Companies are facing more and more legal disputes and as a result, are increasing the size of their legal departments while focusing on a variety of alternative means of dealing with potential litigation, according to AlixPartners' Litigation and Corporate Compliance Survey.¹ As such lawsuits grow more costly and more complex, companies have begun to reassess their compliance programs and implement new tools and processes that can reduce litigation-related risks. Litigation—and Costs—on the Rise Amid tighter regulations and more and more regulatory...

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For the third time in the last four months, the Trepp CMBS delinquency rate fell significantly. The rate dropped 17 basis points last month, bringing the delinquency rate for US commercial real estate loans in CMBS to 8.48% in July. This improvement comes on the heels of a 42-basis-point drop in June and a 47-basis-point plunge in April. Only a four-basis-point increase in May interrupted the recent gains in the delinquency picture. The Trepp delinquency rate is now 123 basis...

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Second Highest Monthly Volume; Loss Severity Falls After a spike in loss severity last month, July saw a big jump in liquidated CMBS loan volume and a concurrent drop in loss severity. July brought the second highest liquidation volume since TreppWire started tracking the number in January of 2010. July liquidations totaled $2.05 billion, relative to the 12-month moving average of $1.35 billion. The highest monthly liquidated volume was in November 2011 with $2.10 billion in liquidated loans. While November 2011...

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On July 18, 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with various member states of the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) formalizing an agreement that facilitates the sharing of information and other assistance between the regulators in relation to private fund managers with operations that are subject to oversight in the United States and in one of the European jurisdictions. The SEC and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA),...

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EACCNY member, NautaDutilh Brussels office published its first report on expectations in the Belgian private equity and venture capital sector. In addition to charting market expectations, the report highlights a number of specificities of the Belgian market, such as the importance of the life sciences and energy sectors, distressed M&A, and family businesses. A total of 57 respondents, including private equity and venture capital professionals, bankers, corporate finance advisors, and university professors, completed our online survey and provided valuable feedback. The...

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EACC New York member, the National Corporate Theatre Fund reports that the 50th anniversaries of five NCTF theatres, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Guthrie, Hartford Stage, Seattle Rep and Trinity Rep, garnered a $250,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to fund new work.   This support celebrates the role of the Foundation in kicking off the regional theatre movement in full force 50 years ago, and we were delighted that Luis Ubiñas, President of Ford, bestowed our Achievement in Theatre...

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Soaring through the sky, using not a single speck of conventional fuel, Solar Impulse achieved its fourth world record in July as it successful flew from coast to coast across America. With the weight of a car and the wingspan of a 747, Solar Impulse, as stated by Bertrand Piccard, “was not built to carry passengers but to convey messages.” In hangar 19 of JFK on the 13th of July one could feel the excitement in the air as...

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This article analyzes the legal risks and potential consequences of private equity firms collaborating with one another to create consortiums or so-called "clubs" to jointly bid for acquisition of a publicly listed target company. These kind of transactions are more commonly referred to as "club deals" in the mergers and acquisitions world. From 2003 through 2007 club deals became a staple of the leveraged-buyout (LBO) industry. With the rise of clubs, many large-cap companies came within the reach of...

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At the beginning of July the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published its individual country report on Austria (“Economic Survey Austria 2013“) which generally appears every two years.   The report attests that the Austrian economy continues to show remarkable economic performances whereas at the same time a high level of social cooperation remains. This strength is based on three cornerstones: A successful competitive export-oriented economy with companies who have understood how to exploit the advantages of European integration...

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On June 26, 2013, New York City joined the growing list of jurisdictions requiring employers to give workers paid sick time. The Earned Sick Time Act - enacted after the City Council's decision to overrule Mayor Bloomberg's veto earlier this month - allows employees to earn a minimum amount of paid sick time from businesses that employ at least 20 employees. After the first 18 months, the act will expand its coverage to employers with 15 or more employees and...

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