Last week was a watershed moment for crypto-currency and traditional banking. The Federal Reserve issued its first white paper discussing what a “crypto-dollar” might look like. See “Money and Payments: the U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation.” The Fed describes the policy paper as “the first […]
NFT and Blockchain Basics . . . Put the technology aside for a second and focus on the purpose of NFT’s and blockchain. NFT’s and blockchain exist for one purpose: to provide a reliable record of ownership. The modern economy has many systems that record ownership of important assets. The […]
“Wait. . . attorneys aren’t covered by restrictive covenants??” A prominent federal judge recently excoriated New York’s law that exempts attorneys from enforcement of restrictive covenants in their employment agreements. Nevertheless, the judge dutifully applied the law and allowed an attorney to join a direct competitor despite the otherwise reasonable […]
Two recent federal indictments should have attorneys and courts re-thinking employee non-solicitation provisions. In U.S. v. Hee and U.S. v. Surgical Care Affiliates, the Department of Justice brought criminal antitrust charges against corporate and individual defendants for entering “no-poach” agreements with competitors. The indictments allege that defendants agreed with competitors […]
On September 15, 2021, a divided panel of the 9th Circuit reversed the District Court and upheld much of California’s ban on compulsory employment arbitration. See Chamber of Commerce v. Bonta. The decision is a great read if you want a primer on either (1) FAA preemption or (2) increasingly […]