Commercial
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October 03, 2025
Supreme Court Takes Up Cuba Seizure Law Cases
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider two cases seeking clarity on a federal law enacted in 1996 that allows U.S. victims of property seizures by the Cuban government to seek damages from entities that subsequently used the property.
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October 02, 2025
Jury Clears T-Mobile In Tower Builder's $20M Contract Suit
T-Mobile owes nothing to a cell tower company that sought more than $20 million over claims the wireless carrier broke a contract that allegedly guaranteed the company rights to develop 100 tower sites, a Washington state jury said in a verdict Thursday.
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October 02, 2025
Feds Say Tribes In Ore. Casino Dispute Misconstrued Ruling
The U.S. Department of the Interior has asked a D.C. federal judge to approve its motion for summary judgment and to oppose three tribes' bid for a win in a suit over the agency's decision to take land into trust for another tribe's casino project.
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October 02, 2025
NC State Demands Monsanto Pay For 'Toxic' PCB Cleanup
North Carolina State University is looking to hold Monsanto Co. accountable for the contamination of one of its buildings, accusing the former agrochemical giant in North Carolina state court of marketing a chemical used in building materials despite knowing it was toxic.
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October 02, 2025
4 Mass. Rulings You May Have Missed In September
One attorney scored an early exit from a malpractice suit, another must face a long-delayed arbitration, and a judge has requested more information on a proposed settlement in a class action brought by gamblers at a Massachusetts casino. Here are four rulings from Suffolk Superior Court's business litigation session in September.
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October 02, 2025
2nd Circ. Says Co. Can't Stop NY Property Sale In SEC Suit
The Second Circuit tossed a company's appeals Thursday over a Sag Harbor, New York, property linked to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's $26 million investment fraud suit against an alternative investment principal.
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October 02, 2025
NYC Supertall To Move Forward With Council Backing
New York's City Council has endorsed a plan to build one of the city's tallest towers on Park Avenue in Manhattan, a 1,600-foot-tall office building to be constructed by a trio of developers.
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October 02, 2025
Chicago Office Leasing Returning To Pre-COVID Rates
Strong leasing activity in Chicago's downtown office market during the third quarter of the year set the market on target to record the highest leasing volume since the pandemic disruptions, per a report from Savills.
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October 02, 2025
NFIP Lapse Threatens Home Sales, Hurricane Protections
Thousands of home sales could be delayed or canceled as a result of the National Flood Insurance Program lapsing under the government shutdown, and homeowners could potentially be left without coverage during hurricane season, experts say.
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October 02, 2025
J&J Must Pay $10M In Punitive Damages After Asbestos Loss
A Connecticut state court judge has hit Johnson & Johnson with $10 million in punitive damages after a jury sided with a builder who alleged the company's baby powder caused his terminal cancer, adding the amount to an existing $15 million verdict.
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October 02, 2025
NJ Says RealPage Price-Fixing Claims Meet 'Cartel' Standard
The New Jersey government defended its price-fixing claims against RealPage Inc. and multiple landlords in federal court, arguing that the defendants' collusion to jack up rents represents "cartel conduct in its most traditional form."
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October 02, 2025
Cajun Restaurant Chain Hits Ch. 11 Amid Consumer Shifts
Cajun restaurant chain Razzoo's filed for Chapter 11 protection in Texas bankruptcy court, citing consumer shifts since the COVID-19 pandemic began that have led to financial distress and made it necessary for the business to seek relief from onerous lease obligations and reduce its store count.
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October 02, 2025
11th Circ. Urged To Uphold Cut To $17M Easement Deduction
The U.S. Tax Court correctly slashed a partnership's $17 million tax deduction for donating a conservation easement, the government told the Eleventh Circuit, urging it to uphold a ruling that accused the group of trying to "fleece the public" by claiming the land was ripe for mining.
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October 02, 2025
Calif. Law Updates Rules For Tax-Defaulted Property Sales
California has enacted a measure conforming the process of selling tax-defaulted property to a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision finding Minnesota violated the Fifth Amendment by keeping proceeds from a foreclosure sale that exceeded a tax debt.
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October 01, 2025
Grand Sierra Resort Starts $1B Redevelopment Project
Grand Sierra Resort kicked off the first phase of its $1 billion redevelopment project by starting construction on a $435 million, 300,000-square-foot basketball arena that will seat 10,000, the Reno, Nevada, casino resort announced Wednesday.
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October 01, 2025
Hospitals Turn To Real Estate To Shore Up Finances
Hospital systems are increasingly turning to their real estate to raise money after years of rising inflation and lagging reimbursement rates, although state regulators have placed more scrutiny on such transactions.
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October 01, 2025
Industrial REIT Sells Vacant Warehouse Sites For $175M
LXP Industrial Trust announced that it has sold two vacant warehouse and distribution assets for an aggregate $175 million, in a deal guided by Eiseman Levine Lehrhaupt & Kakoyiannis PC.
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October 01, 2025
How Real Estate Attorneys Are Tapping Into Tech
Between the arrival of artificial intelligence in the mainstream and real estate companies' embrace of technology and data over the past few years, real estate attorneys have been confronted by a need to keep up, while also being presented with an array of new tools to enhance their work.
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October 01, 2025
Saul Ewing Real Estate Chair Seeing An Uptick In Deal Flow
Despite lingering questions about tariffs and interest rates, real estate companies are starting to do more deals, with the hope that interest rates will continue to fall, Saul Ewing's real estate chair recently told Law360.
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October 01, 2025
Smith Hill, Bain Lend $216M For NYC Grand Central Hotel Refi
Smith Hill Capital and Bain Capital have completed a $216 million refinancing for the Westin New York Grand Central hotel in midtown Manhattan, according to a Wednesday announcement.
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October 01, 2025
Mandelbaum Barrett Expands, Adding Partner In Bayonne, NJ
Mandelbaum Barrett PC is expanding into Hudson County, New Jersey, with the hire of a real estate expert with nearly 30 years of experience in Bayonne, the firm announced Wednesday.
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October 01, 2025
Orrick, Davis Polk Lead Flood Insurer Neptune's $368M IPO
Neptune Insurance Holdings Inc., guided by Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, has priced a $368 million initial public offering with a Morgan Stanley-led group of underwriters guided by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.
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October 01, 2025
Haynes Boone Leads AI Campus REIT's Upsized $683M IPO
Fermi, a real estate investment trust co-founded by former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, hit a $14.8 billion valuation Wednesday in an initial public offering for the venture that aims to build power generation and data center capacity to support artificial intelligence on a Texas site, in a deal advised by Haynes Boone and Vinson & Elkins LLP.
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October 01, 2025
Real Estate Lawyers On The Move
Hogan Lovells and Dorsey & Whitney are among the law firms that have made recent real estate or construction hires.
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October 01, 2025
3 Firms Guide Rocket Merger To Close With $14.2B Valuation
Online mortgage giant Rocket has finished its all-stock purchase of rival Mr. Cooper Group with help from Paul Weiss, Wachtell and Bradley Arant, noting Wednesday the now-$14.2 billion deal has a higher price tag because stock values have risen since the merger's announcement.
Expert Analysis
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How CFIUS' Updated Framework Affects Global Investors
The recent change to the monitoring and enforcement regulations governing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States will broaden administrative practices around nonnotified transaction investigations, increase the scope of information demands from the committee and accelerate its ability to impose mitigation on parties, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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Foreclosing Lenders Still Floating In Murky Legal Waters In NY
The New York foreclosure landscape remains in disarray after the state's highest court last month declined to weigh in on whether legal changes from 2022 that severely curtailed lenders' ability to bring successive foreclosure cases were retroactive, says Brian Rich at Barclay Damon.
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NYC Hotel Licensing Law's Costs May Outweigh Its Benefits
A hotel licensing bill recently approved by New York's City Council could lead to the loss of many nonunionized hotels that cannot afford to comply, says Stuart Saft at Holland & Knight.
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Calif. Ruling Offers Hope For Mitigated Negative Declarations
In Upland Community First v. City of Upland, a California appeals court upheld a warehouse development's mitigated negative declaration over its greenhouse gas emissions thresholds — a rare victory against this type of challenge providing reassurance that such declarations can be upheld, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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There's No Crying In Property Valuation Baseball Arbitration
The World Series is the perfect time to consider how the form of arbitration used for settling MLB salary disputes — in which each side offers competing valuations to an arbitrator, who must select one — is often ideal for resolving property valuation disputes, say Sean O’Donnell at Herrick Feinstein and Mark Dunec at FTI Consulting.
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Webuild Ruling Complicates Arb. Award Enforcement In US
A Delaware federal court's recent decision in Sociedad Concesionaria Metropolitana de Salud v. Webuild, if read literally, could undercut the United States' image as a proarbitration jurisdiction by complicating creditors' efforts to enforce awards against property in this country, says Jeff Newton at Omni Bridgeway.
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How To Avoid A Costly CPA Limitation Hidden In Most Leases
The lease audit rights clause is a seemingly innocuous provision in most commercial real estate leases that ends up costing tenants millions of dollars each year, as they have unwittingly agreed to retain only an accountant to investigate and settle financial issues, says Jason Aster at KBA Lease Services.
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Navigating FEMA Grant Program For Slope Fixes After Storms
In the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, it is critical for governments, businesses and individuals to understand the legal requirements of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's grant programs to obtain funding for crucial repairs — including restoration of damaged infrastructure caused by landslides and slope failures, says Charles Schexnaildre at Baker Donelson.
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Smith's New Trump Indictment Is Case Study In Superseding
Special counsel Jack Smith’s recently revised Jan. 6 charges against former President Donald Trump provide lessons for prosecutors on how to effectively draft superseding indictments in order to buttress or streamline their case, as necessary, says Jessica Roth at Cardozo Law School.
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Consider Best Legal Practices For Commissioning Public Art
Commissioning public art for real estate projects can provide many benefits to real estate developers and the public, but it's important to understand the unique legal and contracting aspects of the process to ensure that projects are completed on time and on budget, says Sarah Conley Odenkirk at ArtConverge.
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Applying High Court's Domestic Corruption Rulings To FCPA
After the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the domestic corruption statutes in three decisions over the past year and a half, it’s worth evaluating whether these rulings may have an impact on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, and if attorneys can use the court’s reasoning in international bribery cases, says James Koukios at MoFo.
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Climate Among Many Factors Driving Up RE Insurance Costs
A proactive approach to risk management may determine the viability of the U.S. commercial real estate sector as weather crises and other factors drive insurance costs higher, says Ulrick Matsunaga at Crosbie Gliner.
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Bid Protest Spotlight: Debriefings, Timeliness, Documentation
James Tucker at MoFo examines three recent decisions from the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims concerning an agency's decision not to hold post-award discussions, a timeliness trap in certain Federal Supply Schedule procurements and the importance of providing contemporaneous documentation in price-evaluation protests.