Drinker Biddle offers a discussion of 10 points to think about in drafting employment agreements that often go overlooked. The white paper is published on the firm’s LaborSphere blog.
The paper covers such topics as severance, fixed term, restrictive covenants, cause, good reason provision, award equity, state law and venue selection, assignment, and more.
Partner David J. Woolf of Philadelphia wrote the paper.
Scott. H. DeBroff, shareholder in Tucker Arensberg
The law firm of Tucker Arensberg, P.C. announces that Scott H. DeBroff has joined the firm as a shareholder and member of the Energy Group. DeBroff was previously with Rhoads & Sinon, LLP.
Debroff provides energy and telecommunications market participants with strategic legal, government and regulatory analysis and representation in state and federal jurisdictions across the country. He represents clients in the energy and telecommunications sectors and provides them with targeted advocacy, issue analysis and information services.
DeBroff focuses his practice on national energy and energy technology issues facing clients by providing focused representation across the entire retail and wholesale market spectrum.
“Scott DeBroff brings a wide range of experience and expertise in the Energy area including Smart Grid development, Advanced Metering and the implementation of Renewable Energy projects via the Pennsylvania Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act,” said Dennis R. Sheaffer, the managing shareholder of the Harrisburg Office of Tucker Arensberg. “He also has advised clients on Energy Procurement strategies, Power Purchase Agreements for Renewable Projects and Oil & Gas concerns. Scott is a welcome addition to our Harrisburg Office.”
DeBroff received his JD from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School and his BA from Emory University.
Tucker Arensberg is a 90-attorney law firm headquartered in Pittsburgh with offices in Harrisburg and Lewistown. It is a full service regional firm providing service to its clients in the areas of general business law, banking, insolvency and creditors’ rights, estates and trusts, school and municipal law, health care, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, energy, technology and intellectual property, environmental, labor and employment, immigration, real estate, workers’ compensation, employee benefits, and investment management and fiduciary services.
Eric Goldberg, a partner in DLA Piper
DLA Piper has announced today that Eric Goldberg has joined the firm’s Restructuring practice as a partner in the Los Angeles office.
Goldberg represents debtors both in and out of court, as well as creditors and other stakeholders, including lenders and funds, in a variety of transactions. His practice involves complex bankruptcy-related litigation, including contested confirmations, adversary proceedings, and working with hedge funds, bondholders and buyers of distressed assets.
“Eric has deep relationships with a number of lenders and investors, as well as funds that are active in distressed markets across the country,” said Gregg Galardi, co-chair of DLA Piper’s global and US Restructuring practices. “He will be instrumental in helping clients avoid pitfalls when buying distressed companies or their assets, as well as handling bankruptcy litigation and out-of-court restructurings.”
Goldberg is the firm’s most recent addition in Los Angeles, following on the heels of litigation partners Mike Piazza, Linda Smith and Mark Riera, and employment partner Phyllis Cheng.
“We have experienced significant growth in Los Angeles in recent months, and the addition of Eric will complement our increasing capabilities and further strengthen our strategic practice areas in Southern California,” said Perrie Weiner, international co-chair of DLA Piper’s Securities Litigation practice and co-managing partner of the firm’s Los Angeles offices.
Goldberg joins DLA Piper from Gordon Silver, and was previously a senior partner with Los Angeles-based bankruptcy boutique Stutman, Treister & Glatt. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his B.S. from Cornell University.
About DLA Piper (www.dlapiper.com)
DLA Piper is a global law firm located in more than 30 countries throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East, positioning it to help companies with their legal needs around the world. In certain jurisdictions, this information may be considered attorney advertising.
Lawrence Waks, of counsel at Wilson Elser
To bolster its intellectual property practice, national law firm Wilson Elser hired premier IP/entertainment attorney Lawrence Waks, formerly of Jackson Walker LLP, as of counsel in its Dallas office.
Waks’s practice of more than 30 years has focused primarily on IP litigation and transactional matters, serving a national and international client base that hails from industries such as entertainment, music, sports, electronic gaming, publishing, fashion, consumer goods, media and more.
Fluent in Spanish, French and Russian, Waks, who has lived in Argentina and Bolivia, uses his multilingual skills to represent U.S. clients abroad as well as global clients in the United States.
“We are fortunate to have such a formidable, well-respected IP attorney join our ranks,” said E. Stratton Horres, regional managing partner of the Dallas office and the partner in charge of lateral hires. “Larry has built a thriving entertainment/IP practice with an impressive list of clients and accomplishments, including contributing to Austin’s emergence as the “Live Music Capital of the World” and helping to foster Texas’s reputation as a “Third Coast” entertainment destination. His outstanding capabilities support the firm’s ongoing diversification and expansion of services we offer our clients to better serve them locally and nationally.”
“We are excited about the new dimension Larry’s practice adds to the firm,” Horres added.
In addition to intellectual property, Waks, who has degrees in geology and engineering, practices in the areas of environmental, energy and admiralty and marine law.
Recognized as a leader in the legal community, Waks is a fellow of the American Bar Association Foundation and the Texas Bar Foundation, and a member of the Governing Committee of the American Bar Association Forum on Entertainment and Sports Industries and chair of its Litigation Division. He is also chair of the Texas State Bar Copyright Section.
Waks is a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) and the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (LARAS), best known for the Grammy Awards and the Latin Grammy Awards, respectively, and the Texas chapter of NARAS. Waks also serves on the board of the Dallas Film Society and the Advisory Board of the Austin Theater Alliance.
Waks has earned an AV® Preeminent Rating by Martindale-Hubbell and has been named to the Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America lists, and the Who’s Who Legal (International) in the entertainment and media law categories.
Waks earned his J.D. degree from St. Mary’s University and his B.A. degree, with honors, from Trinity University.
Merrill DataSite for Contract Management has developed a complimentary white paper, “Assessing security in contract management systems.”
With security breaches making headlines, understanding potential vendors’ security programs and whether they align with your company’s specific requirements is an important step in the process of selecting a contract management solution.
The paper outlines the four steps to achieve alignment and screen vendors:
The national law firm of Quarles & Brady LLP has announced that the firm’s website, quarles.com, won first place at the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Annual Conference in the category of “Total Website.”
The firm partnered with Great Jakes, a leading developer of attorney websites, creating a tech-savvy experience for anyone that visits the website via a desktop, mobile device, or tablet. “We launched our website in September 2014 and it’s truly remarkable,” said firm chair Kimberly Leach Johnson. “We hope our clients and visitors continue to find value in what we have created.”
The 2015 winners of the prestigious LMA Your Honor Awards were recognized at the 2015 LMA Annual Conference in San Diego. The winners will also be featured in a special issue of LMA Weekly, in the legal marketing publication Strategies, and via a dedicated section of the LMA website. This year, there were 10 Your Honor Awards categories, covering every area of legal marketing, including advertising, events, media relations, and websites.
About Quarles & Brady LLP
Quarles & Brady is a full-service law firm with more than 475 attorneys offering an array of legal services to corporate and individual clients that range from small entrepreneurial businesses to Fortune 100 companies, with practice focuses in health care and life sciences, business law, data privacy and security, and complex litigation. The firm has offices in Chicago; Indianapolis; Madison; Milwaukee; Naples, Florida; Phoenix; Scottsdale; Tampa; Tucson; and Washington, D.C. Additional information can be found online at quarles.com, as well as on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis has been actively expanding the scope of its mandatory surveys of U.S. and foreign companies and investors to cover many industries and companies that may not have had to report previously, reports Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
These surveys often are announced with little fanfare, but they can involve significant time and expense for affected companies and may lead to substantial civil and criminal penalties for those who fail to comply.
“Given the penalties and reporting burdens involved, these BEA surveys should be on the radar of every general counsel,” the report says. “This article provides an outline of key points that general counsels should be aware of to protect their companies from liability and the steps companies can take to reduce or eliminate their compliance burden, including by engaging directly with BEA officials and advisory groups.
Steptoe & Johnson offers a free on-demand webinar about leasing oil and gas rights on federal lane.
Presenters are associate Melissa A. Munson and of counsel Richard J. Steeno.
Topics include the “big picture” on Federal oil and gas leases, the leasing process, terms and conditions pertaining to Federal leases, and royalty rates and permitting.
Borrowing base reductions seem a certainty for many oil and gas producers, says a new white paper published by Haynes and Boone.
“While E&P companies continue to cut CAPEX and reduce overhead to conserve cash and look for ways to stretch their borrowing bases, many companies will opt for divesting non-core assets to pay down debt and improve liquidity, in order to survive until commodity prices improve.” the authors write. “The press is full of reports of investors on the sidelines eagerly evaluating opportunities to acquire oil and gas assets at the lower end of the price cycle. Buyers looking to take advantage of this opportunity may be able to save millions of dollars up front with a well-designed title due diligence plan in place prior to starting their transaction process. And, after acquiring the assets, the new owners will find fewer surprises down the road.”
The Expert Institute will present a free webinar covering the standard of care in orthopedic spinal surgery.
The webinar will be Tuesday, April 21, at 1 p.m. Central time.
The expert presenting the webinar is a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon who was trained at New York University School of Medicine. He attained an advanced fellowship in spinal surgery from a top medical center in Wisconsin. Currently, he is an affiliated faculty member at a major regional healthcare center, as well as a clinical instructor at a top medical university.
Aconex has posted a free webinar discussing the finer points of process management in energy industry projects.
The provider says participants will see IIR’s outlook for the oil land gas industry, hear how Fluor manages key processes on complex projects, and get a brief look at how Aconex can put you in control.
Chris Perkins, Interface Manager at Fluor, discusses improving productivity and accountability on selected projects. Jared R. Rastegar, System Consultant with Aconex, discusses handling critical processes such as interface management and design reviews. And Jesus Davis, VP of Oil & Gas Research at IIR, gives an overview of market conditions and trends in the Oil & Gas sector worldwide.
Platts presents a free on-demand webinar discusses the role the Gulf Coast of the United States plays in supplying refine petroleum products to the world.
The U.S. Gulf Coast has become the world’s factory floor for refined products. The region has many of the most complex refineries in the world, Platt’s says on its website. They are able to feed off cheap crude from the shale revolution. And they can spit out massive amounts of clean products onto an immense system of pipelines and ports. The result is quick product movement to far-flung parts of the world at competitive costs.
The webinar covers:
James M. Wicks, a parter in Farrell Fritz
Farrell Fritz announces that James M. Wicks, a partner in the firm’s commercial litigation department, will be an honoree at the 2015 Jewels and Jeans Dinner to be held on Thursday, June 11, 2015 at 6:30 p.m. at Flowerfield in St. James, NY. Other honorees include Douglas C. Manditch, Chairman & CEO, Empire National Bank; Dr. Yusuf Hannun, Director, Stony Brook Cancer Center; and Dr. Lina Obeid, Professor of Medicine & Dean for Research, Stony Brook School of Medicine.
Wicks has been actively involved in the Three Village community for several years. He enjoys volunteering with the WMHO’s Youth Corps and served as chair of the Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages in Stony Brook from 2011 to 2014.
Wicks, an East Setauket, NY resident, contributes to the firm’s New York Commercial Division Case Compendium blog. He serves on several professional/legal committees and charitable organization boards. He is an Adjunct Professor at St. John’s University School of Law, where he teaches pretrial advocacy. He earned his J.D. degree from St. John’s University School if Law and his undergraduate degree from Wheeling College.
About Farrell Fritz
Farrell Fritz is a full-service law firm that has earned a strong reputation in the New York business community. The firm handles legal matters in the areas of bankruptcy & creditors’ rights; commercial litigation; condemnation & eminent domain; construction; corporate & finance; distressed assets; eDiscovery; emerging companies & venture capital; environmental law; estate litigation; health law; labor & employment; land use, municipal & zoning; real estate; tax planning & controversy; tax certiorari and trusts & estates for corporations, not-for-profit organizations and individuals.
Seal Software offers a free on-demand webinar on contract fundamentals needed to extract the maximum value from your contracts.
On its website, Seal says whether your interest lies in procurement, sales, finance, legal or elsewhere, in order to extract the maximum value from your contracts, you must be able to answer the following fundamental questions:
The U.S. Supreme Court has not addressed whether the availability of class arbitration is a substantive “gateway” issue for the courts if the parties have not explicitly delegated the decision to the arbitrator or whether it is a procedural question to be decided by arbitrators, points out Moore & Van Allen in a paper published on its MVA Litigation Blog.
“In the absence of a decree from the Supreme Court on this issue, companies could find themselves facing unfavorable, but reviewable, court determinations in some jurisdictions, while being more tightly bound in other jurisdictions by arbitrator determinations subjecting them to class arbitration against their will,” the paper says. “There are, however, steps that companies can and should take to minimize the risk that this conundrum will manifest and derail their dispute resolution strategies.”
The Bureau of Land Management at the U.S. Department of the Interior has issued a final rule governing drilling and hydraulic fracturing on federal and tribal lands, reports Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.
Updating 25-yearold regulations that did not address fracking in detail, BLM established requirements for fracking requests, well integrity, disclosure of chemicals and storage of recovered fluids, write Sarah A.W. Fitts and Stuart Hammer.
.While the requirements only apply to public lands, some states may use them in formulating their own fracking regulations.
The U.S. Department of Labor recently announced the results of a 2014 enforcement initiative that focused on the oil and gas industry in New Mexico and west Texas, an effort that recovered more than $1.3 million owed to some 1,300 employees as a result of this investigation.
On its website, Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease said this is not the first DOL foray into wage-and-hour practices within the oil and gas industry. In December 2014, the DOL announced that employers engaged in natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania and West Virginia agreed to pay $4,498,547 in back wages to 5,310 employees.
By Osipov Georgy Nokka, via Wikimedia Commons
The law relating to intellectual property in Russia has recently been reformed in order to make the regime more user and business friendly. The new system supports businesses looking to protect their intellectual property rights — regardless of whether they are a local or international business — so long as they make their petition in line with the local law.
One of the main concerns in the past has been that enforcement bodies in Russia, such as courts and the police, are biased in favour of local companies, however, this is simply not the case. The courts, customs authorities and police are completely indifferent to the nationality of the person whose rights have been infringed and will uphold the law without regard to the country of origin.
In a white paper posted on PrimaryOpinion.com, Gorodissky & Partners of Moscow offers some advice for international companies looking for efficient protection and exploitation of IP rights in Russia.
Recent intellectual property transactions through the first wuarter of 2015 indicate there are at least some signs that the patent marketplace is becoming more active, writes Gene Quinn at IPWatchdog.
“There have been a number of high profile acquisitions in the pharmaceutical space over the last four months, and last week Sony acquired OnLive’s patent portfolio,” he writes. And Akamai Technologies Inc. announced that it had acquired Octoshape, which will give Akamai access to Octoshape technologies that optimize the quality of video streams for over-the-top content and to enable Internet Protocol television solutions.
And over the last several months there have been a number of blockbuster deals in the pharmaceutical sector.
Daniel Tranen, a partner in Wilson Elser
Daniel E. Tranen has joined national law firm Wilson Elser’s Edwardsville office as a partner. Tranen started working with the firm in 2002 in Chicago and in 2009 transferred to the Boston office, where he practiced until 2010.
Tranen focuses his practice on professional liability, product liability and insurance coverage, and has handled matters that touch nearly every service and practice Wilson Elser offers.
Tranen defends pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers in mass tort and class action litigation, including e-discovery and product recalls. In addition, he defends attorneys in professional liability matters and bar ethics complaints, and counsels insurance companies in coverage disputes.
“Daniel provides the Edwardsville office and our clients with a full complement of services,” said Brian Huelsmann, regional managing partner of the Edwardsville office. “He expands our capability in Southern Illinois and Missouri, where many firms primarily handle toxic tort matters. Our goal is to provide our clients with all the services we offer across our 27 U.S. offices.”
Regarded as a leader in his practice areas, Tranen frequently authors articles and speaks at industry and client events. He also has been selected for inclusion in Illinois and New England Super Lawyers Rising Stars and received an award for Outstanding Client Advocacy from Medmarc Insurance Company in 2014.
Tranen graduated cum laude with his J.D. degree from the University of Illinois College of Law (1997), where he was editor-in-chief of the student section of the Illinois Bar Journal, Recent Decisions. Tranen earned his B.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania (1992).