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Foley Hoag Clears Way for Senior Financial Services Executive
In one of the few decisions in the country on the enforceability of “garden leave” notice provisions, lawyers in Foley Hoag’s Litigation Department recently secured a favorable outcome for a senior-level financial executive whose former employer sought to block his departure from the company. In a recent ruling by Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, U.S. District Judge for the District of Massachusetts, the employer’s motion for a preliminary injunction was denied. Partners Michael Boudett and Michael Rosen represented the client, the former head of the Boston office of Bear Stearns. Bear Stearns alleged that the executive violated his employment contract by failing to give 90-days’ notice before departure and by seeking to persuade clients and staff to follow his move to a competitor. In the ruling, Judge Gorton noted that plaintiff’s allegations of misappropriation of confidential information and interference with contractual and business relationships was unsubstantiated. Further, the Foley Hoag team was successful in proving that Bear Stearns would not be subject to irreparable harm with the departure of this executive. Widely covered by national financial media, the case is now pending before an arbitration panel before the Financial Industry Regulatory Association (FINRA).
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Capitalizing on Talent
A large U.S. bank asked us to help it capitalize on the wealth of software talent in India by creating an Indian company to develop financial services software. We negotiated a joint-venture agreement for the bank with a major U.S. computer manufacturer and local Indian partners. The joint venture financed the new software company with a $100 million investment.
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Defense of a Nonprofit Financing Entity
Our lawyers settled a substantial claim asserted by a U.S. Government Cabinet department against a non-profit financing entity, and designed new corporate organization structure to implement the settlement.
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From Bankruptcy to Successful Sale
Our lawyers represented a major Japanese trading company seeking to purchase operating assets of a key software supplier out of a U.S. bankruptcy proceeding.
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From Nonprofit to Sales Success
Our lawyers structured and negotiated the outsourcing, by a series of sales of assets and service contracts, of the marketing and sales and operations functions of a nonprofit supplemental student loan guarantor to a for-profit corporation specializing in the securitization of student loans.
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From Protecting IP to a Successful Sale
For a venture-stage software company, our lawyers successfully enjoined the U.S. public offering of a foreign software corporation because of a corporate name conflict; created a trust to insulate the company's intellectual property from the automatic licensing provisions of a software consortium; and managed the sale of the company to a publicly-held acquirer for $460 million.
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Gaining Tax-exempt Status to Drive Business Forward
We obtained a favorable Internal Revenue Service ruling for tax-exempt status for a new entity to act as an independently financed secondary market purchaser of guaranteed student loans.
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Preparing for Venture Capital Financing
We negotiated a complete reorganization of initial capital structure of our client, a computer-aided design corporation, to help them successfully prepare for outside venture capital financing.
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The World Bank Group
We researched and analyzed, on behalf of The World Bank Group, the corporate social responsibility codes of conduct of over 100 multinational corporations, multi-stakeholder groups, and non-governmental organizations in five major industry sectors, including apparel and footwear manufacturing, agribusiness, tourism, mining, and oil and gas. Our findings included an analytical comparison of international best practices and standards, which The World Bank published in a landmark two-volume study.
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