As most people who know me know, I am a registered pharmacist in addition to being a lawyer. After graduating from the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy in December 1992, and passing the Rhode Island pharmacist licensure exam in February 1993, I practiced pharmacy in various settings until graduating SMU’s Dedman School of
If you want to make sure a contractual term is material, then say it is material in the contract
Under contract law, if one party to the contract materially breaches the contract, the other party is discharged or excused from further performance. That’s clear enough. The problem comes in when the parties argue whether the term that was breached was material. The Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas issued an opinion this week that
Social Media Can Be A Surprising Hotbed of Non-Compete Violations
Traditionally, violations of post-employment restrictive covenants were based on former employees actively contacting customers or past co-workers in the real world, or setting up a new brick and mortar business doing the same thing within a confined mile radius. However, the advent of e-commerce and social media has blurred the lines of acceptable (or even
Spoliation May Be Harder To Prove Now, But It Is Still A Dirty Word In Texas
Few things in the course of litigation can come back to bite you with the ferocity of a spoliation instruction. Even the threat of one can cause seasoned litigators to lose sleep and ponder the extent to which their case can be damaged, despite
Boiler-plate irreparable injury language in temporary injunction bites the dust
Why do courts seem to hate temporary injunctions? By the very nature of the relief requested, the parties come to court with urgency for immediate action. The trial judge has to find time on her docket for a hearing in a case that probably did not exist a week ago. The parties scramble to conduct
Settlement Of Disputes In Bankruptcy Proceedings: Much Like Punting, It Often Beats The Alternative
As an avid fan of the Dallas Cowboys for over four decades, I have had the privilege of witnessing a legacy of excellent quarterbacks – from Staubach to Aikman to Romo. And now we have rookie Dak Prescott, who is exceeding all expectations (and
Hiring Outside Counsel To Conduct Internal Investigation Does Not Shield Results From Disclosure
Communications between an attorney and client are privileged, right? As iron-clad as we think the attorney-client privilege may be, there are limits.
Ian Meklinsky at Fox Rothschild LLP shared an interesting case with me this morning where a federal judge in New Hampshire ordered the production of the reports prepared by outside counsel following an
Sabermetrics for lawyers?
Baseball is at its greatest in October. In baseball, statistics rule. People analyze stats to predict the future. Just about everyone accepts that a hitter is valued by the hitter’s batting average. A hitter’s batting average is the number of hits divided by the number of at-bats. That’s easy enough, but it gets a little
Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is the same as discrimination on the basis of sex
Sexual orientation is a protected class under Title VII, right? Maybe. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex harassment is sex discrimination under Title VII. The EEOC has taken the position that sexual orientation discrimination is the same as discrimination on the basis of sex under Title VII. The Federal Courts of Appeals
The Intersection of Litigation and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Outside of my work as a litigator I train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
I am a beginning white belt in jiu-jitsu, while I am entering my 17th year of practice as a lawyer. But the parallels were immediately obvious to me when I started