The Tyson Foods Ruling
July 01, 2016
The Supreme Court's recent decision in <I>Bouaphakeo v. Tyson Foods</I> provided useful guidance for class-action litigants regarding the proper use of representative evidence ' i.e. , that which requires the trier of fact to draw conclusions about one subset of the class, or even an individual putative class member, based on an analysis of a different part of the class.
International Cybersecurity Compliance Concerns
July 01, 2016
Social media has made even the most mundane and possibly personal pieces of data available to many with a press of a finger. Such an open relinquishment of private information is almost assumed, and has become part of the American culture. Those who think about how easy it is to access data understand how their own data has become part of the searchable cyberspace.
Quarterly State Compliance Review
July 01, 2016
This edition of the Quarterly State Compliance Review looks at some legislation of interest to corporate lawyers that went into effect between May 1 and July 1, 2016, as well as some recent cases of interest.
Audit Committee Reporting Obligations
July 01, 2016
Various regulatory authorities continue to focus on and expand the role and responsibility of the independent audit committee, including not only its oversight role, but also its disclosure requirements.
Insider Trading Liability
June 01, 2016
In the wake of recent insider trading decisions issued by the Second and Ninth Circuits, the Supreme Court has granted certiorari to determine if proof of a close family relationship is enough to satisfy the personal benefit requirement laid out in previous decisions addressing tipper-tippee liability.
Joint Employment and the Contingent Worker
June 01, 2016
Contingent employment arrangements result in third parties, such as the temporary staffing agency, employing the workers ' not the company on whose behalf the work is being performed. These arrangements generally allow the putative joint employer to minimize or even avoid functions such as recruiting, screening, hiring, paying workers, and complying with labor and employment laws. This avoidance, however, often comes with significant risks.
The SEC Whistleblower Program
June 01, 2016
Last month, in Part One of this article, the authors examined the overall structure, operation and experience of the SEC's Whistleblower program over the first five years of its operation. In Part Two herein, they take a closer look at how the Office of the Whistleblower (OWB) processes Whistleblower claims.
Supreme Court to Hear Case That Will Affect Insider Trading Liability of Tippees
May 01, 2016
A case heading to the Supreme Court could dramatically change insider trading law that bars trades by recipients of stock tips. The Court agreed to consider a case that raises the question of whether a trade based on an inside tip is permitted so long as the tipper was motivated by familial love rather than monetary gain.
The Coming Tsunami in the Legal Profession
May 01, 2016
There have been four waves of change over the last 50 years. We are now entering the fifth wave and this one will be a tsunami. The lawyers who do not recognize the trends will not be able to enter a new era and survive. The fifth wave will turn partnership leverage, compensation systems and the business model upside down. There is not much time to make the incremental changes that will support sustained profitability in law firms.
