You’ve hired an experienced and successful sales manager and you and your employee are now faced with a potential legal claim from your employee’s former employer. Or your company is facing legal proceedings and individual employees are involved in the case or called as witnesses. Your employee cannot afford to retain separate legal counsel. May […]
Blog
By Adam J. Shafran, Esq. Companies in all industries, large and small, should prepare themselves now for upcoming changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), the federal law governing overtime wages. In March of this year, President Obama issued a memorandum to the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) mandating the DOL to update […]
Massachusetts law is clear: both majority and minority shareholders of a closely-held corporation owe each other (as well as to the corporation) a fiduciary duty–a duty of utmost good faith and loyalty. In 1975, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held in the leading case of Donahue v. Rodd Electrotype Co. of New England, Inc., that as […]
OSHA recently enacted a significant change to the requirements for reporting a death on the job and certain serious work place injuries. It is important for Massachusetts employers to be aware of the new requirements, including what must now be reported and the timing of the reports. The full press release is below. Please do […]
By Adam J. Shafran, Esq. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) is a federal law that has been appearing in lawsuits brought by employers against their former employees at an ever increasing rate. The CFAA prohibits employees from accessing their employer’s electronic information without authorization, and includes both criminal and civil causes of action. […]
By Adam J. Shafran, Esq. Massachusetts, like all other states, follows the employment doctrine known as “employee-at will.” The concept is rather straightforward. On one hand, when an employee is considered an employee-at-will, the employee can choose to leave his or her employment at any time, without advance notice, and without having to give a […]
Covenants not to compete are generally disfavored. To enforce a non-compete, an employer must show that the covenant is necessary to protect a legitimate business interest, reasonably limited in time and space, and consonant with the public interest. This often requires individualized judicial consideration. And the matter is usually first presented to the judge by […]
By Robert P. Rudolph, Esq. A Massachusetts court recently held that a broker was entitled to her broker’s fee despite the fact that no lease was consummated. In Ria K, McNamara. Inc. v. Forecast Shrewsbury Ltd. P’ship. 31 Mass.L.Rptr. 366 (Mass. Super. July 17, 2013), the Plaintiff Ria K. McNamara (“McNamara”) filed suit for payment […]
The short answer is yes, but it depends on the facts and circumstances of the particular situation. In a recent case decided by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the Court addressed for the first time when a corporation’ s counsel could assert the attorney- client privilege and the work-product doctrine to prevent the disclosure of […]
It has long been the law in Massachusetts that a corporation (or even an individual) can, under certain circumstances, be held liable for the debt of another corporation. This is commonly known as “piercing of the corporate veil.”
