Blogs

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--/j/Roger

On March 21, 2011, the First Circuit provided useful guidance for employers responding to employee harassment allegations. Affirming a lower court decision, the First Circuit ruled that (1) employers have wide discretion in determining appropriate discipline in response to an initial complaint of harassment, and (2) an employer cannot be held liable for coworker harassment about which it did not know. Wilson v. Moulison North Corp.

Background

The Players

If you would like quick answers to your employment law questions -- straight from the sources that implement the laws -- look no further. In this blog, I have assembled links to the most commonly accessed employment law resources, including:

* Massachusetts General Laws
* Federal Laws and Regulations
* Federal and State Agencies
* Enforcement Manuals
* Compliance Manuals
* Model Policies
* Statute Guidelines
* Fact Sheets
* Attorney General Advisories
* Resources from the Department of Labor, EEOC, MCAD and Attorney General

Have you heard about virtual law offices? There is now something even better on the horizon...virtual attorneys. No, not real attorneys connected over the Internet, but computer generated personalities that can respond to real humans and even read their documents.

It is just a prototype, but check out this video if you want a glimpse of what the legal profession might look like in the year 2050. Very funny!

http://www.robmillard.com/archives/off-the-wall-insights-xbox-attorneys....

With another blizzard predicted to start this evening, I wanted to pass along some information about winter weather policies. I have received a number of questions about these policies over the past few weeks: must I pay employees if the company is open? What about if the company is closed closed? Must employees be paid if the boss stays home? What is common practice?

As is often the case, there are both legal and business considerations. From the legal perspective, start by considering whether the:

(1) employer is open for business

Four furnished offices available to share/sub-lease with professional services company at beautiful, recently renovated 55 William St. at the Wellesley Office Park. The space is located 12 miles from Boston, at the junctions of Routes 9 and 128 and has ample free parking. The building is home to a 5,400 square foot café with seating to accommodate over 100 people. The 4,700 square foot fitness center includes premium gym equipment and a studio for private classes. Conference center houses capabilities of high-speed telecom and audio/visual components for video conferencing.

I saw this video on Jason Mendelson's blog today. Although there are those of us lawyers who still believe in the ideals that motivate students to become lawyers, this is one of the funniest commentaries I have ever heard.

To supplement Howard Novick's useful presentation this morning, here are links to two items of interest:

1. a checklist for licensee's about to license software (a new version is in the works; but this remains a useful starting point for novices):

http://www.mbbp.com/resources/iptech/software_license.html

2. a short article alerting us to the possibility that license "transfers" in certain mergers could be prohibited by the no-assignment clause (the Cincom case I mentioned this morning):

http://www.mbbp.com/resources/iptech/license_merger.html.

Roger Glovsky, John Koenig, and I have developed a new service product called the "Information Security Advisor." (See http://www.indigoventure.com/solutions/isadvisor.html.) This product helps an organization set up and run a written information security program (WISP), as required by the Massachusetts regulations (201 CMR 17) that went into effect a few months ago.

As a way to connect with prospective clients, we've put together a 5-question quiz. I'd like you to take the quiz and tell me what you think.

We are in the process of exploring new office space for our firm, Indigo Venture Law Offices. As many of you know, our firm has taken an innovative approach to packaging legal services and we have recently formed "of counsel" relationships with other attorneys.

As part of our new business model, we plan to have multiple locations with shared office arrangements. The idea is to have many small offices which are located closer to our clients rather than one centralized location.