Month: April 2022

  • Case of the Day: Pivar v. Van Gogh Museum

    The case of the day is Pivar v. Van Gogh Museum (S.D.N.Y. 2022). Full disclosure: I was counsel for The Van Gogh Museum Foundation (“the Museum”), the defendant in the case. The Museum houses (though it does not own) the world’s largest collection of the works of Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh. One service the……

  • Lago Agrio: Donziger finishes serving his sentence

    Steven Donziger finished serving his sentence yesterday following his conviction of criminal contempt of court. Although it will come too late to affect his sentence, his appeal challenging the constitutionality of the proceedings, in which the government was represented by a private prosecutor as provided in Fed. R. Crim. P. 42 who, Donziger says, was……

  • Case of the Day: Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation

    The case of the day is Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation (S. Ct. 2022). Justice Kagan, who wrote the opinion for a unanimous court, is such a good writer that sometimes the cases she decides are harder than she makes them look. But I do think today’s case was an easy one. Paul Cassirer was……

  • Case of the Day: US v. Vaello Madero

    It was a busy day at the Supreme Court yesterday. You probably logged on expecting to read about the Cassirer case, and I’ll try to get a post up about it next week. But over time, I have covered some of the First Circuit’s Puerto Rico status cases, so I wanted to comment on US……

  • Thoughts on the Bill on Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Harassment Claims

    In February, Congress passed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021. The new law amends the Federal Arbitration Act to forbid employers from requiring employees to agree to arbitrate sexual assault or sexual harassment claims under federal, state, or tribal law. I wanted to comment on the bill generally,……