By Anthony Marchese As we highlighted in our previous post on the C.R.T.R case in federal court in Massachusetts, any company that entrusts independent contractors with proprietary information runs the risk that this information could be misused to the company’s detriment. In the absence of any agreement to the contrary, independent contractors are under no...
Who Should Handle That Crucial Internal Investigation?
By Pamela J. Bethel When a company faces the necessary task of conducting a thorough internal investigation into some form of wrongdoing or questionable behavior that has been uncovered in the company’s past, to whom should it turn to handle the investigation? The subject matter of the probe might be an allegation of illegal payments...
No Confidentiality Agreement, No Trade-Secret Protection
By Anthony Marchese A Massachusetts lower-court ruling from earlier this year in the area of trade secrets law has drawn a good deal of attention and is worth noting here. In this case, C.R.T.R., Inc. v. Lao, a recycling company called C.R.T.R. hired Kenneth Lao as an independent contractor to help run the business. Lao...
Harold Charles of CEEPCO Receives 2014 Award From SBA
We are delighted to say that one of our clients, Harold Charles of CEEPCO, was selected by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s D.C.-area office as the Small Business Person of the Year for Maryland. Here is the release announcing this honor. SBA’s Washington, DC District Office Selects CEEPCO President Harold Charles as Small Business Person of...
When Is an Employee Not an Employee?
By Carol L. O’Riordan We have recently discussed provisions in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) concerning the percentage of work that a small business must perform itself rather than subcontract out, in order to comply with small business self-performance mandates. This is the so-called limitation on subcontracting rule. A contractor must ask: What percentage of...
Be Very Aware: Agencies Cracking Down on Dubious Practices by Contractors
By Carol L. O’Riordan We have written here and here about the types of violations and errors that can lead a company to be suspended or debarred from government contracts. There are a great many minefields out there, and it is not just criminal acts that can lead to suspensions or debarments. Many of our readers...
When the Government Calls, Listen — and Call Your Lawyer
By Pamela J. Bethel Corporate Counsel magazine just published a very important article by Scott N. Wagner and Joseph Mamounas of Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod in Miami on the steps that in-house counsel should take when he or she receives a call out of the blue from the Securities and Exchange Commission, asking...
Privilege Is Necessary to Ensure Successful Internal Investigations
When a company undertakes an internal investigation of suspected wrongdoing, in-house attorneys are often the ones who do the investigating. Very often, in-house lawyers thus take a central role in a company’s compliance function, and one of the first steps that they take at the direction of top management is to conduct a no-holds-barred investigation...
Bethel Will Speak as Panelist at ABA Minority Counsel Program in D.C.
On May 16, 2014, from 8 to 10 a.m., Executive Partner Pamela J. Bethel will participate as a panelist at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Association’s Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. Ms. Bethel will represent the National Bar Association, a predominantly African-American bar group, at the session at the...
Needed: Broad Definition of ‘Whistleblower’ Under Dodd-Frank
By Pamela J. Bethel Jordan A. Thomas, formerly a leading SEC attorney who was involved in developing the agency’s whistleblower program and now chairman of the whistleblower representation practice at Labaton Sucharow, as well as Vanessa De Simone, an associate in the firm’s whistleblower representation practice, recently wrote an important op-ed article in the National...