Blogs

Business and Financial Services

Mandatory Paid Sick Leave Comes To Montgomery County Maryland

The Earned Sick and Safe Leave Law Montgomery County, Maryland (the “County”), has recently joined the growing list of jurisdictions requiring paid sick leave for employees. According to County legislators, paid sick and safe leave is necessary to promote the health and welfare of County residents and safeguard County employers from unfair competition from neighboring jurisdictions. Effective October 1, 2016, entities doing business in the County must be in full compliance with the Earned Sick…

October 19, 2016

Business and Financial Services

The Public’s Right to Access Trumps Trump University’s Confidentiality Claim

Pushing aside the political issues that seem to overwhelm the subject, the litigation involving Donald Trump and Trump University, now pending in the Southern District of California, demonstrates how a person’s status as a public figure can limit his ability to restrict access to confidential material during litigation. On May 27, 2016, in a class-action suit filed against Trump University, LLC (“TU”), United States District Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel ordered the unsealing of several…

June 20, 2016

Business and Financial Services

Creative Pleading in Business Torts

On January 5, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Newport News Division, handed down its Memorandum Opinion & Order disposing of two motions to dismiss filed in Tax International, LLC v. Kilburn and Associates, LLC et al . In denying these motions, Judge Raymond A. Jackson provided a succinct exposition of several federal pleading and practice rules while providing an assessment of the law on business torts in Virginia. Tax International alleged that former…

May 20, 2016

Business and Financial Services

Uber Reaches Settlement of Independent Contractor Misclassification Lawsuits in California and Massachusetts

Last week, Uber, the on-demand ride-hailing service, reached a settlement of two class action lawsuits pending against it in California and Massachusetts. These were filed by Uber drivers who claimed that the company had misclassified them as independent contractors instead of employees. The settlement is pending approval by the federal district judges overseeing the cases. The California and Massachusetts lawsuits reportedly cover more than 385,000 Uber drivers. Similar class action law suits…

May 20, 2016

Business and Financial Services

Virginia Attorney General Says Virginia Law Prohibits Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Perhaps Sexual Orientation

For Virginia employers who have not already updated their EEO policies to include prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, the time may have come to make those changes. Last week, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring made it official, issuing an advisory opinion in which he concluded that the Virginia’s Human Rights Act’s ban on discrimination on the basis of “sex” also prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and, possibly,…

May 18, 2016

Business and Financial Services

Trade Secrets and Confidentiality

In light of the clear trend in Virginia law against the enforcement of non-competition agreements, savvy practitioners and their clients increasingly rely on trade secret and confidentiality agreements as effective surrogates. While it is undeniably true that courts in Virginia are more inclined to enforce such agreements, the case of SanAir Technologies Laboratory, Inc. v. Burrington demonstrates that although subject to less stringent analysis, trade secret and similar arrangements must also…

January 21, 2016

Business and Financial Services

Obligations of the Corporate Status

One of the principal reasons business owners form a corporation (or an LLC) is to shield the owners’ personal assets from attack by creditors of the business. However, the corporate shield is not absolute; while judges are loath to pierce it, they will – and may have an obligation to – if the owners of the entity fail to comply with corporate formalities and/or treat its assets as their own. Atron and Karen Rowe learned this difficult lesson when Judge James C. Cacheris entered judgment…

November 24, 2015

Business and Financial Services

5 Ways for Business Owners to Protect Their Assets

Asset Protection is often a concern for business owners; particularly if they are engaged in a business with high incidents of litigation (such as doctors, home builders or other construction contractors for example). Structuring your business as a corporation, limited partnership or limited liability company is a great first step to protect personal assets from business liabilities. However, in our experience, many business owners do not follow the formalities necessary to maintain a limited…

August 13, 2015

Business and Financial Services

USDC Weighs in on Tortious Interference

True love had unintended consequences, resulting in the case of Stradtman v. Republic Services , which remains pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Shortly after Stephen Stradtman was named CEO of Otto Industries North America (“Otto”) the company’s business began to expand. This boom in Otto’s business seemed directly attributable to Otto’s relationship with Republic Services, Inc., a waste management business and major purchaser of the plastic…

July 2, 2015

Business and Financial Services

Potential Pitfalls of Terminating an Employee who Requests Extended Leave

An employee who requests time off due to a medical or disability-related issue may have rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act or FMLA, the Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA and state and local corollaries to those laws. Depending on the factual circumstances, one or more of these laws can apply simultaneously to the same employee. The overlap of these statutes can create a “perfect storm” of laws because it is so easy to get lost or disoriented in trying to follow them. Consider…

April 1, 2015