The national law firm of Quarles & Brady LLP has announced that the firm’s Franchise & Distribution Team has launched Franchise Law Insider, a blog that provides news and legal developments in franchise law. This blog will keep franchisors and franchisees aware of current news and events in this area.

“Our clients look to us regarding representation and litigation involving their franchise operations,” said Daniel M. Janssen, chair of the Franchise & Distribution Team. “Our Quarles & Brady attorneys provide counsel regarding transactional and regulatory matters, to franchisors of all sizes and in all industries. This blog will serve as another way by which we can help businesses flourish.”

Andy Beilfuss, partner and regular contributor to the blog said, “Franchise Law Insider will discuss trending industry news and topics that will be helpful to franchisors and franchisees. We are very excited about this opportunity to keep our clients abreast of contemporary business issues in the field.”

The franchise team is engaged in domestic and international franchising and distribution matters. This blog, housed on LexBlog, will allow clients to get a quick snapshot of what they need to know and what questions they should ask their legal counsel. To subscribe to the blog and get the latest information, visit http://franchiselawinsider.quarles.com/.

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 new Republican majority in the Senate is turning up the pressure on the National Labor Relations Board, with a series of hearings and legislative attacks against policies that make it easier for workers to unionize, reports The Hill.

The hearings will put a spotlight on an agency increasingly held in disdain by Republicans, while also offering a platform for the GOP to cozy up to the business groups that have assailed the labor board as blatantly pro-union. Atop the GOP’s agenda is an effort to beat back regulations that would speed up the process by which employees vote to form a union, according to the report in The Hill.

Read the story.

Draft rules from the U.S. Department of Labor clarify how the government will investigate pay disparities between men and women, according to a report in the Hartford Courant.

“It just puts contractors on notice there’s going to be a broad review of their compensation practices,” said Dean Singewald II, an associate at the Stamford office of Epstein Becker Green, who defends government contractors around the country in Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs reviews.

That department, in the U.S. Department of Labor, is the one that published the notice of new rules Jan. 28. Contractors or other members of the public will have a chance to critique the new rules through March 31, the Courant reports.

Read the story.

News Corp announced that David Pitofsky has been named General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer.

Pitofsky succeeds Gerson Zweifach. Zweifach, who remains Group General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of 21st Century Fox, was retained as the General Counsel of News Corp on a transitional basis following the separation of the two companies in June 2013.

Pitofsky has been Deputy General Counsel and Deputy Chief Compliance Officer of News Corp since 2013.

“I am grateful to Gerson for his steadfast leadership during the separation of our two companies and this time of transition for the new News Corp,” said Rupert Murdoch, Executive Chairman of News Corp. “Gerson has been a consistent source of wise counsel and strategic thinking, and he will be missed, though I am glad he will continue to lead the legal team at 21st Century Fox.”

Murdoch continued, “Over the past two years I have worked with David, he has proven himself to be a first-rate lawyer whose insights and advice have been invaluable. We feel very fortunate to have him as our new General Counsel, where I am sure he will provide great leadership and support to our businesses around the world.”

“David’s the ideal person to slip into Gerson’s large legal shoes, ensuring a seamless transition in a major leadership position here at News Corp,” said Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp. “His impeccable integrity, legal insight and collaborative spirit will serve us all well in the years ahead.”

“All of us at News Corp appreciate Gerson’s very effective service as our General Counsel during this crucial start-up period,” said Thomson. “We knew from the outset that this day was inevitable, but Gerson’s efficacious impact will echo for many years to come.”

“I’m honored to succeed Gerson, from whom I’ve learned so much, and thrilled to have the chance to work even more closely with Robert and everyone at News Corp,” said Pitofsky. “As a new company with growing global and increasingly digital businesses, News Corp has many exciting challenges and opportunities, which I look forward to tackling with my colleagues.”

“I can’t think of a better person to take on this task than David, whose judgment and legal acumen I trust without reservation,” said Zweifach. “I’ll miss the frequent dealings with Robert and so many others at News Corp with whom I’ve worked on many issues, but I deeply appreciate the unique opportunity I’ve had.”

As General Counsel, Pitofsky will oversee global legal operations for News Corp, including litigation, mergers and acquisitions, ethics and corporate governance matters. As Chief Compliance Officer, he will chair the Company’s Compliance Steering Committee. He will lead a legal team that includes deputy general counsels Michael Bunder, Eugenie Gavenchak, Mark Jackson and James Marcovitz. Bunder also serves as News Corp Corporate Secretary and Jackson also serves as General Counsel of the Company’s Dow Jones subsidiary.

Pitofsky joined News Corp from the law firm of Goodwin Procter LLP, where he was a partner. From 1996 to 2005, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, rising to the level of Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was an Executive Editor of the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics.

BrightTalk has posted a free on-demand webinar featuring speakers from Bitglass discussing how today’s hackers are getting through traditional security technologies and how to use breach discovery techniques to shrink the window between infection and detection in order to limit the damage.

Enterprises have invested millions in breach prevention technology, but hackers are still getting through, exfiltrating data undetected over many months, BrightTalk says on its website. Traditional approaches, which focus on breach prevention, have become increasingly ineffective with the rise of targeted attacks and persistent, ongoing events that may exfiltrate data over long periods of time.

A focus on prevention is no longer sufficient. The enterprise must also focusing on detecting breaches early, limiting damage before sensitive data is exfiltrated.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

The Enivronmental Law Institute recently sponsored sponsored a seminar taking a look a the critical energy and eivironmental issues that will shape 2015. That event is now available online as an on-demand webinar.

With the GOP now in control of Congress, President Obama forging ahead with his climate policies, environmental and energy issues will be grabbing lots of news headlines in 2015, the orginization says on its website.

ELI, the Society of Environmental Journalists and the Environmental Change and Security Program of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars staged the third annual “Year Ahead on Environment and Energy” event, where leading reporters and editors discussed the critical issues that will shape 2015.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

AwareManager has posted a free on-demand webinar on how to achieve better service levels and gain greater transparency into vendors’ performance.

On its website, the company says the webinar can participants discover important takeaways:

— Improve your vendors’ performance.
— Save you money.
— Enhance tenant, employee and guest satisfaction.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Ardent Partners has teamed up with Iasta, a Selectica Company, to offer a free webinar, Collaborative Contract Management: Procurement’s Role in Enhancing Compliance and Mitigating Risk, on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 11 a.m. Eastern time.

This webinar looks at collaborative approaches chief procurement officers and their departments should consider for advancing contract management.

The webinar will cover:

• The shift in the criticality of contract management for procurement
• Best practices for improving collaboration in contract management
• Technology approaches for improving contract management collaboration
• Integrating contract management as part of supplier management

Register for the webinar.

A group of franchise business operators launched a coalition to lobby Congress in an ongoing battle to prevent franchisors from being considered “joint employers” with franchisees, reports Nation’s Restaurant News.

The Coalition to Save Local Businesses was created with support from the International Franchise Association, or IFA, which has been at the forefront of attempts to prevent a shift in the joint-employer definition by the National Labor Relations Board.

The report says that coalition leaders, as a first step, plan to educate lawmakers on how a shift of the joint-employer definition would impact franchise business owners.

Read the story.

The International Association for Contracts and Commercial Management (IACCM) is updating its largest benchmarking study to help participants learn where their organization stands, relative to others. Participants who complete the survey will get access to results 60 days prior to publication and are invited to a series of webinars to delve into the findings.

The benchmark study is divided into three surveys that examine companies’ Contract & Commercial Management Performance Measures, Primary Activities and Value Proposition.

Access part one: Performance Measurement directly here: www.iaccm.com/services/research/survey/?id=84

For part two, Primary Areas of Activity, and part three, Value Proposition, go to www.iaccm.com/research. This survey looks at headcount, contract complexity, measurements used to gauge both individual and functional performance and a range of efficiency indicators (e.g. cycle times, number of contracts per professional etc.).

“Benchmarking enables you to assess current performance and to make a business case for investment or improvement,” said an IACCM spokesman. “Increasingly, executives expect every function to have ready access to reliable external benchmarks and in the field of contract and commercial management, IACCM is the only reliable source.”

Participate in the survey through the links above.

Susan K. Hatmaker, Esq. of Hatmaker Law Group will present a free webinar discussing Discrimination, Harassment, Retaliation and Other Workplace Cases, Trends and Administrative Enforcement Strategies.

The event will be Wednesday, March 18, beginning at noon Pacific time.

Participants can join this webinar in their office or conference room with colleagues.

Hatmaker Law Group’s webinars provide up-to-date information on important California employment law issues for employers, owners, managers, accountants, attorneys and human resource professionals.

Register for the webinar.

The TASA Group Inc., in conjunction with transportation and traffic engineer Dr. Carl Berkowitz, PE, present a complimentary on-demand webinar examining the problem of railroad grade crossing accident, which occur in this country every two hours.

“There are approximately 220,000 railroad crossings in the United States, of which approximately 137,000 cross public roads. A collision between a train and a motorist at a grade crossing occurs approximately every two hours,” TASA says. “Half of the crossing accidents happen where there are active warning devices, and more than 60 percent of accidents occur where train speed is less than 40 mph. Approximately 20 percent of accidents involve cars running into trains.”

During the program, Dr. Berkowitz discussed:

* Components of a Grade Crossing
* Factors Influencing Highway-Railroad Grade Crossing Safety
* Reducing Highway-Railroad Crossing Incidents
* Future Directions in Railroad Crossing Safety

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Winston & Strawn presented “Recent Trends and Legal Developments You Should Consider in 2015: Part I – Mergers & Acquisitions,” as part of the Real Deal Webinar series. The webinar now is available for free viewing on-demand.

The event covers current trends, challenges, and legal topics pertinent to M&A and securities professionals.

On its website, the firm says the 2014 market for M&A deals in the U.S. was robust, with the year having the most active deal flow since the 2008 financial collapse. And 2015 seems to be off to an equally strong start. Winston & Strawn corporate partners Oscar David, Rob Rawn, and Mitch Moetell led this webinar series and provided a look back at important developments in 2014 and an overview of possible M&A trends in 2015.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

The Network for Public Health Law has posted a complimentary webinar that looks at the structure and essential functions of the state and federal court systems, including administrative courts; explores the Tribal court system; and examines the role of court watch programs in addressing public health issues.

This webinar is first in a three-part series focused on the judiciary and public health. Upcoming webinars in the series include Public Health in the Courts, and the Court and Public Health Emergencies.

“The judicial system plays an important role in advancing public health goals, and it is critical that public health practitioners, legal counsel, and other partners understand how the court system works and how courts are involved in public health matters,” the Network says on its website.

Watch the on-demand webinar.

Waits for work-based permanent residence could become easier — if not any shorter — under recent Obama administration changes overshadowed by more controversial steps for immigrants without legal status, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

But employers in Minnesota and elsewhere say the changes don’t do enough to meet their demand for more work visas and green cards for college-educated professionals.

“Talent shortages, particularly in the high-tech industry, have been the focus of intense debate and dueling research findings for years,” the Star Tribune says. “Administration critics have pounced on Obama’s changes to accuse him of kowtowing to business interests.”

Read the story.

A Delaware jury on Feb. 6 ordered Symantec to pay $17 million to Intellectual Ventures, the Washington-based “invention marketplace” created by ex-Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold, which boasts more than 30,000 patent assets, according to a report by Ars Technica.

In its verdict [PDF], the jury found that Symantec had infringed two US patents, numbered 5,987,610 and 6,073,142. A third patent, 6,460,050, was found to be not infringed.

Ars Technica says the complaint [PDF], filed in 2010, accuses Symantec’s Brightmail Gateway and Web Gateway of infringing the ‘142 patent. That patent was filed in 1997 by Utah’s Park City Group and essentially describes a system for distributing e-mail according to a set of predetermined “business rules.”

Read the story.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s statement was last week supporting net neutrality was improbable, reports The Daily Beast, and it was a political miracle.

The chairman’s proposal, which will be voted on by the full five-member commission on Feb. 26, bans broadband companies from discriminating between different content providers based on who can pay. The rule could protect the Internet from a world in which there are slow lanes for poor content providers and fast lanes for rich ones.

Wheeler’s statement represents a reversal from his earlier stance. He was forced to reverse his course because of an explosion of the type of decentralized political power that even the most powerful Washington lobbies cannot beat, according to the report.

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General Motors top lawyer has deferred his retirement to July because the company has not yet found his successor, according to a filing last week with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, reports The Detroit Free Press.

Mike Millikin, the automaker’s general counsel who came under fire during last year’s Congressional hearings on GM’s recall of defective ignition switches, planned to retire early this year. But the company said in its announcement last October that the 66-year-old would remain until a replacement was found.

Millikin joined GM in 1977 and served as its top lawyer for the last five years, The Free Press reports.

Read the story.

Bloomberg BNA has published the 2015 Outlook, which offers a comprehensive exploration of all the top issues facing the environment and energy industry.

The 60-page report is available for complimentary download.

Crafted by the Daily Environment Report editorial team, this report includes expert coverage on:

• EPA’s upcoming carbon emissions for power plants ruling
• Final guidelines of “waters of the U.S.”
• Decisions on ozone standards and updated standards on oil and gas drilling and production

Download the report.

The United Steelworkers union said Feb. 7 the strike by U.S. refinery workers is expanding to two more plants early on Sunday due to unfair labor practices by oil companies, reports Reuters.

Walk-outs at BP Plc’s Whiting, Indiana, refinery and the company’s joint-venture refinery with Husky Energy in Toledo, Ohio, shortly after 12 a.m. local time on Sunday would bring the number of plants with striking hourly workers to 11, including nine refineries accounting for 13 percent of U.S. refining capacity.

BP said on Friday it had received notice of the walk-outs at the two refineries, but the Steelworkers had said little about them until Saturday, the Reuters report added.

Read the story.