New England Biz Law Update

A lawyer’s duty to maintain client confidences is a bedrock principle of the legal profession. But what happens when a lawyer feels she must reveal those confidences in order to stay out of jail?

Tagged with: March 2011 issue Rule 1.6

In 2010, the innocuous-looking one page Form I-9 led to record penalties, criminal charges, and federal-contract debarments against employers. All indications are that federal immigration-law enforcement focused on I-9 audits is likely to be even more aggressive in 2011, as ...

Tagged with: I-9 ICE immigration March 2011 issue

What do “common law private placements” of corporate equity and pornography have in common? No one can define either, but people spend endless hours attempting to describe their characteristics.

Tagged with: common law private placements corporate equity March 2011 issue pornography

In 2010, two longstanding clients completed their first employee stock ownership plan transactions. These also happened to be my first ESOP transactions, so I thought I would share some of the lessons I learned on these transactions with corporate counsel ...

Tagged with: ESOP March 2011 issue

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it unlawful to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected by copyright, or to traffic in devices designed to accomplish that end. See 17 USC §§1201, 1202.

Trade secret law, which some say harkens back to Roman times, emerged in the United States in its modern form almost 200 years ago. See Vickery v. Welch, 36 Mass. 523 (1837).

Tagged with: Jan. 2011 issue

Massachusetts public charities such as health care organizations, schools, foundations and churches may decide to cease operation because of a variety of factors. In recent years, economic pressures, dwindling membership and/or deteriorating facilities each have played a role in industry ...

Tagged with: charities Jan. 2011 issue

You just received notice of a potential claim against your company. You immediately send out a litigation hold notice to all employees instructing them not to destroy any materials relating to the claim.

Tagged with: e-discovery Jan. 2011 issue

Aside from preventing outright theft, does corporate good governance matter? How do you measure good governance, anyway? For years, economists at Harvard University’s Olin Center for Law, Economics and Business have attempted to measure the impact of law on what ...

Tagged with: corporate good governance Jan. 2011 issue

Every New Year’s, we remind employers to review their employee handbooks and ensure that their personnel policies are up-to-date and legally compliant.

Tagged with: employee handbooks Employment policies Jan. 2011 issue