New England Biz Law Update

The Department of Justice's controversial policy of pressuring companies to stop paying the legal fees of top executives and other employees as a condition of getting lenient treatment in some criminal investigations was dealt a serious blow recently when a federal judge ruled the practice was unconstitutional. But defense lawyers warn of potential problems down the road.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision strengthened Title VII protections for employees who have suffered retaliation by their employers.

Litigants in federal court will need to fast-forward their electronic discovery efforts and front-load their litigation budgets when recently approved amendments to the federal rules of civil procedure take effect Dec. 1.

A growing number of law firms are willing to share the risk of patent litigation by taking cases on a contingent fee basis - a move that will help in-house counsel control legal costs for companies with patent portfolios.

The U.S. Supreme Court created new hurdles for patent holders seeking to enjoin their competition in a closely watched decision decided recently. In a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court in eBay, Inc. v. MercExchange (No. 05-130) ...

In a disturbing development for employers, employees are increasingly filing lawsuits under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and accompanying state laws.

Could it be that prosecutors have overreached? Judge Lewis A. Kaplan thinks so. Kaplan recently declared unconstitutional the Department of Justice’s policy of pressuring companies to stop paying the legal fees of top executives and other employees as a condition ...

New Associations Rich Allen, CEO of Dufresne-Henry, has been selected to oversee Canada-based engineering firm Stantec’s East Coast operations following the firm’s merger with Stantec. Allen resides in the firm’s Boston office and was previously with Gadsby Hannah in Boston. ...

IP plaintiffs flock to federal court in eastern Texas

(Editor’s note: A version of this article originally appeared in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, a sister publication of New England In-House.) An age bias claim should be dismissed because the employee systematically destroyed electronic evidence central to the case over a ...