Courts employ a heightened standard when companies attempt to shield their employee'in-house lawyer communications under the attorney-client privilege. The dominant reason for this scrutiny is the recognition that employees often involve in-house counsel in business and legal-related conversations, forcing courts to scrutinize whether the putatively privileged communication pertained to legal or business advice.
By establishing a prearranged plan to trade their companies' stock in compliance with SEC Rule 10b5-1, corporate executives avail themselves of the only formally codified affirmative defense against a charge of insider trading. However, statistical evidence demonstrating that executives in trading plans outperform their peers by 6% to 10% have twice brought trading plans under academic and journalistic scrutiny.
In late 2013, a Subway sandwich franchise in Pennsylvania was making the news for being one of the first small American businesses to accept bitcoin as payment for purchases. According to press reports, that franchise generated a lot of interest among hungry bitcoin enthusiasts, who went out of their way to visit the store. Should this be dismissed as a mere publicity stunt, or is the use of bitcoin something that deserves some thought?
This edition of the Quarterly State Compliance Review looks at some legislation of interest to corporate lawyers that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2014. It also looks at four recent decisions of interest from the Delaware courts.
December 2 was an extraordinary day for Amazon.com Inc., the mammoth online retailer: Cyber Monday sales reached new heights, its fanciful plan to use drones to make deliveries was creating buzz ' and then the U.S. Supreme Court spoiled it all by turning down Amazon's challenge to online sales taxes.
The New Jersey Supreme Court has vigorously defended its supremacy with respect to the administration of the courts from intrusion by other branches of government. The Separation of Powers Doctrine is premised on the theory that government works most efficiently when each of the three branches of government acts independently within its designated sphere.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler ruled Hulu's alleged disclosure of users' viewing selections is enough to sustain claims under the Video Privacy Protection Act.
Recently, 37 states and the District of Columbia reached a $17 million dollar settlement with Google over its intentional circumvention of Internet users' privacy settings. The case stemmed from 'Google's bypassing of privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser to use cookies to track users and show them advertisements in 2011 and 2012. In total, Google has paid approximately $40 million dollars to federal and state regulators for intentionally harming the personal privacy rights of Internet users.
Everyone, especially corporate leaders, got a little paranoid last year when NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden pulled the alarm on U.S. surveillance. That paranoia turned into palpable risk after reports emerged of the NSA tapping the phones of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and executives at a Brazilian oil company.
Maryland Franchise Attorneys Discuss Possible Law Changes
Maine Franchisees Launch Association
