Insights

Washington – January 4, 2021: Crowell & Moring elected nine lawyers to the firm’s partnership, effective January 1, 2021. The firm also promoted 18 associates to the position of counsel. The new partners have been promoted from within the ranks of the firm’s Washington, Los Angeles, and New York offices and from across several practice groups, including Advertising & Media, Environment & Natural Resources, Litigation, International Trade, Antitrust & Competition, Government Contracts, and Intellectual Property.

Washington, D.C. – January 9, 2017: Crowell & Moring LLP is pleased to announce that it has elected six lawyers to the firm's partnership, effective January 1, 2017. The firm has also promoted 19 associates to the position of counsel. The new partners have been promoted from within the ranks of the firm's Washington, D.C., New York, Orange County, and Los Angeles offices and underscore the firm's commitment to its Antitrust, Commercial Litigation, Environment & Natural Resources, Government Contracts, Health Care, International Trade, and White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement practices.

Recent developments in California case law have strengthened the ability to enforce conditional or tiered payments in commercial contracts and leases.  

On June 29, 2020, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a challenge by several landlords to quash New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 202.28 (the “Executive Order”), issued on May 7, 2020.  The Executive Order, among other things, imposed a moratorium on commercial and residential evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The court found that the eviction restrictions imposed by the Executive Order do not violate landlords' rights under federal law and that the court has no jurisdiction over state law questions they may raise.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has created myriad lease issues for commercial tenants who have closed stores, and are analyzing whether to abate rent during the closure. 

The performance of many commercial contracts has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including supply agreements, services agreements, and commercial leases. Are those impacts being allocated consistent with your negotiated agreements? Are there other doctrines such as frustration of purpose and impossibility of performance that apply to your agreements and might impact the allocation of COVID-19 impacts? Please join us for a discussion of commercial contracts and what rights you might have related to those contracts, including claims for possible recovery.

In a typical office lease, office tenants agree to pay rent in exchange for space where their employees can all gather and do their jobs. What happens when employees cannot access that space? Should rent payments continue? Join us for a discussion of relevant lease provisions and legal authority. We will cover top level conclusions, possible claims based on lease language and legal authority, the possibility of default actions by landlords, and steps you can take now to protect your interests.