Can a plaintiff serve a Chinese defendant by email under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(f)(3)? According to the Second Circuit, the answer is “No.” In a matter of first impression with potentially significant impact on intellectual property and e-commerce litigation involving foreign sellers, the court held that service on […]
Can a court’s findings in connection with an early-stage preliminary injunction motion form the basis of a summary judgment decision later in the case? According to the Second Department, the answer is “No.” In a recent case arising from a dispute over a covenant not to compete, the appellate court […]
Business deals are sometimes struck informally, whether over a phone call, a handshake, or a quick email exchange. But when those informal arrangements fall apart and litigation follows, New York’s Statute of Frauds can prove fatal to a breach-of-contract claim. On the other hand, a plaintiff who pleads the right […]
As litigators with extensive experience resolving business divorces and partnership disputes, there is an all too common mea culpa we hear from our clients: We did not see the need to engage sophisticated counsel at the outset to delineate each party’s rights and obligations because the partnership was among friends […]
One of the most aggressively litigated issues in arbitration law is the scope of the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”). A particularly hot button topic is the construction of Section 1 of the FAA, aka the transportation worker exception, which excludes “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other […]