New England Biz Law Update

Below are summaries of important opinions affecting in-house attorneys issued by the 1st and 2nd circuits. 1st Circuit Banks and banking Credit card – Rate increase Where a judge dismissed a class action that challenged the validity of a defendant ...

The In-House Leaders in the Law awards celebrate In-House Counsel for their outstanding professional accomplishments in their company and the legal community. An In-House Leader in the Law demonstrates innovative and practical business and legal skills, either as general counsel ...

The American Bar Association has filed suit in federal court seeking to prevent the Federal Trade Commission from applying a new anti-identity-theft regulation to practicing attorneys. The regulation, called the “red flags” rule, requires businesses that possess sensitive identification information about their clients to safeguard that data against ID theft. Such businesses must establish policies and procedures on how to recognize and deal with identity-theft red flags.

It can be a bonanza or a bogeyman and, thanks to changes by Congress and the Obama administration, the federal False Claims Act has more teeth than ever. As the federal government has been doling out billions of dollars to stimulate the economy and stabilize troubled financial institutions, the new administration supported an update to the 23-year-old False Claims Act — a rainmaker law that has recovered roughly $22 billion since 1986 — saying it needs to be preserved as a “potent and useful weapon against the misuse of taxpayer funds.”

Though lawyers who represent employers insist that wage-and-hour class actions are on the rise in Massachusetts, plaintiffs’ attorneys dismiss the claim as a scare tactic in the debate over recent changes to the state’s Wage Act. The employment law firm of Littler Mendelson, which tracked labor lawsuits filed in the state and federal courts over the summer, was prompted by the activity on the dockets to warn its clients that a tsunami of wage-and-hour class actions is engulfing the state.

Two recent cases dealing with the use of outside counsel for internal corporate investigations — including one involving the international law firm Proskauer Rose — underline the dangers of representing a company and one of its employees at the same time.

A dramatic jurisdictional split among the federal circuit courts of appeal has put in jeopardy more than 400 cases decided by the National Labor Relations Board over the past year-and-a-half.

Attorneys, employee advocates and lawmakers say a surprise U.S. Supreme Court ruling eliminating “mixed-motive” claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act will make proving age bias in the workplace a much tougher task for plaintiffs.

Litigation between employers and former employees over non-compete agreements and other forms of restrictive covenants is increasing. In the past few years, employers have dramatically stepped up their use of non-compete agreements to limit what a departing employee can do. ...

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to pass on a chance to address a long-standing division of opinion among federal circuits — over which test bankruptcy courts should apply when weighing whether an intellectual property license can be kept by ...