In a motion for reconsideration filed on July 10, 2024, the plaintiffs in Ryan LLC v. Federal Trade Commission, No. 3:24-cv-00986-E (N.D. Tex. Apr. 23, 2024) urged the court to expand the scope of its limited preliminary...more
On May 23, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania dismissed a trade secret misappropriation claim for failure to identify a trade secret. The case is titled Vertical Bridge REIT, LLC v. Everest...more
Earlier today, July 3, 2024, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction staying enforcement of the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) proposed final rule (“Final Rule”)...more
On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) voted 3-2 to issue a proposed final rule (“Final Rule”), which, absent a successful legal challenge, will ban most noncompete agreements in the United States.
Despite...more
4/25/2024
/ Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
FTC Act ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Trade Secrets
Today the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 to approve a Final Rule that, absent a successful legal challenge, will ban most noncompete agreements in the United States beginning 120 days after publication in the Federal...more
4/24/2024
/ Employment Contract ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Trade Secrets
On March 7, 2024, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced that the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) is creating a pilot whistleblower rewards program, which will be developed and implemented over the next 90 days,...more
3/21/2024
/ CFTC ,
Corporate Governance ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Pilot Programs ,
FEPA ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
New Regulations ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers ,
White Collar Crimes
An American Arbitration Association arbitrator recently awarded Black Knight, Inc. (BK) $155M stemming from Pennymac Loan Services, LLC’s (Pennymac) alleged use of its mortgage-loan servicing platform to develop its own...more
On November 1, 2023, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California awarded damages to Skye Orthobiologics, LLC (“Skye”) and Human Regenerative Technologies, LLC (“HRT”) for breach of contract,...more
3/6/2024
/ Biomedical Companies ,
Breach of Contract ,
Breach of Duty ,
Confidential Information ,
Confidentiality Policies ,
Contract Terms ,
Damages ,
Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) ,
Duty of Loyalty ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Independent Contractors ,
Jury Awards ,
Misappropriation ,
Pre-Employment Agreements ,
Trade Secrets
The Illinois Equal Pay Act (“IEPA”) was previously amended to require private businesses with more than 100 employees in Illinois to obtain an Equal Pay Registration Certificate (“EPRC”) by March 23, 2024, and every two years...more
In a win for businesses that rely on restrictive covenants to protect their assets and investments, on January 29, 2024, the Delaware Supreme Court unanimously reversed a Chancery Court decision that invalidated a...more
After months of speculation and intense lobbying, New York Governor Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill that would have imposed a near-total ban on employee non-competition agreements in New York State.
Governor Hochul has long...more
2023 was another groundbreaking year for whistleblower litigation and bounty awards.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shattered records by issuing a $279 million award and continued to actively enforce the...more
12/20/2023
/ CFTC ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Dodd-Frank ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Fraud ,
Medicare Billing Privileges ,
OSHA ,
Qui Tam ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Separation Agreement ,
United States ex rel Polansky v Executive Health Resources Inc ,
Whistleblower Awards ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
In what we believe are her first public statements on the New York Legislature’s proposal to ban ostensibly all non-compete agreements in New York, Governor Hochul on Thursday, November 30 reportedly told a group of...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) recently released its statutorily mandated 2023 Annual Report detailing the status of its whistleblower program for the fiscal year ending on September 20, 2023.
The...more
In this episode of The Proskauer Brief we are joined by Daryl Leon, one of the leads of Proskauer’s Restrictive Covenants, Trade Secrets and Unfair Competition Group and Edna Guerrasio, senior counsel in the Labor &...more
In this episode of The Proskauer Brief we are joined by Daryl Leon, one of the leads of Proskauer’s Restrictive Covenants, Trade Secrets and Unfair Competition Group and Edna Guerrasio, senior counsel in the Labor &...more
Since 2015, the SEC has brought nearly two dozen enforcement actions for violations of the whistleblower protection rules under Rule 21F-17(a) against employers for actions taken to impede reporting to the SEC. The bulk of...more
10/19/2023
/ Carve Out Provisions ,
Compliance ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Penalties ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Separation Agreement ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
Noncompete agreements are under siege, facing attacks on the state and federal fronts.
This is vividly illustrated by what's happening within the Federal Trade Commission and the New York State Legislature. In the...more
On September 25, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board’s rejection of an employee’s Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) retaliation claim, holding the...more
Forfeiture clauses are one tactic. They provide a meaningful disincentive for employees to engage in competitive behavior.
Noncompetes are under siege on multiple fronts.
Originally published in Legal Dive - September...more
9/18/2023
/ Audits ,
Confidential Information ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Employee Retention ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Forfeiture ,
Human Capital ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Proposed Rules
On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College that race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina...more
9/8/2023
/ Affirmative Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
College Admissions ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Protection ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
SCOTUS ,
Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College ,
Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina ,
Title VI
On August 31, 2023, the Delaware Court of Chancery held, with respect to a non-compete provision in an employment agreement, that: (1) the choice of law provision selecting Delaware was “not necessarily binding”; and (2) the...more
On August 18, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit expanded the types of employment actions that may constitute “adverse employment action” under Title VII in Hamilton v. Dallas Cnty., 5th Cir. en banc. No....more
On August 4, 2023, Illinois Governor Pritzker signed HB2862 (the “Bill”) into law. The Bill requires temporary staffing agencies to provide certain temporary workers with the same pay and benefits as the workers’ directly...more
On May 5, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted a defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment on whistleblower retaliation claims, holding that the company demonstrated that it would...more