Complex Litigation Quarterly

March 30, 2015

In this inaugural issue of the Complex Litigation Quarterly, we highlight interesting developments in three litigation settings. We first present a Special Report on the willingness of courts to reject claims for trade secret protection for ill-defined or vague categories of information and the judicial reluctance to enforce overly restrictive employment covenants.

We turn next to the New York Court of Appeals’ recent decision in Borden v. 400 East Fifty-Fifth St. Assoc., L.P. which deals with New York’s important but often overlooked statutory protection against state court class action lawsuits to recover statutory penalties.

Finally, Mike Billok reports on a recent decision addressing whether tennis umpires at the U.S. Open should be considered employees of the U.S. Tennis Association or independent contractors in the context of a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the analogous provisions of New York Labor Law.

We hope you find these highlights interesting and useful. In upcoming issues we will be exploring how courts are analyzing claims of attorney-client privilege and work product protection in the context of internal and external corporate investigations, the proposed federal trade secret legislation, and the contours of retaliation claims under SOX.

Edward R. Conan, Chair, Complex Litigation Practice Group
Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC

Articles include:

  • Increased Judicial Scrutiny for Restrictive Covenants and Claimed Trade Secrets
  • Don’t Overlook CPLR § 901(b): New York’s Protection Against Class Actions for Statutory Penalties
  • Court Calls a Fault on Tennis Umpires’ Misclassification Argument

To read the inaugural issue of the Complex Litigation Quarterly, click the pdf button at the top right of this page that is next to the gray email button.