Coblentz Intellectual Property-Litigation Partner Julie Greer has recovered sanctions on behalf of client Sony Music Entertainment in a case involving the Jazz legend, Nina Simone. Nina Simone’s former husband and business manager, Andrew Stroud, and his attorney were ordered to pay more than $40,000 in sanctions to the jazz great’s estate, record label, and attorney after a federal court ruling by U.S. District Judge Donna Ryu. The case involves the ownership and sale of Nina Simone’s recordings. The Court found that Stroud violated a 2011 Court Order by selling disputed recordings to entertainment company, ICU.

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Coblentz associates Katharine Van Dusen and Eleanor Hicks successfully received a favorable outcome for a husband and wife seeking asylum based on the threat of persecution in Guatemala due to the husband’s Mayan ethnicity. The case was taken over after the Board of Immigration Appeals determined they were not eligible for asylum because of a procedural bar. Van Dusen convinced the government to grant a favorable exercise of discretion and close the removal proceedings, allowing the couple to remain in the U.S. with their two young U.S. citizen children.

Coblentz represented certain selling shareholders of AARDEX Group SA, a Swiss entity, in its acquisition by Fortune 500 company, MeadWestvaco Corporation. AARDEX pioneered electronic medication-event monitoring systems, which is recognized as the gold-standard method for compiling patient’s drug dosing histories during clinical trials. A small microcircuit, integrated into the drug package, records the time and date when the package is opened. More than 500 clinical research studies by leading universities, public and private research groups and research-based pharmaceutical companies, have used the technology. MeadWestvaco Corporation (MWV) provides packaging solutions to many of the world’s most-admired brands in the healthcare, beauty and personal care, food, beverage, and home and garden industries. With 15,000 employees worldwide, MWV operates in 30 countries and serves customers in more than 100 nations.

Paul Escobosa, a Partner in the Business Practice, negotiated the complex cross border agreements and crafted the sale transaction to maximize the shareholders’ current and ultimate after tax proceeds. The deal was unusually complicated due to differing tax issues in the U.S., Belgium and Switzerland.

Paul Tauber represented Bankons (think Banks & Coupons), a San Francisco-based mobile offers service, in an asset transaction with credit card and financial services company, Capital One for its Digital Innovation Lab.  Bankons built an app and platform to help consumers get the best offers via mobile phones using geo-location and purchase histories. Following the close of the transaction, BankOns will remain a separate and independent company. Financial terms of the deal were not released.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 7, 2012 – Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass congratulates Jeffrey Sinsheimer on his appointment as an Adjunct Professor at UC Hastings. Mr. Sinsheimer will be teaching a Telecommunications Law Seminar in the Fall 2013 semester. Known as a go-to lawyer in the telecommunications field, Mr. Sinsheimer will be teaching government regulation of the telecommunications industry. His focus will be on developments that have occurred over the fifteen years since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was adopted: the evolution of policy issues facing Congress and the states, and the constitutional, jurisdictional and statutory questions facing administrative agencies and the courts.

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The development of a new stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., to become the home of the San Francisco 49ers, took a huge step forward as the official groundbreaking ceremony took place on the site April 19, 2012.

Coblentz acted as real estate and corporate counsel to the NFL team and its affiliates throughout the high-profile project, initiated in 2007. Construction on the state-of-the-art, 68,000-seat stadium is scheduled for completion by the start of the 2014-2015 season.
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Here is the complete list of the winners and finalists and their categories recognized in the San Francisco Business Times 2011 Real Estate Deals of the Year Awards:

Finalist for Best Community Impact: Forest City’s 5M Project

Finalist for Best Retail Space: Lucky Strike

Finalist for Best Public/Cultural/Health: Mills-Peninsula Medical Center

Winner of Best Office Sale, San Francisco: 155 Fifth Street

Winner of Best Office Sale, Outside San Francisco: Swift Plaza

Congratulations to Robert Hodil for being named Vice-Chair of The State Bar of California’s Real Property Law Section’s Zoning and Land Use Subsection.

Coblentz appellate litigators Richard Patch, Susan Jamison, Zuzana Ikels and David Mehretu are pleased to congratulate their client DISH Network on its decisive win in the Seventh Circuit in a consumer class action challenging DISH’s early service cancellation fee. Having obtained a dismissal of the putative class action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, the defense team went to work defending the favorable judgment on appeal. In a published decision authored by Judge Easterbrook, the Seventh Circuit firmly rejected a challenge by a customer that DISH’s contract unlawfully permitted it to take customers’ Social Security benefits from their bank accounts in violation of the Social Security Act.

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Coblentz attorneys Paul Escobosa, Todd Hovey, Douglas Sands and Misti Schmidt represented Ronnie Lott on the sale of Mercedes Benz of Medford and the associated real property. Paul Escobosa and Todd Hovey advised Lott on the corporate transaction, while Doug Sands and Misti Schmidt assisted with the real estate work involved in the sale. The buyers were Ron Heller and Bill Bird who also own two Mercedes dealerships in Texas. Ronnie Lott also owns Tracy Toyota in Tracy, California. Lott has been involved in the automobile business since retiring from the San Francisco 49ers. Lott was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame on July 29, 2000.

Late last fall, Coblentz attorneys Paul Escobosa and Todd Hovey assisted clients John Anderson and Barry Rodenberg in the sale of Courtesy Chevrolet in San Jose, the largest Chevrolet dealership in Northern California.

Coblentz has attorneys expert in automotive legal services. Paul Escobosa has served as outside General Counsel to scores of dealerships, including more than 100 dealership buy/sell transactions. Coblentz’s areas of expertise include buying and selling dealerships, executive compensation and incentive agreements, succession planning, employment issues, and financing.