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Corporate
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May 22, 2013
3 HR Lessons Employers Can Learn From Schools
As employers wrestle with how to prevent workplace violence, rein in supervisor bullies, and deter employees from using social media to post nasty comments about their co-workers or companies, lawyers say employers can find some much-needed guidance in the ways schools reduce liability risks related to similar problems with students.
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May 22, 2013
GOP Reps. Grill EEOC Chair On Criminal Check Guidance
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday pressed U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Jacqueline Berrien on why the agency had not given the public more opportunities to comment before updating its guidance on employers' use of criminal background checks.
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May 22, 2013
Lucille Roberts Says 2nd Circ. Prohibits TCPA Class Suits
Women's fitness franchise Lucille Roberts Health Clubs Inc. asked a New York federal court to strip class allegations from a suit accusing it of text-spamming potential gym members on Wednesday, saying the Second Circuit has unequivocally barred such actions in the state.
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May 22, 2013
Sephora To Pay $4M To Settle Worker Compensation Suit
A California state judge indicated Wednesday he will likely grant preliminary approval to a $4 million deal between Sephora USA Inc. and a class of 4,800 employees who claim the cosmetics retailer violated state laws by failing to pay overtime, reimburse expenses or compensate staffers for working through breaks.
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May 22, 2013
Strenuous GOP Objections Don't Halt NLRB Nominations
U.S. Senate Democrats on Wednesday pushed through the nominations of five National Labor Relations Board appointees despite fervent GOP objections to two nominees President Barack Obama initially tapped through recess appointments, claiming they must ensure the board's viability before attending to concerns over executive power.
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May 22, 2013
NLRB Says Firing Over Facebook Disses Didn't Violate Law
Skinsmart Dermatology did not violate federal labor law when it fired a worker over expletive-laced comments that disparaged Skinsmart in a Facebook group message because those comments were mere “boasting and griping,” the National Labor Relations Board recently ruled.
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May 22, 2013
Penguin To Pay $75M To Settle States' E-Book Antitrust Claims
Pearson PLC's Penguin Group USA Inc. has agreed to pay $75 million to resolve allegations, lodged by state attorneys general and a proposed consumer class, that it conspired with other publishers and Apple Inc. to fix e-book prices, Pearson said Wednesday.
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May 22, 2013
Trade Bill Would Beef Up Border IP Protections, Sens. Hear
Private industry stakeholders told a congressional committee Wednesday that planned legislation to strengthen the trade functions of U.S. customs agencies would boost their ability to fight the import of counterfeit or rights-infringing goods.
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May 22, 2013
Internal Whistleblowing Deserves Protection, Judge Tells UBS
The Dodd-Frank Act protects whistleblowers from retaliation even if they report wrongdoing internally rather than to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a New York federal court ruled Tuesday, rejecting UBS AG’s bid to dismiss claims by a former mortgage-backed securities strategist.
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May 21, 2013
New Mental Disorders Mean ADA Headaches For Employers
The latest version of the official manual used to diagnose mental disorders threatens to make the already complex task of complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act more difficult by forcing employers to figure out whether and how to accommodate newly recognized mental conditions without much guidance from courts or the government.
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May 21, 2013
Ralphs Presses High Court To Take Union-Picketing Case
Ralphs Grocery Co. on Monday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review a California Supreme Court decision allowing a labor union to picket outside one of its stores, saying the “radical” ruling will allow protesters on its private property solely because their speech is about labor.
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May 21, 2013
FTC Commish Pushes For Enforceable Do-Not-Track Program
Federal Trade Commissioner Maureen K. Ohlhausen on Tuesday urged the online advertising industry to craft an enforcement-backed mechanism that would allow consumers to opt out of online tracking, saying that the industry-created standard would likely fare better than static legislation.
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May 21, 2013
Starbucks, Wal-Mart Reject $7B Swipe Fee Settlement
Nineteen of the nation's largest retailers, including Starbucks Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., announced Tuesday that they would opt out of a $7.25 billion settlement intended to resolve multidistrict antitrust litigation alleging Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. charged excessive fees to merchants that accept the companies' cards.
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May 21, 2013
Calif. Hospital Workers Picket Amid Stalled Contract Talks
Some 13,000 hospital employees from one of the largest trade unions in the country began their two-day strike Tuesday picketing five University of California medical centers as union contract talks remain stalled after a yearlong negotiation process.
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May 21, 2013
Facebook Has Corrected Privacy Gaps, Irish Watchdog Says
The Irish data protection commissioner on Monday reported that Facebook Inc. has fully addressed concerns raised in the watchdog’s September report detailing its audit of the company’s privacy practices and successfully improved its transparency, user control and data retention practices.
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May 21, 2013
Apple CEO Denies Avoiding Taxes With Offshore Shell Cos.
Apple Inc. CEO Timothy D. Cook on Tuesday defended his company's policy of holding billions of dollars in worldwide revenue in Irish shell corporations and shielding them from U.S. and international corporate taxes, telling a Senate investigations subcommittee that contrary to its report, Apple hasn't undercut its tax responsibilities.
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May 21, 2013
Quorum Fight Should Halt NLRB Injunction Bid, DC Circ. Told
Santa Fe Tortilla Co. on Monday asked the D.C. Circuit for help halting the National Labor Relations Board's efforts to get an injunction against the company while the appeals court determines whether the board has the authority to seek such relief in the wake of the Noel Canning decision.
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May 21, 2013
Biz Groups Warn House Panel To Keep Cyber Reforms Flexible
Leaders in the energy, banking and security fields urged the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday to make sure the government uses flexible, nonprescriptive standards to protect critical infrastructure from cyberattacks, so businesses can adapt to rapidly evolving threats.
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May 20, 2013
Calif. Senate Passes Bill Boosting Data Breach Alerts
The California Senate on Thursday approved a measure that would require individuals and companies that maintain computerized data about their clients or customers to notify them if a security breach is detected.
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May 20, 2013
Calif. AG Poised To Ratchet Up Privacy Enforcement Efforts
Looking to ramp up an already-aggressive campaign against privacy violations, California Attorney General Kamala Harris is preparing to appeal the dismissal of her suit over the lack of a privacy policy in Delta Air Lines Inc.'s smartphone application and to launch more suits over corporate data breaches, an adviser to Harris told Law360 last week.
Expert Analysis
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Good For Business: Florida's LLC Rewrite
Representing a substantial evolution in Florida law, the Florida Revised Limited Liability Company Act will make the state a more desirable location for business owners to use an LLC for their business activities. Companies and counsel should familiarize themselves with a number of key changes to existing law, say Philip Schwartz and Andrew Schwartz of Akerman Senterfitt LLP.
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Answers To Your Compensation Committee Rules Questions
Recent changes to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's listing standards for national securities exchanges — including the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ — impose specific requirements related to compensation committee members. These rules have generated a number of frequently asked questions among public companies, say Kevin Douglas and Michael Carr of Bass Berry & Sims PLC.
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More 'Dark Pools' Deepen Litigation Issues
Not surprisingly, dark pools are beginning to crop up in litigation settings. More cases are focusing on the misuse of information contained in dark pool trades, as well as dark pools acting as conduits to insider trading. In fact, there appears to be a correlation between the growth of dark pools and the number of criminal insider trading cases brought by government officials, says Adam Werner of Berkeley Economic Consulting.
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4 UK Bribery Act Myths — Debunked
The U.K. Bribery Act is somewhat complicated. Not surprisingly, therefore, misperceptions have arisen regarding its provisions, especially regarding the requirements, scope and exclusivity of Section 7 corporate liability, says Eli Richardson of Bass Berry & Sims PLC.
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SEC’s Unbundling Rules Get Breath Of Life
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision’s “unbundling” requirements have largely been the stuff of SEC lore — periodically referred to but rarely seen in corporate governance matters. However, thanks to the high profile dispute between David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital and Apple, the unbundling rules may finally be coming out of the shadows, say attorneys with King & Spalding LLP.
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When And How To Consider Hiring In-House IP Counsel
When deciding whether to hire in-house intellectual property counsel, a company should consider its IP strategy and its IP budget. If a company is spending $250,000 or more on outside IP legal fees per year, it is at least worth considering hiring in-house patent counsel, says Scott Smith of Dorsey & Whitney LLP.
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Recent Trends In M&A And Corporate Fiduciary Litigation
In 2012, shareholders challenged 93 percent of all merger and acquisition transactions with a value greater than $100 million and 96 percent of M&A transactions with a value greater than $500 million. In other words, it almost is inevitable nowadays that litigation will follow a merger or going private announcement — with an average of about five lawsuits per transaction, say attorneys with Arnold & Porter LLP.
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Tips For Your Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plan Policy
Now that investigations have been initiated by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the SEC into possible abuses by corporate executives of Rule 10b5-1 trading plans, the private securities bar inevitably will follow suit and file litigation. Nevertheless, these plans continue to be an effective defense against allegations of insider trading, say attorneys with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.
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SEC Must Stop The Latest Effort To Impede Whistleblowers
Increasingly, employees have been presented with language in severance and settlement agreements that impose on whistleblowers a number of restrictions. These provisions pose a serious threat to the success of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's whistleblower program, say David Marshall and Debra Katz of Katz Marshall & Banks LLP.
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Independent Contractors Strike Out — Lessons For Employers
A lesser-known risk among companies that use independent contractor models is the threat of Title VII litigation, which two recent appellate court decisions, Allen v. Radio One and Alam v. Miller Brewing Company, addressed. These cases remind employers of the ways to minimize such litigation risks, such as adopting a policy to not rehire former employees terminated for misconduct, says Douglas Darch of Baker & McKenzie.