New England Biz Law Update

By Kimberly Atkins Seeking to resolve a rather lopsided circuit split, the U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to support a requirement that employees alleging breach of fiduciary duty overcome a pleading-stage presumption that employee stock plan fiduciaries acted with prudence. ...

Weil, Gotshal & Manges’ Boston office has seen more than 20 departures since last year, but no exit has been more prominent — in title, at least — than the recent defection of managing partner Joseph J. Basile. Basile left ...

Discussions of throat-slitting ninjas aren’t commonplace in federal court, but such is the nature of a trademark infringement suit in U.S. District Court in Boston that has taken a number of bizarre turns. The case began ordinarily enough. The CrossFit ...

Patent lawyers in New England are hoping the U.S. Supreme Court provides some useful guidance this term on whether computer-implemented software programs that draw on non-computerized principles — a category that could encompass countless types of programs used by millions ...

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Massachusetts case not only expanded whistleblower protections available under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but also seemed to go out of its way to make clear that lawyers themselves are entitled to such protections. ...

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling extending Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower protection to private contractors of publicly traded companies has some attorneys concerned about the lack of any limiting principle. The decision in Lawson v. FMR LLC was the court’s first stab at ...

A Rhode Island Superior Court judge has ruled that an independent contractor who was responsible for generating new business for a Rhode Island company could not be sued for tortious interference after leaving to start a competing firm. The Rhode ...

The president of a closely held family corporation needed board approval to terminate his brother, the vice president of the company, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge has ruled in a case of first impression. The corporation argued that its president, ...

A company that provides recordkeeping and administration services for qualified tuition plans was not entitled to a preliminary injunction blocking a former employee from going to work for a company that performs similar functions, a U.S. District Court judge has ...

A U.S. magistrate judge has ruled that a college professor can move forward with a lawsuit accusing her supervisor — who allegedly sexually harassed her at work — of aiding and abetting employment discrimination. The supervisor argued that the aiding ...