecter argued that he and the firm weren’t bound by the confidentiality clause because he signed the agreement under the preprinted notation “approved as to form and content.” Schechter said the notation meant he was approving the agreement only for his clients’ signatures.

Read the ABA Journal article.

Amy Boardman Hunt of Muse Communications offers some advice on how lawyers can stay out of trouble with the State Bar of Texas while maximizing their LinkedIn presence.

The State Bar’s Advertising Review Committee monitors lawyers’ compliance with rules regarding advertising.

Hunt discusses some of the best practices for having a compliant LinkedIn profile, for example: Don’t overstate your role in any results, don’t compare yourself with other lawyers, stick to the facts in your profile, take care when listing practice areas, and review endorsements and recommendations.

Read the article.

A contract with an express end date means what it says, writes Glenn D. West for the Global Private Equity Watch of Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

“The end date for a contract without an express end date, or one that purports to continue indefinitely, or even forever, may in fact be subject to early termination, or have an implied end date, depending on the particular approach of the courts of the state governing that particular contract,” he adds.

He discusses a recent Minnesota Supreme Court decision, Glacial Plains Cooperative v. Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co., LLLP, in which the court held that a long-term agreement to supply grain to an ethanol plant, which did not otherwise contain an end date, did “not unambiguously express an intent to form a contract of perpetual duration, and [was] thus a contract of indefinite duration [that] . . . is terminable at will upon reasonable notice once a reasonable time has passed.”

Read the article.

Rebecca Gerard has joined Michael Best’s Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice Group as an associate in Chicago.

Gerard focuses her practice on helping clients protect their data assets and comply with complex regulations. She has experience with regulations including the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the California Consumer Privacy Act, the California Online Privacy Protection Act, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marking Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, Data Protection Directive and ePrivacy Directive, among other data breach notification laws, and federal, state and international guidelines.

Prior to joining Michael Best, Gerard served as commercial and regulatory counsel at Walgreen Co., where she advised several business units on matters in connection with marketing, private label brands, and retail products. She was responsible for enforcing privacy regulations for the company’s U.S. and European entities, drafting and negotiating a variety of contracts and agreements, and collaborating with the company’s public policy team to promote initiatives to further the company’s interests.

Gerard earned both her LL.M. and her J.D. from The John Marshall Law School and her B.A. from Purdue University.

Joydeep Dasmunshi has joined Perkins Coie’s Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) practice as a partner in the Chicago office.

The firm said Dasmunshi advises private equity firms, along with public and private corporate clients, on complex business transactions. His practice focuses on middle-market M&A as well as matters related to structuring and negotiating strategic and leveraged acquisitions and divestitures, executive compensation and incentive equity matters, recapitalizations and general compliance counseling.

Dasmunshi’s transactional achievements include a $4.25 billion airline acquisition; a $1.75 billion sale of a global valuation, corporate finance and governance-related advisor company to a private equity firm in 2017; and sale, investment and acquisition matters with various middle-market portfolio companies across a variety of sectors, including technology, media, financial services and healthcare.

The firm said the addition of Dasmunshi to the Chicago office follows the arrival of Construction Partner Kevin Kolton this month and Insurance Recovery Partner Jim Davis to the office in May. To accommodate Perkins Coie’s continued growth in the Chicago area, the firm will move to a larger, more collaborative office space at 110 N. Wacker Drive in 2021.

Dasmunshi joins the firm from Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago, where he was a corporate partner. He earned his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School and his B.B.A., with High Distinction, from the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business.

Dykema announced the addition of Robert D. Leavitt to its Financial Industry Group and Business Services Department as a senior counsel in the firm’s Chicago office. He has experience practicing in-house, including time with Citibank, as well as with private firms, most recently Johnson and Colmar in Bannockburn, Ill.

In a release, the firm said Leavitt has represented clients ranging from national financial institutions and multi-national, publicly traded companies to small start-ups, spanning many industries, including banking and financial services, medical waste disposal, transportation, food, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, manufacturing, and high-tech services. His background encompasses banking services, operations, technology and compliance such as treasury management services, funds transfers and payment systems, deposit, lock-box and account services, anti-money laundering and foreign asset control compliance, escheatment, FinTech, and online and internet banking.

The firm said Leavitt also works on complex commercial, corporate and financial transactions including mergers and acquisitions, capital raises and private placements, secured and cash-flow lending and loan documentation, work-outs, forbearance agreements and restructurings, sale and purchase of goods and services, joint venturing, licensing, distribution, commercial contracts, outsourcing and other general commercial matters, equipment leasing, corporate formation, governance, planning and general corporate matters, and non-profit and charitable organizations.

Leavitt received a J.D. from the De Paul University College of Law, an LL.M., with honors, in International Business, Finance and Trade Law from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Colgate University.

Associate Christine Baptiste-Perez has joined Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C. Northeast office.

Before attending law school, Christine Baptiste-Perez taught high school Spanish in Louisiana and worked in human resources recruitment. She joins SDV with a background in product liability litigation, foreclosure litigation, personal injury litigation, international business compliance and securities regulatory matters. While in law school, she was the recipient of the Milton W. Memorial Prize for excellence in Torts, the CALI Excellence for the Future Award ® in Torts, and the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in Islamic Finance and Investment Law.