Michael Meeks, a partner in Pepper Hamilton’s Commercial Litigation practice group and a resident of our expanding Orange County California office, and Eric Goldberg, an associate with Pepper’s Philadelphia office who concentrates his practice in commercial litigation, discuss an interesting matter that arose out of the divorce proceedings between Bruce Springsteen’s keyboardist, Danny Federici, and his wife Kathlynn Federici.

The matter is Federici v. Gursey Schneider and Company. Federici raises the issue of the enforceability of a mandatory fee arbitration agreement between Kathlynn Federici and the accounting firm she retained during the divorce.

This topic was the subject of an article in Pepper’s June 2007 Commercial Litigation Report. Other articles in the Report include “Supreme Court to Weigh Whether Parties Can Expand Judicial Review of Arbitration Awards” and “Supreme Court Guidance on Admissible Evidence and Proper Jury Instructions Related to Punitive Damages Claims”. If you are interested, you can receive a complimentary electronic copy of this Report.

This podcast with Vicki Harding, a resident of the Detroit office of Pepper Hamilton and a real estate lawyer who is currently working on qualifying as a “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” (LEED) Accredited Professional, and Sean Delaney, an associate in the Harrisburg office of Pepper who is also working on becoming a LEED Accredited Professional, discusses green building initiatives, particularly LEED certifications for new and existing developments.

In addition to reviewing the components involved in a project being LEED certified, this podcast also discusses energy efficiency credits and the relevance of LEED to organizations.

If you’re interested in learning more about the latest developments in Real Estate Law, email [email protected] to subscribe to Pepper Hamilton’s Real Estate Update.

In this podcast, David Shapiro, of counsel with Pepper Hamilton, discusses the impact of the July 16, 2007 dismissal of 13 former KPMG employees who were defendants in a government initiated fraud case pending in the Southern District of New York.

The court’s opinion marks another attack in a string of criticisms waged against standard DOJ charging policies that has led to significant reforms. David discusses whether the target company should pay the legal expenses of its former employees, whether the company should waive its protection over privileged communications and work product documents and turn over the materials to the government and the long term implications of the Stein decision.

For more information on this topic, you can receive an electronic copy of David’s presentation from a recent national conference entitled, “Protecting Privileged Materials and Considerations for Waiving Privilege for Internal Investigations.”

On May 14, 2007, a federal jury rendered a verdict in Miller v. Holtzman against five related construction companies finding them liable in a whistleblower-initiated federal False Claims Act trial for rigging $250 million in U.S.-funded international construction contracts in Egypt.

David Shapiro, of counsel with Pepper and a member of the Health Effects Litigation Practice Group, and Ray Deluca, a partner in the Construction Practice Group of Pepper Hamilton, discuss this case and describe how this case serves as an important warning to prime and sub contractors working on domestic and international government projects.

If you’re interested in learning more about the latest developments in Construction Law, email [email protected] to subscribe to Pepper Hamilton’s Construction Update.

Philadelphia landmark Geno’s Steaks made headlines when it posted a sign that reads, “This is America. When ordering, please speak English.” The sign received national media attention and caught the eye of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, which filed a complaint against Geno’s alleging discrimination.

Listen to this podcast with Amy McAndrew, an associate with Pepper Hamilton whose practice includes a variety of labor and employment issues, as she discusses English only rules in the workplace and the types of claims companies may face if they adopt them.

After the Supreme Court’s March 27, 2007, decision in U.S. v. Rockwell International Corp., future whistleblowers and their attorneys will have to screen more carefully potential fraud cases regarding the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit program (Part D) and will face a greater risk of not being paid on speculative claims under the federal False Claims Act (FCA).

Listen to this podcast with David Shapiro, of counsel at Pepper and a resident of both the Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. offices, as he discusses this decision and describes the affect on Medicare and other health-related cases.

Before joining Pepper, David was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, where he primarily prosecuted health care fraud cases under the FCA, including the Medco case that is cited in this podcast. If you are interested in receiving the latest updates in the world of health care law, email [email protected] to subscribe to our Health Care Alert series.

On March 20, 2007, the United States Supreme Court resolved a splint among the Circuit Courts of Appeal regarding whether the Bankruptcy Code precludes unsecured creditors from recovering contract-based attorney’s fees that are authorized by a pre-bankruptcy contract and incurred while litigating issues arising under federal bankruptcy law.

Listen to this short podcast with Anne Marie Aaronson, an associate in Pepper Hamilton’s Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy Practice Group, as she discusses the split and the Supreme Court’s ruling.

To keep up with the latest developments in bankruptcy law, email [email protected] to sign up for Pepper Hamilton’s electronic Bankruptcy Update alerts.

Unofficial or “ad hoc” committees are sometimes formed during bankruptcy cases. However, two recent decisions rendered in the Northwest Airlines family of bankruptcy cases suggest that the formation of such a committee may bring certain – and perhaps unexpected – burdens of disclosure.

Listen to this short podcast with Henry Jaffe, a partner in Pepper Hamilton’s Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy Practice Group and resident of both the Wilmington and Philadelphia offices, as he defines “ad hoc” committees and discusses the Northwest Airlines opinions.

To keep up with the latest developments in bankruptcy law, email [email protected] to sign up for Pepper Hamilton’s electronic Bankruptcy Update alerts.

Pepper Hamilton and PricewaterhouseCoopers recently released a new study that presents findings from a survey of private equity firms. The study is entitled “Private Equity Insight: Dividend Recapitalizations” and was conducted in association with mergermarket, a research and publishing company.

Some key findings include:

• 97 percent of respondents expect to recapitalize portfolio companies in 2007

• the majority of dividend recaps will involve middle market companies

• most firms are comfortable with post-dividend recap leverage ratios of 3.5 or 4 to 1.

Listen to this short podcast with Pepper partner Cary Levinson and PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Tom Pickette, as they discuss the highlights of this interesting survey.

With financial reporting for income taxes changing under the new standard imposed under FIN 48, the issue of whether a taxpayer has nexus in a particular state sufficient to allow the state to impose an income tax on the taxpayer has garnered a tremendous amount of attention in recent months.

In this podcast with Lance Jacobs, an associate with Pepper's Washington office, who focuses his practice on federal, state and local tax matters, Lance discusses the affect on taxpayers as states are imposing taxes based upon economic nexus, reviews recent cases such as West Virginia v. MBNA America and Lanco v. New Jersey, which have created more uncertainty for taxpayers, and describes the affects of FIN 48 on taxpayer filing decisions.