Seyfarth Synopsis: Heeding some lessons from HBO’s Silicon Valley can help employers avoid mistakes related to potential hostile work environments and discrimination that might occur in a startup environment.

In a world where life often imitates art, startups can avoid perceived gender bias and sexual harassment in the workplace by learning from the pitfalls of the socially awkward
Continue Reading Avoid Paying The Piper: Tune Your Startup to Avoid Harassment Claims

Seyfarth Synopsis: When employee theft occurs, employers must be cautious in investigating, avoiding self-help, and in deciding if and how to terminate the offending employee.

Companies work hard to hire trustworthy employees, but employee theft can occur in any business. Employee theft takes different shapes—you may discover an employee is stealing products, supplies, confidential information or money from the
Continue Reading What To Do About Employee Thieves—Catch Them If You Can!

Seyfarth Synopsis:  Protecting trade secrets from employee theft requires more than using an NDA when onboarding employees. If businesses want to protect confidential information, they need a cradle-to-grave approach, reiterating employee obligations regularly, including during exit interviews. (Yes, you need to do exit interviews!)

Headline stories in intellectual property theft tend to involve foreign hackers engaged in high-tech attacks to
Continue Reading About That Trade Secret Leak: It’s From Inside The Business!

Seyfarth Synopsis: When the decision is to terminate, getting the basics right can go a long way toward preventing claims down the road by departing employees. 

Inevitably, at some point, every employment relationship comes to an end. For many people, where they work and what they do is a source of pride and self-worth, as well as livelihood. People
Continue Reading End of The Employment Road? Tips To Avoid a Collision