Solutions at the speed of now

Stradling prevailed at the California Supreme Court, successfully validating the City of San José’s legal authority to issue up to $3.5 billion in proposed pension obligation bonds to address the unfunded liabilities in its Retirement Systems.  The Court issued a unanimous opinion holding that the City’s unfunded liability represents an obligation imposed by law and that the California Constitutional Debt Limit does not constrain the City’s discretion in deciding whether or not to issue pension obligation bonds to address its obligation to fund the Retirement System.

Stradling successfully obtained a rare sanctions order on behalf of Harbor Diversified, Inc. and its senior executives in a securities fraud action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. The Stradling team successfully moved to dismiss the operative complaint, and then convinced the Court that the initial complaint was so defective as to warrant sanctions under Rule 11. The Court ordered plaintiff’s counsel to reimburse Harbor for the fees and costs incurred in responding to the defective complaint. Stradling partner Jason de Bretteville led the defense team.

For many lawyers practicing outside the United States, intellectual property protection and risk are most often associated with patents, trademarks and copyrights. Trade secrets are frequently treated as the forgotten stepchild—associated with employment law and contracts rather than as an independent body of law. But since the passage of the Federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) in 2016, trade secret issues and disputes have steadily increased, and are now increasingly impacting both foreign companies doing business in the U.S. and domestic companies doing business abroad.