Employment
Non-Compete Cautionary Tale
Insight
A recent post on Robinson+Cole’s Manufacturing Law Blog discusses a recent court decision that underscores the need for manufacturers to exercise caution when seeking to impose post-employment restrictions on key employees.
Law Firm Associate Signing Bonuses Take a Dive, Recruiter Finds
News
Special Counsel found that the average signing bonus this year so far is about $17,000, Bloomberg Law reports.
New Survey Rates Big Law Policies to Build Gender Equality
News
A new survey aims to move forward the conversation about equality in Biglaw by examining which firms are taking key steps to close persistent gender gaps.
Hospital System Fires General Counsel Amid Alleged Compliance Violations
News
The Broward Health board fired its general counsel Lynn Barrett as the taxpayer-supported health system continues to struggle after a series of state and federal investigations related to alleged overspending, kickbacks and open-government law violations, reports Modern Healthcare.
Podcast: Dos and Don’ts for Drafting Severance Agreements
Podcast
In a new podcast, two shareholders in Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart discuss a number of important considerations for employers to keep in mind when drafting a severance agreement.
Federal Courts Uphold Arbitration Agreements Via Email
News
Federal district courts in New York and New Jersey recently turned aside employee attacks on arbitration agreements challenged on the grounds that the employer’s communication of its arbitration policy via email was inadequate, reports the Gibbons Employment Law Alert.
How Should Managers Deal with the Challenges of Building an Inclusive Workplace?
Insight
James L. Heskett, a Harvard Business School professor emeritus, reports on some of the responses to a recent column about how best to foster a climate of inclusion in an organization.
Argument Preview: How Should Courts Decide If Parties to an Arbitration Contract May Aggregate Their Claims?
Insight
SCOTUSblog reports that in Lamps Plus Inc. v. Varela, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit correctly held that an employer consented to class arbitration.
Contract Case: Lack of Consideration – Or Not!
Insight
Writing in ContractsProf Blog, Myanna Dellinger discusses a case that “nicely demonstrates how the consideration doctrine is still relevant and, as always, the importance of getting contracts in writing even though they do not have to be.”
Google Exec Clouded by Scandal is a Veteran Silicon Valley Counsel
News
David Drummond, the chief legal officer of Google parent Alphabet Inc. and a one-time Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati partner, was cited in a New York Times report about the allegedly lax approach that Google has taken to relationships between supervisors and their subordinates.
Spotlight on No-Poach Agreements Continues, Expands to New Industries
Insight
Companies that engage in no-poach agreements should be prepared for governmental scrutiny as well as private litigation from former employees, warns Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
Nov. 8 Live Event: General Counsel and Experts Share New Drivers of Diversity
Event, Nov. 8, 2018, Washington, DC
Bloomberg Law’s 4th annual Talent and Diversity Forum brings together industry leaders to share insights on what can actually increase diversity in the legal industry.
Biglaw Firm Admits It Botched Handling of Sexual Assault Allegation Against a Partner
News
Above the Law reports that Baker McKenzie released a joint report last week that admits the way the firm handled the alleged sexual assault by a partner at the firm involved “a number of shortcomings … which we very much regret.”
Recent Oil and Gas Verdict Highlights Importance of FLSA Compliance
Insight
A recent case from the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania highlights how expensive a Fair Labor Standards Act case can be.
Contracting Around Class Actions, a Win for Employers
Insight
A recent Ninth Circuit ruling that Uber’s arbitration agreements did not violate the National Labor Relations Act provides a major victory to Uber by requiring each plaintiff to separately arbitrate his or her claims.
Biglaw Practice Leader Encourages Women to Tell Him If They Plan on Becoming Pregnant – For ‘Budgetary Reasons’
News
Above the Law reports that women in the Jones Day Business and Tort Litigation group have been “encouraged” to tell management if they were pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant within the next year.
China Contracts: Not Quite Legal Usually Means 100% Illegal
Insight
A less than fully legal, truly enforceable contract is no contract at all, warns Dan Harris of Harris Bricken, LLP, writing in China Law Blog.
Overqualified? Or Too Old? Ex-GC’s Age Discrimination Case Takes Aim at Biased Recruiting Practices
News
The Chicago Tribune tells the story of a former general counsel who had been unemployed and job hunting for three years when he came across a position that seemed promising, but the part that excluded any applicants with his years of experience.
Biglaw Firm Reverses Course on Associate Raises, Now With $190,000 Starting Salary
News
Seventh-year associates at Fish & Richardson can look forward to salaries of $325,000 on the new scale, reports Above the Law.
Federal Appeals Court Rules Uber Can Force Drivers Into Individual Arbitration, Voids Class-Action
News
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned a lower-court order that had certified the drivers’ class-action effort.
