When investigating potential wrongdoing, government investigators have powerful tools that they can use to obtain information. As the U.S. Attorneys’ Manual explains, one such tool is the ability to enter into non-prosecution...more
The Dodd-Frank Act, passed in 2010, includes a new cause of action for whistleblowers who claim that their employer retaliated against them for reporting wrongdoing. But it’s not yet certain whether a whistleblower who blew...more
When an executive becomes embroiled in a dispute with an employer, the executive tends to take it personally. And when the executive’s conflict is with the government, the executive’s sense of outrage ratchets up even more....more
6/15/2017
/ Advancement ,
C-Suite Executives ,
CEOs ,
Corporate Executives ,
Corporate Liability ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Indemnification ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Responsible Corporate Officer Doctrine ,
White Collar Crimes
In 2011, a group of executives left Horizon Health Corporation for a competitor, Acadia, but they didn’t leave everything behind. Horizon’s president took a “massive, massive amount” of Horizon documents with him on an...more
Federal employment law protects against a number of different types of discrimination, including treating employees differently because of age, gender, or race. ...more
An employee without an employment contract is typically deemed to be an at-will employee. In an at-will employment relationship, the employer has the right to terminate the employee for any reason, with or without cause....more
Federal law—specifically, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on a number of protected characteristics, including sex, race, national origin, and...more
4/7/2017
/ Appeals ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Identity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
LGBTQ ,
Richard Posner ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Split of Authority ,
Title VII ,
Transgender
In our last post, we detailed how Sanford Wadler, the former general counsel of Bio-Rad Laboratories, won a $14.5 million verdict against Bio-Rad.
Before Wadler could get to a jury, however, he had to surmount a...more
3/10/2017
/ Administrative Proceedings ,
Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Bio-Rad Laboratories ,
Confidential Information ,
Crime-Fraud Exception ,
Federal v State Law Application ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Legal Ethics ,
Motion to Exclude ,
Privilege Waivers ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
State Law Claims ,
Whistleblowers ,
White Collar Crimes ,
Wrongful Termination
Companies entrust their in-house attorneys with sensitive and confidential information in order to obtain legal advice on important matters. Thus, when an in-house attorney turns on his or her employer, the repercussions can...more
The board of directors controls a corporation, but individual directors don’t always agree on the future direction of the company. Sometimes, boards can split into factions. A company’s CEO may align himself with one side and...more
If you're an employee and you work more than 40 hours a week, you typically have the right to receive time-and-a-half overtime pay for those extra hours....more
1/17/2017
/ Administrative Appointments ,
Barack Obama ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Minimum Salary ,
Over-Time ,
Secretary of Labor ,
Trump Administration ,
White-Collar Exemptions
It’s been a tough few months for Baylor football and its former coach Art Briles. Baylor fired Briles in May of this year, after an outside law firm investigated the school’s response to alleged sexual assaults by football...more
When an employee brings a lawsuit involving a plan adopted by their employer, one question is whether ERISA—the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974—applies....more
In lawsuits over contracts, parties sometimes assert defenses that contracts are voidable or void. A voidable contract is one as to which the party should have a choice as to whether it is enforceable or not; for example,...more
When an employee brings a lawsuit alleging that his employer retaliated or discriminated against him, courts typically assess the claim by using a burden-shifting approach. Under this approach, after the employer offers a...more
When Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank Acts, it included protections for employees who blow the whistle on wrongdoing by their employers. However, those whistleblower protections don’t apply to every report of...more
9/30/2016
/ Amended Complaints ,
Auditors ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Failure To State A Claim ,
Lack of Specificity ,
Motion to Amend ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers ,
Wrongful Termination