Two lawyers, Cristen D. Feldman and David M. Feldman, have formed a new Houston law firm called Feldman & Feldman.

Cris Feldman holds a B.A. in both Political Science and English from Tulane University (1993) where he graduated Cum Laude and a J.D. from the University of Texas (1999). He is a former partner at Rusty Hardin & Associates.

David Feldman, Cris’s father, holds a B.A. in Political Science from LSU (1970) and a J.D., Summa Cum Laude, from South Texas College of Law (1976). He is a former partner in Vinson & Elkins and was managing partner of his own firm, Feldman, Rogers, Morris and Grover, L.L.P. He left private practice to serve as City Attorney under Mayor Annise Parker from April 2010 to January 2015.

Associates with the new firm are Christin L. Grant and Deidra Norris Sullivan.

Feldman & Feldman’s office is at 3355 West Alabama Street, Suite 1220 , Houston, TX 77098. The telephone number is 713-986-9471.

Experts continue to argue over the rights of states and businesses to access personal data – and who actually owns it, according to a report by ZDNet.

“In the commercial sphere, one argument says the investment by businesses in gathering and exploiting information about individuals gives them a degree of ownership over the data,” the article says.

“That investment should also have a bearing on what happens to the data once the relationship between the consumer and the business ends or the individual want to move that information elsewhere.”

Read the article.

Business Insider offers some advice on how to react when a computer is hit by ransomware. The solution is much clearer when the victim has a good, recent backup stored in a safe place.

“Ransomware, which is a form of malware, works by either holding your entire computer hostage or by blocking access to all of your files by encrypting them,” Business Insider explains. “A person infected with ransomware is typically ordered (via a pop-up window) to pay anything from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars in order to get the key to unlock their encrypted data.”

Hackers are using sophisticated software such as CDT-Locker, which can be hidden in files and overlooked by security programs. Sometimes people to willingly download these dangerous files by using sneaky tricks to make them appear legitimate.

Read the article.

A Texas federal judge handed down a $663 million judgment Tuesday against Trinity Industries, the guardrail maker accused of producing a faulty product that can jam and spear through vehicles, reports The New York Times.

The ruling in the court of Judge Rodney Gilstrap of United States District Court is the latest stage of a whistle-blower case filed by Josh Harman, a competitor. Harman said he discovered in 2011 that Trinity had made a critical change to the dimensions of its ET-Plus guardrail in 2005, but failed to tell federal regulators as required by law.

“The jury found the company liable for defrauding the Federal Highway Administration and awarded $175 million, which, under the False Claims Act, was tripled to $525 million.” The Times reports. Added-0n penalties brought the judgment up to $663 million.

Read the story.

Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery LLP presents a complimentary MCLE webinar, “The Two Faces of Establishing Patentability of a New Chemical,” featuring Fitch Even attorney James A. Zak. The webinar will take place on Wednesday, June 24, 2015, at 9 am PDT / 10 am MDT / 11 am CDT / 12 noon EDT.

To be a patentable invention, a chemical compound must be new and non-obvious. To establish that the compound is non-obvious, a lead compound is selected in the prior art, and the new compound is compared to the lead compound to determine if the new compound is merely an obvious modification. A lead compound is selected by one of two methods, which differ with respect to the rationale used to identify the lead compound and how allegations of obviousness can be refuted. Given the critical role of the lead compound to the non-obviousness determination, when attempting to patent a new compound, one must be mindful of how the lead compound will be selected.

Topics will include:
• Methods of selecting a lead compound: structural similarity and rational selection
• Assumptions made based on structural similarity and how to overcome them
• Why what is believed about a rationally selected lead compound is more important than its real properties
• How to make others select the lead compound of your choosing

Speaker James A. Zak chiefly focuses his practice on the intersection of intellectual property and FDA law, often working with startups in FDA-regulated industries to develop and align their IP and FDA market approval strategies while simultaneously developing robust patent portfolios.

CLE credit has been approved for California and Illinois and is pending in Nebraska. Other states may also award CLE credit upon attendee request. There is no fee to attend, but please note registration is required.

Register for the webinar.

The National Association of Corporate Directors is offering free download of Governance Challenges: 2015, which compiles guidance from leading boardroom experts on challenges that boards will face in the coming year.

The 2015 report covers the following topics:

• Early Engagement: Going Beyond Traditional Board Succession Planning
• On the 2015 Audit Committee Agenda
• Responding to Global Risks: Enhancing Capacity to Assess the Impact of External Threats on Strategic Investments
• Compensation’s Role in Strategy: Elevating the Discussion and Expanding the View
• Current Tensions in Corporate Governance

Download the report.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently predicted that the Kentucky Supreme Court would not allow insurers to sue policyholders for the tort of “reverse bad faith,” reports Carlton Fields Jorden Burt in a report posted on JDSupra.

“The court’s analysis drew a distinction between the duty of good faith and fair dealing that is implied by law into contracts and the distinct, common law duty that arises from a ‘special relationship’ between the parties,” the report says. “Only the latter duty gives rise to a tort claim.  The court also found that no other state has recognized a tort of reverse bad faith.  Yet, given recent interpretations of the contractual duty, it’s arguable that ‘reverse bad faith’ is already here — and what we should be asking is whether it can be of any use.”

The case was State Auto Property & Casualty Ins. Co. v. Hargis. It involved an insurance case that included allegations of arson.

Read the article.

The Law Report Group, part of the Mergermarket Group, has just launched The Cybersecurity Law Report (CSLR), a new information service that provides business analysis of critical legal issues related to the cybersecurity, data protection and data privacy challenges facing entities across industries. In light of the ever-growing – and very public – data breaches at Sony, Target, Anthem, Morgan Stanley and many other companies, it has now become protocol for firms to understand and rightfully manage these compliance issues and best business practices.

In a release, the Mergermarket Group said the CSLR contains practical, plain-English guidance to assist outside and in-house counsel and compliance professionals with the dynamic issues unfolding in the cybersecurity area. Most importantly, the CSLR helps companies to protect vital information and comply with evolving state, federal and industry regulatory requirements while enhancing their bottom lines.

“As hackers become more sophisticated and regulators are increasing their interest in how companies are protecting themselves, both inside and outside counsel as well as compliance professionals are facing increasingly complex questions from their clients about cybersecurity, regardless of their specialty,” says Rebecca Hughes Parker, Managing Editor of The Law Report Group. “The CSLR leverages the model of expertise based journalism that we have employed with The Hedge Fund Law Report and The FCPA Report since 2009. Through our ongoing dialogue with general counsels and chief compliance officers, our skilled team of lawyers and journalists are able to provide up-to-date and incisive, in-depth analysis that helps companies and their counsel better mitigate their cybersecurity risks.”

The CSLR derives its regulatory intelligence and data security insight from its in-house attorneys who leverage their extensive legal experience and networks to interview industry luminaries and procure expert perspectives, thus providing the most timely and accurate information in the field.

The scope of coverage of the CSLR is vast. Among the many topics covered are:

• Developing cybersecurity compliance programs, including training, codes of conduct and more
• Enforcement by various government agencies such as the SEC, FTC, FCC and DOJ as well as international authorities
• Structuring cybersecurity leadership in companies
• Vetting third parties for cybersecurity
• Choosing cyberinsurance
• Balancing cybersecurity with privacy issues

To learn more about the Cybersecurity Law Report, please visit the website at http://www.cslawreport.com/.

The Law Report Group
The Law Report Group publishes The Hedge Fund Law Report and The FCPA Report, the leading information resources focused on, respectively, investment management law and regulation and global anti-bribery compliance. The Law Report Group combines proprietary legal expertise with trenchant reporting to generate expertise-based journalism on topics of mission-critical importance to subscribers. Legal, compliance, operating and other professionals at private fund managers, law firms, accounting firms, prime brokers, institutional investors, operating companies and other institutions use Law Report Group products and services to spot issues, identify trends, update compliance programs and implement best practices.

From unwanted business partners to burdensome estate taxes, the death of a business co-owner can have negative implications for surviving owners as well as for the estate of the deceased, reports Fox, Shjeflo, Hartley & Babu in a paper posted on JDSupra.

The paper says a well drafted buy-sell agreement can do double duty as an important tool in both business succession and estate planning, helping to ensure the stability of the business and the financial security of the deceased’s loved ones.

The paper covers topics such as “What is a buy-sell agreement?” “How can a buy-sell agreement help my loved ones in the event that I die?” and “How are buy-sell agreements funded?”

Read the paper.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court found that “Terms of Sale,” hidden on a website and not clearly referenced by the sales agreement, were not adequately incorporated, they were not a proper part of the contract, according to a report by McAfee & Taft and posted on JDSupra.

The report says the court, in Walker v. Builddirect. comTechnologies, Inc., provided guidance on how to properly incorporate extrinsic documents. With this new case in hand, businesses should consult with counsel and make sure their agreements pass muster.

“Counsel can assist with ensuring any extrinsic documents are sufficiently identified and easy to find,” the report says.

Read the report.

OnRamp has posted online a complimentary on-demand webinar discussing discuss the best practices for encrypting Electronic Protected Healthcare Information (ePHI) in a manner that exceeds HIPAA’s guidelines.

“Data breaches are growing in number in the healthcare industry, due in part to the increasing sophistication of hackers and the rising black-market cost of stolen medical records,” OnRamp says on its website. “Despite the levying of fines and penalties for breaches of Electronic Protected Healthcare Information (ePHI), businesses are still slow to effectively adopt one important IT practice: encryption.”

Topics include:

• Understanding HIPAA’s take on the topic of encryption
• Comparing the challenges of encrypting data in transit and at rest
• Using the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines as a standard for encryption
• Best practices for accurately deploying and maintaining encryption

Watch the on-demand webinar.

CounselWorks and Compliance Science will present a complimentary webinar providing practical guidance on preparing for an SEC examination, conducted by Kathleen Malone, a former SEC examiner.

The webinar will be Tuesday, June 23, beginning at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Presenters will discuss how to prepare a presentation that outlines your strategy and specific risks, in order to lay the right foundation for the examination staff from the outset. Other topics will include managing the staff, documenting requests and deficiency letters, and data analytics.

Register for the webinar.

A Delaware jury has determined that Boston Scientific Corp. must pay $100 million to a Delaware woman who blamed the company’s vaginal-mesh inserts for leaving her in constant pain, reports Bloomberg.

This case is the first verdict after the company agreed to begin settling cases over the devices, and the biggest yet.

Boston Scientific’s Pinnacle and Advantage Fit inserts, built to buttress sagging organs and treat incontinence in women, were defectively designed and company executives hid the flaws from Deborah Barba, the jury found.

Bloomberg says the 51-year-old former bank teller contends the inserts eroded once they were implanted, leaving her with a scarred vagina and a host of medical problems.

Read the story.

DTI, a global legal process outsourcing company providing eDiscovery, managed services and litigation support, announced today that it has finalized the acquisition of Merrill Corporation’s Legal Solutions business.

The acquisition, announced earlier this year, expands the DTI platform in both scope and geographic reach while adding legal service operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia. The Merrill Legal Solutions lines of business included in the transaction are eDiscovery, Deposition and Court Reporting and Facilities Management. Merrill employees within the Legal Solutions group and some support services employees will transition to DTI as a part of the acquisition.

Read details of the acquisition.

Attorneys from Dallas-based Simon Greenstone Panatier Bartlett, PC, a nationally recognized trial law firm, won two of the largest verdicts in Texas last year, according to the publishers of VerdictSearch. The firm’s wins will be highlighted in Top Texas Verdicts & Settlements of 2014, which will be inserted in the May 25 edition of Texas Lawyer.

The firm scored the state’s largest toxic tort verdict in Vicki Lynn Rogers, et al. v. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Dallas County jurors awarded $18.6 million to the family of a tire builder who died after exposure to asbestos fibers at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Tyler, Texas. The verdict was No. 22 overall in Texas last year.

In Bobbie Bush v. Greenwood Motor Lines Inc., et al., another Dallas County jury awarded $4.1 million to Bobbie Bush for her injuries from a collision with a double tractor-trailer owned by Greenwood Motor Lines. The award was the state’s ninth largest motor vehicle verdict and ranked No. 44 overall.

Read more details.

The American Management Association presents a free webinar webcast addressing the contract officer representative’s role and a number of tools that can be used during performance of the contract to ensure a successful post-award phase of the acquisition process.

The contracting officer’s representative (COR) is the principle representative of the contracting officer (CO) for post-award management of the contract, the association says on its website. There are a number of tools available to the COR to monitor contractor performance.  These are six of the most effective tools to monitor contractor performance:

1. Contractor Progress Reports
2. Contractor Quality Assurance Plan (QAP)
3. Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP)
4. Earned Value Management (EVM)
5. Performance Assessment
6. Product or Service Inspection & Acceptance

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Oracle has posted an on-demand webinar on the planning challenges facing the oil and gas industry, how driver-based strategic planning can help address these, and how implementing Oracle’s Primavera solutions can help.

“With the turbulent and volatile price of oil and gas, it is paramount in organizations’ boardrooms that not only is the annual capex and opex budget set according to future oil and gas prices but that the correct projects are selected,” Oracle says in a release. “Executives need to ensure that projects deliver against predetermined drivers (ROI, positive cash flow, profitability, production, environmental impact).”

The webinar covers:

• Objectively assess projects to deliver the best shareholder value
• Improve return on capital, profitability and financial reporting accuracy
• reduce risk/contingency across the capital projects portfolio

Watch the on-demand webinar.

The long awaited decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc., seems to have left employers in greater darkness than Abercrombie’s customers, writes Primary Opinion in a new paper.

The Supreme Court has simultaneously clarified and muddied employers’ obligations when faced with having to make religious accommodation for job applicants and potential employees. While the Court addressed the issue at hand, it failed to answer some of the more crucial questions as to when failure to accommodate religious expression in the workplace would be unlawful on the basis of disparate-treatment.

The paper offers discussion from some experts on how the ruling can affect religious accommodation in the workplace.

Read the paper.

The U.S. Department of Labor has issued proposed guidance and the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council has issued proposed regulations requiring government contractors and subcontractors to report regularly on workplace law violations found by administrative agencies, the courts, and arbitrators, reports Jackson Walker in a new paper.

The regulations are part of the implementation of President Barack Obama’s “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” Executive Order (E.O. 13673), often called the “Blacklisting” or “Bad Actors” executive order.

“The government would take an employer’s record of violations into account when deciding whether to award future contracts, cancel existing contracts, and potentially demand remedial action to address a pattern of violations,” the authors write in the article posted on Lexology.

Read the paper.

Christopher Kratovil, a member of Dykema, has been elected to membership in the Fellows of the Texas Bar Foundation.

Fellows of the Texas Bar Foundation are selected for their outstanding professional achievements and demonstrated commitment to the improvement of the justice system throughout the state of Texas. Annually, only one-third of one percent of Texas State Bar members are invited to become Fellows.

Kratovil is a Member of Dykema’s Litigation practice in the Dallas office. His practice focuses on appellate matters with a particular concentration on matters in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and in the Texas courts of appeals. Kratovil represents clients in complex commercial disputes before tribunals ranging from small town Texas trial courts to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In addition to his extensive appellate work, Kratovil handles case dispositive briefing and argument, jury charges, complex motions, research intensive legal issues and error preservation in the trial courts. He is the author of several high-profile amicus curiae briefs, including one on behalf of United States Senator John Cornyn.

The Texas Bar Foundation is the largest charitably-funded bar foundation in the country. Founded in 1965 by lawyers determined to assist the public and improve the profession of law, the Texas Bar Foundation has maintained its mission of using the financial contributions of its membership to build a strong justice system for all Texans.

About Dykema

Dykema serves business entities worldwide on a wide range of complex legal issues. Dykema lawyers and other professionals in 15 U.S. offices work in close partnership with clients – from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies – to deliver outstanding results, unparalleled service and exceptional value in every engagement. To learn more, visit www.dykema.com and follow Dykema on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Dykema.

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