Posted in Accelerate Articles

Best practices in hiring to protect trade secrets

By Israel Group on

Employee mobility is a boon to employers and employees alike, but it also presents unique challenges for preserving trade secret information. Those challenges include not only preserving one’s own trade secrets on the back end, but also defending against accusations that an employee has misappropriated a former employer or third party’s IP on the front end.

Rather than waiting for those challenges to ripen into costly litigation, employers should adopt four best practices on the front end – during the onboarding process – to prevent disputes from arising in the first place and – in the event they do arise – being prepared to defend the company.

To read more about these best practices, click here.

Posted in Event

NBN Executive Learning Series: Innovation, Autonomous Vehicles and Purpose

By Israel Group on

We hosted our second Executive Learning Series event with a breakfast discussion and tour of Mobileye by one of its co-founding engineers, Mois Navon. Mois told his personal story and how he eventually ended up at Mobileye after a series of twists and turns in his life. He described the evolution of the company, why Intel decided to acquire it a premium and where the company is headed.  Mois also led the group on a tour of the company’s R&D facility, where we had a chance to see some of Mobileye’s technology in action.

The event was co-hosted by Nefesh b’Nefesh (NBN), an organization that, in cooperation with the Israeli government and The Jewish Agency for Israel, is dedicated to minimizing the financial, professional, logistical and social obstacles for individuals and families seeking to move to Israel.

Posted in Articles

New York City amends Human Rights Law – employers must engage in “cooperative dialogue” with employees seeking accommodation

By Israel Group on

On October 15, 2018, a new amendment to the New York City Human Rights Law regarding employer obligations when responding to an employee’s potential need for a reasonable accommodation will go into effect.

The amendment requires employers with four or more employees in New York City to enter into a “cooperative dialogue” with any employee who may be eligible for a “reasonable accommodation” for issues related to (1) disability, (2) pregnancy, childbirth or a related medical condition, (3) religion or (4) the employee’s “needs as a victim of domestic violence, sex offenses or stalking.” It also requires employers to document in writing the result of any decision to grant or deny an accommodation.

Click here to read the full article by Daniel Turinsky and Matt Engel.

Posted in Articles

Argentina introduces VAT on digital services

By Israel Group on

Argentina’s new Law 27,430 introduces a new taxable event: a Value Added Tax (VAT) applicable to the importation of “digital services” rendered by a non-resident to a resident individual or entity when the effective use or exploitation of the service is carried out inside Argentina.

An earlier regulation, Decree 354/2018 of April 23, 2018, a deficient attempt to regulate the VAT applicable on digital services, was recently repealed.

In this alert, we review the current wording of Argentina’s VAT Law and its Regulatory Decree regarding the importation of digital services.

Find out more.

Posted in Articles

California mandates female board directors for publicly held companies

By Israel Group on

Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law on September 30, 2018 requiring publicly held companies based in California to have at least one female on their boards of directors by the end of 2019, and, depending on the size of their boards, additional females by the end of 2021. Financial penalties will apply for noncompliance.

With the enactment of this law, California becomes the first state in the US to mandate gender diversity in the corporate boardroom.

While California, and, in particular, Silicon Valley, often has the reputation of being progressive, the new law has sparked a challenging debate. Is this an effective way to enable women to break the glass ceiling? Is the government overreaching by mandating diversity in private businesses? Does it elevate gender diversity over other aspects of diversity? Despite the debate, both advocates and critics of the law agree on the importance of board diversity.

See our summary of the new law.

Posted in Accelerate Articles

Private company stock option grants: a founder’s guide to who gets what, when

By Israel Group on

In a private company setting, after the founders have been issued fully vested or restricted stock under their stock purchase agreements, the employees, consultants, advisors and directors who are subsequently hired commonly receive equity compensation through stock options. There are a number of reasons for this, including ease of administration, macro- and micro-market norms and a desire to minimize the capital commitment for the individuals who are to receive equity awards. Consistency is also important, as it helps avoid separate negotiations with each individual on the nature and terms of equity grants. Founders find this best accomplished by sticking to an “everyone gets stock options” principle, so that the only negotiation is about how many shares are covered by the stock option grant and what the vesting schedule should be.

An exception to the “stock options only” principle sometimes occurs during negotiations to attract and hire an experienced senior executive who may request restricted stock, but even then the benefits of an “everyone having the same” form of equity may prevail.

In this article, Cisco Palao-Ricketts provides an overview of some of the key considerations in making stock option grants: who gets an option, the size of the option, vesting terms and pricing,  click here to read the full article.

 

 

Posted in Articles

New York State and City Anti-Harassment Laws

By Israel Group on

By Evan D. Parness

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, New York State and New York City governments have passed new laws aimed at sexual harassment prevention.  Businesses with operations in New York State and/or New York City must comply with these new laws.

New York City: Effective September 6, 2018, all employers in New York City must post an anti-sexual harassment rights and responsibilities poster and provide an information sheet on sexual harassment to each employee at the time of hire – both of which are available on the New York City Commission on Human Right’s website.  The links to the poster and information sheet are below.  The poster must be at least 8.5” x 14” (legal size) and posted in both English and Spanish.

Please see the following links for additional information:

New York State: Effective October 9, 2018, all employers in New York State must provide employees with a written non-harassment policy and provide sexual harassment training annually to all employees beginning in January 1, 2019.   The State Department of Labor, in consultation with the State Division of Human Rights, recently released the attached draft materials, which include a model policy, a model complaint form, a model training program, and an FAQ (which also addresses this area of the law in the context of mandatory arbitration and nondisclosure agreements).   Stay tuned for updates once the State Department of Labor finalizes the draft complaint form, training program, and FAQs.

Please see the following links for more information:

For more information on the anti-sexual harassment legislation recently passed in New York City and New York State, please see the following two DLA Employment Alerts:

https://www.dlapiper.com/en/us/insights/publications/2018/06/new-york-joins-the-metoo-fray-with-sweeping-legislation/

https://www.dlapiper.com/en/us/insights/publications/2018/09/new-york-city-and-state-publish-materials-aimed-at-combatting-workplace-sexual-harassment/

Evan Parness represents employers and senior executives in all aspects of employment-related litigation before federal and state courts, administrative agencies and alternative dispute resolution bodies.

 

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