Coblentz partner Clifford Yin was featured in Law360’s Minority Powerbrokers series. In the question and answer series, Cliff shared his perspective on law firm diversity and issues facing minority lawyers today, stating that “Allowing lawyers of color to formulate and influence strategy and policy and to serve as role models for up-and-coming lawyers is critical, not just to a firm’s diversity efforts but to its ability to compete, succeed and grow. I am fortunate enough to be a partner in a firm that places an enormous value in hiring, retaining and promoting attorneys of color and women.”

Read the Q&A here.

Coblentz partner Paul Tauber was appointed as a civilian observer on behalf of the Pacific Council on International Policy to observe a week of pre-trial hearings in the U.S. v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GTMO). Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the alleged mastermind of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, and stands trial along with four others. In 2013 the Pacific Council was granted official NGO observer status at the Military Commission at GTMO, joining a group of organizations, including the American Bar Association and Amnesty International, that have the privilege of sending a representative to observe proceedings at GTMO.

Paul Tauber’s GTMO assignment follows the lead of the late William (Bill) Coblentz, who was also appointed as an observer by the American Bar Association in 1989 when he traveled to Singapore on behalf of the ABA to observe the trials of four Singaporean lawyers accused of conspiring to undermine the government.

Coblentz attorneys Pamela Duffy, Aaron Foxworthy and Misti Schmidt counseled seller 350 Beach Road LLC in the entitlement and nearly $48M sale of an 18-acre office site property in Burlingame Point to a Chinese investment group. The site is approved for office, life science, retail and restaurant uses, and described by the San Francisco Business Times as “the most significant office project to rise in Burlingame in years.”

Click here to read more.

Coblentz partner Paul Tauber represented DeepStream VR in its arrangement with Rothenberg Ventures’ River Accelerator program for virtual reality start-ups. DeepStream VR creates games for pain relief and rehabilitation. Coblentz congratulates DeepStream VR and looks forward to advising on future partnerships.

Click here or here to read more about DeepStream VR and the River Accelerator program.

The February 2015 issue of California Lawyer magazine’s roundtable discussion on White Collar Defense featured a panel of experts, including Coblentz partner Tim Crudo. The topics discussed on the panel included the “latest developments in white-collar criminal law including a game-changing decision on insider trading, new sentencing guidelines for fraud convictions, more options for filing charges under the bank fraud statutes, and a big heads-up from the Department of Justice on health care billing,” and long-term trends that “are producing more administrative hearings from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the virtual death of joint defense for corporations and their insiders.”

Read a transcript of the panel discussion here.

Coblentz partner Paul Tauber represented bank note printing technology company KBA-NotaSys, based in Switzerland, on a new joint venture formed with Lumenco Inc. The joint venture, LenSys Sarl, will focus on the development, sales and marketing, of a new range of novel bank note security features, combining Lumenco’s patented micro lens optics with KBA-NotaSys’ precise multi-color offset elements.

Click here to read the press release from KBA-NotaSys.

Partner Tim Crudo is quoted in “Attorneys React To 2nd Circ.’s Insider Trading Ruling,” Law360
December 10, 2014

Law360, New York – “In a landmark insider trading ruling Wednesday, the Second Circuit set a stricter standard for prosecuting people who are one or more layers removed from sources of confidential information, overturning the convictions of hedge fund managers.” Tim Crudo offers his opinion on why this ruling is significant:

‘ “This will make it more difficult for the DOJ to go after remote tippees. Insider trading cases already rely heavily on indirect evidence, but proof a tippee knew the insider got a benefit should be tougher to find than the usual evidence proving he knew the information was material, nonpublic and provided in breach of a duty. It will be interesting to see what impact this has on the SEC, which has a lower burden of proof at trial. You may see the SEC trying to pick up the slack in remote tippee cases.” ‘

Read Tim’s quote here.

Congratulations to Pam Duffy for being recognized as one of California’s Top 50 Development Lawyers by the Daily Journal. The Daily Journal article highlights Pam’s involvement as lead counsel for California Pacific Medical Center and the development of its $2.7 billion, five-campus project extending across San Francisco. Of the project, Pam says, “Land use lawyers get an incredible opportunity to undertake projects that have significant effects on the long-term future of communities. I’ve never been so challenged with something that is so important.”

Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP persuaded a Colorado federal district judge to reject a request to certify a class of individuals allegedly “robocalled” by DISH Network LLC, the premier satellite TV and internet provider.  The complaint was filed in July 26, 2012.  Plaintiff Seth Warnick alleged that DISH called his cell phone without his consent, using an automatic dialing system in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”).  He sought injunctive relief and statutory damages of $500 for each call made, plus an additional $1500 per violation in punitive damages on behalf of himself and all class members.

The Honorable Wiley Y. Daniel of the United States District Court of Colorado found that Warnick’s proposed class was overbroad, was not ascertainable, and that attempting to identify the members would render the case unmanageable. DISH had made a handful of non-solicitation calls to Warnick’s phone by mistake when it was trying to contact one of its customers.

DISH argued that the class was a fail-safe class, and it was overbroad and that it was not ascertainable because the only way to find the calls made by mistake was to make individualized, case-by-case investigations.  Coblentz partners Richard Patch and Zuzana Ikels represented DISH at a two day evidentiary hearing in March 2014.  At the hearing, the Court indicated it would provisionally certify a smaller, sub-class and invited Plaintiff to propose a more narrow class definition.  Several rounds of briefing then followed over the next few months.  Plaintiff submitted a proposed definition that continued to require the review and production of records from millions of customers who were not in the class.

The June 26, 2014 order found that “the proposed class is not administratively feasible because identifying the class members is not a manageable process and would require extensive individual factual inquiry. See Carrera, 727 F.3d at 307-08. The inquiry into factual records to determine class members is so daunting as to make the class definition insufficient. Agne, 286 F.R.D. at 566.”

This is one of the first decisions to address the propriety of certifying a TCPA class in the context of non-solicitation calls made to cellular telephones.  In light of the rising tide of TCPA class actions filed around the country, it should be useful for companies facing claims that calls made to a wrong number, when trying reach their own customers, could subject them to TCPA liability.

The Coblentz Team included Richard Patch, Susan Jamison, Zuzana Ikels, Jeremiah Burke, Sean Kiley and David Mehretu.

See the full press release here.