Today, Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina M. Khan announced that a special Open Commission Meeting will be held virtually on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, at 2pm ET. At the meeting, the Commission will vote on whether to issue a proposed final rule that would prevent most employers from enforcing noncompetes against workers.   At the start of the meeting, the Commission will vote on whether to authorize public disclosure of the proposed final rule that is under consideration. Then, Chair Khan will offer brief remarks. Next, if the Commission votes to authorize public disclosure of the fi ..read more

In Baldwin v. Express Oil Change, LLC, 87 F.4th 1292 (2023), the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals addressed some key issues under the Georgia Restrictive Covenants Act. The case involved a former executive of Express Oil Change who had received nearly $2 million from a sale of the company. Time Limit The executive argued the 2-year presumption of reasonableness as to the time limitation for a restrictive covenant applicable to employees applied to him. The district court agreed, but the Eleventh Circuit reversed finding the executive was a “seller” under O.C.G.A. §13-8-57(d). Under the statut ..read more

Author’s Note: This article was inspired, in part, by the golf tournament being played in Augusta, GA this week.   Introduction Many commentators have offered thoughts on a recent tax trial – the first of its kind in the syndicated conservation easement transaction (SCET) context – where the IRS and DOJ-Tax proceeded with criminal prosecution ahead of civil audit remedies.  The prosecution alleged a scheme to defraud the government through inflated appraisals. In the criminal prosecution, the government did not present an expert opinion of value.  Instead, the government attacke ..read more

In the spirit of the college basketball championship, you can test your knowledge of the EEOC charge filing statistics by completing the bracket and selecting the most filed charge of workplace discrimination. How to Find Results The comprehensive enforcement and litigation statistics for FY 2022, which ended Sept. 30, 2021, are posted on the agency’s website, which can be found here.  This is the most recent EEOC statistical report that breaks down the data by the nature of the Charge. FY 2023 EEOC Annual Performance Report On March 11, 2024, the EEOC released its report on the agency’s ..read more

Our blog regularly monitors how noncompetes are under attack by federal regulatory bodies and state legislatures. Georgia’s legislature has largely stayed out of the fray.  However, last week, Representative Newton of Augusta introduced legislation that would curtail the use of noncompetes for physicians. Physician noncompetes under attack in Georgia? House Bill 1490 provides that any partnership or employment agreement with a physician licensed to practice medicine that restricts the right of the physician to practice medicine in Georgia is void and unenforceable with respect to said res ..read more

Shareholders in a Georgia corporation generally have a statutory right to inspect certain corporate records to monitor their investment. If the company fails to provide the required records, Georgia law enables the requesting shareholder to file a lawsuit to secure prompt access to those records. In the recent decision of Cardea Corporate Holdings, Inc. v. LaRocco, the Georgia Court of Appeals further clarifies a shareholder’s right to inspect the company’s books and records and the corporation’s right to fight such a request. As explained in a prior post, the primary issue posed in LaRocco re ..read more

The Corporate Transparency ACT (“CTA”) went into effect January 1, 2024 to increase the transparency of legal entities and combat illegal activities. The CTA imposes new reporting burdens on most U.S. entities. Notably, affected companies must report information about their beneficial owners to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”). March 2024: An Important Update Last week, a federal district court ruled that Congress lacked the power to enact the CTA, declaring the CTA unconstitutional. While FinCen responded that it will not enforce the CTA against the sp ..read more

Noncompete and trade secret law has evolved rapidly in the last decade in Georgia and nationally, and 2023 was no different. Below are some key lingering issues to monitor in 2024. 2024: Noncompete and Trade Secret Law 1. Will the Federal Trade Commission Ban Noncompetes? 2023 started with a bang with the FTC issuing a proposed rule in early January of last year that would ban noncompetes. The rule elicited thousands of comments from the public during the notice-and-comment period, but there has been little news out of the FTC about the rule since the comment period ended. So the open question ..read more

There is a new U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) independent contractor rule that will impact employers and independent contractor classification. On January 10, 2024, the DOL published a final rule revising guidelines for determining employee or independent contractor classification under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This final rule rescinds the Independent Contractor Status Under the FLSA rule (2021 IC Rule) published on January 7, 2021. The DOL states the new analysis for employee or independent contractor status aligns better with FLSA as interpreted by precedent. The new independen ..read more

Once again several NFL head coach terminations began on “Black Monday.” This is the day following the end of the regular professional football season. None of these terminations of employment were a surprise. NFL head coaches understand that winning a lot of football games is a job expectation. And losing too many games is a terminable offense. Outside of sports, the criteria used by employers to evaluate job performance is seldom as objective as wins v. losses. Previous blog posts discussed NFL’s Black Monday, offering valuable tips on handling terminations and using checklists for legal comp ..read more