New England Biz Law Update

A Massachusetts trial judge has found that a software executive who received a cease-and-desist letter from his former employer could not sue for tortious interference because the communications at issue were protected by the absolute litigation privilege. The executive argued ...

A U.S. District Court judge has found that an often-cited 2012 Supreme Judicial Court decision does not in fact require employers, as a matter of law, to expressly include the phrase “Massachusetts Wage Act” in a release. The plaintiff employee ...

Intellectual property attorneys who challenge decisions before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board say a recent Federal Circuit ruling means they no longer can be barred from introducing new evidence in appeals at the U.S. District Court. Until the Federal ...

White-collar lawyers say gone are the days when a civil suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission is stayed simply because the U.S. attorney is prosecuting a parallel criminal case. The latest example illustrating the new reality: Securities and ...

The Appeals Court in Massachusetts has ruled in an issue of first impression that a Chapter 93A counsel-fee award can, as a matter of law, include the work performed by an in-house attorney who was first chair at a 17-day ...

An insurance company did not have to cover the cost of a racketeering lawsuit involving the construction of shopping centers containing Walmart stores, in part because the policyholder failed to notify the insurer about the complaint “as soon as practicable,” ...

A U.S. magistrate judge has ruled that a college professor can move forward with a lawsuit accusing her supervisor — who allegedly sexually harassed her at work — of aiding and abetting employment discrimination. The supervisor argued that the aiding ...

Changes are afoot at the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents, but those in charge insist they have nothing to do with any of the well-documented problems plaguing the agency. A Dec. 30 story in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly reported on an ...

An ambiguity in the Massachusetts Wage Act has been unfairly jacking up settlements, according to certain members of the labor and employment bar who believe the issue needs to be fixed. Seyfarth Shaw’s Lynn A. Kappelman says a client in ...

Intellectual property attorneys practicing in the 1st Circuit say they have serious concerns about a proposed statute that would establish a new administrative panel to decide smaller copyright claims. The U.S. Copyright Office recently released a 161-page report recommending the ...