Commercial Contracts

Expert Analysis

• What Employers Should Know About New Ill. Noncompete Law

  

  Illinois' recently enacted Freedom to Work Act prohibits nongovernmental employers from entering into noncompete agreements with low-wage employees. The new law is part of a greater focus by state and federal governments on ensuring the mobility of low-wage workers and preventing potential abuse of noncompete agreements, say Jim Witz and Abiman Rajadurai at Littler Mendelson PC.

• Managing The Compliance Aspects Of PE Investments

  

  It can be difficult for a private equity investor to detect potential wrongdoing by the entities or individuals involved in a target’s business. Therefore, when drafting contractual safeguards in a purchase agreement, investors should take measures to shield themselves against both identified and unidentified risks, say attorneys with Dechert LLP.

• Overhauling Law Firm Records Departments For A New Reality

  

  As automation increases, so do business challenges that impact overall law firm operations. Records departments are facing roadblocks associated with antiquated processes, ever-changing regulatory requirements, and emerging technologies. As a result, firms are reassessing the needs of their records department staffing models, says Raymond Fashola of HBR Consulting.

• Guarding Against Privilege Waiver In Federal Investigations

  

  It's been well over a year since Judge Andrew Peck gently excoriated the legal community for underusing the not-so-new privilege waiver protections of Rule 502(d). While his remarks may have raised awareness, Rule 502 as a whole, together with any potential federal agency regulations concerning privilege waiver, offers little peace of mind to parties subject to government investigations, say attorneys with BuckleySandler LLP.

• Seed Co. Settlement Sends Warning Signal To Exporters

  

  The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s recent $4.3 million penalty against PanAmerican Seed Company is significant for this type of product. It demonstrates that the agency will continue to vigorously enforce Iran sanctions violations and serves as a lesson to exporters as to the prevailing pattern of violations resulting from the use of intermediaries, say Anjali Vohra and Alexandra López-Casero of Nixon Peabody LLP.

• Whose Line, Drawing Or Plan Is It Anyway?

  

  Before entering a negotiation, it is imperative for architects and real estate owners to understand how copyright protection intersects with architectural works. Failure to recognize boundaries may lead to litigation over whether an architect may use the plans again or whether a developer may modify the plans if the architect’s services are terminated before the project is finished, say attorneys with Tarter Krinsky & Drogin LLP.

• The Rogue Insider: Protecting Against Trade Secret Theft

  

  Advances in information storage and transmission technology have made financial services companies increasingly susceptible to the misappropriation or theft of critical proprietary assets. With the click of a mouse, rogue employees from the C-suite to the mailroom can download and disseminate hundreds of thousands of documents, lines of computer code, and other data containing a company’s most prized trade secrets. Mark Sidoti and ... (continued)

• 3 Steps To Successful Judgment Enforcement

  

  Judgment enforcement is typically governed by the law of the state where collection is sought, which frequently means collection efforts are controlled by an arcane body of law replete with debtor-friendly roadblocks. Fortunately, there are a number of actions a judgment creditor can take to secure satisfaction of a claim, say Craig Weiner and Michael Kolcun of Robins Kaplan LLP.

• Adding Fuel To The Employment Arbitration Agreement Fire

  

  Amid contrary decisions by the Seventh and Ninth Circuits, the Second Circuit in Patterson v. Raymours Furniture recently followed its earlier precedent enforcing an employment arbitration agreement. Now, U.S. Supreme Court review seems inevitable and in the interim companies will be challenged on how to enforce nationwide arbitration agreements, says John Lewis of BakerHostetler.

• Should Your Law Firm Move To The Cloud?

  

  Don't kid yourself into believing, currently, that cloud options are cheaper. Cost is not the justification for moving your law firm to the cloud, says Paul R. Kiesel, founder of Kiesel Law LLP and immediate past president of the Los Angeles Bar Association.