New England Biz Law Update

Could affect hundreds of employment cases

The U.S. District Court in Massachusetts could hear both compulsory and permissive counterclaims filed by a telecommunications company in response to a federal suit to block enforcement of a state administrative order, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has found in a case of first impression.

A recent ruling from a federal judge marks the first time any court in the country has found that whistleblower protections apply to those working in the mutual fund industry, according to several lawyers familiar with the case.

Less drastic than earlier effort, but still draws fire

Apple’s tablet computer has been on the market only about a month, but a few lawyers are already putting it through its paces.

Enterprise risk management, or ERM, continues to be a “hot topic” in the legal press, in CLE programs, in webinars and certainly in Compliance Week. Like a dog with a bone, the securities law and corporate governance communities are gnawing away, until the last ounce of marrow is sucked free and digested.

M&A acquirers in Massachusetts may be surprised to learn that even when they pay a substantial price at closing, courts may still require them to continue to invest more in the business after the purchase if the contract includes an earn-out for the seller based on future results. This is true even when the contract says nothing about such an obligation.

In today’s world of instant messaging, mobile technologies, virtual worlds and social media, the difficulties trademark owners face protecting their marks is well beyond what the architects of the Constitution intended when they drafted the First Amendment. A myriad of ...

Raising a potentially troubling issue of importance for transactional attorneys in all jurisdictions, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently denied the protection of the attorney-client privilege to an in-house attorney seeking to invoke it in relation to reports by non-attorney ...

Imagine one morning you arrive at work only to be greeted by a summons and a lawsuit accusing your company of copyright infringement because one of your employees was caught copying and pasting articles from news websites and e-mailing them ...