This week we are pleased to have a guest post from Edward Heath and Kevin Daly. Attorneys Heath and Daly are members of Robinson+Cole’s Manufacturing Industry Team and regularly counsel clients on trade compliance, anti-corruption compliance, and other corporate compliance issues.  Last week, a jury found a former executive of a French multinational company guilty of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, money laundering, and conspiracy in connection with alleged bribery in Indonesia. The case is…

A few months back, I posted some thoughts about recent efforts to legalize medical and recreational marijuana, with an emphasis on the potential issues such laws would have on manufacturers – particularly manufacturers in a space requiring a heightened concern for employee safety.  See “Legal Pot = Manufacturing Storm Clouds” (May 29, 2019).  To my surprise, I started fielding related questions as soon as I published the blog. So here is the question: …

This week, we are pleased to have a guest post from John Cordani.  John is a member of Robinson+Cole’s Manufacturing Industry Team and regularly counsels clients on intellectual property issues involving patent procurement, licensing, and litigation. It is no secret that the competitive edge of U.S.-based manufacturers is often predicated, at least in large part, on technological innovation and the patents that protect them. The broader the patents, the better. Usually the only significant…

On October 9, 2019, President Trump issued two executive orders regarding agency guidance – one focused on the development of new guidance and the other on the appropriate use of guidance in enforcement actions. And EPA is not wasting any time taking action. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler issued a memorandum on October 21, 2019 announcing the creation of two working groups to interpret and apply the executive orders. While he did not establish a time…

I have posted a few times here about using post-employment restrictions to preserve a manufacturer’s competitive advantage.  See  “Non-Compete Cautionary Tale” (Nov, 2, 2018); “I’m New – And It’s No [Trade] Secret” (Oct. 27, 2014) and “Even More Reason for Manufacturers to Update Their Employment Agreements” (June 15, 2015).  Many of my clients use these tools (and others) to protect that “secret sauce” that gives them a market advantage.…

By nature, lawyers tend to be reactive and we are trained to respond to crisis and/or problems.  So, it takes a lot of work to develop proactive skills so that we can help our clients avoid problems such as large customer disputes or worse (the dreaded class action). Over time, we have noticed common themes that are precursors to these kinds of disputes.  We have been sharing them with clients as we train sales staff…

Thank you to my colleague, Jonathan Schaefer, for this post. Jon focuses his practice on environmental compliance counseling, occupational health and safety, permitting, site remediation, and litigation related to federal and state regulatory programs. Today OSHA issued a final rule approving two additional quantitative fit testing protocols for inclusion in appendix A of the Respiratory Protection Standard. These protocols are: The modified ambient aerosol condensation nuclei counter (CNC) quantitative fit testing protocol for full-facepiece and…