New England Biz Law Update

While patent legislation deliberately makes its way through in Congress, the courts and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are making changes on their own. In an opinion expected to have a significant impact on patent practice, the Federal Circuit ...

As convenient and efficient as e-mail is, for employers it can also be a “clicking” time bomb exposing them to security problems and potential liability, as well as costly and time-consuming system searches.

Ruling that RAM data is discoverable may expand new e-discovery rules

Supreme Court to consider state court jurisdiction in drug liability cases

Companies are bracing for the impact of new rules placing greater responsibility on them to identify – and, if necessary, fire – undocumented workers. On Sept. 14, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was scheduled to put into effect amended ...

Reversing an opinion it issued just 11 months ago, the D.C. Circuit recently ruled the federal government can tax the money damages a plaintiff for emotional distress and other intangible injuries. The plaintiff, a whistleblower, argued she shouldn’t be taxed ...

With the enduring popularity of web-based mail services like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail and Google’s Gmail, it’s hardly surprising that courts have found themselves considering requests in civil lawsuits for electronic discovery of e-mail messages. But with many people using these ...

Kathleen A. Carrigan, general counsel at Holyoke, Mass.-based ISO New England, has perhaps the most important job in New England for all companies: She keeps the lights on and the power running. Her company was created 10 years ago by ...

The quthor questions the "conventional wisdom" that the Supreme Court has tilted in favor of business interests.

[Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of columns on ethics issues confronting in-house counsel.] In this series, we hope to alert in-house counsel to the sometimes unusual ways ethics issues crop up for in-house attorneys. Below we ...