John Tarley Business Law Blog

Over the course of the past 20 years, the Virginia Supreme Court has  Read More

We have written about the importance of  Read More

Many of our New Year’s Resolutions address our  Read More

In the  Read More

I teach as an adjunct faculty member at the William & Mary Law School.
I find this part-time teaching gig very stimulating intellectually
because the law students at W&M are extremely intelligent, diligent,
and driven. This past week a new class of first-year law students
arrived with great expectations about their futures. The reality of the
job market, though,... Read More

The analysis of the enforceability of noncompete agreements begins
with the question “How did the covenant not to compete arise?”  Employee
covenants not to compete generally arise in one of two ways:  1) solely
as a result of employment; and 2) arising as ancillary to another
agreement, such as an agreement to purchase the prospective employee’s
business.

Covenants not to compete that arise solely... Read More

The short answer is, rarely. Virginia is an at-will employment state.
This means that an employer can discharge an employee for any reason or
for no reason at all, just not for an unlawful reason. An employer who
terminates an employee for an unlawful reason may be liable to the
employee. The question for this blog post is: when is a reason unlawful?

Termination is unlawful if it violates the protections of the United
States... Read More

Previously we blogged about a pending case before the Supreme Court that had the possibility to significantly increase the liability
of persons for assisting in the preparation of a “prospectus.” As of
June 13, 2011, the Supreme Court handed down an opinion in that case,
styled as Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders, No.... Read More

It’s a simple fact of business life that you and your company’s
fellow shareholders or members will not always see eye-to-eye.
Furthermore, our personal lives change and that effects the level of
willingness in which some participate in a business venture.

As in any relationship, businesses also reach that awkward stage in
which a shareholder or member wants to leave his current business
venture and start something new. We have... Read More

We have written on the issues that arise when employees use their work computer for personal business.
In that blog article, we referred to a California case in which an
appellate court ruled that an employee’s emails to her attorney were not protected by the attorney-client privilege
because the company had a written policy that... Read More