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Business Firm News

An International Business Dispute

An international dispute pending in the US District Court Northern District of Ohio, case number 1:20-CV-00601-SO has been settled to the parties’ satisfaction. We represented the plaintiff.

The case started in March 2020 when the plaintiff filed its complaint with the district court. Since then, parties filed pleadings, motions and engaged in discovery. Based on newly obtained information, plaintiff filed its amended complaint which drastically changed the landscape of the case. Soon after, both parties were able to sit down and discuss possible resolutions for the dispute. With the court’s assistance, the parties finally settled all issues between them in December 2021.

The case was litigated during the COVID pandemic. Thus, all hearings were conducted in a virtual setting. Plaintiff received just compensation and was satisfied with the result and our service because we maximized the client’s rights and benefits.

International business litigation has many more challenges than routine domestic civil litigation. It also requires additional skills and abilities. For example, the first step – service of process could be a daunting task. In this case, the defendants tried all means to avoid being served. The service alone took many months. Nonetheless, we were good at it, and in the end, we obtained a good result for the client. If you have an international business dispute, please contact us.

© 2021 Copyright by Lei Jiang LLC. All rights reserved.

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Business Firm News

A Successful Five Million Dollar Merger and Acquisition

A five-million-dollar merger and acquisition was concluded right after the Thanksgiving Holiday. The initial closing was set for November 24, 2021, the day before Thanksgiving. Instead it was closed on November 26, 2021.

In this case, the purchaser was a Nasdaq listed company specializing in international education.  It acquired 70% of the ownership of an Ohio private investment company specializing in higher education. This acquisition was done in two steps. The first was the purchasing of the 70% ownership interest. Then, immediately following the first closing, the company subscribed 900 new shares as part of the deal (subscription closing). Two closings were scheduled back-to-back.

There were some challenging issues of the deal which required special skills. For example, the seller company had several classes of shares and non-diluted shares.  Also, the seller company’s shareholders were non-US persons. Finally, the seller company had de facto subsidiaries, including an international subsidiary. All of these factors increased the deal’s complexity.

We represented the seller company and were working around the clock to meet the deadlines. In the end, both closings were successfully completed. Our client was satisfied with our help. Moreover, the client went the extra mile to acknowledge our work by rating us positively on Google. 

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) require high-level skills that are not easily obtainable. Skills and experience from legal areas such as business transaction, taxation, IP, or even immigration may be called together in this type of work.

We are happy with the positive results and synergies created by this deal. Case after case shows that our commitment to our client’s success is real and never fading. If you have M&A work, please contact us.

© 2021 Copyright by Lei Jiang LLC. All rights reserved.

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Business Firm News

A SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF A WAGE CASE

After near a four-year litigation, a wage case in the US District Court Northern District of Ohio was recently settled to our client’s satisfaction. T. Wang v. China Wok, et al. Case number 3:17-cv-00691 was filed on April 3, 2017. Our firm represented Plaintiff Ms. Wang. The original complaint was subsequently amended and supplemented. Additional parties were added as defendants. Ms. Lei Jiang was the lead counsel in this case.

The case was at the final stage – waiting for the trial when it was settled. All discovery was completed, and summary motions were filed and determined by the court. Due to COVID, the trial was delayed. Unexpected delay eventually facilitated the settlement. This proved to be advantageous for all parties involved because there will be no appeals.

Labor and employment disputes are one of our areas. If you have such issues, please contact us.

© 2021 Copyright by Lei Jiang LLC. All rights reserved.

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Firm News Uncategorized

SUCCESS IN FOUR CIVIL CASES in 2021

In 2021, we successfully litigated 4 cases, winning favorable outcomes for our clients. CV-19-925835 and CV-20-930311 were two companion cases in Cuyahoga Common Pleas Court filed by a plaintiff against our client, a defendant.  CV-19-925835 was filed on November 26, 2019. Plaintiff alleged breach of two contracts. Based on evidence, we quickly filed counterclaims against the plaintiff and a third-party complaint against plaintiff company’s owner. Evidence showed that the lawsuit was frivolous. More appalling, Plaintiff filed second suit against our client on March 3, 2020 with similar claims.

Plaintiff filed numerous motions to distort, delay and/or disrupt the cases, most of them were meritless. In a short period of one year during the global pandemic, a total of 46 motions/briefs were filed (21 in CV-19-925835 and 25 in CV-20-930311), not to mention many other documents, pleadings, and hearings.  This was extraordinary. Yet, our defense team defeated and dissolved all these baseless motions.

In the end, Plaintiff ran out of gas and tricks. On March 26, 2021, Plaintiff voluntarily dismissed all claims against our client in these two cases. Thus, our client triumphed and was satisfied with our representation.

We also defended our clients in two other cases and obtained measurable success. 20CV000003 is a civil case in Lake County Common Pleas. This was another highly contested case (if not more) which involved the same entity in the above two Cuyahoga cases (plaintiff there). Approximately 53 motions/briefs were filed in one year. Types of motions filed by this entity (third party defendants here) included, but not limited to:

  • Motion to disqualify defense counsel
  • Motion to reconsideration
  • Motion for extension of time
  • Motion to compel discovery
  • Renewed and amended motion to disqualify
  • Motion for protective order
  • Motion to strike
  • Motion to dismiss
  • Substituted motion to strike
  • Motion for non-prejudicial dismissal under doctrine of forum non conveniens
  • Motion to continue
  • Motion in limine
  • Motion for leave to file sur-reply

We defeated all these motions and obtained a favorable outcome for the client.

The fourth case was in Cleveland Height Municipal Court where our client, a defendant, prevailed after the trial. Case number is CVI2001426.

Big or small, plaintiff or defense work, we handle the cases with the highest level of care, professionalism, and skill. If you have a business dispute, please contact us for help. 

© 2021 Copyright by Lei Jiang LLC. All rights reserved.

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Firm Intellectual Property News

Patent Prosecution and Litigation 2020

Over the years, our firm has prosecuted many patent applications and successfully secured patents for many clients. 2020 was a busy year with many applications having been filed.  We also saw allowances issued to our clients as a result of years of work.  Here is one of the patents secured by our law firm that was granted in May 2020. The prosecuting attorney was Ms. Lei Jiang.

Click to view full image.

Click to view full image.

This particular application is a PCT application, meaning that the application was submitted through Patent Cooperation Treaty. The applicant must be a national of a PCT contracting State (a member country). There are about 150 contracting states including most major countries. This type of applications is the most complex one. There are other type applications, such as:

  • Provisional application
  • Utility application
  • Design application
  • Plant application

Our firm handles prosecution of all patent applications. It is always a great honor to practice law in front of the United State Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). USPTO is one of the most efficient and courteous government offices in this nation.  

On patent litigation side, COVID-19 may have slowed down many economic activities, but it didn’t slow down. The infringement litigation in the first half of 2020 was up by 16% according to the National Law Journal. Also, the battleground has shifted. In 2019, Delaware had the most patent cases, but in 2020, West Texas leaped ahead with the most filings. Thus, the Western District of Texas is now entrenched as the most popular filing destination for infringement cases. This trend started when U.S. District Judge Alan Albright joined the bench in 2018.

Whether you need a patent for your idea/invention or need to defend your patent rights, we can help. For questions, please contact us.

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Business Firm News Uncategorized

2020 Business Valuation – A Recent U.S. Case

The U.S. Department of Labor recently prevailed in a district court of Virginia case involving multiple Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) valuation issues.

The case involved allegations that the selling shareholder, who was also a fiduciary of the employee stock ownership plan, as well as the bank hired to represent the ESOP as an independent fiduciary, breached their fiduciary duties by allowing the plan to overpay for the shareholder’s stock.

The district court issued a lengthy ruling on the case which addressed multiple common valuation practices such as normalization adjustments, discounting, capitalization rates, and proper look-back periods for the purposes of capitalization. For example, the Court found that:

  • The conclusion of value was strikingly close to an initial estimated value that had been floated by ESOP counsel and advisors at the inception of the transaction;
  • The appraisal was performed on a controlling basis even though the seller/owner and his wife were still going to be two of three ESOP co-trustees and occupy two of three company director seats;
  • Almost of all of the appraiser’s assumptions, including his capitalization rate, fluctuated significantly relative to previous appraisals that he had performed on the company and all in a direction towards a conclusion of higher value;
  • The appraiser did not obtain financial projections or prepare his own and get management buy-in and the appraisal utilized only a capitalized cash flow method to the exclusion of a discounted cash flow method(discounted cash flow method); and
  • The ESOP trustee raised many concerns with the draft appraisal but did not follow through and then went ahead and agreed to a purchase price before reviewing the final appraisal.

This case reminds us that (1) much discussions were needed to justify the departure from previous yearly valuations and big rise of stock value, (2) an impartial review of the valuation results might have red flagged the flaws, (3)  the fiduciaries would have been wise to remember that fiduciary duties imposed by ERISA are “the highest known to the law” and any decisions made in fiduciary capacity should have been made with an “eye single to the interests of the participants and beneficiaries.” (4) a genuine negotiation with respect to the purchase price should be conducted.

Lei Jiang Law Firm handles many aspects of business transactions. For questions, please contact us.

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Business Firm News

Civil Litigation – Important Changes to Ohio Rules of Civil Procedures

Recent amendments to the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure will unify the timeline of court proceedings throughout the state.  For example, Ohio now has uniform motion deadlines to streamline processes.  The amendments became effective July 1, 2018 and serve to eliminate confusion regarding deadlines and other requirements.

Here are some of the specifics. For Motions for Summary Judgment, all responses are due 28 days after service of the motion, and replies are due 14 days after service of the response.

For all other motions, responses are due 14 days after service of the motion, and replies are due 7 days after service of the response.

Motions for purposes of trial, such as a motion in limine, must be filed at least twenty-eight days prior to the trial, while motions for purposes of a hearing must be served no later than fourteen days prior to the hearing.  Importantly, Rule 6 allows courts to modify the summary judgment and motion deadlines for good cause.

Discovery rules are also updated due to advancements in technology. Rule 33, 34, and 36 now state that the discovery must serve an electric copy on a shareable medium in an editable format.  These changes should result in a more streamlined and effective system. 

For legal issues, please contact us.

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Business Firm News

Civil Litigation in 2020

The Supreme Court of Ohio issued an order effectuating and expanding upon the emergency legislation Governor DeWine signed into law on March 27, 2020 in response to COVID-19, which tolled statutes of limitations, as well as litigation deadlines and timelines.  The Court’s order reflects the judicial branch’s reciprocation of H.B. 197 legislation and orders that all “time requirements” that are set to expire between March 9, 2020 and July 30, 2020 are tolled.  In effect, the order tolls all litigation deadlines that are due March 9 through July 30.

The order does allow for a court to supersede the tolling provision by issuing an order of its own on or after March 9, 2020.  Some courts, however, seem to be determined to press ahead due to concerns of unmanageable heavy case load down the road. Overall, the progress of civil cases is slowed in light of the pandemic.

Firmwide, we see no decrease of civil cases in 2020.  Five breach of contract cases alone came in before April 2020. Civil litigation is a big part of our practice. Our core substantive practice areas of corporate, business, real estate, international, and intellectual property often involve complex disputes that must be resolved in federal court. As a result, we have developed expertise capable of handling the most significant matters. 

In a civil litigation, we handle matters from pre-complaint investigation, through discovery, summary judgment, trial, and the appeals process. We are experienced yet small enough to ensure that client service remains at the forefront of every engagement. So, if you are burdened by business disputes, let us help you. For legal issues, please contact us.

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Business Firm News

2020 Mergers and Acquisitions

Our firm, Lei Jiang LLC, started 2020 with a good volume of deals and mergers and acquisitions. We continue to handle a variety of deals. In January, we successfully concluded an acquisition of a US college by a Canadian educational group. Then we put several deals together before COVID-19 spread in the US. They included a recycling company’s expansion and acquisition and several restaurant acquisitions. Currently, we are in the midst of a Chinese metal company’s second phase acquisition of a US company.

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down M&A activity due to uncertainty in valuations and companies focusing on liquidity and cost efficiencies, we expect to see more activities in three categories taking place:

  1. Well-funded strategic buyers using this opportunity to build sizeable positions in targets and /or attempt takeovers of undervalued companies;
  2. Corporates selling or spinning off non-core assets to address liquidity, leverage and valuation issues;
  3. Investors contributing capital in exchange for significant equity stakes in businesses in need of a recapitalization or with liquidity constraints.

If anything can be learned from the 2008-2009 financial crisis, we can expect a renewed use of equity as form of consideration for transactions among corporates. If you have any questions regarding M&A, please contact us. We specialize in international mergers and acquisitions and complex transactions.

For legal issues, please contact us.

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Firm News

2019-2020 White Collar Crime- Ohio RICO Defense

We represented two of eighteen defendants in a complex criminal RICO case in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in 2019-2020. Eighteen defendants were charged with various crimes, including RICO and other serious felonies. Moreover, most of them were immigrants. Therefore, severe immigration consequences became important factors as well.

RICO refers to Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act enacted first by the US federal government, then by many states. The federal RICO was enacted in 1970 and applies only to illegal activity involving interstate or foreign commercial. Since then, many states have adopted laws based on the federal statute. These statutes provide for extended criminal penalties as well as civil lawsuit for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. Acts include bribery, extortion, fraud, and murder. These laws allow the leaders of a syndicate to be tried for the crimes they ordered – this closed a perceived loophole that the boss did not actually commit the crime personally.

Since RICO is one of the most serious crimes, the burden of proof is onerous on criminal prosecutors, but if a prosecutor establishes a criminal RICO claim, the defendant goes to jail which may be for many years.

In this case, we obtained the desired results for our clients. We actively engaged the clients, filed all necessary motions, and conducted successful plea bargains.  In the end, the clients did not go to jail, did not pay a fine, and received only very minor charges.

If you are charged, we can help. For legal issues, please contact us.

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