At the office, in the car or anywhere else, we share every detail of our daily existence in real time on Facebook. Most of the time, this is acceptable and constitutionally protected behavior. But what happens in the courtroom when jurors post their opinions about a case online during trial?
Federal statutes protecting whistleblowers are on the rise. Most recently, the Dodd-Frank Act, meant to overhaul and strengthen federal oversight of the financial system, included workplace protections for whistleblowers in the financial services industry. But that is not the only new law to include whistleblower protections.
Survey results show that 38% of the 1,700 respondents didn't know who was dealing with social media in their company. The remaining answers were spread across human resources, compliance, marketing, and, at the bottom of the list, the legal department. And while 84% say companies should have policies in place to address social media risks, only 35% say they do have them. But the risks of social media ' legal and reputational ' are real, and companies need to deal with them.
Despite huge technological advancements in the 25 years since passage of the SCA, and the ever-increasing prominence of electronic communication in our society, Congress has not amended the SCA to keep pace with changing technology. Rather, courts have had to lead the charge in applying the decades-old statute to modern Internet technology and electronic communication disclosure issues.
Family care issues permeate the workplace, arising in the context of employee recruitment, growth, development and career advancement, and employee requests for time off, flexible schedules and other benefits.
The explosion of "Web 2.0" phenomena has brought with it a deluge of published material that is arguably defamatory or otherwise actionable. While some actually welcome this development ' preferring the Web to be, and remain, "a frontier society free from the conventions and constraints that limit discourse in the real world" ' many others do not, especially those worried about the potential impact of disparaging online material on their corporate reputation. But many of those troubled by the threat to corporate reputation from defamatory online content also have discovered that mitigating its effect, or getting it removed, is far from easy.
The doctrine of inevitable disclosure is a crucial tool to protect companies from perfidious former employees and is no threat to the honest ones ' if properly applied. A look at Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc. v. Botticella
The last couple of months have seen a number of challenges for U.S. corporations doing business in Europe, particularly those that rely on the Safe Harbor scheme to legalize the transfer of customer or employee data to the U.S.
Technology can be a very good thing ' especially if people actually use it! After several years in the legal industry, I have learned that the best technology in the world can have virtually no benefit if it is not marketed properly. However, if presented to users in a strategic way, a piece of software can be successful and have a revolutionary impact.
Now that our "KYL Keeps You Learning" program has been underway for about a year and we have been in the training phase of the program for over six months, we have developed a clear picture of what theories were on point, and what we would have done differently if we were starting over with the knowledge we have today.
