New England Biz Law Update

Two former board members and investors in a biotechnology startup had no personal liability under the state Wage Act for compensation due the limited liability company’s former president, the Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts has decided. The plaintiff president argued ...

The terms of a software company executive’s severance agreement completely extinguished rights to preferred shares and stock options granted during the periods of his employment, the Massachusetts Appeals Court has found. The plaintiff argued that a general release of claims ...

While no one wants to return to the days when colleges too often swept sexual assault allegations under the rug, local attorneys are cautiously optimistic that a new process recently announced by the U.S. secretary of education will culminate in ...

Tagged with: Betsy DeVos college campus sexual assault Harvard University secretary of education sexual assault Title IX

A U.S. District Court judge in Rhode Island has found that a company that terminated an employee for excessive absenteeism could not be awarded summary judgment, as the employee raised a jury question regarding whether he gave notice sufficient to ...

Tagged with: Family and Medical Leave Act FMLA John J. McConnell Jr. John McConnell Judge McConnell Rhode Island US District Court USDC

A recent wave of entrants to the Boston legal market underscores that outside firms large and small are finding the client-rich environment irresistible and are undaunted by the challenge of competing with the city’s established firms. North Carolina-based business firm ...

An employment practices liability policy that specified a duty to “defend any claim” did not require the insurance carrier to bear the cost of a compulsory counterclaim against a former employee who sued the insured for wrongful termination, the Massachusetts ...

Tagged with: employment Employment policies Justice Gants massachusetts Mount Vernon Ralph D. Gants Ralph Gants SJC Supreme Judicial Court Visionaid Visionaid and Mount Vernon

The business judgment rule did not shield a company board’s vote not to pursue a derivative suit demanded by a shareholder as there was evidence that the vote was not taken in good faith, a judge in the Business Litigation ...

Tagged with: business litigation Judge Kaplan Mitchell H. Kaplan Mitchell Kaplan

A building manager’s complaints about her salary and extended work hours were insufficient to place her employer on notice that she was asserting a right to overtime for purposes of triggering the protections of the Massachusetts Wage Act’s retaliation provision, ...

Tagged with: Judge Kaplan Massachusetts Wage Act Mitchell H. Kaplan Mitchell Kaplan superior court Wage Act

A 50-percent shareholder in a computer technology company could show the existence of a “true deadlock” in corporate governance necessary to proceed with an action for involuntary dissolution under state law, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has decided. The plaintiff ...

In the absence of discriminatory or retaliatory motivation on the employer’s part, an at-will employee who resigns due to the non-payment of wages is not entitled to assert a claim of constructive discharge, a Superior Court judge in Massachusetts has ...

Tagged with: Gavin Reardon J. Gavin Reardon Jr. judge reardon massachusetts subway superior court unpaid wages