This month’s Be Global looks at recent employment law developments across the Americas, APAC and EMEA, including changes to income tax law in China and labor exploitation in Spain. To access the full report, click here.
Best practices in hiring to protect trade secrets
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.
Event: Tax Authority Financial Club
Our partner Lewis J. Greenwald will be taking part in the Finance Club event, hosted by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Israel on October 17. He will present on the subject “Are Options included in the Cost Basis in the US?”. For more information click here.
NBN Executive Learning Series: Innovation, Autonomous Vehicles and Purpose
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.
UK Post BREXIT Real Estate Market: Current Trends and Opportunities
DLA Piper is proud to sponsor The 8th Annual UK Real Estate Event on the subject of “UK Post BREXIT Real Estate Market: Current Trends and Opportunities” on 15 October. Speakers include DLA Piper partner Paul Jayson.
For more information and to register, click here.
New York City amends Human Rights Law – employers must engage in “cooperative dialogue” with employees seeking accommodation
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.
Argentina introduces VAT on digital services
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.
California mandates female board directors for publicly held companies
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.
Private company stock option grants: a founder’s guide to who gets what, when
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.
The Big Legal Issue Blockchain Developers Rarely Discuss
If blockchain projects seek adoption by enterprises, their open-source license will have a material impact on the rate of adoption. DLA Piper partners Victoria Lee and Mark Radcliffe share their insights with CoinDesk, click here for the full article.
