This Act requires in scope employers to take appropriate steps to establish, operate and maintain secure and confidential reporting channels and procedures for reporting persons to make protected disclosures, appoint...more
Substantial changes to Irish whistleblowing law will be introduced by the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Act, 2022 (the “Amendment Act”) on 1 January 2023. Protection for whistleblowers is not a new concept in...more
It is a common practice for employers to conduct exit interviews with departing employees. Without even discussing employment law issues (not to mention issues over the appropriate roles and responsibilities for school...more
We frequently utilize the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) as a tool for our clients. The FOIA, subject to several exceptions and exclusions, generally provides that any person has the right to request access to federal...more
The Court of Appeal has recently handed down a number of important judgments addressing the scope of Legal Professional Privilege (LPP). In Sports Direct International plc v Financial Reporting Council, a unanimous Court of...more
In June 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Food Marketing Institute. v. Argus Leader Media. The case marked the Court’s first chance to address an important question: When can (or cannot) the federal government withhold...more
Businesses often worry that the information they provide to the government will be disclosed, and with good reason – such information is presumptively available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act...more
It's no secret – protected conversation potentially admissible - The EAT decided in Harrison v Aryman Ltd that a claimant could potentially rely on a protected conversation in evidence. This was the case even though she...more
The Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA” or “the Act”) provides private citizens access to information in the possession of government agencies that is not otherwise publicly available. Unfortunately, an agency’s disclosure can...more
At the end of June, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an important Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) decision that decreases the burden on contractors seeking to protect confidential information. As most contractors are aware,...more
In its recent decision in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media d/b/a Argus Leader, No. 18-481, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a decades-old legal standard for companies that wish to shield their business...more
Sweeping changes to corporate whistleblowing laws in Australia came into effect on 1 July 2019. The reforms provide for a range of additional protections to eligible whistleblowers, including a right of...more
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule June 26, 2019, revising the agency’s Freedom of Information Act regulations. According to EPA, those regulations, last updated in 2002, required revision to comply with...more
Supreme Court Upends Half-Century Standard for Handling Confidential Commercial Information Under the Freedom of Information Act - Businesses that provide sensitive commercial or financial information to the federal...more
Contractors have struggled to prevent the release of confidential information such as proposals incorporated into contracts and unit pricing requested by competitors and others under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)....more
In a significant decision for Government contractors, the Supreme Court has expanded the types of “commercial or financial information” that are “confidential,” and therefore exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On June 24, 2019, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media and resolved fractured circuit splits about the parameters for when the government may withhold...more
A recent Supreme Court case determined that private commercial and financial information that is transmitted to the federal government under an assurance of privacy is considered “confidential” and not subject to disclosure...more
The Supreme Court in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, No. 18-481 (U.S. June 24, 2019) recently relaxed the standard for withholding confidential information under Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act...more
Although patentees generally do not have great concerns about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) because of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's secrecy requirements, they may lose control over their information under...more
In Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, the US Supreme Court held that private sector commercial information in the federal government’s possession may be withheld from public release without a showing that the...more
On June 24, the US Supreme Court issued its opinion in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, expanding the scope of information protected under Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). FOIA establishes...more
Many companies that have submitted confidential business information to the federal government have learned the hard way that the Courts and federal agencies have not interpreted the word “confidential” under the Freedom of...more
On June 24, 2019, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media and resolved fractured circuit splits about the parameters for when the government may withhold information from a...more
On June 24, 2019, the United States Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Gorsuch, held that information that “is both customarily and actually treated as private by its owner and provided to the government under an...more