The Importance of Assessment Areas
Managing High Performers: Top Gun Maverick – Hiring to Firing Podcast
Managing Perfectionism: The Devil Wears Prada - Hiring to Firing Podcast
Governance Series: Common Board Challenges and Tips for Dealing with Them
Governance Series: A Good Hospice Board in Action - What it Looks Like
Force Majeure Provisions During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Key Performance Indicators for the Legal Department
Value-based health care: issues for pharmaceutical companies
In the UK Supreme Court's judgment in RTI Ltd v MUR Shipping BV [2024] UKSC 18, which was handed down last week, it considered what obligations the words “reasonable endeavours” placed on a party, in the context of a force...more
Unit Petroleum Company v. Koch Energy Services, LLC is another force majeure case arising out of winter storm Uri. Unlike a similar case, summary judgment was denied because, said the United States District Court, The word...more
With Hurricane Idalia about to cross Florida, people are naturally focused on preparations and the potential adverse impacts that it will have. For businesses, that should include analysis of contractual obligations that...more
In our previous article, we discussed the concept of force majeure, which can excuse parties from performing their contractual obligations in certain circumstances. As explained in that article, force majeure is a contractual...more
What is one way to prepare for the unexpected? A force majeure clause. The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest historical event that could neither be anticipated nor controlled by contracting parties at the time of contracting....more
In West Pueblo Partners, LLC v. Stone Brewing Co., LLC, (2023 WL 3151827), the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, affirmed summary judgment on the basis that the COVID-19 pandemic force majeure event did...more
In our previous article, we discussed anticipatory repudiation and demands for adequate assurances—legal concepts that may arise when a party to a contract expects that its counterparty may not perform its end of the bargain....more
MIECO LLC v. Pioneer Nat. Res. USA, Inc. - May a seller of energy invoke force majeure to excuse its non-performance under a delivery contract – a contract that obligates the seller to deliver a particular quantity of...more
Earlier this year, the High Court of England and Wales held in MUR Shipping BV v RTI Ltd that an obligation to undertake ‘reasonable endeavours’ to overcome a force majeure event did not require the claimant to accept...more
The Court of Appeal held that an obligation to use “reasonable endeavours” to “overcome” a force majeure event required a party to accept payment in Euros, instead of the contractually agreed currency of U.S. Dollars. This...more
In MUR Shipping BV v RTI Ltd the English Court of Appeal has overturned by majority the judgment of the Commercial Court in MUR Shipping BV v RTI Ltd [2022] EWHC 467 (Comm) and provided fresh guidance on when alternative...more
With Hurricane Ian crossing Florida, people are naturally focused on preparations and the potential adverse impacts that it will have. For businesses, that should include analysis of contractual obligations that could be...more
The Law Court recently weighed in on a trending legal issue – the extent to which Covid-19 restrictions trigger “force majeure” contract clauses. In 55 Oak Street LLC v. RDR Enterprises, Inc., the Law Court considered the...more
Traditionally, industry in Germany has enjoyed close commercial ties with Russia and Ukraine. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions imposed on Russia—and by Russia—will inevitably affect these business...more
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and the severe sanctions imposed by governments globally in response to Russia's aggression, are having extreme effects on parties' legal obligations, and are drastically altering the...more
In the wake of COVID-19, litigants have increasingly sought to excuse contractual performance by invoking force majeure clauses. In the early stages of the pandemic, there were few reported decisions on these matters, and the...more
The pandemic has put many contractual relationships under immense pressure. We explored in our last Business as (un)usual article some of the problems which contracting parties may have inadvertently created for themselves...more
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to leave businesses in limbo. Prolonged government shutdowns and health restrictions designed to limit the spread of the coronavirus have disrupted contractual relations across the...more
At the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, four Pennsylvania businesses challenged Governor Tom Wolf’s statutory authority to close non-essential (or non-life sustaining) businesses to mitigate the public health...more
It has been said that, sooner or later, everything old is new again. In the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) sweeping the globe in 2020, a heretofore largely overlooked and even less understood nineteenth...more
As the ever-evolving COVID-19 pandemic is no longer considered “unprecedented” and the restrictions associated with the pandemic have become a part of “the new abnormal,” district courts nationwide are beginning to grapple...more
Earlier this year, I provided our 2021 Corporate Compliance and Litigation Outlook for Manufacturers. I noted that even though we had been counseling a lot of manufacturers on force majeure events (i.e., the ability to...more
As discussed in previous updates, courts across the country continue to grapple with the application of force majeure provisions in contracts, as well as the related legal doctrines of impossibility, frustration of purpose,...more
Our earlier article explored Delaware case law interpreting force majeure provisions in the context of COVID-19. But what happens when a contract omits or contains a sparse force majeure clause? In those circumstances, common...more
Although many companies are already revisiting contractual provisions relating to nonperformance, like force majeure clauses, as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to wreak havoc on public health and the economy,...more