New England Biz Law Update

Two recent cases dealing with the use of outside counsel for internal corporate investigations — including one involving the international law firm Proskauer Rose — underline the dangers of representing a company and one of its employees at the same time.

A dramatic jurisdictional split among the federal circuit courts of appeal has put in jeopardy more than 400 cases decided by the National Labor Relations Board over the past year-and-a-half.

Attorneys, employee advocates and lawmakers say a surprise U.S. Supreme Court ruling eliminating “mixed-motive” claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act will make proving age bias in the workplace a much tougher task for plaintiffs.

Litigation between employers and former employees over non-compete agreements and other forms of restrictive covenants is increasing. In the past few years, employers have dramatically stepped up their use of non-compete agreements to limit what a departing employee can do. ...

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to pass on a chance to address a long-standing division of opinion among federal circuits — over which test bankruptcy courts should apply when weighing whether an intellectual property license can be kept by ...

An employer violated the Massachusetts Wage Act when it refused to pay a fired employee for his unused vacation time, the state Supreme Judicial Court has decided. The employer — whose written policy provided that any employee who left on ...

An employer that fired a worker without providing the prior warning or suspension called for under the disciplinary policy in its personnel manual violated an implied employment contract, the Massachusetts District Court/BMC Appellate Division has ruled. The plaintiff employee did ...

Patent litigation filings in Massachusetts spiked earlier this year, which some believe may be the result of new local rules implemented in U.S. District Court last fall. But while lawyers and judges report that the commonwealth has become a more ...

A coherent body of caselaw on matters affecting the business community is an essential ingredient for a vibrant economy. Clear precedents help businesses structure their transactions consistently with the law, thereby reducing their exposure to liability. Unfortunately, the courts do ...

By Stephen M. Honig In the most recent issue of New England In-House, we summarized the articulated Securities and Exchange Commission agenda: proxy reform, heightened disclosure on governance issues, focus on risk management and enhanced compensation disclosure. Since then, we ...