Wu-Tang Clan, the Staten Island based group known for pioneering their own style of hip-hop, made headlines in 2014 upon revealing the existence of a secret album entitled Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, only one copy of which would ever be produced. Wu-Tang envisioned the album as a piece of fine art and a single-sale collector’s item. In 2015, the album was sold at a private auction to an individual later identified as notorious Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli, who reportedly paid $2 million. Fast-forward to 2018, when Shkreli was convicted in federal court of securities fraud, and the United States Government seized $7.36 million of Shkreli’s assets, including…
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BIPARTISAN HOUSE BILL KNOWN AS THE “FREE BRITNEY ACT” PROPOSED IN RESPONSE TO LATEST SURGE OF THE #FREEBRITNEY MOVEMENT
In 2008, Britney Spears’s father, Jamie Spears, established a conservatorship for the famous pop star after concerns that her mental health was deteriorating. A conservatorship is a legal arrangement in which the court appoints a “conservator”—which can be an individual or an organization—to manage the affairs of the “ward,” an individual who the court finds can no longer manage his or her own affairs. In Britney’s case, the court appointed her father as conservator to manage Britney’s estate and physical well-being and L.A. attorney Andrew Wallet as co‑conservator to assist in managing her finances. Britney’s conservatorship largely stayed out of the headlines until April 2019, when the #FreeBritney movement was…
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DISPUTE OVER ESTATE OF JAMES BROWN SETTLES AFTER NEARLY FIFTEEN YEARS OF LITIGATION
James Brown, who died in 2006, left a will most notable for seeking to establish a charity that could distribute millions of dollars via education scholarships to poor and underprivileged children in South Carolina and Georgia, with his family largely left out of the estate plan. A major issue regarding the distribution of Brown’s estate was his children and grandchildren’s desire to share in the proceeds of Brown’s songwriting copyrights. Also at issue was the value of Brown’s estate (estimated by some at up to $100 million) and the validity of Brown’s marriage to backup singer Tommie Rae Hynie, who acted as Brown’s widow following his death, until the Supreme…
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LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE CHAMPLAIN TOWERS SOUTH COLLAPSE IN FLORIDA
On June 24, 2021, part of a 12-story beachfront condo building tragically collapsed in Surfside, Florida, sending apartments to the ground below and trapping many residents in the rubble. As of July 13, 2021, the death toll reached 95 after the recovery of another victim, with 85 of those victims now identified, and 14 more potential victims yet to be pulled from the wreckage. Following the collapse, a report surfaced regarding a previous inspection of the condo building that flagged major structural issues almost three years before the collapse, citing “design flaws and failing waterproofing that would lead to ‘exponential damage.’” The report specifically cited the areas underneath planters and…
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ARIZONA JURY FINDS IN FAVOR OF APPLE CO-FOUNDER STEVE WOZNIAK IN COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENT TRIAL
Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple, Inc., was sued by a Connecticut business professor for allegedly stealing the business idea for Woz U, a technology school established to “help create the innovators of tomorrow and narrow the technology skills gap in the U.S. by working with Learners, Higher Education Institutions and Corporations.” In the lawsuit, Ralph Reilly accused Wozniak of theft of intellectual property and copyright infringement, demanding $1 million in compensation. Reilly claims he revealed the idea for the technology school to Wozniak in 2010 and asked Wozniak if the school could bear his name. According to Woznick, however, Reilly was merely a fan Wozniak met briefly during a…
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U.S. SUPREME COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF FORMER HIGH SCHOOL CHEERLEADER REGARDING USE OF PROFANITY AND NEGATIVE COMMENTS TOWARDS SCHOOL ON SOCIAL MEDIA
On June 23, 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that a Pennsylvania high school violated a student’s First Amendment rights upon punishing her for using profane language on social media that criticized the school. From NPR: At issue in the case was a series of F-bombs issued in 2017 on Snapchat by Brandi Levy, then a 14-year-old cheerleader who failed to win a promotion from the junior varsity to the varsity cheerleading team at her Pennsylvania school. “I was really upset and frustrated at everything,” she said in an interview with NPR in April. So she posted a photo of herself and a friend flipping the bird…
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FEDERAL JUDGE DISMISSES ICE CUBE’S INVASION OF PRIVACY CLAIM AGAINST POPULAR TRADING APP ROBINHOOD
With the recent news surrounding “meme stocks,” Robinhood has become a household name. However, the investing platform has been in the news recently for other reasons. On March 8, 2021, Robinhood posted an image of rapper O’Shea Jackson, professionally known as Ice Cube, from his movie Are We There Yet? along with the caption, “Correct yourself, before you wreck yourself,” a play on words referencing Ice Cube’s famous song “Check Yo Self.” Ice Cube sued Robinhood shortly thereafter, alleging, in part, that Robinhood misappropriated his name and likeness. Last week, a federal Magistrate Judge dismissed Ice Cube’s complaint, reasoning that Ice Cube failed to adequately plead that Robinhood, by using…
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FDA’S ACCELERATED APPROVAL OF NEW ALZHEIMER’S DRUG ADUHELM COINCIDES WITH ELDER ABUSE AWARENESS MONTH
June is Elder Abuse Awareness Month, and the FDA’s approval of a new drug for Alzheimer’s disease provides hope of a possible treatment. On June 7, 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval of a new drug called Aduhelm for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Aduhelm is the first new treatment approved for Alzheimer’s since 2003 and is the first Alzheimer’s drug that targets the underlying pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s. The drug is not yet available but should be shipping around the country over the next few weeks. Since the announcement, the FDA has received some criticism of its decision to grant Aduhelm accelerated approval, with many arguing…
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RUSSELL SIMMONS SUES KIMORA LEE SIMMONS AND TIM LEISSNER FOR CONSPIRING TO FRAUDULENTLY TRANSFER SHARES OF POPULAR ENERGY DRINK COMPANY CELSIUS
Entrepreneur and hip-hop icon Russell Simmons recently sued his ex-wife, Kimora Lee Simmons, and her new husband, Tim Leissner, alleging the two conspired to fraudulently transfer millions of shares of Celsius, a popular energy drink company, to themselves to pay Leissner’s legal and bail fees. Leissner pleaded guilty to money laundering in 2018 and agreed to hand over $44 million to stay out of jail. The suit further alleges claims for breach of contract and breach of confidential relations. Russell alleges he entered a business arrangement with Kimora Lee and Tim in 2016 when they joined Nu Horizons, Russell’s investment company. Russell alleges that through Nu Horizons, the parties invested…
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FEDERAL JUDGE IN CHARLOTTE RULES IN FAVOR OF BANK OF AMERICA IN TELEPHONE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT LAWSUIT
Last Friday, United States District Judge Robert Conrad in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina ruled in favor of Charlotte’s own Bank of America in a lawsuit brought by a Kentucky man pursuant to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The plaintiff brought the suit in May 2020, claiming Bank of America called him approximately 300 times in 2019 in an attempt to collect a debt, despite the plaintiff revoking his consent. The TCPA, enacted in 1991, “restricts the making of telemarketing calls and the use of automatic telephone dialing systems and artificial or prerecorded voice messages.” Specifically, “entities making telephone solicitations [must] institute procedures…
