Cadwalader produces several newsletters and updates to help our clients and friends understand trends and legal developments in various areas of the law:

• Business Fraud Advisor covers developments in criminal and civil enforcement of anti-fraud statutes
• FCPA Advisor covers developments in criminal and civil enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
• IP Insight covers recent Intellectual Property caselaw and developments of interest.
• Restructuring Review covers important developments in bankruptcy and restructuring.
• The Regulatory Update is a daily email providing a summary of legal and compliance developments covering AML, banking, CEA, ERISA, broker-dealer, investment advisory and fund- related issues, as well as other topics in financial regulation.

To be added to the distribution list for any of these communications, please visit cwtinfo@cwt.com and provide us with your name, company or organization, email address and titles in which you are interested.

Recent Newsletters:

At a press conference on January 27, 2012, Attorney General Eric Holder, accompanied by the SEC Director of Enforcement, the Secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, and the New York Attorney General, among others, announced that the formation of a new Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group ("Working Group") within the current Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force ("Task Force"). The Working Group's task will be to "streamline and strengthen current and future efforts to identify, investigate, and prosecute instances of wrongdoing in the packaging, selling, and valuing of residential mortgage-backed securities."

On December 1, 2011, United States District Judge A. Howard Matz threw out the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ('FCPA') bribery convictions against Lindsey Manufacturing, an emergency electricity tower construction company, its president Keith Lindsey, and vice-president and chief financial officer Steve Lee, on the basis of repeated prosecutorial misconduct. In dismissing the indictment with prejudice, Judge Matz described the government's investigation as 'sloppy, incomplete and notably overzealous.' Last May, a jury had convicted the company, Lindsey, and Lee for bribing foreign officials at the Mexican state-owned utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad ('CFE').

Assoc. Molec. Pathol. v. USPTO, Myriad Genetics et al., 10-1406 (Fed. Cir., July 29, 2011)

In a decision long awaited by the biotechnology industry, the Federal Circuit has held that claims to isolated DNA are patent-eligible subject matter under 35 USC §101 as compositions of matter that do not occur in nature, reversing the lower court ruling.  Assoc. Molec. Pathol. v. USPTO (Myriad Genetics), 10-1406 (Fed. Cir. July 29, 2011).  The asserted composition claims are directed to isolated DNA related to the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene.  Mutations or alterations in the BRCA genes have been found to be associated with particular types of breast cancer, and the characterization and isolation of the genes was critical in developing diagnostic screens for cancer and potential therapeutic products.  

In two recent decisions in the General Growth Properties, Inc., et al. chapter 11 cases, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York upheld certain loan provisions which provided for an automatic event of default and imposition of a default rate of interest upon the commencement of a bankruptcy case, and held that certain creditors were entitled to receive postpetition interest at the contractual default rate.  General Growth Properties, Inc. and its affiliated debtors own, develop, and operate regional shopping malls across the United States.