Barry Nagler has a successfully molded a top-notch legal team at Hasbro, Inc. with little turnover. His 21-attorney staff has an average tenure of eight years and no one has left over the last three years. What’s his secret? “A ...
Read More »Privilege erosion in the audit context
Recent progress in the ongoing battle to protect the attorney-client privilege is certainly noteworthy, but it’s primarily focused on protecting privilege rights from attacks made by outsiders: prosecutors, enforcement officials, and plaintiffs’ class action lawyers, to name a few. The ...
Read More »In-House Call
The good side of working with outside counsel
Read More »New disclosure rules require prompt action
Deep Throat famously told Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to “follow the money.” Twenty thousand people agree, at least when it comes to compensating high-level executives. That is the (record) number of comments received by the Securities and Exchange Commission ...
Read More »Tips on managing a corporate crisis
Today, general counsel need to orchestrate a much broader set of resources in managing investigations into allegations of corporate misdeeds. If not, a small problem can rapidly turn into a corporate crisis.
Read More »Avoiding overtime exposure: Improper deductions and the salary basis rule
Employers often spend much time, money and effort to structure positions and compensation packages so employees will be exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) overtime requirements. But despite employers’ best efforts, some policies could unwittingly jeopardize employees’ exempt ...
Read More »Curbing FMLA intermittent leave abuse
The Family and Medical Leave Act remains among the more difficult laws for companies to administer. Even with flawless and aggressive application of your company’s policy and procedures, some employees will still disrupt the workplace with sporadic and unpredictable absences. ...
Read More »Overhaul of Massachusetts trademark laws a boon for new businesses
Massachusetts lawmakers overhauled the state’s trademark laws by adopting for the most part the Model State Trademark Bill (MSTB). The changes promise to not only streamline the state trademark registration process and make it more consistent with federal and other state registration processes, but they will also reduce the number of registered marks that are no longer used in commerce.
Read More »Deciding to involve law enforcement when your computer system is hacked can be a tough call
It’s a now-familiar scenario: A corporate computer system is hacked, and sensitive proprietary data may have been stolen or compromised. In the crush of today’s marketplace, and given the ephemeral, quickly transferable nature of data, savvy business leaders know they ...
Read More »Non-competes must be updated to remain effective
Job changes require new
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