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In the new age of the whistleblower, an employment lawyer who one day advises on a routine employee discipline or discharge may the next day find him- or herself directing a multi-disciplinary investigation of alleged corporate malfeasance, guiding a team of forensic accountants, private investigators, and public relations experts.
Highlights of the latest commercial leasing cases from around the country.
Features
Although difficult to imagine, your best worker may hold the key to your company's worst security nightmare. Technologically armed employees who routinely use BlackBerry devices, personal digital assistants, laptops, and tiny flash drives to transport critical information to and from the office can wreak havoc on a corporation '' with no intention to do so.
Features
The current popularity of real estate as an investment class has fostered a favorable environment for the sale of shopping centers, among other properties. With demand seeming to outstrip supply and competition fierce among institutional purchasers, many shopping centers are now sold before the retail spaces therein are fully leased and income producing. Because institutional purchasers typically require a minimum level of return on their investment dollar, they typically will not accept full responsibility for the completion of project leasing. Accordingly, in such early sale transactions, sellers frequently retain some measure of post-closing leasing risk.
A landlord secures an anchor tenant with a big-name, stable, and successful chain store. The landlord negotiates that a percentage of this successful tenant's gross sales out of the landlord's location will constitute a portion of the rental payments. In order to protect his percentage rent, the landlord ensures that the lease contains a provision that (it thought) would forbid the tenant from opening another store in close proximity to the landlord's property. Therefore, the landlord has sufficiently guaranteed not only a base rental payment, but also a portion of the tenant's success, and it is confident the tenant will be very successful in the area. The landlord is thrilled, right? Maybe not. New case law indicates that courts may interpret the landlord's lease provision protecting against a new store, a radius clause, in a manner different from the way the landlord had intended.
When involuntary employment terminations become necessary, employers often seek protection from possible post-employment claims by conditioning severance pay on the signing of a general release and agreement not to sue. As a general rule, such waivers are enforceable if they are 'knowing and voluntary.' Less clear, however, is under what circumstances an employer may condition severance payments on a promise by the departing employee that he/she will not pursue a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in connection with an allegation of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.
Features
An improperly drafted description of the premises can produce unintended results such as changes in the rent, the granting of unintended tenant rights, or even termination of the lease.
Features
Every successful entrepreneur understands that you must know your audience before making a business pitch. This same cardinal business rule applies to commercial office developments and renovations; a developer or owner interested in pursuing a green building project needs to be prepared to justify the green rationale to different audiences having a stake in the project. Investors and lenders will want to know how the green components impact development and operational costs. Prospective tenants will have an entirely different focus — they will want to know how the green features will enhance the company's image or impact employees' use of the space.
As business information, particularly in electronic format, continues to proliferate, the need to maintain the security of this information is increasing. There are privacy and corporate governance laws that govern the obligation of a company to keep information secure. According to the Global State of Information Security 2006, a worldwide study by CIO magazine, CSO magazine and PricewaterhouseCoopers representing the responses of almost 7800 senior executives, 'Noncompliance runs broad and deep in all industries, and ignorance of applicable law is a big factor.' This article provides an overview of two important information security obligations ' security procedures and practices and document destruction ' under privacy and corporate governance laws.
The recent settlement agreement entered in the EP MedSystems matter (described below) does little to refute the common wisdom that the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security ('BIS') treats voluntary disclosures of export violations more harshly than other agencies that regulate exports from the United States. It also illustrates a potential, but avoidable, peril in the two-step voluntary disclosure process urged by BIS and other federal agencies. Finally, it serves as yet another example of the regulatory minefield that U.S. export laws present for U.S. companies with foreign subsidiaries.
