New England Biz Law Update

Civil litigators say a worrisome number of practitioners are in the dark about sweeping electronic-discovery amendments approved last month by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Tagged with: Nov. 1 2013 issue

An attorney who claimed he was fired from the Securities and Exchange Commission for having told superiors and congressional committees of agency misconduct has received $580,000 in settlement of his unlawful-retaliation lawsuit against the SEC.

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue

Workers who allege that their employer retaliated against them must meet a higher burden than merely showing that the desire to retaliate was one motivating factor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that vacates a $3.4 million ...

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue

Following two U.S. Supreme Court decisions that shut the door on state-law failure-to-warn and design-defect claims over generic drugs, the Food and Drug Administration is taking steps that could ultimately open a window for plaintiffs. The agency has stated its ...

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2031 issue

Defense lawyers are touting the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Title VII supervisor liability as a significant win for employers, providing a welcome clarification to the law while dealing a blow to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In the 5-4 ...

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue

A technology company could not sue former employees for downloading proprietary information onto personal storage devices before they joined a competitor without showing that the employees had physically accessed the information through fraudulent or unlawful means, a U.S. District Court ...

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue

The U.S. Senate’s confirmation of all five nominees to the National Labor Relations Board may end some of the uncertainty that has loomed over the controversial agency for years. But it does not signal an end to the battles over ...

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue

An employee who claimed his employer fired him because it did not want to cover his disabled wife’s medical expenses could sue the employer for “associational discrimination” under Chapter 151B, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has found.

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue

As the economy improves and business litigation heats up, judges are increasingly relying on a quirk of Massachusetts caselaw to invalidate controversial noncompetition agreements. The “material change doctrine,” a unique feature of Massachusetts employment law, is the principle that a ...

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue

A recently issued federal “blueprint” for how colleges and universities should address sexual harassment and assault has critics complaining that the policy’s overly broad definition of harassment could violate the First Amendment.

Tagged with: Aug. 31 2013 issue