Perspectives on Complex Litigation

On September 22, 2016, the Supreme Court of Florida held that Florida law bars challenges to the validity of life insurance policies based on a lack of insurable interest once Florida’s two-year contestability period has expired.

Kindred Healthcare, Inc., the country’s largest provider of post-acute care, recently paid over $3 million for violating its Corporate Integrity Agreement, the largest issued for a violation of a CIA to date.

Long lines and waiting for security inspections are the new normal not only at airports and stadiums, but also at office buildings and theatres—just to name a few places.

In a ruling that could, if adopted by other courts, expose all pharmaceutical discount and rebate arrangements to anti-kickback liability, on August 23, 2016, Judge Rya Zobel in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts denied Omnicare, Inc.’s motion for summary judgment.

Life science companies, health care providers, and government contractors will be at risk for significantly larger penalties due to substantial increases to False Claims Act (FCA) penalties and civil monetary penalties (CMPs).

Non-profit organizations that utilized tax-exempt bonds to finance their facilities have, since 1997, been confronted with somewhat complex and highly formulaic Federal tax rules governing how they may engage third parties to manage their facilities, commonly known as the Management Contract Rules.

Forty-two Arent Fox LLP attorneys have been rated as leaders in their profession by The Best Lawyers in America 2017.

In a surprising and promising development, the Senate Finance Committee released a Majority Staff Report on June 30, 2016 that gives the health care industry some hope that Congress may finally address some of the serious concerns with the implementation and enforcement of the Stark law.

In St. Paul Mercury Insurance Company v. Tessera, Inc., the federal court held that a lawsuit against an insured alleging a breach of a license agreement did not constitute a violation of an intellectual property right.

In the newly implemented Regulation Crowdfunding rules, the SEC identified intermediaries as the gatekeepers through which all investments must pass.

Manufacturers were reminded recently why resale price maintenance policies can be risky.

The SEC has just revolutionized private financing with Title III crowdfunding regulations implemented last month, opening the investment landscape to a relatively untapped market - nonaccredited investors - and harnessing the power of online advertising and social media.

In a highly anticipated decision, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Universal Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar that threw out existing law related to the implied certification theory of liability under the False Claims Act.

Complex Litigation partner Barbara Wahl published an article with Law360 on the Sumner Redstone litigation, in which the California trial court decided that the media tycoon had sufficient mental capacity to decide who should exercise his health care directive. 

The DOJ has finally acted on long-awaited website accessibility rules, though their approach was unexpected.

In fact, the House passed the DTSA by a vote of 410-2 on April 27, 2016, and today, May 11, President Obama signed it into law. The DTSA is codified at 18 U.S.C. 1836(b).

The Washington Business Journal announced that three projects that Arent Fox LLP advised on were honorees in its Washington-DC area’s Best Real Estate Deals of 2015.

The Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 was voted and approved on April 27, 2016 and is now on its way down Pennsylvania Avenue to the President’s desk for signing.

In a surprising move that could dramatically impact government enforcement actions against life science companies, the health care industry, and government contractors, a federal board has increased federal False Claims Act penalties by more than 100 percent. 

The Department of Justice recently announced it has reached a more than $780 million settlement with Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary Wyeth to resolve reported false pricing allegations.

Partners Jacques Smith and David Greenberg spoke with AHLA Weekly after the US Supreme Court heard oral argument on April 19 in a major False Claims Act case that has far-reaching implications for the health care industry and other highly-regulated sectors reliant on government funding.

Theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets, costs US businesses more than $300 billion a year, according to a 2013 report by the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property (a bipartisan group of high-ranking former US officials).

The US Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on April 19 in Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar, a key case addressing the implied certification theory of liability under the False Claims Act. 

Arent Fox LLP Complex Litigation associate Temitope K. Yusuf was named a Rising Star by Minority Corporate Counsel Association.