New England Biz Law Update

While many professionals believe the art of communication is to know what to say, the true essence of effective communicating is to know how to be heard. That means putting yourself in the place of your listener. Easy to say and ...

On a good day, running a law firm is a juggling act.  On a rough day, it’s a goat rodeo, with tons of activity, tremendous energy, and just a bit too much chaos.  How do you pay attention to the ...

As the year draws to a close, associates will be receiving their annual performance reviews.  How they receive that information will depend in large part on whether the review takes them by surprise or confirms the feedback they have been ...

Law firms are organic entities. They grow, they evolve, they expand their capabilities, and they incorporate and absorb new people. All firms experience growing pains when someone new joins the practice. For many firms, every September sees not just one ...

AI looms over every conversation these days, equal parts promise and threat. While there is much talk about how chatbots and generative AI will start writing briefs and crafting arguments, those discussions miss the point.  The real value lawyers bring ...

We’re all now six weeks into our New Year’s resolutions. We’ve already figured out which ones we’re likely to stick with and which ones we’ve already abandoned. Hopefully, one of your personal or professional goals requires improving your skills and ...

In its recent decisions in Bristol Asphalt Co., Inc. v. Rochester Bituminous Products, Inc., 493 Mass. 539 (2024) (“Bristol”), the SJC makes its intention clear: to go back to a simpler framework when addressing anti-SLAPP litigation reminiscent of that found ...

The NLRB has issued a decision in Home Depot USA, Inc., holding that an employer violated the National Labor Relations Act when it discharged an employee for refusing to remove the hand-drawn letters “BLM” — the acronym for “Black Lives Matter” — ...

A post-COVID tug-of-war is playing out between employers calling workers back to the office and employees who want to work from home. Among other reasons, employers focus on the importance of in-person collaboration, mentoring, and performance monitoring. On the other ...

Since the launch of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, the reactions of lawyers to artificial intelligence have varied from scorn and denial to fear. Lawyers have famously gotten into trouble for failing to double check citations generated by artificial intelligence.  ...