1999 Articles

11th Circuit holds that plaintiffs do not get choice of new trial when punitive damages are reduced under BMW v. Gore By Michael Todd Scott October 1999 In Johansen v. Combustion Engineering, Inc., 170 F.3d 1320 (11th Cir. 1999), plaintiffs sued the owner of a former mining site alleging that acidic water escaped from the site, damaging streams that ran through their properties.

“Alternate liability,” “enterprise liability” and “market share liability”: A products liability review By Michael Todd Scott June 1999 The purpose of this article is to provide corporate counsel an overview of three theories used to impose liability upon manufacturers of a defective product when the plaintiff cannot prove the exact identity of the manufacturer of the individual product which caused the plaintiff's injury.

Appeals Court rules that FMLA regulation is invalid By Sharon R. Cohen & Kathleen Rosenow December 1999 In Cox v. AutoZone, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that a portion of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) regulations was invalid.

Are your documents protected by the work product doctrine? By Michael Todd Scott February 1999 Most large corporations face litigation in many different jurisdictions. As a result, those corporations may have documents which are work product in a case in one jurisdiction which are at issue in another jurisdiction in subsequent litigation

Backlog at Illinois Secretary of State’s Office June 1999 The backlog in obtaining services from the Illinois Secretary of State's Business Services LLC/LLP Division will continue for at least the next several months.

Basics of employment discrimination: Who can sue whom for what By Iain D. Johnston August 1999 Title VII (42 U.S.C. section 2000e)

Book review: China Law Deskbook By Frank M. Grenard December 1999 If your company transacts, plans to transact, or is thinking about transacting business in or with the People's Republic of China ("PRC"), James M. Zimmerman's newly published treatise China Law Deskbook - A Legal Guide for Foreign-Invested Enterprises is a "must have, must read."

Commencement of 30-day period to remove state court cases to federal district court commences with service of process, not earlier notices of the lawsuit By Gregory G. Thiess October 1999 In recent years a developing body of case law has suggested that the mandatory 30-day period allotted to defendants to remove state court civil actions to federal courts, may begin to run before the formal receipt of process by that defendant.

Corporate Law Departments Section announces new pro bono project to help needy persons denied food stamps June 1999 The fact that emergency food networks served more than 25.7 million people last year demonstrates the continuing problem of hunger in the United States. The Food Stamp Program is a federally funded program which provides persons in poverty the opportunity to obtain a regular and nutritious diet.

The Corporate Law Departments Section Web page By Frank M. Grenard June 1999 As you know, the Illinois State Bar Association has been working for months to improve the capability of its Internet site.

Daubert opinion standards rejected By Hon. Donald R. Parkinson August 1999 In a 60-page slip opinion written by Justice Steigmann, the Fourth District rejected the Daubert standards (Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 125 L.Ed. 2d 469, 113 S.Ct. 2786 (1993)).

Illinois lawyer employees: Ask not for whom the wrongful discharge bell tolls; it tolls for thee By Jeffrey D. Lester June 1999 As has been the case for a number of years in Illinois, in-house employee counsel of private businesses are fully subject to being "wrongfully discharged" from their employment, no matter what the reason for the discharge.

In-house counsel whistleblowers may lose Title VII protections By Michael Todd Scott August 1999 In earlier editions of The Corporate Lawyer, we printed the ISBA amicus brief and the supreme court opinion in Jacobson v. Knepper & Moga, P.C.

Income tax treatment of state and federal grants By Don Johnson October 1999 Various state and federal agencies make grants of funds to both public and private corporations for economic development, improvement of public facilities and related purposes.

Introduction from the chair By Kimberly Matthei August 1999 Welcome to the first issue of the Corporate Law Departments (CLD) newsletter for the 1999-2000 Bar year.

Keys to a reliable software escrow agreement By Michael Amiri April 1999 Perhaps one of the most admired industries in the world is that of computer software.

Letter from the editor By Michael Todd Scott December 1999 This is the third edition of The Corporate Lawyer for the 1999-2000 year, and we are on track of meeting our goal of bringing you six editions this year.

Letter from the editor October 1999 In this issue of The Corporate Lawyer, we have several articles that I think our readers will find interesting. First, we have an article on basics of the income tax treatment of state and federal grants by Don Johnson of the Pinkneyville firm Johnson, Seibert & Bigham.

Letter from the editor By Michael Todd Scott August 1999 This is the first issue of the 1999-2000 fiscal year. Our goal this year is to once again increase the number of issues of The Corporate Lawyer we bring you.

Letter from the editor By Michael Todd Scott June 1999 This is the fifth and final edition of The Corporate Lawyer for the 1998-1999 year. I sincerely hope that our section members found volume 36 to be both interesting and informative and worth the price of membership in the Corporate Law Departments Section.

Letter from the editor By Michael Todd Scott April 1999 As this forth edition of The Corporate Lawyer for the 1998-99 year goes to press, we are already completing the fifth edition. Thus, I can now state for certain that we will make our goal of providing you with five newsletters this year.

Letter from the editor By Michael Todd Scott February 1999 This is the third edition of The Corporate Lawyer for the 1998-1999 year and we are still on track to meet our goal of five newsletters this year.

Meeting the challenge of cash balance pension transitions By Eric P. Lofgren & Kyle Brown December 1999 Much of the recent media and political attention aimed at cash balance pension plans (cash balance plans) has focused primarily on transition issues.

Message from the chair By Gregory G. Thiess June 1999 With your receipt of this edition of The Corporate Lawyer, my term as chairperson of the Corporate Law Departments Section Council comes to a close.

Message from the chair By Gregory G. Thiess April 1999 The change of seasons brings with it many changes, but the energetic work of your Corporate Law Departments Section Council on many projects and initiatives has continued unabated.

Message from the chair By Gregory G. Thiess February 1999 As we begin the New Year, I would like to take this opportunity to update section members on some of the initiatives and activities your Corporate Law Department Section Council has been pursuing in recent months.

The millennium bug: Will it bite you? By Dixie Lee Laswell April 1999 It is Friday night, December 31, 1999, and midnight is fast approaching. Have you found and exterminated all the bugs in the embedded systems yet, or, like Cinderella's coach at the stroke of midnight, will your pollution control equipment turn into a pollution pumpkin?

Minutes of section council meeting February 1999 The council has agreed to do nothing until the Illinois Supreme Court rules on pending retaliatory discharge cases.

New Rule 23(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure makes class action certifications immediately appealable By Michael Todd Scott August 1999 In June of 1997, the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure approved a recommendation from its Advisory Committee on Civil Rules to amend Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to add section 23(f) which authorized the interlocutory appeal of class action certification rulings.

Seventh Circuit holds that an employee can be liable for a corporation’s discovery abuse By Michael Todd Scott December 1999 In Johnson v. Kakvand, No. 97-3893 (7th Cir. Sept. 17, 1999), the Plaintiffs sued Liberty Mortgage Corp. (Liberty) and it's president and sole shareholder, Mike Kakvand, alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Practices Act.