Employers that rely on non-compete agreements to protect their trade secrets and other legitimate business interests got some welcome news on August 20. The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) final non-compete rule, which seeks...more
8/22/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Competition ,
Confidential Information ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants
On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by a vote of 3-2 approved and issued its final rule that effectively bans employers’ use of all non-compete agreements (with very limited exceptions). The final rule is...more
4/24/2024
/ Competition ,
Confidential Information ,
Contract Terms ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Reform ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Trade Secrets
On May 30, 2023, General Counsel (GC) Jennifer A. Abruzzo released Memorandum 23-08, Non-Compete Agreements that Violate the National Labor Relations Act. In the memorandum, Abruzzo urges the National Labor Relations Board to...more
I. Introduction -
A. Artificial Intelligence Arrives in Everyday Life – The Release of ChatGPT -
Generative AI, which is a type of artificial intelligence that can produce or create new content, has already started to...more
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission published a proposed rule that, if it became final, would ban all non-compete agreements with limited exceptions. The rule would go into effect 60 days after it becomes final,...more
In Reuter v. City of Methuen (April 4, 2022), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court expanded an employer’s liability for the late payment of wages. Generally, Massachusetts law requires that an employer that terminates an...more
On December 20, 2021, the City of Boston announced a new vaccination mandate, the “Temporary Order Requiring COVID-19 Vaccination for Indoor Entertainment, Recreation, Dining, and Fitness Settings in the City of Boston” (the...more
12/22/2021
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Local Ordinance ,
New Regulations ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Vaccinations ,
Vaccine Passports ,
Workplace Safety
In the last 10 years, states across the country have passed measures imposing new requirements and restrictions on employers wishing to use non-compete agreements with their workforces. In 2016, Illinois enacted the Freedom...more
On July 9, 2021, President Biden issued his Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy. Earlier in the day, the White House issued a press release announcing that the anticipated order would, “[m]ake it...more
On May 18, 2020, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and the Massachusetts Reopening Advisory Board released the Reopening Massachusetts Report (the “Report”), which provides details regarding the state’s four-phase...more
In recent weeks, Maine and New Hampshire each enacted a law prohibiting the use of noncompete agreements with lower wage earners. Shortly thereafter, on July 11, 2019, the Rhode Island legislature sent a similar bill to...more
7/16/2019
/ Confidential Information ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Legislative Agendas ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Pending Legislation ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws
Public discourse on “healthcare” has focused primarily on health insurance and the significant changes made by the Affordable Care Act. But what about the providers of healthcare—the doctors, nurses, hospitals, pharmaceutical...more
7/12/2019
/ #MeToo ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Home Health Care ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Over-Time ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Section 7 ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour ,
WARN Act ,
Whistleblowers ,
White-Collar Exemptions ,
Workplace Safety
From sweeping legislation to unexpected case law, and everything in between, 2018 brought a lot of changes to unfair competition law....more
2/11/2019
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Contract Terms ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Former Employee ,
Misappropriation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Popular ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Trade Secrets ,
Uniform Trade Secrets Acts
This Annual Report on EEOC Developments—Fiscal Year 2018 (hereafter “Report”), our eighth annual publication, is designed as a comprehensive guide to significant EEOC developments over the past fiscal year. The Report does...more
1/30/2019
/ Consent Decrees ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Settlement Negotiations ,
Subpoenas ,
Wage and Hour
It is well-established that restrictive covenants are prohibited by statute in California. Since the decision by the California Supreme Court that partial restraints like customer non-solicitation clauses were void under...more
This Annual Report on EEOC Developments—Fiscal Year 2017, our seventh annual Report, is designed as a comprehensive guide to significant EEOC developments over the past fiscal year. The Report does not merely summarize case...more
2/28/2018
/ ADEA ,
Age Discrimination ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Big Data ,
Civil Rights Act ,
EEO-1 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Government Investigations ,
Harassment ,
LGBTQ ,
Mediation ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Title VII ,
Transgender