Employment Law This Week: Sexual Orientation Discrimination Suits, Tip Pooling, Successor Liability, Trade Secrets, Workplace Solicitation
Seyfarth Synopsis: In acquiring a company, there is often a tendency to think an asset purchase (as opposed to a stock purchase) guarantees the purchaser will not inherit any liability (so-called “successor liability”). This...more
A common method for business expansion is for one company to acquire another company’s operations and then merge the operations into the acquiring company. However, even when care is taken to structure such acquisitions to...more
SEC Adopts CEO Pay Ratio Rule - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently adopted a final rule requiring public companies to disclose the ratio of annual pay of their chief executive to median annual pay...more
Recently, my colleague Lindsey Marcus guest authored a post on yet another successor liability case, this time out of the Third Circuit. Her post reminded me of another case in the Seventh Circuit from 2013, and a larger...more
In Thompson v. Real Estate Mortgage Network, No. 12-3228 (3d. Cir. Apr. 3, 2014), the Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently found a successor employer potentially responsible for Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) violations...more
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, recently became the third appellate court to adopt the federal common law standard for successor liability in a...more
Federal courts continue to embrace a broad view in evaluating the question of whether federal Fair Labor Standards Act liability may be imposed upon a successor company in particular situations. ...more
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently held for the first time that a predecessor’s wage-and-hour violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) can result in liability for a successor employer. The Third Circuit’s...more
A recent federal appeals court decision suggests that businesses looking at potential acquisitions or mergers have yet another, relatively new concern to their due diligence list when examining the target business: an...more
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that an employer can be liable for its predecessor’s violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Thompson v. Real Estate Mortgage Network, No. 12-3828 (3d Cir. Apr. 4, 2014)....more
In a recently decided case, Thompson v. Real Estate Mortgage Network, Case No. 12-3828 (3d Cir. Apr. 3, 2014), the Third Circuit Court of Appeals determined for the first time that a successor-employer may be held financially...more
When a purchaser acquires substantially all the assets of a seller, the purchase agreement typically provides that the purchaser does not assume seller’s liabilities except to the limited extent specifically set forth...more
Businesses often acquire other businesses through an asset purchase, rather than a stock purchase, so that the buyer does not inherit the liabilities of the seller. Not all business owners realize that federal labor law...more
One of the benefits to structuring an acquisition as an asset deal is that the buyer has the ability to choose the liabilities that it will assume and the liabilities that will remain with the seller, including contingent...more
In Teed v. Thomas & Betts Power Solutions, LLC, the 7th Circuit in an opinion written by Judge Posner held that, absent a good reason to withhold liability, a purchaser of assets was subject to successor liability for Fair...more
In a case which is sure to complicate the sale of companies (or discrete divisions thereof) and have widespread influence in other Circuits, the Seventh Circuit recently held that a company which acquired the assets (not...more
Some bargains are not as they seem. An asset-acquiring Company discovered this the hard way in Teed v. Thomas & Betts Power Solutions. In the case, at an auction, Thomas & Betts purchased the assets of a company in...more
Purchasing company is found to be subject to successor liability for federal employment-related claims, even where it explicitly disclaimed such liability in the transfer of assets....more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit became the second federal appellate court to extend successor liability under the FLSA to an asset purchaser. In Teed et al, v. Thomas & Betts Power Solutions, LLC, the...more