New England Biz Law Update

Negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and, yes, litigation are all available to counsel to handle patent disputes successfully. Taking one path does not foreclose changing course as the dispute progresses.

Fresh out of law school, Michele S. Gatto worked as a staff attorney for a Massachusetts insurance company, and like many young lawyers focused on discrete legal projects. Over the years, Gatto has broadened her skill set, developing business acumen ...

Chapter honors law students for exemplary professional ethics

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act protects employees of publicly traded companies from retaliation for making both internal and external complaints about actions they reasonably believe violate federal laws involving fraud against shareholders. SOX has many remedies to make an employee whole, including, ...

Confidentiality agreements, disclosing facts may be the answer

Almost every employer has some kind of benefit program governed by The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), whether it’s a simple arrangement for medical coverage or a complex defined benefit pension plan. While much of ERISA is ...

Failing to pay careful attention to contract language can lead to major problems

With ever-increasing merger and acquisition activity among corporations large and small, it is becoming increasingly difficult for corporate counsel to track effectively the ever-expanding intellectual property portfolio of their companies. The practical consequences can be significant. Patent law is a ...

In the post-Enron, regulatory environment in which we live, Securities and Exchange Commission and related state and criminal investigations have become a fact of life. Whether it is financial statement disclosure, mutual fund operations or unusual trading activity in a ...

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled that employers do not violate the state’s anti-discrimination law (G.L. c.151B) by discharging an employee for misconduct, when the misconduct is itself caused by the employee’s disability – provided the misconduct is sufficiently ...