Issue 3 / Spring 2003

• Volunteering For Liability George began to have an uneasy feeling at the first board meeting he attended of the community youth symphony organization. The incoming volunteer president awarded the outgoing president with a T-shirt that said: “Never Volunteer for Anything.” The incumbent volunteer members of the board laughed — a little too heartily, George thought.
• Executive Compensation Since the recent high-profile bankruptcies of Enron, WorldCom and other companies, the public has been bombarded by stories of corporate executives reaping millions of dollars in profits before delivering their companies to the bankruptcy courts and leaving the shareholders and employees holding the proverbial bag.
• Doing Business With The Enemy Most Americans are probably aware that they may not engage in business dealings with nations with which the United States has an antagonistic relationship, such as Cuba, Iraq and North Korea. But many people may not be aware that the United States aggressively enforces a broad range of economic sanctions against 12 countries or geographic areas and more than 3,500 organizations and individuals.
• How To Evaluate An Appeal You have convinced the trial court to dismiss the case against you. Or you have endured the agony of a jury trial, and the jury awarded damages against your company. Is this the end of your case?
• Cybersmear The case of Mathis v. Cannon involved freedom of expression on the Internet and posed important Internet defamation law questions.
• But It’s Not In My Contract You are the person in management at your company who is responsible for hiring the head of a new company division. You finally located the individual that you believe to be “the right one” for the job. However, you want to make certain that your new employee understands what the company expects from her and what the company will provide in return. Maybe there should be something in writing between the new employee and the company. You could always confirm the terms of the position in a letter to the employee, but what exactly does that accomplish?