A fascinating study by David Larcker and Anastasia Zakolyukina of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business provides some very helpful “tells” that suggest when CEOs are lying. The researchers analyzed the transcripts of nearly 30,000 conference calls by American chief executives and chief financial officers between 2003 and 2007. They noted each boss’s choice of [...]
The 8th Circuit agrees with me!
I am thrilled to report that the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the summary dismissal of a case I handled for Canadian Pacific Railway, Kirkeberg v. Candian Pacifiic Railway (My former colleague at Leonard, Street, Tracey Donesky, successfully argued the appeal). Kirkeberg had sued the railroad for disability discrimination after his position was eliminated. [...]
How To Be Happy
With thanks to Prof. Dan Bowling and the Careerist blog, here are 10 tips for lawyers (or anyone else) trying to maximize their happiness: 1. Play to Your Strengths. The research is overwhelming that you are happiest when you use your strengths and personality in your work. 2. Choose Optimism. Optimism can be [...]
Nice work if you can get it?
The Minnesota Court of Appeals issued an opinion this week in the case of Williams v. Heins, Mills, & Olson that considers such interesting legal issues as misrepresentation-by-omission, minority shareholder rights, punitive damages and prejudgment issue. What I found really interesting, however, was the peek it provided into the finances of class-action securities fraud [...]
The BlackBerry as FLSA Risk
One more thing for employers to worry about. According to National Public Radio, a police sergeant in Chicago is suing the city for overtime back pay because he regularly used his BlackBerry to continue working even though his shift was over. According to his attorney: “What we are saying is he’s using this mobile device [...]
Are You Working Too Many Hours?
Feel like you are working too many hours? If you are working more than 40, Margaret Heffernan agrees with you: “Every productivity study in every industry has come to the same conclusion: after about 40 hours in a week, the quality of your work starts to degrade. You make mistakes. That’s why working 60 [...]
St. Jude’s Non-compete Upheld against Medtronic
Big news this week in the world of non-compete agreements and medical technology. Judge M. Michael Monahan in Ramsey County has enjoined Joe McCullough, a former high-ranking executive of St. Jude Medical, from moving across town to rival Medtronic. The judge’s analysis of the issues is very thorough, and the opinion provides a good [...]
New Focus on Wage and Hour Claims in Health Care
Health Care appears to be the latest industry targeted for wage-and-hour enforcement by the federal government and private parties. The New York Times reports that hospitals around the country have paid millions of dollars in back wages to settle claims by the government and employees. And many more hospitals are fighting class-action lawsuits that [...]
In disability cases, facts are more important than labels
In an opinion released today this week, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the somewhat counter-intuitive finding of a District Court Judge in Minneapolis that a woman with multiple sclerosis is not actually disabled. The case reminds us that despite the broad definition of “disability” found within the Americans with Disabilities Act, each of [...]
Raising the bar on claims of trade secret misappropriation
A new decision by a Federal District Court judge in Minneapolis indicates that it will be more difficult for employers to file lawsuits alleging trade secret misappropriation against former employees. Hot Stuff Foods claimed that one of its former executives, Dornbach, secretly entered into business relationships with its customers before he resigned from [...]