Business Litigation
On Behalf of Berenzweig Leonard, LLP | August 29, 2013 |
Business Litigation
On July 1, 2011, Virginia began allowing the creation of benefit corporations. This benefit corporation classification allows companies to focus their efforts toward non-financial benefits, such as community and societal considerations and the corporation’s impact on the environment. Within the past three years, approximately 20 states have passed benefit corporation…
On Behalf of Berenzweig Leonard, LLP | August 29, 2013 |
Business Litigation
A manufacturing engineer employee for a Roanoke lighting company suffered from sleep deprivation caused by his fibromyalgia, and would periodically fall asleep while on the job. In response to counseling by his employer that it would not tolerate his sleeping on the job, the engineer told his supervisor that he…
On Behalf of Berenzweig Leonard, LLP | July 26, 2013 |
Business Litigation
A female employee of Staples in the Roanoke, Virginia area complained after a male co-worker on multiple occasions stripped down to his boxers and changed into his work uniform in front of her in the employee break room, rather than changing in the men’s bathroom. Some of these changing…
On Behalf of Berenzweig Leonard, LLP | June 17, 2013 |
Business Litigation
Yahoo has recently announced a new parental leave policy, in which both moms and dads will receive the same eight weeks of paid leave following the birth of a child, including through adoption. But moms who give birth are given an additional eight weeks of paid leave…
On Behalf of Berenzweig Leonard, LLP | June 5, 2013 |
Business Litigation
As we’ve reported, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) continues to take an aggressive stance on regulating employment decisions based on employee social media postings. Contrary to the recent trend of broadly construing employee social media postings as covered under protected activity, the NLRB reversed course and recently ruled in favor of an…
On Behalf of Berenzweig Leonard, LLP | May 20, 2013 |
Business Litigation
Must a federal government contractor have a Code of Business Ethics and Conduct? Yes! All federal government contractors must have a Code of Business Ethics and Conduct. In addition, unless the contractor is a small business or the contract is for the acquisition of commercial items…
On Behalf of Berenzweig Leonard, LLP | May 15, 2013 |
Business Litigation
Enforcing vague provisions in a Virginia teaming agreement is difficult. Courts continue to consider some teaming agreement provisions to be an unenforceable “agreement to agree” as seen in a recent decision of the Federal District Court in Alexandria. Although finding the teaming agreement’s promise of a subcontract was unenforceable,…
On Behalf of Berenzweig Leonard, LLP | April 17, 2013 |
Business Litigation
On July 1st, ten of Maryland’s largest counties will impose a new “rain tax.” Dubbed a “storm management fee,” residents and businesses will be forced to pay a new tax based on the amount of property surface area that does not absorb water, multiplied by the amount of…
On Behalf of Berenzweig Leonard, LLP | April 11, 2013 |
Business Litigation
Recently, a federal judge in Virginia was presented with the novel legal issue of whether someone of European descent is covered under the national origin protections of Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act. A Caucasian professor with a Ph.D. from Harvard applied for several different teaching positions at…
On Behalf of Berenzweig Leonard, LLP | March 11, 2013 |
Business Litigation
With budget cuts making price more important in winning government contracts, contractors should know that the government is allowed to provide more helpful information during price discussions than the standard “sharpen your pencil” refrain. FAR 15.306 (e)(3) lets the government “inform an offeror that its price is…
