DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ FTC is sued by business groups over its ban on noncompete agreements, which may delay enforcement
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Another lawsuit was filed in federal court in the Northern District of Texas by business tax services firm Ryan. “The FTC contends that by using regulation they can simply declare common business practices to be ‘unfair methods of competition’ and thus illegal. “If the FTC can regulate noncompete agreements, then they can decide to regulate or even ban any other business practice. Long delays may be on tap before the rule takes effectThe FTC rule isn’t set to go into effect until 120 days from the day it is published in the Federal Register. In the near term, “I’m generally telling clients to take a wait-and-see approach with respect to the FTC rule while court challenges play out in the next few weeks,” Turinsky said.

Persons: Ryan, ”, Daniel Turinsky, DLA Piper, Lina Khan, Jake Tapper ”, isn’t, —, ” Turinsky, James Witz, ” Witz Organizations: New, New York CNN, Federal Trade Commission, US Chamber of Commerce, Business, Eastern District of Texas, Northern District of, US Chamber, FTC, Chamber, Longview Chamber, Commerce, Federal Locations: New York, United States, Eastern District, Northern District, Northern District of Texas, Longview, Longview , Texas, Texas, Littler

☆ FTC bans employers from using noncompete clauses
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday voted to ban for-profit US employers from making employees sign agreements with noncompete clauses. And – with one exception – it makes currently existing noncompete agreements unenforceable after the rule’s effective date, which is set at 120 days from the rule’s publication in the Federal Register. The rule, however, does allow currently existing noncompete agreements for senior executives to remain in force. The ban would apply nationwide, overriding state laws regarding noncompete agreements. In December of last year, New York State Governor Kathleen Hochul vetoed a bill passed by the state legislature to completely ban noncompete agreements in that state.

Persons: Joe Biden, “ won’t, ”, Stefanie Camfield, Daryl Joseffer, “, ” Joseffer, Neil Bradley, Kathleen Hochul, Anne Clark, Vladeck, Raskin, Clark P.C, Amanda Wait, DLA Piper, Clark Organizations: New, New York CNN, Federal Trade Commission, FTC, of Commerce, Federal Register, Washington , D.C, Engage, Chamber’s Litigation, New York Locations: New York, California, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Washington ,, Colorado , Maryland , Oregon, Rhode

☆ Netflix and other streamers have to share data with creators now — but the new transparency only goes so far
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-28 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Discovery — would rip the curtain back on the data secrecy practiced by the streamers, that's not quite what happened. And it's not just creators hoping for bigger residual checks who are eager for more transparency about streaming data. As Netflix, Disney, and more companies pitch new ad-supported streamers, advertisers have griped that streamers have been slow to share the data about audience numbers and composition. Brands investing in films for distribution on streamers also are clamoring for more data to understand how many people are watching them. The WGA can share the data with its broader membership, but only in aggregated form.

Persons: that's, —, Tom Ara, DLA Piper, Kevin Krim, Ashwin Navin, Pryor Cashman, Simon Pulman, It's, Ted Hope, Hope Organizations: Netflix, Disney, Writers Guild of America, Alliance, Producers, Warner Bros, EDO, Brands, Samba, WGA, Nielsen

☆ Meta is spending $181 million to end a lease on an office it never moved into, report says — as Big Tech continues to reassess the role of in-person work
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-27 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meta had 18 years remaining on the lease for an eight-storey office in London, the FT reports. AdvertisementAdvertisementMeta has paid $181 million to end its lease on an office in London that it never moved into, the Financial Times reported. And last December, Meta moved out of two of its New York offices. AdvertisementAdvertisementAfter office workers generally worked from home during COVID-19, many bigger companies have now mandated returns to office. AdvertisementAdvertisement"Working from home during the various Covid lockdowns tore up the rulebook for office workers, allowing a level of freedom as to where (and when ?)

Persons: Meta, —, Matthew Saperia, Peel Hunt, Mark Zuckerberg's, Adam Mosseri, Paul Jayson, DLA Piper, lockdowns Organizations: Big Tech, Service, Financial Times, Peel, Triton, Meta, Estate Locations: London, New York, King's, COVID

☆ Fintech Vesttoo seeks Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Israel-based fintech Vesttoo is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a U.S. court which will enable it to pursue legal action against those responsible for a fake collateral scandal, it said in a statement on Monday. Vesttoo - partly backed by Banco Santander's (SAN.MC) fintech venture capital arm Mouro Capital - has laid off staff, closed offices and appointed an interim chief executive following the discovery of fraudulent letters of credit used on its platform. Vesttoo provides insurers with access to so-called insurance-linked securities - an alternative form of reinsurance. Led by Mouro, Vesttoo last raised $80 million at a $1 billion valuation last October. In its bankruptcy filing, Vesttoo said it had appointed law firm DLA Piper and financial adviser Kroll to represent the firm.

Persons: Vesttoo, Ami Barlev, Mouro, DLA Piper, Kroll, Carolyn Cohn, Sonali Paul Organizations: Banco Santander's, Thomson Locations: Israel, U.S

SummarySummary Law Firms Naomi Moore joins from Akin Gump to head DLA Piper's APAC restructuring practiceMoore will split her time between the firm's Hong Kong and Sydney officesMay 2 (Reuters) - Law firm DLA Piper has hired a partner from U.S.-founded rival Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Hong Kong to serve as its new restructuring practice leader for the Asia Pacific region, the firm said Tuesday. Naomi Moore, who has been on sabbatical since she left Akin Gump in January, will divide her time between DLA Piper’s Sydney and Hong Kong offices, the firm said in a statement. In Hong Kong, Moore joins Trinh Hoang, DLA Piper’s only other restructuring-focused partner in the office, who joined the firm from Linklaters in October last year. Linklaters added a restructuring head in Hong Kong from Allen & Overy in October. An Akin Gump spokesperson wished Moore well on her new role.

April 26 (Reuters) - With more and more lawyers at major law firms using fast-advancing generative artificial intelligence tools, legal AI startup Harvey said Wednesday that it raised $21 million in fresh investor cash. Sequoia Capital, which is leading the Series A fundraising round, said more than 15,000 law firms are on a waiting list to start using Harvey. The company says it builds custom large language models for law firms. Technology companies and investors have rushed to embrace large language model-based generative AI since Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT debuted in November. Casetext in March released its AI legal assistant product, CoCounsel, which uses GPT-4 to speed up tasks like legal research, contract analysis and document review.

[1/3] Dominion lawyers embrace after Dominion Voting Systems and Fox settled the defamation lawsuit over Fox's coverage of debunked election-rigging claims, in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., April 18, 2023. At least 31 lawyers from nine different law firms worked on the case, court filings show. It was not immediately clear how large a share of the settlement the firm would receive in legal fees. The filings do not include recent costs associated with preparing for trial or the success fees lawyers could earn from the settlement. Fox News also hired Paul Clement and Erin Murphy, top appeals court lawyers who have advocated for conservative causes at the U.S. Supreme Court.

CompaniesCompanies Law Firms Grail Inc FollowIllumina Inc Follow(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday said it will accelerate reviewing Illumina Inc's challenge to a federal agency order requiring the biotechnology company to divest cancer diagnostic test maker Grail LLC. The agency said Illumina had not shown why the appeals court needed to speed up its consideration of the antitrust dispute. San Diego-based Illumina, which specializes in gene sequencing, is appealing an April 3 FTC order that said the company's $7.1 billion acquisition of Grail will curb competition in the cancer-testing market. The FTC in 2021 sued Illumina over its bid for Grail, a former subsidiary of the company. The case is Illumina Inc and Grail Inc v. Federal Trade Commission, 5th U.S.

"Indian firms that do not increase their prices and (don't) focus hard on profitability do so at their own peril. The move, while long-sought by overseas law firms, appears to have been somewhat unexpected in its timing. Foreign law firms have yet to announce plans for new offices in India but international firms like Allen & Overy and Herbert Smith Freehills told Reuters they are examining the new rules. Lalit Bhasin, who heads the Society of Indian Law Firms, said there were concerns that a foreign law firm might de facto operate as a full-service firm by hiring local law firms to advise on areas concerning Indian law. "Who is going to monitor whether that foreign law firm is not engaged in practice of Indian laws?"

Courts blocked a prior bid by the Trump administration to ban the app in part on the grounds that such a move violated free speech protections. Courts struck down former President Donald Trump's bid to block TikTok in 2020 with an executive order that granted the Commerce Department similar authorities as the RESTRICT act. But the bill will likely provide no immediate solutions for those calling for a ban on the app. Some experts said using the new legal tools to ban TikTok could still invite First Amendment challenges. "And there will most likely be a legal challenge if its used to ban TikTok."

☆ China eases data security deadline pressure for multinational companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

HONG KONG, March 1 (Reuters) - Chinese regulators have eased some deadline pressure on multinational companies struggling to comply with new rules requiring them to seek approval to export user data, according to lawyers advising clients on the matter. In theory, global companies operating in China had until Wednesday, March 1 to submit extensive documentation that maps out their users' data flow as well as complete a security review and gain government approval. The rules were introduced in September by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to strengthen cyber and national security. The issue affects a wide range of global companies that need to share Chinese user data with overseas offices and how strictly data security is enforced in the future will determine how far businesses may have to go in "localising" their data. The CAC on Friday also issued separate data security rules that apply to organisations with smaller user bases.

U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond's order in Philadelphia federal court granted a request by Unisys to depose Leon Gilbert and Michael McGarvey, former leaders of Unisys' "digital workplace solutions" business unit. Representatives for France-based Atos and lawyers for Gilbert and McGarvey did not immediately respond to messages on Wednesday seeking comment. Unisys in a court filing said that "this case involves the theft of huge quantities of Unisys trade secrets," including technologies and business strategies for digital workplaces. Attorneys for Gilbert and McGarvey disputed the allegation and said "Unisys has not identified a single trade secret." The case is Unisys Corp v. Leon Gilbert and Michael McGarvey, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

☆ U.S. Exempts Earthquake Aid to Syria From Sanctions
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Mengqi Sun | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Funds sent to Syria for earthquake relief that might otherwise be barred by U.S. sanctions are exempted for about six months, the U.S. Treasury Department said. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which implements and enforces U.S. sanctions, issued a general license Thursday night allowing U.S. banks and money transmitters to process transactions to and from Syria if they are intended for earthquake aid. The language is seen as providing more protection to financial institutions processing the transactions, sanctions experts said. Paul Carroll, director of the Charity & Security Network, a resource and advocacy center for nonprofit organizations, said delivering aid to Syria also faces logistical challenges. “The obstacles to getting aid to Syria [for earthquake relief] is more about parties, the bad and good guys, than about the sanctions themselves,” Mr. Carroll said.

☆ U.S. court decision paves way for depositor case against Lebanese bank
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The court decision, issued on Dec. 15 in a case brought by Lebanese depositors against leading lender Bank Audi, overturned a lower district court's decision that said Beirut courts had "exclusive jurisdiction" to try cases against Lebanese banks. A district court dismissed their claim on the reasoning that such cases should only be heard by Lebanese courts. There was no immediate response from Bank Audi in Beirut to a request for comment filed outside business hours. Jeffrey Rotenberg, a lawyer from DLA Piper representing Bank Audi in the case, said the decision was "non-precedential." Abdelsater said the Raads wanted access to $17 million they had in savings at Bank Audi.

Take big law firms and Twitter. “Lawyers and law firms must struggle to stay visible, posting regularly, getting followers, and tweeting regularly. Consider, for example, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which has 1,587 Twitter followers – among the fewest of Am Law 100 firms. “To date, the firm’s social media efforts have focused on platforms that are most aligned with recruiting — LinkedIn and Instagram,” the spokesman said via email. Will law firms pony up $8 a month for the blue check now?

☆ Law firms that make billions fighting injuries and frauds are very hush-hush about what they pay. Here are the starting salaries at 19 firms from Altshuler to Wigdor.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Many plaintiffs' firms pay somewhere in between. Despite more law firms increasingly paying their top earners like professional athletes, many law school grads only make between $50,000 and $80,000 a year. Things do appear to be changing as more plaintiffs firms seek to compete with Big Law firm talent. But firms like Edelson that pay as much as Big Law firms are the exception. For more information on how these law firms pay, see our table below:Do you have more information on how plaintiffs' firms pay their lawyers?

Organizations: & $

☆ Justice Department's antitrust investigation of PGA Tour includes U.S. Golf Association
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Jack Stebbins | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Justice Department's antitrust investigation of the PGA Tour's actions against the upstart LIV Golf league has also ensnared the Augusta National Golf Club and the United States Golf Association. The managing director of LIV Golf, Majed Al Sorour, had warned that LIV would start its own majors, but later walked back the comment on Twitter. Mickelson, meanwhile, told Sports Illustrated that he "wholeheartedly" expects to play at the Masters despite his LIV Golf affiliation. Both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have been lobbying in Washington D.C. to state their case against the other. LIV Golf also filed its own antitrust suit against the PGA Tour in September, and the tour subsequently countersued, alleging that LIV Golf was anticompetitive because of its restrictive player contracts.

☆ LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman visits Capitol Hill as the Saudi-backed league battles the PGA Tour
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Jack Stebbins | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

LIV CEO and commissioner Greg Norman watches play on the third hole during the final round of the LIV Golf Invitational Series Chicago at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois. LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman will be visiting Capitol Hill this week to meet with members of Congress, as the Saudi-backed league tangles with the PGA Tour. The LIV Golf league was founded as a competitor to the PGA Tour and is financed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. LIV has already poached major golfers such as Phil Mickelson from the PGA Tour, and Norman himself is a former tour star. The LIV Saudi Golf League is not that.

Search resuls for: "DLA Piper"

19 mentions found