While still enforceable in a vast majority of states, restrictive covenants in employment contracts have recently been the subject of state and federal regulation limiting their scope, while new laws restricting their enforceability continue to be proposed and make their way through legislatures and administrative agencies. These new laws not only place various limits on restrictive covenants, but in some cases, impose penalties on employers for violations of the law.  Employers should be mindful of this evolving landscape when including restrictive covenants in employment contracts, both to ensure that the agreements’ terms are enforceable under the law, and to avoid… Read more

SGR recently hosted an informal, virtual roundtable to discuss some of the lessons that can be learned from the Theranos saga and the recent trial of its former CEO, Elizabeth Holmes. SGR partners Lori Gelchion and Bob Hussle (Corporate Practice), Michael Riesen (Intellectual Property Practice) and Emily Ward (Litigation and White Collar practices) each approached the case from their unique vantage point and discussed issues ranging from investor due diligence to corporate governance policies to patents. They also shared advice for company directors, investors and other lawyers. Below are some key excerpts and topics covered in their panel. Background: Theranos… Read more

On October 18, 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced an imminent, all-fronts attack on a class of chemical substances known as “PFAS” (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) that, when fully implemented, will have sweeping effects on every major program administrated by the agency.  The announcement came in the form of the agency’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap, which sets timelines to address harmful PFAS compounds in the environment, and utilizes existing authority and EPA programs to create a comprehensive, integrated approach to safeguard communities from PFAS contamination.  The Problem PFAS are a large group of manmade chemicals, about 4,700 in total, that… Read more

When drafting or negotiating a contract and after working through the substantive provisions, do you too often just use the same-old boilerplate provisions from an earlier contract, e.g., forum selection, merger clause, choice of law, etc.?  These items can indeed be afterthoughts.  Do they really matter?  Well, as litigators, we can tell you that these seemingly mundane clauses can and do have ramifications when a dispute arises.  Nowhere is this more immediately felt than in a forum selection clause or the related dispute resolution clause.  Along with a choice-of-law provision, these are some of the first places we look when… Read more

Introduction: Web3 Nearly 60 years ago, J.C.R. Licklider penned a series of memos describing his “Intergalactic Computer Network” – a globally interconnected set of computers through which users could access data and programs. Sound familiar? Today, we are confronted with changing landscapes in commerce, politics, finance, society and the law that are embodied in the so-called Web 3.0 or Web3 ecosystem. What is Web3? Web3 doesn’t have a single definition. Some reference Web3 when envisioning a network of data that is largely processed by machines in a machine readable language – computers talking to computers. Others define Web3 in terms… Read more

For many years, in an effort to comply with the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and avoid unfair labor practice charges (ULPs), non-union and union employers have trained their frontline supervisors that: Hourly employees may discuss (or complain about) their wages, wage increases and benefits (or lack of benefits) with other employees. Management cannot permit anti-union talk while prohibiting pro-union talk. Management may never prevent talk about unions (for or against) while employees are on non-working time. Management must be consistent in treating union solicitation the same as any other kind of solicitation by employees who are not acting on… Read more

The economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis is projected to be bumpy and nonlinear, and it will accelerate many ongoing transformations, with the effects of the crisis felt most in labor markets.  Few areas of our daily lives have been impacted by the pandemic as much as the way we work.  As the world reopens, the future of work – across industries, sectors and markets – has been permanently altered.  By 2024, it’s predicted that 30% of the global workforce –  600 million people – will be remote.  How will this impact communities and the businesses within them? In a… Read more

Employers attempting to emerge from the wake of COVID-19 are trying to define what a new normal will be in what may be a whole new world.  The expectation that a vaccine would lift the corona-curse, and return everything to how it once was, may have been a fantasy (thanks a lot, Delta variant!).  Instead, among the lingering effects of the novel coronavirus are employees wishing for (or, in some cases, demanding) flexible work options. Once upon a time, in the not-so-distant past, many employers deemed remote work impossible, or at least impractical.  But those same employers were forced to… Read more

The COVID-19 pandemic thrust remote working arrangements into the limelight with approximately 70% of U.S. workers working from home in April 2020.1  While the numbers have decreased as COVID-19 vaccines increased in availability and governments relaxed pandemic restrictions, the upward trend in remote working is likely to remain.  Additionally, with the rise of the COVID-19 Delta variant and shortage of workers, many employers are maintaining remote working flexibility to not only address employee health concerns but also remain competitive in the labor market where a greater number of employers are advertising remote working as a perk.  More than 25% of… Read more

Office Life – A European Angle COVID-19 has affected workers across the globe in different ways. This essay is a reflection on current working dynamics for office workers from a European perspective.  The world continues to turn.  After a short initial stall and some occasional supply chain interruptions, the construction industry soon got going again.  International freight by sea and air has continued.  Global politics even got to party, with this summer’s G7 meeting taking place in sunny Cornwall whilst the vast majority of Europeans remained on some form of restricted travel mandate.  For many, working in what has become… Read more