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Swearingen v. Santa Cruz Natural, Inc., No. 3:13-cv-04291 (N.D. Cal.): The Court issued an order granting in part and denying in part Defendant's motion to dismiss. The order dismissed with prejudice Plaintiff's claims asserting violations of California's CLRA, FAL, and UCL, as well as its claims for breach of express warranty, breach of implied wa...

Victor v. R.C. Bigelow, Inc., No. 3:13-cv-2976 (N.D. Cal.) and Khasin v. R.C. Bigelow Inc., No. 3:12-cv-2204 (N.D. Cal.): United States District Judge William H. Orrick granted Defendant's motion for summary judgment, disposing of this putative class action asserting violations of California's UCL, CLRA, and FAL, and raising a claim for unjust enri...

Perkins Coie is marking the fourth anniversary of inter partes review (IPR) with a report focused on the changes and progress of IPR proceedings, particularly since September 2015.

Effective August 15, 2016 for SEC-registered investment advisers, most funds or separate accounts that are subject to a performance fee or allocation need to raise their "qualified client" net worth threshold for new investors, new investments from existing investors, or new separate account agreements, from $2 million to $2.1 million.  Other ...

In Property Reserve v. Superior Court, S217738 (Cal. Supreme Court, July 21, 2016) the Supreme Court of California held that the precondemnation entry and testing statutes are constitutional when reformed to permit affected property owners the right to have a jury determine damages. The California Department of Water Resources sought a court order ...

Berni, et al. v. Barilla S.P.A., et al¸ No. 1:16-cv-4196 (E.D.N.Y.): Putative class action asserting a violation of New York GBL 349 and raising a claim of unjust enrichment, based on the claim that Defendants misleadingly market their "Whole Grain" and "Protein Plus" varieties of pasta by packaging them in boxes that are the same size as "re...

Currently, many investment advisory firms indicate to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on their Form ADV filings that they have "relying advisers."  With the SEC's adoption on August 25, 2016, of amendments to Form ADV, the landscape for related advisers has changed substantially under a new "umbrella registration" regime. For exa...

Guttmann v. Ole Mexican Foods, Inc., No. 3:14-cv-4845 (N.D. Cal.): The Court granted final approval of class settlement in this putative class action alleging a breach of express warranty claim and violations of California's CLRA, UCL, and FAL, based on Defendant's failure to disclose that its "Xtreme Wellness" line of tortillas contain partially-h...

Neighbors who were suing to maintain existing neighborhood parking regulations were pursuing their own personal interests and did not qualify for the public interest exception from the anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) statute. Because their Brown Act claim had no merit, it was properly dismissed as an anti-SLAPP suit. Cru...

Shortly after my post on the SEC's recent settlement with Apollo Global Management went up, the SEC released a settlement with another private equity fund manager: W.L. Ross & Co. LLC ("WLR"). Like the Apollo case, the SEC sanctioned WLR for failing to fully disclose how it was collecting its fees. But WLR paid a lower penalty than Apollo, perhaps ...