New England Biz Law Update

A class-action waiver in a mandatory arbitration agreement between a Domino’s Pizza franchisee and its employees could not be enforced against delivery drivers asserting wage and tip law violations, a U.S. District Court judge has ruled. The plaintiff was a ...

For many years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and others have complained that lease accounting standards are not transparent enough, allowing too many off-balance-sheet lease transactions to occur, which are not properly disclosed to investors. New and dramatic changes ...

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division recently issued a controversial new Administrator’s Interpretation detailing the division’s views on “joint employment” under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. Notably, in ...

With the explosion of employment litigation — in particular, wage and hour lawsuits — many employers are turning to mandatory arbitration agreements as a strategy to keep defense costs down and avoid class actions. But as more and more companies ...

Massachusetts is the American birthplace of the jury system. Each year, residents of the commonwealth serve as jurors and collectively render decisions that directly impact members of their community. In certain instances, their verdicts send powerful messages and drive social ...

In the current Massachusetts legislative session, a number of bills are pending that have the potential to increase employee protections and, in turn, impose further burdens on employers. Covering such varied areas as social media privacy, non-competition agreements and workplace ...

The explosive growth of the so-called “litigation finance” industry is a game-changer in the civil practice arena. The New York Times Magazine recently documented the rise of this industry and described it as “transformational.” One litigation financing entity, Gerchen Keller, ...

Management-side lawyers claim the new federal rules bolstering disclosure requirements for third parties that advise employers in opposing union-organizing campaigns impermissibly interfere with the attorney-client relationship. The U.S. Department of Labor last month announced long-awaited amendments to its so-called “persuader ...

Founded in 1930, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is the world’s largest private, independent nonprofit dedicated to ocean research, exploration and education. This spring marks the beginning of a new era in exploration for WHOI. In April it welcomed the ...

A health care provider could not enforce a non-competition agreement with a physician who left to work elsewhere, a Superior Court judge in Rhode Island has held. The plaintiff, Medicine and Long Term Care Associates LLC of Cranston, or MLTC, ...