Articles

06.16.14

Reducing Carbon Emissions from Power Plants Goes National (but stays local)

On June 2, 2014, EPA, under President Obama's Climate Action Plan, released the long-awaited draft greenhouse gas (GHG) rule for existing power plants across the nation. Officially called "The Clean Power Plan," the proposed rule establishes state-by-state 2030 GHG goals (except for Vermont, ...


06.13.14

The Many Ways to do Public Private Partnerships

As local governments face increasing budget pressure, and as tools such as tax increment financing face increasing political hostility, real estate developers should remember that there are many opportunities for private developers to partner with public agencies to finance and build projects. ...


06.09.14

Top 10 Privacy Considerations for Digital Marketing Campaigns

In today's competitive marketplace, companies are relying heavily on innovative and edgy digital marketing campaigns to promote their products and services that often include the submission of user-generated content, viral marketing, the brand's website, a mobile application and other social ...


05.30.14

Digital Tech, Helping Monetize and Expand the Live Music Experience

As I wrote previously, new and transformative online services enable artists to expand their "communities" of fans, directly engage with them, and monetize in myriad ways never before possible. But how about using online technology to fuel richer experiences, deeper engagement, and ...


05.29.14

Lowering Risk for Commercial ACOs

While hospitals and medical groups are showing greater interest in creating accountable care organizations to participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program, there is perhaps even greater enthusiasm for organizing ACOs to contract with private insurers. Commercial ACO arrangements are ...


05.14.14

The Makings of a Successful Total Concession Public-Private Partnership

Public-private partnerships (P3) are a relatively new phenomenon in the United States, where the public sector partners with private enterprise in order either build or renovate a public project or raise needed public funds. The beauty of partnering with private real estate developers for ...


05.01.14

When The Project Matters

Eminent domain presupposes that the government desires to acquire a property interest for a public project. The public project can be a road or a school or something far more exotic (think acquisition of an NFL team, as in City of Oakland v. Oakland Raiders, 646 P.2d 835 (Cal. 1982), or acquisition ...


05.01.14

Other People's Personas

As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated, "the First Amendment securely protects the freedom to make…one's own speech; it bears less heavily when speakers assert the right to make other people's speeches." Similarly, courts have struggled with how to reconcile the right of freedom of speech with the ...


04.29.14

Resolving Standing Conflict for False Advertising Plaintiffs

The Lanham Act has long served as a vehicle for businesses to bring civil actions for false advertising claims, but the tests to determine who may sue and under what circumstances have varied significantly among the circuits. Three different tests for standing had been applied by the federal ...


04.28.14

Making Wine out of Water

With the State of California facing one of its driest years on record, earlier this year Governor Jerry Brown proclaimed a State of Emergency directing state officials to take all necessary actions to prepare for severe drought conditions. The proclamation noted that California's water supply ...